Pregnancy Q&A- Part 2: third trimester, nesting, birth plan, etc.

Hello hello, and welcome to Episode 114 of Life On the Brink!

I’m officially entering the ninth month of pregnancy, which is totally wild to say! Around the 20 week mark I shared the beginning of our pregnancy journey and had a little Q&A, and this week I’m back with Part 2! I’m at 35 weeks now, and though I still have a month or so to go, I’m definitely in a different headspace than I was back in January.

This Q&A will focus more on the third trimester, nursery and nesting, and plans for birth and postpartum. It’s so crazy to think that I could really meet this little girl in just a few weeks!

Plus, this week's Little Joy is a very Nancy Meyer's-inspired moment, and I'm sharing a happy, calming album that's kind of the inspiration for my labor playlist.

For the complete show notes, click here!
For full transcript, click here!


Site: lifeonthebrink.live
Social: @anna_on_the_keys

Transcript

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Welcome to Life on the brink, a lovely little place filled with inspiration and creativity that is dedicated to enjoying life one day at a time. I'm Ana. And together, we're exploring the beautiful things in this world that fascinate us, and often discovering something new. Hello, hello, welcome to episode 114 of life on the brink, we have entered the month of May, we're coming up on wrapping up season four of life on the brink, which is just really wild. I started this in 2020. And, of course, I've got some really exciting episodes to wrap up the season. And they're kind of centered around the biggest thing in my life right now, which is the fact that I am now 35 weeks pregnant, which is pretty wild. And I'm finally like entering that headspace where I am really, like focused on after where I'm looking forward, I'm really anticipating birth now like thinking about it. And really, it's like within a month, within a month, I'm gonna have a little baby girl. And that's going to change everything. So today is sort of a part two of a pregnancy q&a that I did back in January, when I was at the halfway point, more focused on the first trimester. And like beginnings of pregnancy, just overall thoughts about it, and you know, et cetera. And you can feel free to check out that episode that was episode 107, which was basically part one of this. And so today, I'm back with part two, like I said, I'm 35 weeks to go obviously, I still have about a month left. But I'm gonna focus more on second and third trimester nursery things and birth plan and just sort of like actually anticipating a baby now. And I'm doing pretty good guys. Like, I'm really, really grateful for the, the experience that I've had, it's been fairly mild, I would think, having never done it before. It is getting warm, though I am II warm in my house, as I record this, it's the weather here is so fickle. And it can be a high of 70 or 80, or approaching 90, any day of the week. And I'm really feeling I'm someone who always runs cold, like I'm always cold. And it takes a lot for me to get really warm. But oh my goodness, I'm really feeling that now. And I'm glad that at least I won't have to go through most of the summer while being pregnant this time. So, but as a result, I have been craving all kinds of cool, sweet things, iced coffees, etc. And so why don't we go ahead and make a cup of tea. While we're waiting. I have actually a cup of hot tea with me today. I'm trying to do that sort of reverse, not psychology, that thing where you drink something warm when you're already warm, so that it sort of cools you down. I'm not sure if that's going to work. But I do have a really delicious tea and I want to like tell you about it. It's from Harney and Sons. And it's the Provence blend, which I had never heard of. But a dear friend of mine gave it to me. And it has notes of apricot, lemon and lavender and it's a white tea. It is so good. The apricot is very unexpected, and I love anything with lavender. And it's just like really great for this May into June season. It's delicious. And I think it's gonna be really good iced as well. So I'm planning to do some of that this weekend, probably. But go ahead and make yourself a nice cup of tea, or coffee, or maybe an iced matcha. I just can't get enough of those right now. But let's get comfy. Just take a few minutes to relax to breathe deeply to take a sip of something nice. And let's settle in. I asked over on Instagram for your questions regarding this second half of pregnancy and birth and baby and whatnot. And I got lots of cool responses back. I've tried to sort of compile them into you know, some of them were very like each other. And so Let me just get to the beginning here, which are there are several questions that kind of tie in together such as has pregnancy gotten easier? In the second half? Have my symptoms changed, and what's either the best thing or like the most difficult thing about being pregnant now. And so I figured the best way to answer all those is to just sort of give a recap of how things have been over the past 15 weeks. I won't cover too much of the beginning, because like I said, you can listen to part one, about where I left you, in January, was that it was, um, it was a little bit rough emotionally. And that was some I, the way I described it was that my intrusive thoughts were a little bit louder, it was harder to like, clear or reset my mental space. And that really continued, I would say through mid February. So basically, the greatest part of winter, I just had a really low month, generally. I feel like it was a combination of pregnancy hormones, and also the fact that it was winter, and it was gray. And also, I'm still working through some, some difficult things and some grief. And this is also just a really big transition. And so I think I was just mentally dealing with those things. And I did speak about it with the nurse midwife who's been supporting me and Josh, through most of this pregnancy, and she referred me to the counselor that was on site. And I, I saw her and basically, she was like, you're okay, you're, you're just going through a lot. And you're handling things well. And so that was a bit of an encouragement, you know, I thought, Do I need to speak with someone regularly? And basically, it was concluded that no, you're, you're just going through a big transition right now. And that, here's an interesting, like, you know, aside, I won't go too far into it, I have always, I guess, in, in the idea of wanting to not brush any emotions to the side to not process anything, I tend to err on the side of feeling everything and like thinking through it, and processing through it and thinking, if I'm, if I feeling if I'm feeling sad, then I need to examine why and work through it, and then I'll feel fine. But that's not always the case. And I was, I found it helpful to realize that sometimes I'm just feeling sad, because of the way that my body is, you know, going through things and hormones and whatever. And it's not necessary for me to necessarily unpack every emotion every time that sometimes I just need to cheer up. And that's okay. So that was sort of the lesson that I learned in there. And that helped a lot. And I think that probably just with I think, has just shifted, and you know, as my body is continuing to change, and as winter faded out into spring, my overall mood has been definitely much improved, I still, you know, I have bouts of extreme emotion. Or I'll just have a really weird low day or an evening, or, you know, just feeling a lot. But that's to be expected. And Josh has been very sweet, and has been pretty helpful with that as well. So that's kind of where things were, in the winter and how they continued into the spring. That was a big challenge for me. And then I'll just get into some more of the other like physical symptoms, I should say, I have noticed that my skin, mostly my face, is just generally a little bit irritated. It's just a little unhappy. I have been blessed with skin that is pretty clear and even most of the time. But in the second trimester, and especially in the third, I've noticed that just some days, not every day, I will just have a lot of redness or discoloration, or just my complexion is all over the place. And I'll use the same products, you know, nothing's changed at all. It's just kind of irritated. And so that's been interesting. I don't I tend to wear less makeup as the weather heats up and it gets into summer and so I've been like trying to figure out the best way to do that if my skin is going crazy. Um But it's not all the time. And sometimes I feel like I have a little bit of that glow, you know, just like oil. But it hasn't been that bad, I've just noticed it. And I definitely have plenty of stretch marks on my lower belly, they have just appeared gradually. And now it's just, you know, just there, and we'll see what happens. But I am always putting lotion all over my body, especially on my belly as things are stretching. And, you know, just trying to take care of it and see how it goes. So moving on, I got sick twice in my second trimester, once in January, and once in March. And the thing about being sick in pregnancy is that it just takes for ever. Fortunately, there were just colds, like it wasn't anything serious, which is great. But I couldn't really take a lot of medicine and I just had to kind of write it out. And then when I got sick in March, it stuck around for like two weeks. And then one day, I randomly had a fever in the middle of the night. And I was like, Okay, this is not okay. And I ended up going to my, what do you call it? Primary Care Physician, there it is. And God prescribed an antibiotic, and then it sort of, you know, took a good 10 days to leave my body. And it was just rough and slow. I had a sore throat for days and days. And I was like, this is a bummer. But the main thing about that, I mean, like I said, the baby was fine, everything's been fine. It could have been, you know, I didn't get the flu or anything like that. But it really threw off my routine and trying to exercise. Because, you know, I'm trying to remain as active as I can for the sake of my body. And in the first trimester, I just felt really sick for a while, you know, and I wasn't trying to do a whole bunch of working out. So I thought second trimester, this is my time, you know, it's winter, it's nice and cold outside, I won't overheat. And I just had a lot of days where I felt really blur because I was sick, and I had to rest. And that was difficult for me to just, you know, accept. But now I'm in my third trimester trying to do as much as I can, I continue to stretch every day, all of my ligaments, and all of the muscles. And I'm trying mostly to just walk to walk as much as I can in the neighborhood in my life, to have that active. That activity, I should say that's the noun version. So that as I approach birth and postpartum recovery, etc, I will have prepared at least a little bit. So that kind of threw off my game. But you know, it was fine. It just took forever to get better. So that was in my second trimester. So moving on. third trimester, I've got two main symptoms, which have been back pain and swelling, which is, you know, par for the course. But the back pain around week 26 or 27. I started to notice it, but it was just kind of a little twinge here and there. Nothing too intrusive. But then by week 30, which was at the beginning of April, Josh and I went on our little baby moon to Washington, DC. And there were some times when, like, just walking was painful. Like it was a lot of pain, like trying to set up trying to move that we went to a beautiful afternoon tea. I showed some pictures of that a few episodes ago, but I was in some real pain during that D. But I thought maybe this is how it's going to be. And it wasn't. So I just needed to, you know, take some new measures, which for me was getting a pregnancy pillow. It actually helped a lot. Just the way that I tend to sleep. And I saw a chiropractor, which was excellent. And he just, you know, readjusted some things. And since then I've been able to stretch and move and everything. And of course I'm aware of my movements, especially if I'm working in the garden or something. I'm moving really slow, trying to support everything, but it's a world of difference. Like I thought I was gonna just be in pain for the rest of my pregnancy and I'm not and that's amazing. So if If you are in a similar situation, or you're going, you're afraid of it, there are steps that can be taken besides just suffering or taking pain meds every day. But now my main symptom that I noticed, like months ago, I had a little bit of swelling here and there and my feet, and then it went away. But now all my, my shoe selection is down to like two shoes, I can wear. Fortunately, you know, it's warming up, so I can wear some sandals. And that's a bit more freeing. But wow, my feet swell up mostly when I'm in a particular seated position. But also if I'm on my feet for a while. And sometimes I don't even know why they're swelling up when they are. But sometimes it's in my fingers as well, I've stopped wearing my wedding rings, because I'm really paranoid of them being stuck on my finger. So I got a you know, I'm doing a little silicone ring. And it's okay. But I was just like, I'm not going to let these rings be damaged or, you know, also damaged my finger by having it swell up around this ring. And so I was just like really trying to protect them. Fortunately, I think I can still wear the same shoe size. Because someone told me at work that like her mother had gone up a shoe size, and then stayed there after she gave birth. And I was like, that's insane how the body changes. But I think I can still wear all my shoes just not right now. And not all the time. compression socks are hard to get on. But I have been wearing I'm at the point where I can no longer like, if I'm on the couch, and something's on the coffee table to like, bend forward. Not gonna happen, like, it's a whole thing I'm having to like, I really feel like a pregnant lady when I have to get up off the bed or off the couch, you know, I've to hoist myself up. Because the bellies just bigger now. And it's it's a whole different structure to my midsection. And so trying to elevate my feet when I can and to just keep blood flowing in the area. But wow, that is one that I didn't anticipate because I like I said I had some swelling earlier on, and then it just went away. But it's been mostly just in my ankles and my feet and sometimes in my fingers. And that's about it. So yeah, shouldn't be okay, I'm gonna just continue to do those things. And of course, last symptom, I've had heartburn this entire time, like, since the day I found out I was pregnant. But good news is apparently, in the last few weeks on the baby drops down lower, it kind of makes room for your organs. And I might not have as much heartburn, which is great. And I will say I'm grateful that it's affecting more like my stomach rather than my lungs, because I feel like my breath support has still been pretty good. And as a singer like I, like I use my lungs a lot. And I'm glad that that's not been super, not debilitated. What is it just sort of, you know, it hasn't really messed with that. And so I'll take the heartburn, if it means that I can still sing with breath support. And like, you know, record this podcast, et cetera. So that might sound like a lot. But those symptoms were spread across a span of like four months. And every day is not always so determined by those physical factors. And like I said, all in all, I feel like I've had a pretty easy go of things. The nausea has been pretty much gone since week. 11. Like, that was rough. And I haven't gotten sick, there's been no concerns regarding the baby like she's been fine. Everything's growing and measuring correctly. So, you know, I'm grateful every day to be able to carry her another day and to be well to be experiencing health. And yeah, I'm just I'm really excited about the next steps. So speaking of next steps, we've got our next question, which is what is your plan for the fourth trimester? So the fourth trimester I've I've learned recently that I believe the term postpartum although, you know, everything after birth is postpartum technically, but it's generally centered around the first three months after you give birth. And so that is referred to as The fourth trimester. And honestly, the timing of this baby is perfect, because my school year is about to wrap up in the next couple of weeks. And I'm taking a break from piano lessons and from gigs for the summer. And so I'll have basically like two to two and a half months to just focus on learning to care for the baby. I mean, that's really beautiful, I'm so fortunate to have the time. And the fact that Josh has a very steady job that can support us, where I can just dedicate myself to learning to raise this child. And so I plan to just let this summer be open to just be dedicated to that, to do whatever we need, and then I'll just kind of come back to the world around mid August or so as the school is picking back up, which will be about two months, at least by that point. And so I also plan to accept as much help from my family and my loved ones as possible, which is, again, such a blessing to be near so many people to be near a support system that are so excited and so willing to help. Like, it's truly ideal. And I'm, I'm so grateful for that. So yeah, by Memorial Day, I should basically be wrapped up with everything. And I can just get into nesting and like hardcore, and preparing and trying to I guess, maybe cook and freeze some meals. I don't know if that's like the final stages. Sure, what that's gonna look like. And another like factor that I'm considering is the fact that Josh has, well, he started a new job in July of last year. And the way that they're, we're still figuring out how they're sick leave and like, what the leaves situation is, because he will not have been employed there for a full year yet, some things kind of don't unlock yet. And so there's a chance that he may need to go back to work sooner than perhaps he would have if this baby was born like a year later or something. And then maybe he can take more time after that, you know, one year mark has been hit in July, we're not sure. So, especially considering the fact that he may need to continue working. Either immediately, or soon after the baby's born, we don't know yet. I'm really glad to be able to just dedicate 24/7, basically, to figuring it out. And, and I know he's going to also be a huge support as well when he's here. So we'll figure it out. I don't have you know, an official maternity leave, as I have many different part time gigs and jobs. And it's a little bit less official. And so I'm just going to take a break. Moving on. Next question is how do you know what you need for the baby? I'm assuming in terms of like, gear and supplies and things like that? And that is such a great question. Because I really had no clue at all. And it didn't enter my mind for the first four or five months of pregnancy because I thought, I'm not trying to cram too many thoughts into my head at once. But there are some great resources that I'd like to share. And I really didn't want to buy a whole bunch of everything unnecessary things that I wouldn't end up using. So these resources that I'm about to share, helped me figure out what kind of supplies I might actually need. The first of which was the prenatal classes that Josh and I have been going to the hospital that we're working with, has a really cool program where our normal, just like baby appointments are combined with a group class. And so just as I was continuing to get information about what caring for a baby entails, I began to get more of an idea of what things might help with that. And also just some of asking my mom, like, do you use this? Did you do this? And sometimes that was helpful as well. Also, Amazon has I mean, we made registries at Amazon and target. And Amazon has this nifty little checklist where as you are adding things to your registry, or you can go in and manually do it. They have sections of it's very nicely organized. With basically like a checklist of things you might need a category for diapering a category for feeding a category for cars safety or whatever. Um, and so as I was building a registry, because people started to ask me, like, where are you registered, and I thought I really need to get on this. And so I went through and some things I was like, that's completely unnecessary, you know, I don't need that, or I don't need that yet, things like certain toys and books and things that will definitely be more applicable down the line, or like solid food things, you know, it was a really nice way for me to sort of remember things that I wouldn't have thought of things like, for cleaning bottles, or things for the car, or like bathing things like stuff that I didn't really know what was involved, there was a list of items that might be useful. Also, a friend of mine, let me use the registry of a friend of hers. My friend, Caroline has another close friend who is pregnant at the same time as me. And she's much more on top of things. And so she sent me her registry, so that I could just sort of like, look at what she had. So I just looked through it and thought, oh, yeah, that's nice. That's nice. And if that's going to be useful, I will also leave links to my baby registries on Amazon and target in the show notes. So you can find it at the blog post for this episode at life on the brink dot live. And then I will say, finally, a few different YouTubers and YouTube videos I found to be useful. Of course, there's so much content on that website that you can get very easily overwhelmed. But I'm going to leave a couple of videos that I watched of like things you actually need for a newborn, or just newborn stuff. And then a couple of people, YouTubers that I follow that have also recently become mothers, and are doing that first time pregnancy journey right now. And so that's been very useful and inspiring to me. That's kind of how I learned what I might need. And then sometimes, you know, my mom or somebody would be like, you might consider this, you know, and you just figure it out, I know that there's going to be something that I haven't thought of, or that I haven't prepared for, and then the baby will be here. And I'll be like, Oh, I really need something for this. So that's fine. Now I'm just going to be as prepared as I can be. Which is really nice. If you're also going to have a baby shower, I've had to because I have a lot of family. My sister threw me a baby shower a couple of weeks ago, with the help of some other family members and friends. And then my mother in law, planned another beautiful shower for some family on the other side. And the registry's have been just really helpful. Okay, and finally, Oh, almost. Finally, let's talk about nursery. Lots of you are interested in plans for the nursery or decorating or how that's going. So, as you know, we've been renovating this house for over a year now. And it feels so good to have a whole nother room to decorate and organize. I love organizing. So this room is coming together. It's one of the bedrooms upstairs. And so what I've done so far is this, Josh, of course replaced the carpet with laminate, like wood laminate flooring, and I decided to keep the very, very soft yellow of the walls because I decided to do one wall as like an accent wall with wallpaper. And I love the wallpaper so much. And the background color of this wallpaper matches the existing paint color in that room perfectly. So I'm still working on a few things for the wall, maybe the other walls with shelves and art and whatnot. But I already love the vibe of the room. The wallpaper really brought a lot. I got literally all of the furniture on Facebook marketplace, except for a dresser that was actually free because it was it belonged to a relative and they weren't using it. And in fact if you are interested in learning more about Facebook marketplace and haven't listened to the last episode, Episode 113 I talk all about it. But basically everything is going to be white or brown like a light brown neutral with accents of gold. The colors in the room are that very light yellow and there's also quite a bit of green, a light blue and pink. It's just really sweet. And so of course I know that In the beginning, the baby won't sleep in there and you know, won't have what it won't function as a bedroom for a while, but the fact that everything can be organized, and everything will have a place in that room feels so good, I've been like, every day, I just think I want to get my work done. So that I can go play in the nursery and organize things and figure out where all the clothes are going to be stored. And I love having all of her little things ready to go. But with that said, I'm also working on and this will probably be, as things get closer, maybe this will be my post Memorial Day nesting stage. I'm making a little corner of our bedroom downstairs, dedicated to her. So we've got a bassinet ready, I'm going to make the top of our dresser into a little changing area, I've got that tiered cart, but everybody gets, it's gonna have things for her. And for me, as we're adjusting and recovering, and I was kind of dealing with upstairs first to just have everything in its place. And then I'll determine what needs to start out downstairs. But I already know I'm gonna have like a changing station upstairs and downstairs, I'm gonna have some clothes and diapers, everything just so that we don't always have to go upstairs in those beginning days. So that's nursery, I have a picture in the blog post of just kind of a glimpse of some of, you know, the wallpaper in the chair and stuff like that, but it's very much in progress. So I'll I'll share some finished photos on probably over on Instagram when it's done. And now finally, last question, which is just regarding the birth, what is my birth plan? I didn't know that you needed to have a whole birth plan, which I guess you don't need to but just basically thinking about what what would you like, what's your plan? I've had to do a lot of thinking about it. And this episode is actually great timing, because I'm currently working with my Doula to come up with the birth plan. So Josh, and I have a great close friend who is certified doula, and she has been working with us. And I'm just really grateful to know someone and trust someone already who is qualified in these areas who's going to be able to support me through this birth. It's great. And so currently, these are my main preferences. Like, I have to figure out how to, like, I'm just going to clarify everything in my written birth plan, I guess. But these are the things that, I guess may not be necessarily intuitive. I don't know. Here's my plan. If at all possible. I want my body to go into labor naturally on its own. I would love to not be induced. Obviously, I know sometimes. It's what is best for the health of mom and baby. But I'm hoping that it's not the case. And it's been my prayer that when I do go into labor, I will No. Because I think I would probably be the kind of person that rather than think I'm in labor all the time, I think I would more likely be the one who's in labor and doesn't know. So whether it's with my water breaking or something like I would love for it to be clear to me. And second point, I would love to labor at home as much as possible to just go in when things are already coming along. And I think just for the sake of momentum, I am going to try to mentally prepare for a long labor. But at the same time, I'm hoping and praying it will be short. So once we're at the hospital, which fortunately is like seven minutes from our house, it's like right up the road, don't have to get on the interstate or anything. But once I'm at the hospital, I'll work with my Doula to manage pain in various ways. Some people have asked like do I plan to be medicated or unmedicated? And I'm really open. I'm not opposed to getting an epidural. I think I'm just going to decide when I get there or as the pain progresses or as however it it feels because my main goal is to just be present and not overwhelmed. And so if some people describe like feeling the contractions and like understanding feeling what's happening in your body can do that for them like it helps them to be more present and they don't Want to feel out of control of their body, that makes sense. But also, if the pain is intense enough that my mind can't think of anything else and like having the epidural will free that up and help me to be more peaceful or less overwhelmed or whatever, then that's also cool with me. And the hospital that we're, you know, having the baby at they, it's, it seems like a nice situation where I didn't know that epidurals were like, adjustable. Like, once you've got it, they can kind of like adjust how intense it is, or how much medicine so that I'm not completely numb, you know what I mean? Because that's what I didn't want. So I'll probably still feel some, but not as much. And that sounds good to me. But I'm really just gonna play it by ear. Really, I'm just going to see how it goes. Because I'm not tied to a particular idea. I just like I said, My priority is to not be freaking out. That would be great. I do plan on making a playlist, of course, for this stretch of labor, and I've got some people in my life that are helping to assemble that. And I just want something that's both peaceful and joyful. And then I once the baby's born amazing. The hospital policy is already what I would have asked for, which is immediate skin to skin. She's so nice. And they leave you alone for like an hour. That's awesome. You know, provided that everything is fine. And the baby's okay. And I do plan on breastfeeding. And so I'm going to use whatever resources or consultants or whatever, that's my at my disposal, so that I can just figure it out, see how it goes. And I had some people tell me, like, make sure like, they've got wipes, and they've got diapers, and we've got all this stuff for you. And for the baby at the hospital, take all of that. And I said you don't have to tell me twice, like I will. Free stuff. I can't control myself, sometimes. And so I will take up every bit of resources. But my Doula will be there, Josh will be there. Obviously, that's the plan and my mom, as well as his mom. So that's the core team there. And I think I'm gonna make like a what do they call it a phone tree, basically. So that my mom can maybe she'll update my sister and my sister can like reach out to my close friends or, or whatever, just so as updates happen, it's not up to me to tell people baby's born, you know. So this will be really interesting. Postpartum does see how close this plan are these preferences line up with what actually happens. I, at the end of the day, just want you know, healthy me healthy baby, I feel like that's pretty much the goal. And it never hurts to plan. So that's what I've done. But I'm really trying to be as go with the flow and like surrender to the process as I can be. Because that's not necessarily my nature, when it comes to something like this. So trying not to over plan, I have definitely entered that part of pregnancy, which it turns out is only like a month and a half where you're visibly pregnant to the whole world where like someone who doesn't know you at all can tell you're pregnant. And maybe that's that changes for different people and different pregnancies. But that's been the case for me. And so I'm in that part now where people on the street will congratulate me asked me when I'm due, and then tell me what to do. They'll give me their advice. And fortunately, I have, I guess prepared mentally for that. And I'm not fazed by, oh, make sure you do this or you know, oh, it's going to be like this. i It is a bummer to have a lot of people tell me over and over how difficult things are going to be. But I'm kind of it doesn't sink in which is great. I'm well aware that it's a challenge that I'm up for. And yeah, I'm up for it. I'm I'm ready for it. And I'm Fortunately no one has tried to touch my belly who doesn't know me and and like that's okay. But it's interesting, and I'm sure that that may continue over this last month. But overall, I have great, wonderful people in my life and so much support as I've said. So thank you for your Questions. And for your congratulations online and all of that. I'm really excited. I'm curious to see how these last few weeks of pregnancy play out whether I can wear shoes at the end of this or not. And I'm just really excited to meet this little girl, I feel her flipping around every day. And I can just watch my belly move just pretty crazy. And I just can't wait to see what she looks like and to hold her and you know all the things. So if you want to keep updated, if you would like to follow along, in the last few weeks, of course, you can find me over on Instagram, where I will be keeping people in the loop as to know still pregnant, still pregnant, and then when she's born. So I'll be right back with this week's little joy this week's little joy is the culmination of many different things, but basically is flowers between my birthday and two different baby showers, which all happened within about a week and a half. I received a lot of flowers. And my house has just been overflowing with fresh flowers. And so I've made little bouquets. I've separated them out into smaller vases and containers and have made some pretty arrangements and they're just all over the house. And it feels very Nancy Meyers. And it's approaching summertime, which is Nancy Meyers season in my book. So I'm really loving the touch that it brings to the whole house. And some of them have been really fragrant. And it's just been so special. I love flowers. I love that it's springtime, that I was able to have a baby shower in the springtime. Yeah, it's it's beautiful. And I am going to have some photos in the show notes for this episode of it was the day of my baby shower. Sarah, my sister took some maternity photos of me and some of me and Josh. And so you can get a little glimpse of that. I haven't had much of a plan for maternity photos. And so I just really liked these in a pretty dress in our beautiful backyard. Just feeling very natural. And so yeah, just flowers and spring and baby, it's been my little joy. So I realized sometimes I don't always explain what is the little joy. So if you're kind of new to this podcast, it's just where I share something small that has been affecting my everyday life with just a little bit of joy. And so at this point, I invite you to contemplate your home, your life, the things around you, and pinpoint something that is joyful for you. Because there are so many things, and sometimes we overlook them. And so feel free to share with me if you'd like to comment on the blog post or share with a friend or just hold it in your heart, your little joy for this week. And I'm also going to leave you with an album of music really, I've just been listening to that same Jacob Collier album that I I shared a couple of weeks ago. But as I've been contemplating this playlist for labor, my mind keeps going back to probably the most peaceful slash joyful album that I can think of, which is in between dreams by Jack Johnson. That's the one with the yellow cover and the little silhouette of the tree. It's It's iconic, it's been around a long time. It's one of the best albums, it's one of my favorites, like hands down. But if you need something to just chill out, too, especially as the weather warms up like it's ideal. So I know I'm going to be listening to that in these last few weeks of pregnancy, and it'll probably make its way onto my playlist. So I'm gonna leave a link to that in the show notes as well. And like I said, I'm gonna have links to my registries, if those are useful for making your own. And I've got some photos from a little maternity shoot and stuff like that. So thank you so much for listening. I've got one more episode, the season finale of season two next week or not next week in two weeks. At that point, I will be done with my school year. Oh, yes, I will. Okay, maybe not when it's recorded, but at least when it's published. And I'm actually going to have a very special guest on for season four. So you're not going to want to miss it. And until Till then I hope that you have a beautiful month of May that you have lots of iced matcha on me and and I wish you will. I'll be back in two weeks with the life on the brink season four finale thank you for tuning in to this episode of Life on the brink. If you're enjoying these episodes, please feel free to leave a star rating or even better leave a review on Apple podcasts to help spread the word. For podcast show notes and extra inspirational posts throughout the week. Head to the blog at life on the brink dot live. And if you'd like a little extra dose of inspiration in your life, sign up for the monthly newsletter, which lights up your inbox the first Friday of each month. Thank you so much for listening. And until next time, friends you have a lovely week. Bye