To Life in 2018

Happy New Year. It's been 2018 for 20 minutes in Utah (where hubs and I are staying with his parents over the holidays).

2017 was a year with a lot of ups and downs in general but mostly ups for the two of us. We are about to welcome our first baby into the world in two months (!!). We found out I was pregnant after an epic 4th of July trip to Canada this year where Nick made me hike several long, treacherous hikes, including one 10-miler over a glacier and an avalanche. I was so tired! Like, unusually more tired not just because we were doing a lot of outdoorsy things we definitely do not ever do. At one point, right before we hiked straight up the mountain where an avalanche had covered the trail, I got nauseated. I thought I was just nervous. Nope! I even turned to Nick and said I thought I might be pregnant. "You're not pregnant," he assured me. A pee stick when we got home proved him wrong. Well, now here I am a little over seven months into the journey.

I spent the summer exhausted and eating basically nothing (only threw up once, though!). By about October I found my energy and appetite had returned mostly and we took one last hurrah to Spain before our lives change forever; first to the island of Mallorca where we seemed to be the only Americans among a sea of old German tourists and then onward to Barcelona, a small baby bump in tow. It took us 19 hours and three plane rides to get there (on miles, of course). Not recommended for a pregnant person's tailbone btw.

Towards the end of this year Nick finally got a well-deserved promotion and just in time as we are building out our life for our little, growing family. His title is fancy and I have no idea what "Associate creative director" means but it sounds good.

Work for me has not changed much other than I've scaled back on travel and video appearances a bit to deal with nausea, exhaustion and to lower my stress. I plan to work this next year up until I go into labor - though it's tempting to check out a little earlier just because I'm so tired all the time (but that would be taking time away from being with my brand new baby, of course). Thanking the stars AOL/Oath/Verizon parent company has a great maternity policy.

I was told the third trimester is tough. I thought other people were exaggerating until this last week. Suddenly I run out of breath and it seems like I'm climbing Mt. Everest just to get up the stairs. Also, I pee like 10 times a day and maybe three or four times in the night. I toss and turn when I try to sleep because my hips hurt and I'm not allowed to sleep on my back at this stage.

Oh, and the GAS! Tonight at midnight I announced to my husband it was now the new year and just then let out a fart. I couldn't stop it. It just happened at that moment. To lighten the mood I asked if he wanted a kiss, haha. He did anyway because New Year's. I have the best husband. He loves me at my grossest.

This next year will bring a lot of change into our lives and I'm not sure what all of that means but I'm both excited and terrified. I have always wanted to be a mom and finally get to be one. However, now that I am staring birth in the face I'm starting to see how annoying children are and how hard it is. It's funny because I love children and babies...but I didn't think about all the rough parts before this moment. I just shrugged and thought 'eh, it seems like everyone says it's worth it.' Then bam! Here I am peering into my future and not just the labor part scares me but the keeping them alive and them not appreciating it part also weights on my mind. Still, every parent I know says it's the best thing.

I feel so good about this baby, too. He's active and kicks and flips around often. He has a strong heart and seems very healthy so far. We're expecting him to show up sometime close to the first week of March. I have a hospital and midwife picked out and am now trying to mentally prepare myself to squeeze something 6-8 lbs through my vagina, just like billions of women throughout history have done before me.

I'm told 2018 is a magical year. It's the year of the dog if you consider the Chinese horoscope and 18 is a lucky number in Judaism. It means "life." It's fitting considering after all this time working on my own life I am finally bringing another life into this world in this new year.