a little bit of brady | 26 weeks + christmas sugar cookies

sitting here with the laptop resting on my (giant) 26 week belly.. sugar cookie in hand and brushing sprinkles from the keyboard while I remember the time (and mess) I spent with my girls this weekend.

making memories while making a mess.  this is the last holiday season spent with just girls in the house.  so much is about to change and while I get emotional worrying about all this change, I literally cannot wait to meet this sweet boy growing in my belly.  when imagining how I wanted to celebrate this big ol' bump and the tail end of my second trimester I decided to include the girls and totally embrace the holiday season for all its worth!  

whats more Christmas-y than baking cookies??

I snagged this sugar cookie recipe off Jessica's blog and it was the most simple + basic and delicious cookie recipe I have ever made!  the cookies bake up super soft and perfectly sturdy to hold pounds of icing and sprinkles.

after letting the dough hang out in the fridge for a couple hours it was time to cut + bake + ice some Christmas goodies!

 my belly.  there it is.  

and its legit.  

some days I wake up and I'm "okay" with how big I've gotten over the last several weeks.. and then there are those times at the end of the day that I catch a glimpse of myself in the hanging mirror in our room and I'm like, HOLY MOLY what am I going to look like at the end of all this growing a baby business. 

buttercream icing

1 stick softened, salted butter

2-3 cups powdered sugar

1/2 tsp vanilla

pinch of salt

1/4 cup of half and half or milk

Combine all ingredients in a bowl & blend with a hand mixer.

photography by b faith photography

26 week belly + baby update

now that we've covered all the sugar cookie bases, lets talk baby and belly!

Brady's "B" initial hat came in the mail and I about died thinking I'll have my fourth baby wearing this beanie home from the hospital.  all the feels, you guys!! 

I went for my 26 week check up this week which included a sonogram to take a peek at Brady's kidney's again.  last month we discovered some mild pockets of fluid, and while this is really common in boys (apparently from what my OB tells me) its something that will need to be monitored and watched closely.  the sonogram this week showed that there is still some fluid on his kidneys, around the right more than the left, but it isn't too much worry about at this point.  other than that, he's healthy and growing strong! Brady has gained an entire pound since last month- weighing in at 2 pounds + 5 ounces with a healthy heartbeat at 140 bpm!

his little profile + button nose is just THE sweetest and definitely reminds me most of Baker and Parker.

As for this mama, my OB is more concerned at this point about the amount of amniotic fluid I've got..  which is why I look and measure more like I'm 33 weeks (boom) rather than just the 26 weeks I actually am. and also why complete strangers are prompted to share their swirling thoughts about my bump on a daily basis.  apparently polyhydramnios occurs in about 1% of pregnancies and here I am diagnosed again for my second pregnancy in a row.  I had a mild case with Baker, measuring on the high end of "normal" from about 28 weeks through to delivery.  around 34-35 weeks my body kind of figured itself out on its own and levels balanced and we delivered a healthy baby girl at term.

there isn't anything to prevent it, and this time around its happened sooner and with much more fluid than the case I had in my pregnancy with Baker.  my OB mentioned that this could actually be the sole reason for the fluid on Brady's kidneys.  I go back to the perinatologist next week and then I'll be making trips to my OB's office every other week to monitor until my weekly visits start.  I took my glucose test, too!  here's hoping that gestational diabetes isn't the reason for my increased fluid levels:)  

so many parts of my mama heart wants to worry about this.. fret + cry about the thought of something "being wrong" with me or my baby boy.  a google search, which was a big fat mistake on my part, did me no good but freak me out even more when I saw complications like still birth and preterm labor listed under the risks of this diagnosis.  I have so much confidence in my doctor and know that she has everyone's best interest at heart and will watch this and make sure nothing will happen to the best of her 26 years of experience. 

praying for peace in the plans laid in front of us and thankful for the wisdom of the medical professionals managing my care.. and Brady's care, too!  this boy wriggles all day long, so I know that if he stops for a prolonged period of time that I'll be making a trip to check on him asap.

  so thankful for my life right now. the growing baby inside of my, albeit huge, belly and the girls that are running around at my feet.

my cup is full this holiday season. 

so much magic and joy and love to be shared!  

four more sleeps!

a little bit of brady | 22 weeks + pink blush giveaway

time for another bump-date!  at least I'm not gracing you with my belly every week like I have in the pregnancies past.  I wouldn't be able to commit to that right now.. life is SO insane. but I do like to give a little update every time I get to go to my OB for a check up and especially when I get to see our little guy. 

OMG, but little HE IS NOT.  lets talk about our growing babe for a minute, shall we?

weighing in at 1 pound and 5 ounces he's measuring about 2 weeks ahead for gestation.  which makes sense because my preggo belly is also measuring over 24 weeks when I just hit that 22 week mark on Sunday.  LOOK at those legs.  and his feet!  my OB likes for the perinatologist to follow all her pregnancies, so I met Dr. Koster when I was pregnant with the twins and have continued to see her a few times while pregnant since.  I always go between 22-24 weeks for a sonogram because according to my OB thats the opportune time for measurement of brain development. when she started the scan the first thing I saw was his foot. my eyes got big and I said out loud- what that his FOOT?  it was huge! 

I feel so bad for him so cramped up!  I don't ever remember having my girls curled up in a ball like that.  sweet guy.  I couldn't help but laugh and laugh every time I got a full view of him laid up in there or a shot of his legs or his feet.  truth is that it doesn't surprise me at all one bit about his length- my dad and three brothers all are 6 foot 3 and above.. my middle brother is about 6 foot 5.  I could have potentially been very tall.. and I am for a girl. Jordan isn't a little guy, either.

brother is just growing along just as the others before him did.

he's healthy with a strong heartbeat at 143bpm and while he is measuring on the larger end for gestation my OB assured me that he's totally symmetrical:)  he did have some fluid around his kidneys- everything else seemed to be filtering like normal but we just have to watch that to make sure the fluid doesn't increase or cause other problems.  apparently thats really common to see in baby boys in the womb and it usually resolves itself by the time he's delivered.  my fluid is a little elevated like it was in my pregnancy with Baker, so with both of those components in the mix it means I'll get serial sonograms to follow and make sure all is well for both mama and baby boy.

fine by me!

 as for this mama.. feeling "great" finally, I suppose.  two weeks ago when we all had a stomach bug it took me 5 days to feel back to normal.  it really knocked me on my rear and I couldnt help but be so exhausted after the smallest amount of activity.  my eating habits haven't been normal since then, either.  I also have been getting REALLY full after eating even the smallest of meals.

my daily meal schedule might usually look like:

breakfast: toast or cereal with coffee

lunch: grilled cheese or a cup soup with a small salad

dinner.. more cereal.

after lunch is usually when I feel the most uncomfortable and am so miserable for hours!  which makes it hard to eat a solid dinner.  I don't feel sick, just full.  

basically, this is common for me in pregnancy but not until around 32-35 weeks.  its happening way early this time around and with the stomach bug a couple weeks ago and me not being able to eat a lot at all.. I lost a pound in the month since I last went to the doctor.  my OB isn't super concerned because he's growing well and above average, but I need something to help speed up my digestion and make it easier for me to eat so he doesn't eventually reap the effects of me not eating well in the most important times of growth for him.  

so she prescribed me a low dose of protonix once a day to see if that helps.

other things.. I haven't been working out very much, I'm sleeping like a rock, and I feel him move ALL DAY, which I totally LOVE.  I love to feel him move.

I STILL cant believe we finally have a name for this little guy.  I feel weird calling him little after seeing his outrageous legs and feet at our scan yesterday..and his hands were huge, too.  I am still laughing about it!

we went around and around about naming this boy- we had a girl name set and ready to go.  we were excited, ready, good. our fourth girl on the way.  but when that balloon popped BLUE we both were like.. 

holy cow.. now, what in the world.. is this real life??

I immediately threw out all of my "original" boy names- boy names that we had been discussing for the last 8 or so years since we started talking about kids.  they all of the sudden weren't "good enough" because part of me was doubtful I would ever get the chance to be a mother to three babies let alone FOUR.  and then other parts of me, and Jordan has admitted this as well, thought that having a boy just wasn't in the cards for us.  SO, who knew if I would ever get the chance to actually use those names I had listed on the "boy" column. 

this new adventure was a giant leap into uncharted territory for the both of us- and it started with the very best name we could settle on.  so much freaking pressure.  

Jordan is very adamant about using a family name for the middle name.  All of our kids have been named after a matriarch of the family, and so when it came to naming our fourth, he also was going to follow suit.  Parker Jane is named after Granny Jane on the Fort side of Jordan's mom's side, Jolie Grace is named after Jordan's Meme on the Massey side, and Baker Bree is named after our tremendously loved BB.  there are a lot of women on both sides of the family.  A LOT. so we ventured over to the Huey side (my family) so see if anything we loved.. which again, I thought just wasn't ever in the cards for me and still nothing stuck out as perfect.  

with all three of my girls I had this feeling of peace and "oh my that is it, thats the name" and I just wasn't having it with our baby boy.

Brady has always been one we like, and like the name Baker, it was a name that I wasn't completely struck by or even remembered that I had threw it on the list at some point.

but when it came down to naming a BOY it was good.  we loved it.  but the giant problem was that we didn't love any middle name we came up to go with it.  

I was drinking coffee one Saturday morning shortly after the gender reveal- maybe even that next weekend.. and texting back and forth with a friend about name ideas..Jordan was at the fire station and it hit me. 

what about Brady Jordan?

I texted it to Jordan, as it was officially one of the very first name ideas either of us had thrown out there.  he loved it, but he didn't feel the need to use his name as a middle name since he was getting to keep the Massey name alive.

but, dude, you will be the most important man in his life- so why not?!

over the last couple months we have been playing around with other names, calling him by those for a couple days and still nothing felt right. we started to get way off base from what we had originally discussed and I was getting anxious.. so on our road trip to visit my parents a couple weeks back I cornered Jordan in the car for the three hour drive we had ahead of us with threats from his pregnant wife. 

"we are going to decide on a name." 

..and so we did.  we went back to our original name and finally felt that ah-ha moment that we had with the three before him. 

there were many reasons we didn't share Baker's name before she was born.. one of which was the family name we had decided on to use for her middle name.  this time we didn't have a single reason to keep it hush hush.  I was SO proud to be naming our boy after his dad and I wanted to tell everyone.  our closest friends and family knew his name the moment we decided and so many parts of me thought it to be fun to let the surprise be when he finally arrives but then again I have typed his name out a million times when talking about him on this blog and finally decided that it was worth the excitement BEFORE he arrives to share the name we ultimately decided on.

those long legs.  that button nose- a classic trait we saw on sonograms of Parker + Baker. and his big ol' belly.  We cant wait to meet you, Brady!

--

In celebration of my 22 week bump and naming baby Brady I've got something special for you courtesy of my friends at Pinkblush! 

I was introduced to pinkblush when I was pregnant with Baker.  looking for something to cover this bump, their maternity style of clothing was right up my alley.  their trendy line of maternity clothing has grown tremendously since the last time I was dressing a baby bump.. and I actually didn't even realize they had a full (and amazing) line of women's clothing completely outside of maternity clothes until recently.  I've been looking for some true wide leg maternity denim and of course I love the romantic style of anything floral + lace!   

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I've teamed up with pinkblush to offer one lucky winner $75 gift card to this trendy online boutique  towards anything they wish!  I know you mamas out there could use some easily transitional staple pieces in your closet, and every little bit helps to kick off a fresh start to this holiday season's wardrobe, right?  RIGHT!! in the meantime, pinkblush has a promotion going right now, just use code BLACKFRIDAY for 40% site wide!  I might have just stocked up on a few of their super soft lounge pants- I have these and just couldn't pass up these in stripe and these in grey (more floral!). I plan to be as comfy as possible while in the hospital and definitely postpartum, too! I also got my hands on this maternity robe for delivering baby Brady in a few short months! I cant believe how quickly March is approaching!

Enter for your chance to win in the rafflecopter giveaway below. 

Giveaway runs through SUNDAY November 27th at midnight.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

good luck + happy shopping!

a GIANT thank you to pinkblush maternity for their gracious sponsorship and to stephanie rose photography for her patience + outrageous talent.

wide leg jeans c/o pinkblush maternity

charcoal floral + lace top c/o pinkblush maternity

leather choker // nickel + suede

alphabet blocks  c/o smiling tree toys

motherhood maternity style | 4-ways

date night.

if "bodycon" were made for pregnant women everywhere..  

I honestly feel slimmer and more beautiful when I am showing off the bump in something form fitting.  this dress is true to size with plenty of give and comfort in the jersey type fabric its made of.  I would totally wear it without the cardigan whereas other dresses of similar style I have seen, for a much higher price, I feel the need to cover my backend or cover up the dress all together:) 

worn with booties or sneakers, this one goes both ways, but for dinner + movie with my man this one is a fantastic and comfortable option.

dress + cardigan (similar) + necklace + boots 

christmas tree hunting

I wish so badly we could get a real Christmas tree for the house.  but for the sake of my sinus cavities we forgo the real thing every year.  even though we don't end up buying anything, walking/running/skipping up and down the aisles of trees at our local tree farm is still the most amazing time, especially with kiddos. and the smell of fresh pine is unreal!  

this kind of outfit is what I call maternity basic when dressing this bump.  sort of my go-to when I think of being "put together" but still super comfortable. I have a huge love of vests and layering pieces during this time of year and have about every style and color you can think of.  its just what I love to wear and finding items I feel comfortable in while carrying around an extra 10+ pounds is important to me- layers are always good in my preggo book:)

vest + henley + jeans + booties

girls night

while I don't always make the time to get out and about with my gal pals every week, the occasional dinner (and non-alcoholic beverages) has become a regular occurrence on my list of "me things" I accomplish outside of my day to day as M.O.M.  right up there with solo trips to the Target Starbuck's and 45 minutes getting a manicure- equally relaxing, amiright?  

it is SO tempting to leave the house to meet my girlfriends in a topknot + sweatpants after a long busy day, but I'm always thankful when I take time to get myself ready before going out.  I also love this outfit option for church or for date night and I even might recycle it for Thanksgiving dinner.

suede pants + long sleeve tee + poncho + booties + wood watch

t a r g e t run

also known as the momiform..? this is about every single day for me.. but really this photo is SO false.  simply because my hair is down and clean and fixed, although somewhat windblown- ha! truth be told i love love love the topknot but I cant really wear it ALL day long because my hair starts to "hurt" after several hours of being in a bun- anyone know what I'm talking about?

totally beside the point of this last outfit.

the most comfortable over the belly leggings and a cozy sweatshirt is my kind of outfit.  

I love the three before, but I saved the best for last:)

bag + hoodie + leggings + sneakers (super old) + sunnies

a GIANT thank you to motherhood maternity for their gracious sponsorship and to stephanie rose photography for her patience + outrageous talent.