While I was pregnant with Emery, I remember one of the nurses asking me how I was feeling during a prenatal appointment. I was nearing the end of my pregnancy and hadn't been sleeping very well because of my bulging belly and the need to pee every five minutes, and responded that I was a little tired but otherwise fine. The nurse laughed and then made the comment that motherhood could make anyone tired, and that she personally didn't start drinking coffee until after she had kids - at which point a daily cup became a necessity. I remember chuckling at what I thought was a little coffee joke; it took me until three days after Emery being born to realize that the joke was really on me, and that any form of fatigue that I'd experienced during pregnancy was nothing compared to the perma-tired that motherhood would continue to bring me on a daily basis thereafter.

When Emery was a newborn I was SO tired ALL the time. I had gone about 36 hours without any sleep once she was born because of the timing of my labor, and then after that only managed two to three hours of sleep a night for her first three weeks of life because I was so worried about something bad happening to her while I slept. Extreme sleep deprivation didn't help my paranoia, and I found myself deeply consumed with mom guilt. I didn't understand why I didn't have that new mom glow and energy that I had read about in all of my natural birthing books, and found myself constantly second guessing my ability to properly mother my child. I was beyond tired, felt like a failure, and worse than anything felt completely alone in my feelings because all of the other moms around me in my friend group and on social media seemed to have their lives together perfectly and I was the only one falling behind. 

Now that Emery is older and we're both getting more sleep, things are better, but I still have times that I just feel tired and can't seem to figure out why, and then I remember that sweet nurse, laugh, and remember that it's because I'm a mom, and that's just one of the perks that comes along with the job.

It's taken me a long time to get up enough courage to write about this topic because learning how to conquer my own mom guilt & fatigue is a battle that I'm still fighting, but I know that there's got to be other moms out there that are fighting their own guilt demons too, and if you're one of those moms reading this then I want you to know that you're not definitely not alone, and that you're doing better than you think. One of the things that helped me the most in breaking through my mom guilt was to realize that it's OK for life to sometimes not be ok. Motherhood is messy, and regardless of what social media wants to make us think, no one has perfect children or a perfect house or a perfect life, because that just doesn't exist. Once I was able to break through that mindset it made me feel more comfortable talking to Kyle and friends about how I was feeling, and I found that instead of feeling alone, I was able to feel like I had a support group of an amazing husband and mamas that could help me through my hard days and congratulate me on my good ones. I learned that it was not only ok but necessary to take time for myself and for my marriage, and that my support group would help make that happen because they all need it in their lives too. There are still days and sometimes even weeks that I'll feel tired (thus the timing of this post), but that's ok and doesn't mean that I'm a bad mom, just a mom that needs a good night's rest, some "me" time, or maybe even a cup of coffee. 😉

Some days when I'm feeling especially overwhelmed, Emery will walk up to me out of the blue like a heaven sent angel and give me a big hug, and in that moment it helps me to remember that everything is ok and that despite the challenges that motherhood brings, that the experience is overwhelmingly more good than bad. If you're reading this and need it, consider this message a huge from me (and Emery) to you, and know that you're an amazing woman and mother. Even when it's hard to tell, your kids love you, you mama tribe loves you, and amongst the craziness of motherhood, always remember that we're all in this together. ❤️

(a final note) : if your mom guilt battle goes deeper to the level of postpartum depression or anxiety, you're still not alone and it is a battle possible to overcome. ❤️ Below are some resources to help, and adding your OB doctor to your support group is a must. They deal with PPD/PPA more than you'd think, and their help really can make a world of difference. 

• Signs of postpartum depression and/or anxiety
• Finding local support groups for PPD/PPA
• Natural ways to help PPD/PPA (in addition to talking to your doctor)

(This post has been sponsored by the Baby Cubby. As always, all opinions are 100% my own.)

So my baby is almost a whole six months old, and it's making me incredibly nostalgic. I remember this time last year Kyle and I were just starting to announce to our family and loved ones that we were expecting, and now we've got a spunky little girl about to celebrate her first Christmas. It was also around this same time last year that I started deep into what Kyle referred to as a "perpetual nesting" period that involved extensive research and countless hours on the internet scrounging for the best baby products and trying to figure out exactly what I would need to make my baby as happy as possible, and to make my transition into life as a new mom as seamless as I could. I was flooded with a million different options on everything from carseats to pacifiers, and found myself a little overwhelmed at picking what would actually be the best option for our little family. It was also around that same time that I found and fell in love with the Baby Cubby. The Baby Cubby is a baby store based out of Utah that seriously saved me from intense amounts of stress as an expecting mama out in Kentucky! Fitting them in the "store" category is only really applicable to them because they offer products for purchase, but the way that they run their business goes so much further than that of your typical baby supply store. Their team is made up of parents who have all been in that stressed "new parent" stage of life, and they've made it their mission to make the transition into parenthood as easy as possible. They are very careful with which products they will choose to offer in their store and will only sell products that they truly feel are the best and safest products for their babies and yours, and even have a section on their website called "Cubby Picks"  so that you can get a feel for what the tried and true favorite baby products are that are out there! They also offer free shipping on any order over $49 (anyone that's shopped for a baby before will know this is a REALLY easy price mark to hit) AND they price match with any company out there including Amazon! In addition to making their store and website as shopping friendly as possible, they also have an amazing community available to anyone on their Cubby Community Blog  to help offer answers to  parenting/baby questions and support to any parents in need! The Baby Cubby helped me with making so many of my decisions when picking out baby gear, and I'm SO excited to be able to work with them to hopefully be able to help some of my mama friends along on their baby-gear buying journey!  So without any further ado, here are a few of my absolute FAVORITE baby gear items that I have personally found to be must-haves for me and my baby!
(Links to products are included on each picture)

I hope that this list is able to help anyone out there trying to decide what to buy for your soon to be baby! For me, a lot of these items weren't things that I really thought I would need until I was actually in the middle of momming and realizing that a lot of these items were things that I couldn't live without! I will admit that I overbought in my pursuit of being prepared, but now have had some time of actually using (or not using) all of the baby gear that I bought to find out what I personally need to take care of Emery. With her half-birthday quickly approaching, I thought it would be the perfect time to reflect on my experience of trying to prepare for a baby, and of course try and share what insights I have so that if there's any sweet expecting mamas out there that are as stressed as I was about preparing for a baby, that this post will hopefully let you know that you're definitely not alone and that there is an easier way. ;D ​Is there anything that I missed that you'd add onto this list? I'm learning lots every day but as Emery gets older still feel like I'm learning new things and I'd love to hear all of your thoughts and opinions on what works well for you and your baby! Thanks so much for reading! 

My natural birth was nothing like I expected it to be, but is easily the most rewarding, wonderful experience I've had up to this point in my life. It was the hardest, most intense challenge I've gone through in my 26 years of living, but ties with my wedding day now with the amount of happiness and joy felt when we were able to meet our precious little girl. To sum up the basics of the experience, on the night of Friday, June 24th I started having really small contractions; nothing painful, but I could feel the sensations and knew it was slightly different than anything I'd felt up to that point. Around 1 AM on Saturday, June 25th my water broke, by 2 AM we were at the hospital, and after about 7 hours of active labor (11ish hours of total labor) our perfect little Emery Rose Pett made her appearance, weighing in at 7 pounds 10 ounces and measuring at 19 inches long. As far as details of the actual labor go, I don't have too many to share. When my water broke it had meconium in it, so when I got to the hospital the main concern and priority was to get Emery born as naturally but as quickly as possible to make sure she hadn't swallowed anything she shouldn't have and would be healthy once she was born. Because of that I was put on an IV, constant monitoring, and pitocin to speed up my labor process, but was able to still move around and give birth without the help of an epidural or any sort of pain medication. Reflecting back on the experience, it's crazy to me how even though I can remember small, influential moments here and there, that the overall process of labor somewhat blended together into this somewhat surreal experience. At almost two weeks postpartum I worry that if I don't take some time to reflect and write down some thoughts from the birth experience that I might forget more than I want to, so while my sweet little girl sleeps, I take a break from the craziness of life to sit down, think, and write a few of my main take aways from the overall experience of giving birth to my first child. Some of the memories are too special and close to my heart to be shared on the internet (although they are still written down somewhere more personal), but I hope that any and all reading can enjoy or gain something from sharing in the rest with me. 

1. In an experience like childbirth, you have to be willing to adapt and not be afraid when things don't go quite as expected. When I first found out that I was going to need pitocin I felt pretty nervous because I had read and heard that it makes contractions so much more painful and makes them happen more often, but I really didn't want it taking away from my experience. My way of coping with it was to simply ignore the fact that the pitocin was there. I figured if I just put it in my mind that contractions were contractions and nothing else and that each one was getting me closer to meeting my baby, then how the contractions came about was completely irrelevant to the situation. This was just one example of several things that didn't go quite as planned, but in the end everything worked out well and didn't require any stress.
2.   Contractions hurt like HELL. Anyone that tells you differently needs to share their secrets about how they were able to avoid the pain. This is obviously just my personal opinion, but the fact of the matter is that it was extremely painful, like easily the hardest, most intense pain I've experienced up to this point in my life. I don't put this down to scare or make anyone nervous because it's obviously still possible to give birth to a child without any sort of pain medication, but I feel like a lot of the books I read to help me prepare (specifically those on hypnobirthing) made it seem like a pain-free birth could totally be expected if I was able to stay in the hypnosis. Although the relaxation/hypnobirthing techniques did help me manage the pain significantly, the pain was still definitely present. 
3. Love & use your support team to the fullest. I can honestly say that one of the main reasons I was able to give birth without any sort of pain medication was because of the support of Kyle and my parents. My original plan had been to only have Kyle and I in the labor & delivery room, but I honestly am so glad that I threw that idea out the window because while in the experience I needed all of them at one point or another to get through it. When I cried that I wasn't sure I could do it, I had my mom & Kyle telling me that I could and that I was almost done, and when my contractions got strong enough where it was almost impossible to relax through them, I can specifically remember hearing my mother's voice telling me exactly how to relax, and feeling Kyle's hand on my head and shoulder helping me through each surge. They all stayed up the entire night with me so that I was never alone, and for me personally it literally made all of the difference. 
4. Don't stress about embarrassing yourself, because in the moment of everything, it seriously doesn't matter. As I said before, the details of my labor were fuzzy and I honestly have no idea how I looked, sounded, or came across to those who saw me while in labor. I hear of a lot of women stressing about different things in labor that might come across as ugly or gross, and I'm here to tell you that in the middle of everything going on feeling pretty or put together should be the last thing that needs to be stressed over. While in labor I cried when I needed to cry, had help going to the bathroom because it was hard to stand during contractions, and even threw up once (which was the one thing that I did stress about leading up to labor, I REALLY hate vomiting). Although it makes me blush a little bit now typing about the yuck stuff during labor, I'm really glad that I didn't get myself worked up over it during the actual experience, because it helped me focus on what really mattered most, which leads me to my last and in my opinion most important take away...
5. When things get really hard (and they will), remember your main motivation in doing what you're doing. One of my good friends upon hearing that I got put on pitocin replied with "well shoot, then you had to get the epidural then right?" and then was surprised when I told her no. After hearing so many stories of first time moms that attempted a natural birth but eventually agreed to pain medication, I had to admit that I was almost as surprised with myself as my friend in retrospect because despite how hard my labor actually felt, the thought of asking for pain medication didn't once cross my mind. The only thing that I can attribute this to is that my primary motivation for wanting an unmedicated birth was because I felt like it was the safest and best option for myself and my daughter. I hold absolutely nothing against any mother that chooses a medicated birth and think that all mothers are amazing just for birthing their children, but in all my reading and research I came to a deeply rooted belief that giving birth is a natural process, and that if I interfered with the process as little as I could (given that my baby was safe) that things would work out well. I know that this belief helped get me through labor because there were countless times during the process when things got hard that my daughter's name would pop into my mind and I would think to myself, "This is all for her." and that would make all the difference. 

I'm so grateful for the opportunity that I've been given to carry, birth, and now parent this beautiful little girl. She has already blessed our lives in so many ways and has brought us happiness that we never knew existed until now. 

Here's to the new adventure of parenthood. 
Lots of Love {Kyle, Chelsea & Emery Rose Pett}

With our move coming up in just a few short weeks I hesitated as to whether or not to post pictures of her nursery in this specific house since the chances of her actually using this room are pretty much non-existent, but with how much time and work I put into getting it all put together I couldn't help but share the results! Not to mention when we do move I have a feeling it might take me a little bit of time to get everything reset up (having a new baby AND having to unpack an entire house just seems like a tiny bit of an overwhelming project) and at 38 weeks pregnant and having literally everything prepared and ready to go for when she gets here (I have a serious problem with being overly prepared for EVERYTHING) I had the free time on my hands and figured why not share the fun. :D

When trying to decide what to do for the nursery, I had a few personal requirements that I knew I wanted once all was said and done that helped with picking out furniture & decor. I knew that 1) I didn't want any sort of character/cartoon theme (these can be adorable if done well but just aren't my personal style), 2) I wanted the basic pieces of the room to be gender neutral enough so that if any of our future babies happened to be a boy we wouldn't have to be starting completely from scratch again, and 3) Given that we live in an apartment and her room is fairly small, I wanted to make sure that the decor helped the room appear bright and spacious so that neither she or I would ever feel cramped or claustrophobic in it, especially as she grew and we started to introduce more toys, etc. into the space! With all of that in mind I decided that the best option for the nursery would be to stick with bright whites and neutral colors for all of the bigger furniture type of items, and then for the decor I just threw in bright sprinkles of color here and there to make the room fun! Every time someone asked me what I was doing as the theme for her nursery I had the hardest time describing it because "sprinkles of rainbow here and there" just doesn't really do justice to what I was actually envisioning, but hopefully with the above description and the actual pictures you can all get a decent idea of what we were trying for! 

Putting together this nursery was SUCH a fun project that kept me pretty busy during my second trimester! I love the challenge of working on a budget and in a small space but still being able to create something that looks and feels really nice! It was so much fun searching around for all the right prints and details and even adding in a few of my own little creations here and there! (Be sure to click on the links listed if interested as to where anything came from!)

My biggest hopes for this nursery is that it can be a place for our baby girl where she is able to enjoy learning and growing. Kyle and I have reflected a million times on what traits of ours we'd love to see passed down to our daughter, and the answers are generally the same; Kyle prays that she'll get his passion for education and knowledge, and I hope that she'll get some of my creativity and zest for people and life. Hopefully once she's here the space that we've put together for her will help to encourage both of those traits, and as parents we'll of course do all that we can to raise her in the best paths and ways that we know how! I know I've said it a million times, but we are just so excited to meet our sweet little girl and start on this new adventure! It's coming up soon and we're ecstatic to officially begin the journey! 

Lots of Love! { Kyle & Chelsea Pett }

How far along? 36 weeks, 3 days (in this picture at least). The funny thing about these last few weeks is that they seem to slip by incredibly quickly, so by the time I'm done writing this post and people are actually reading it I'll most likely be closer to 36 weeks + 5 or 6 days. Sleep? Fairly non-existent. Turns out that when you have to wake up twice a night to go to the bathroom and every time you turn over because of your belly size it's hard to feel well rested. I guess this can only be considered practice for what's to come though so I won't complain too much. ;) Food Cravings? Cold water and popsicles. I don't know if this is because the weather has gotten really hot recently or if it's just because my stomach is so squished that it doesn't have room for much else, but it keeps me well hydrated and keeps the heartburn under control so I'll take it! Current Pregnancy Project? This is something I haven't had too much time for in the past month or so. Kyle and I found out about a month ago that we would be moving (still in Louisville just a different area) right around the same time that baby girl is born, so between nannying for me and school for Kyle, all of our free time and attention has been dedicated to trying to figure out where we were going to be living in the next couple of months. We've finally gotten that matter settled though, and my last day of nannying was this past week, so now I can spend the next few weeks tying up loose ends to get everything ready for baby girl. I've got a pretty long laundry list of things to get done, and will probably take some time to reflect and write about which ones I actually found useful once all is said and done. Funny Pregnancy Moment?  I had someone make the assumption that I was pregnant with twins. I'm pretty sure in every article that exists out there about what not to say to a pregnant woman this phrase makes the list, but I couldn't even be offended because the woman that made the assumption was just so sweet and I know had the best of intentions in her comments. I've pretty much carried pregnancy entirely in my belly, and the further along I get the more that belly of mine sticks out. I get comments on it almost everywhere I go, and just have to smile at them because it's all part of this fun pregnancy adventure! Best pregnancy moment so far? Since the last bump update, my favorite pregnancy moment/adventure would have to be the sweet staycation baby-moon that Kyle put together for us. There's a whole blog post about this for those who want to read/see more from it, but it was such a fun experience for us to be able to have an exciting "get away" type of adventure with just the two of us that still felt somewhat like our very first vacation/trip as a family of three. It just made me feel even more excited for when she's here on the outside and the adventures we'll have. :) Last minute pregnancy thoughts? It's so surreal to me to think that this will most likely be my last bump update before we meet our precious little girl. These past several months have literally flown by, and it feels like yesterday that Kyle and I were in the ER confirming that the positive pregnancy test that I had taken actually meant that we would be blessed with a real, healthy baby. I feel like these next few weeks will be some of the longest and shortest weeks of our lives if that's even possible, and I find my mind constantly consumed with wanting to make sure that I have everything ready to go so that if baby girl decides to make her appearance early we'll be ready for her. These past few weeks especially I feel like her movements inside of me have felt much more baby like, and it's almost like I can imagine my sweet little girl softly kicking her arms and legs inside of my belly much like an infant would do while laying down on a blanket. Knowing that we'll be meeting our girl in such a short period of time fills me with the best feeling of excitement, but I will forever cherish this special time that I've been able to be pregnant and experience that oh so special bond with my daughter that only exists for those short nine months that we share the same space. I feel overwhelmed with love and gratitude for my sweet husband and for our family and dear friends that have shown us so much love and support throughout this journey. This sweet little girl already has so many people that love her so dearly, and I know that once she's here the love can only continue to grow! The best truly is yet to come, and I am so looking forward to all of the love and adventures ahead. :)

Even though this will be my last official bump update, we'll still definitely be sure to keep everyone updated about what we're filling up life with before baby girl gets here! Life is simply too wonderful to not keep documented.

​Lots of Love! { Kyle, Chelsea & Baby Girl Pett }