Our Biggest Adventure Yet
6 Month Update
We didn’t really prepare for this one, but if we had, it would have been pretty off brand for us anyways. Our spontaneous way off life really runs deep in both of us. So we spoke once about timing and thought, yeah why not? This seems like a good time… And with that, our lives will be forever changed somewhere around our due date of April 1st, 2021. A little April fools baby. How appropriate for us- we had a laugh or two about that.
We’ve been together for 6 years, and married for 4.5 of them. And it feels like we’ve finally reached the perfect time to jump onto the next train. I can’t imagine us starting this journey any sooner. We’ve both loved our freedom and have traveled and dreamed of travels and made plans of new business ventures and someday living internationally. And we haven’t given up on any of those dreams!
We got those two fateful lines on the stick at around 5 weeks into the baby’s journey. And it took another 8 weeks to believe it was true, especially since I felt like myself, except for a huge loss of energy. I don’t think excitement even registered because I was in total shock for the entire first trimester. Colin had been bragging to me (since always) that it would happen quickly when we did decide to go for it. But in today’s world, I believed we’d have months or more “trying” and really wrap our heads around the idea through that phase. But that adjustment period didn’t happen at all. In fact I missed my first period after our conversation about timing. All our dreams of the future suddenly changed to including a little someone with us: baby in the airstream, baby traveling the world with us, baby at the beach.. And then we started to let it wash over us. Wow— this is happening. No turning back now!
Us as parents. I’m shaking in my boots just a little. We’re already dreaming of all the ways to raise our baby wild and in the water. All the adventures now including this little human, it’s so frightening and wonderful all at the same time. And just because we’ve got a little one in tow, we have no plans of settling down and living a “normal” life. I think it could be the Sagittarius in us both or maybe the Enneagram 4 that I am — totally wrapped up in experiencing new things and scared of living a boring life.
We decided it would be most fun to tell our family and closest friends in person. So we waited to tell even my parents until I was 15 weeks along since we didn’t see them until then. It was so fun to see the surprise and shock of friends and family because we never talked about having kids. If anyone pressured us or questioned us about timing, we would always just say we didn’t think we even wanted kids, to avoid having to talk about it at all. We always refer to Estelle as our child, and I think most people accepted that our Frenchie was going to be our life. Even the family was shocked to find out! We may have gotten a kick out of that more than we should have.
First trimester
Nothing exceptional happened during the first trimester, not even a little morning sickness! I feel so lucky. And I didn’t start showing until well into my second trimester, so that’s when it started to get fun. When I got pregnant, I was the healthiest I have ever been—working out 5-6 times a week, eating clean, and tracking my macros. It was all because we were trying to stay fit and healthy to avoid getting Covid while working with patients who had it. My biggest frustration with pregnancy during that time was the ginormous loss of energy. I was doing all I could to show up to work and survive my 12-hour evening shifts in the ER. On top of that I was in contact with Covid patients daily and was anxious to get out of that scene. I was ready to be safe and focus on taking several more naps a day.
The sluggishness continued through the most of the second trimester, but my energy did pick up quite a lot around 20 weeks. I loved the new energy and was even able to workout more regularly. Unfortunately, I learned that my intensity was just not going to be what it was pre-pregnancy. However, anytime I found just enough motivation to get through a Barre workout, strength training, or ride on the peloton, I felt a glimpse of my old self. Accepting the new me has been a process but each new day I’m embracing this new role a little more and my excitement is definitely growing.
Today
So here we are at 32 weeks, fully immersed in the third trimester of my first pregnancy. This fetus (feh-toose as Colin calls it) is kicking every day, and our little baby feels a little more real all the time. I did hope that I’d be better about documenting this process and my growing belly, but we’re both still finding ourselves busy with our child-less lives. And if I’m being perfectly honest, I’ve never dreamed of myself as a mom. I know a lot of women feel this magical calling, but I’ve loved my freedom, and single life with Colin has been exciting and unpredictable—which I adore. But we’re thrilled and curious about the ways this little baby will change us as we do our best to stay young and carefree. We’re so happy to finally share a little more of this news with you all. We have no idea what’s in store but we’re just sure this will be our biggest adventure yet.