2014: The Craziest Year Ever

This year was one of my hardest and best all at once. Leigh and I made so many sacrifices to get where we want to be. We had big plans at the beginning of the year to get ahead financially and get our own place. My goal was in our own place by Christmas. Of course, I had NO idea what this year would hold and that our future apartment wasn't even built yet.

At the end of January, I finally took note of the weekly ad that was coming in the mail for an apartment in my hometown called "Cedar Downs". I really didn't think they were anything special LOOKING from the ad, I knew they had lots of features but the kitchen cabinets looked a weird colour and that threw me off. So one day Leigh and I went down to look out the show suites (little to my knowledge there were multiple show suites) and fell in love with them. Especially after finding out there's an option for white cabinets. Swoon!

We bought our apartment on Feburary 12, 2014. 5 years to the day after getting engaged. We bought a two bedroom, two bathroom on the top floor. Now to wait a year. I planned to work as much as possible and get a ton of new clients. Again, no idea what life had in store for us.

Being a hair model for a wedding show - found I was pregnant later that night.  

On March 1st, I went with my sister to be a "hair model" for a wedding show. I felt like crap all day and even mentioned to her that I thought something was up. However, I really didn't think I would be pregnant. Later that night I mentioned to Leigh that something was up and he suggested we grab a pregnancy test. Even after two of those I couldn't believe I was pregnant. You can read the full blog post here.

We announced our baby with a photo that my mom took that I LOVE and will get framed for our apartment. Once the secret was out, it started to become really real that we were going to have a baby!
I started documenting my pregnancy on the blog. I went from this:

to this:

So, instead of 2014 being the year of super successful business lady trainer, it ended up being the year of the super pregnant trainer who can barely make it up the stairs. Awesome. I decided to make the best of the situation and took a course so I could be a Pre-and Post Natal Fitness Specialist.

In June, we had a gender reveal party to find out if we were having a boy or girl. That was probably one of the most fun days ever and I will never forget that feeling of finding out I was getting my dream of having a little girl!

The summer was spent being pregnant. Seriously though, it kinda feels like that's all I did. I was hot and uncomfortable and couldn't wait for our daughter to get here.

We celebrated with a shower with family and one with my girlfriends (which I'm just now realizing I never blogged)

I got maternity pictures done by our family photographer, Carol-Ann.

I celebrated my 30th birthday (and due date!) while still pregnant.

Before I knew it, I was 6 days overdue and getting induced and bam, what I'd waited for ALLLL year was happening! And she was here!

The last two months have been a crazy whirlwind of beautiful, amazing moments and a lot of pain and frustration mixed in between. I have so much to say about having a baby and that will come.
We celebrated Arianna's first Christmas with our families and it was wonderful. Of course Arianna got spoiled rotten. More on Christmas coming soon too.

In just a few hours, it will be 2015 and the thing we've waited for all year (aside from Arianna) will be FINALLY here: moving into our own place!

I was talking to my mom the other day about this year. It's been super hard in some ways, having everything up in the air and not being settled in our own place while having a baby. But it taught me so many important lessons and because of the sacrifices we've made we've accomplished an insane amount in one year. My mom always says "pain before pleasure or pleasure before pain". Meaning if you do the hard stuff first, you can enjoy it later. But if you just ride things out without doing hard stuff you will have pain later. This was a year of pain that I am so grateful for looking back. Thankfully we have had soooo much support from our family and friends, especially our parents. We couldn't have survived this year without them.
2015 will be a year to enjoy. Not perfect, never perfect, but I think we will be enjoying everything we've worked so hard for. All the times we drove past our future home, we will finally be there our little family of four. The baby will cry and the dog will bark, and I probably won't be as domestic as I hope I will be, but we will finally all be home together and I cannot wait.

Arianna {One Month}

I would say that I can't believe it's already a month but that's not how I feel, it felt really LONG! I kept thinking if I can make it to a month it'll be so much easier. And I was right. We are finally getting into the swing of things and loving it!

The first few days after she was born she seemed so fussy. In my logical brain, I wonder if my low amniotic fluid really was due to the placenta not working and she wasn't getting the nutrients. Once my milk came in, she was like a different baby. She also cried when being changed and she's totally stopped that. It must be such a shock for babies to come into the real world!

She makes these little noises all the time and they're so frigging cute. They sound like a little mouse, I call them her princess noises.

Stats: 9lbs 5oz (up 1 lb 2 oz from birth)
Length: 22inches (up 2 inches from birth)

Feeding: My  milk came in quickly but wasn't enough for her off the bat. She didn't gain weight quickly enough in the first week, and she howled after eating from still being hungry which broke my heart. I have been breastfeeding/pumping and giving her a bit of formula at night. I worked hard at getting my milk supply up and we are going to try cutting out the formula now that I think I'm making enough. I could write a whole post on breastfeeding and I probably will soon.

Milestones: She is sooo aware now, she loves looking around and makes the cutest expressions. My favourite is her scrunched eyebrow look, it's exactly one of my facial expressions (although I now have lines there from too much scrunching). She can also hold her head up for a looong time, whether she's on her tummy or in someones arms! She's super curious about everything, I took her to Chapters yesterday and she was not interested in being in the stroller so I picked her up and she was looking around at everything! She smiles all the time now and it's so adorable.

Size: She still fits in her newborn clothes, but just barely. I put her in 0-3 months now because she has more room to move around. She's also in Size 1 diapers.  I absolutely adore dressing her up, I know she's a baby not a doll but...she's my little doll and I love putting cute little outfits on her. Even her little sleepers are so cute. I love it all!

Likes: Eating (Drinking?), being held, laying on Daddy's chest, pretty much hanging out on Mama's all day, sleeping on her tummy (we don't let her for long as it's not recommended but she will instantly go to sleep on her tummy, go figure), music, Christmas lights, being swaddled, having baths with me (I get in the bath and Leigh hands her to me, she absolutely loves it!), she also loves having time with her Nanna (Leigh's mom) and Grandma (mine) and both her Grandpas.

Dislikes: being hungry. This girl wakes up starving pretty much every time she naps/sleeps.

Sleep: She had night and day completely reversed and just wanted to party all night. We are happily getting her turned around after a few weeks of being just sliiightly tired. We are slowly trying to get her to sleep in her basinett after a month of just doing whatever worked at the time. She's not a very deep sleeper but we are working on that!

Postpartum: I feel quite a bit back to normal, down about 25lbs but still have a ways to go. I got the all clear to start slowly working out again! I'm not worried about my weight but at the same time, pretty much none of my clothes fit, but that's mostly to do with my boobs. Which look pretty great haha so I don't mind too much. Stretchy clothes all winter for this girl! I am still feeling so grateful that I was able to have a vaginal birth, it would have been so much harder to care for Arianna while recovering from a c-section, I give major props to anyone that had to do that!

All in all we are absolutely loving our daughter, I can't believe she's really ours. It's mind blowing that it was her in my belly all along. Our whole family is pretty smitten with her, and we are over the moon that we will be getting a girl cousin in April. My brother and his wife are finally having a girl after 2 boys. Matching outfits will be happening.

We are also sooo excited for Arianna's first Christmas, even though she is too little to do anything, it will still be really special for us.