How To Survive Morning Sickness

There is no sickness like morning sickness. Oh man. I had it hard core until about 13 weeks. It was so bad that I couldn't even step foot in the kitchen because the smell of food made me throw up. I unfortunately had to take medicine for it but I do have tips to help it (:

1. Candles/Scentsy - Burn a smell that is cinnamon. I think I did cozy fireside Scentsy. I didn't figure this out till the end of the 13 weeks but it really helped a lot. I first noticed it when we were walking around Walmart and they had all the Christmas stuff out and there were those cinnamon scented pinecones. I smelt them and felt SOOO much better. Plus if you put this in the kitchen, then it replaces all those food smells (except for in the fridge... avoid having smelly food in there). 

2. Paper dishes - these as I mentioned in a pervious post are essential. I couldn't wash dishes without puking because of the smell of them.

3. Hydration - hydration is very important, especially as you're throwing up a lot. I got so dehydrated that I had to go in for fluids and that just wasn't fun. The best way to stay hydrated is to get a water bottle with a straw. This was a tip from my sister. I recently got this great one that even keeps track as you drink. It is called a HydraCoach. It even lets you set a goal and tells you how close to your goal you are. Click the name to find a link to it. Its seriously the best water bottle ever. The straw helps you mindless sip at it as well and that gets your more fluids! 

4. Bland food - I survived on cinnamon toast, LIFE cereal and granola bars. Then I started getting cravings for chips and hash browns and then I only ate these for two weeks. Probably not the most nutritious but when you are throwing up four times a day, any food in your system seems good enough. Also keep some of this bland food by the bed. It helps to eat some before you get out of bed. 

5. This is a tip for your significant other - cook her food that is bland. She is puking, tired, nauseous and probably weak at this point. Nothing is more helpful than cooking her food. Eating is a chore when you feel that sick and cooking just makes it worse. 

6. Unisom +B6 - If you are so bad that you need to take medicine, then I recommend this (by doctor approval first of course). My doctor recommended this and said its class A. It helped so much! I took it at night and woke up a lot less nauseous! 

7. Ginger and Lemon - tea or water. These two things help a lot! I was drinking a glass of ginger tea almost daily and added lemon to my water. 

8. Preggie pops - or drops. These help so much. I had to suck on them during class (especially when the girl in my class had to eat smelly soup every class period)  and they really helped. They really just take the edge off. If you live in the city you can usually find them at the store but if you're like me an live in Wyoming, rural... Amazon it is! 

9. Sea bands - These bracelets look like skinny sweat bands and they have knobs that push on a pressure point in your wrist which helps with nausea. I can't say if I noticed an immediate change from them but I think they helped some. I wore them everyday until I noticed the nausea clearing up. I do know some people see an amazing change with these. I think it depends on who you are.  

Welp, these are all the hints I can think of. If you have any leave them in the comments (: 


*disclaimer: Links are amazon affiliated

23 Weeks Pregnant After Stillbirth Update

Holy Cow! I can’t believe its been 2 weeks already! I am thankful that its going fast though… but holy moly, the last two weeks were busy and stressful. I got a lot done though that I needed to so stress should be going down. It did freak me out thought when I realized baby boy does kick less when I’m super stressed so I’m really trying to keep an eye on this and calm down. 

Two Wednesdays ago I started going to child birthing classes. I LOVE them! There are only 4-5 of us in the group so its easy to really talk and get the information. I thought they were going to be those classes where you lay on the floor and people tell you to breathe... not at all. She said this week we'll go over birthing positions but not like that. 

I think these classes are so enjoyable for me as well because the instructor lost a baby as well. Which is so terribly sad but she's the first person I've talked to in person that actually has gone through it. At the end she also teaches us hypnobirthing techniques and these are super nifty for me. When I get anxiety/panic attacks or super emotional, I do these techniques and they help a lot. My sister always suggested these but they're a lot easier to do when there is an instructor. 

I also think I find these classes really rewarding because I never did them last time. I didn't get the chance. People, and my counselor, always say I need to think of this pregnancy as a completely different event than last pregnancy. That last pregnancy doesn't completely influence the results of this one. While it makes sense, its hard to truly acknowledge that and feel it when you're in my shoes. Going to these classes are helping I think. Its kinda like the more things I do different, the more different I allow it to feel. 

Here are a few of my favorite pictures and videos from the last two weeks. I would take an accurate bump picture today… but I didn’t really feel like getting ready so the bump picture is from Valentine's Day.  The hand picture was just the daddy and I feeling him kick (: 

                             

Here is a video of baby kicking the calculator. He was doing it a whole bunch but I recorded at the end so the kicks were a little softer. 

21 Weeks Pregnant After Stillbirth

What an exciting week we had (: We found out we are expecting another precious boy!! I was so shocked... I was sure it was a girl. AND we are now past the the half way mark. That's even more exciting to me :P I just want to be at 40 weeks already.

Aside from the anatomy scan last week there isn't much to update about being 21 weeks. I'm honestly finding it harder and harder to keep sane. I feel like I'm starting to panic about everything! According to the books baby is awake for about 6 hours a day and I can only probably feel movement for half that time... so I have about 21 hours of AHHHHHH. Okay, not really that much because I'm asleep for a lot of it, but I defiantly have started mentally panicking after an hour of no movement. I feel totally irrational though because I know that even at 21 weeks I'm lucky I can feel baby move as much as I do.

The kicking I love though. I get so excited with every kick and they are starting to get stronger. They even startle me sometimes (: Its fun too cause daddy can even feel him kick way more. I'm sure he's getting bored of me grabbing his hand and putting it on my tummy but its just so exciting!

The other thing that has began developing more is my hunger! I'm a never ending pit of hunger. I never experienced this last pregnancy. I feel like everything I eat just makes me more hungry. I'm very happy for this though because it means weight gain and I want to gain as much as I can (well within reason). My favorite thing to eat is avocados. He's gonna come out green like an alien with the amount of avocados I eat :p

Well this isn't a very exciting post but there just isn't much different this week. I have another scan on Wednesday I think, so more pictures to come later (:

Love Always! Taylor and unnamed baby boy!

20 Week Scan - What's the gender?!

We are home!!!!! First things first - baby is perfect (: Has two arms, two legs, two kidneys, two eyeballs, two BIG feet, two hands and one little willy :p (Read to the bottom for an appointment overview and what all they said)

I was so surprised when the ultrasound tech showed us it's a boy. I was positive it was a girl! Daddy is super excited! I'm excited as well but I was super excited either way! 

At the beginning of the scan baby was all curled up! I wish I was that flexible! It kept curling up like this a lot but luckily he likes to move A LOT and we were able to get the pictures of what we needed.

There are some face ones. The first one is scary! You can see the lens in the eyeball. The angle made it so we could only see half the face this way but it has two eyeballs (:

Here are the arms, legs, feet and hands 

Overall the appointment went great! Everything looks how its suppose to look at this point (: This was at the high risk doctor so they were VERY thorough. Baby weighs 13 ounces. Unfortunately they couldn't get an accurate height because baby was so curled up, making it hard to measure the spine. But everything seemed to measure right so I'm sure its 10-12 inches long or so.

Pre-e wise they asked to make sure I'm still taking the baby aspirin everyday. They stressed the importance of this. I'm happy to say I haven't missed a single day since they started telling me to take it. They also suggested a calcium supplement twice a day. She thinks this might help with placenta health as well. These are really the only two preventative care things I can really do.

They are going to have my normal ob do a scan every 4 weeks and I will return to Billings in 8 weeks for a scan. They also did a blood draw to test for down syndrome and those things (I didn't care to have this done but....) they said this test also checks 2 indicators of placenta health so she strongly suggested I do it. It was an easy blood draw and only one vial luckily.

It was a really good experience! I really really like the Maternal medicine in Billings at St. Vincent hospital.

Hopefully soon I'll have a copy of the ultrasound up! If I do, I'll link it here!  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=avHqPPKfoyc

Oh and we don't have a name yet! Names are hard.... :/

Two pictures I screen shotted from the video. They are of the nose and mouth. One mouth is open and one its closed (:

L'Oreal Paris Voluminous Butterfly Mascara Waterproof Review

Like most girls if you ask me about my most important/favorite makeup item I would instantly say mascara. I could live without the rest (although I would never want to) but I need mascara. Something about it just makes me instantly feel girly and prettier. Plus it draws attention to our eyes and that's where we really want people to look I suppose. 

For months now I've been using L'Oreal Paris Voluminous Butterfly Mascara Waterproof in Black and I absolutely love it!!!! I receive compliments on my eyelashes quite often and I don't do anything special besides use this mascara. I love it new and with age (I prefer all my mascara a little aged though). 

The formula is perfect for all day wear! I often get watery eyes and the waterproof lasts amazingly and I find that I don't get the black smudge under my eyes throughout the day! I also find that with a lot of mascaras throughout the day I have black dust that blinks off below my eyes and that does not occur at all! 




The brush on this mascara has an awesome short to long bristle length. I really like this because it naturally helps my outside lashes be longer than the inside ones. I also like the brush because the bottom of it is all short, which works perfect for bottom lashes!