Happy Monday, loves! Tomorrow marks my 24-week mark, which means this little babe is SIX months in the making. Pregnancy continues proving to be beautiful, emotional and miraculous. I feel all the feelings — the good, the bad and the ugly. But ultimately, it’s the kicks that make my entire being fill with crazy amounts of gratefulness.

Here’s how things are changing, six months in…

On my EMOTIONS… I continue to cry over everything from a Toyota car commercial to kissing Jake goodbye for a single day of work. I’ve also admittedly cried and cussed over silly things, like forgetting my face wash on a trip and not being able to get a pair of pants over my bum for. the. life. of. me. I only wear waterproof mascara now.

On my BODY… Well, everything is changing. The obvious change is the booming belly (which I love), because it makes this process feel a lot more real. The not-so-sweet changes include a growing-everything — bum, legs, back, you name it — and a few extra lumps in a few extra places. Still, I feel beautiful and confident and liberated.

What’s surprised me most is everyone’s opinion on how ‘big’ or ‘small’ I look. I have received every comment from, “you’re barely showing,” to… “you’re already so big, I thought you were due a lot sooner!” The opinions had me googling photos of pregnant women at the same point as me. That’s SILLY, because in the same way we all have different bodies un-pregnant, we’re all going to have different bodies pregnant. My biggest piece of advice for mamas-to-be is to solely focus on the health and well-being of your OWN body, rather than wondering if you’re growing too slowly or too quickly.

On my RELATIONSHIP… The most obvious change has been our shift in conversation. We talk about the baby a lot, so we have to remind ourselves to ask each other about life outside the pregnancy. It’s equally as important, and I don’t want to lose that sense of attentiveness we’ve always had for one another.

Jake is a rockstar dad-to-be, and he spends a lot of time with his hand on my belly, feeling the babe kick like crazy. It’s a really beautiful routine we share now, and every time I say a prayer thanking God for this beautiful life he’s given me. I try to soak in the happiness.

On the PLANNING… We’ve done ZERO planning. We have no gender, no names picked, no nursery going, no stroller chosen, no organic crib ordered (that’s a real thing, by the way). We haven’t signed up for classes or decided on a ‘birth plan.’ The funny part is I am a planner in life. But I’m taking the ‘ignorance is bliss’ approach, and indulging in the pregnancy over the plans. Standby for whether this was the right decision… 😉 

On the DIET + WORKOUT… I don’t crave fast food or chocolate sundaes or root beer floats (yet). But I do enjoy eating everything I craved as a kid (namely, pasta and more pasta). I have also wanted a strange amount of vegetables lately. I assume my body is making up for the lack of kale I could consume during the first few months.

I continue to workout with my trainer 3 days a week. The routine helps my headaches and boosts my energy on days I don’t feel well. I stick to lunges, side planks, and light arm workouts. I still enjoy running, but slowed it down to 5.5 for a couple of miles. If my body is too weak for that, I’ll speed walk on an incline for 30-minutes.

On the FASHION… Lookout for upcoming posts on this in the new year. After walking around in leggings or unbuttoned pants for several months, I finally bought maternity jeans. Oh my heavens, they’re everything! Why I suffered for so long, I’ll never know.