Announcement: Baby Cude is on the way!

It has been so hard to keep this news a secret! Andrew and I are expecting a baby in September 2019! We are so grateful and we don’t take it for granted that the Lord has blessed me with a healthy pregnancy thus far.

I hope this explains why I’ve been quiet on Instagram and the blog for the last couple months. Not only was I afraid I would accidentally spill the secret, but I also had pregnancy symptoms that made keeping up my blogging schedule difficult. Thanks to Kelsey Malicote for these gorgeous photos that give me some new things to share!

Now, for the frequently asked questions:

How are you feeling?

I’ve been very fortunate to have had a relatively “easy” pregnancy. I only got morning sickness once! While I was so thankful to avoid being sick, I definitely had some symptoms that threw me for a loop. For several weeks in my first trimester, I had fatigue that made me feel like I literally could not get up off the couch. Over the weeks, my energy has gradually improved, but fatigue remains my number one symptom. I’ve just had to accept that I have limited energy for the day, and the rest of it is going toward building a healthy baby! My other main symptom has been hormonal acne. The rest has just been little odds and ends that can all be traced back to the miracle of pregnancy. The book “What to Expect When You’re Expecting” has been my best friend as I navigate what’s normal for expectant mamas!

Will you keep working?

When we originally thought we would be moving this summer with the military, I had given both my jobs an end date of April 30th, 2019. Over the months we spent walking through Andrew’s discharge, applying for other opportunities, and determining that we would be in Lexington for another year, we kept my job decisions on the back burner. Once all the dust had settled, it became clear that it was time for me to stop working every Saturday and look into something that would give me my weekends back as Andrew transitioned into a new role. Fun fact: jobs in the wedding industry are wonderful, but they take up every single Saturday. We had reached a point where that no longer made sense for us. Shortly after we made that determination, we found out Baby Cude was on the way! Taking all these factors into consideration, I’ve decided to keep my original end date of April 30th and stay home for the foreseeable future. I will have plenty to keep me busy this summer as Andrew graduates and starts a new job and we prepare for the arrival of our first child! Once the baby is here, I will rock the stay at home mom life while Andrew is in residency.

In addition to momming, I’ll still be blogging, too! Needless to say, extreme fatigue and perpetual acne are not exactly a recipe for blogging success. Either I was so tired it was all I could do to get up and go to work, or my skin was so bad I didn’t want to jump in front of a camera. Now that I’m getting a bit more energy, I’m excited to get back to connecting with everyone and sharing more about this exciting new season!

Will you find out the gender?

Yes, we find out the gender very soon and I’ll be sharing it with you shortly after we know!

Do you have names picked out?

Yes, we’ve had baby names on reserve since we were dating (when two Type A’s get married, ha!). We will share this sweet baby’s name after we share their gender.

I think that covers the main topics people are curious about! We are so excited and truly feel so humbled by this blessing. At the risk of sounding cynical, there are just so many things that can go wrong when trying to grow a family, and thus far the Lord has been so merciful to us every step of the way. Thank you so much to all who have rejoiced with us over this news! I can’t wait to share more with you as we move further into this new chapter!