Peach.

Here is my 13 week picture, baby is the size of a peach here! I've never been pregnant before so I don't know if my bump is big or small, but it's definetly growing. Most of the time it barely shows unless I've just eaten, then it seems like it's huge. Please disregard my black bra. I've gone up a few cup sizes and this was the one and only bra I could find at Target in my size...seriously. It was on clearance for $2.48 and I'm quite certain it's because no one is either a) this size for long b) they are discontinuing this size because it's just ridiculous or c) women with this size bust probably don't shop at Target...they've moved on to specialty stores! Can you tell my sarcasm is helping me cope with these new changes?! Oh and remember how I posted last week about feeling great this pregnancy? hah. I think I was dreaming. Last week was a nightmare for me, and well...let's just say it was a huge accomplishment if I kept any meals down. This week has been better. Take a look at our little bean!

Baby daddy is slaving away painting the nursery as we speak, hooray! About half of the room is painted and it is really coming together. Last week my Dad ordered us a super rocker that already came in, so Jay put that together and it is fabulous! I've been working hard at being excellent moral support...so glad I have a handy hubby ;)
We also found our pack n' play! It's in the Little Hoot collection and matches our adorable highchair. It was on clearance from $120 down to $59, score! It was the only one we could find that had a mobile, and we loved that. We also purchased some baby clothing items, we found a few packs of 3 play n' sleeps and long sleeves onesies for $1.48. Target is having an awesome clearance!
Krysten asked if we were actively trying to get pregnant and yes, we were. We were actively secretly trying...I think only 1-2 people in the world knew, and neither of them were family. We both wanted our families to be totally surprised! Any other questions, ask away :)

Well I'm off to bed. Just had a great talk with a sweet friend tonight...Life is good. Goodnight friends!

All we need is love.

"No we don't have a lot of money, no we don't have a lot of money, all we need is love"-great song by the Zac Brown Band, and one that always seems relatable.

We are working so very hard to pay Jay's student loans down before the baby gets here. We know realisticly {and obviously} they won't be paid off, but we're trying to get the monthly payment to a more manageable amount-especially before adding monthly baby expenses. It's very hard, and every extra dime goes towards wells fargo. I'm so grateful at this time for my photography business, and I know the extra work I'm struggling to put in now will pay off later. But, with that being said.....we couldn't be happier....we couldn't be more blessed, and we still feel very lucky. But that also means everything will be done on a budget, starting with the nursery.

I'm really not a fan of pink + purple for girls, and blue + red for boys. I have more of an eclectic, organic taste and because of that we decided to do a gender neutral nursery. I'm also not a fan of themed nurseries. I think they are cheesy. Anyways, that means that we were able to start brainstorming right away, instead of waiting to find out the sex. I've been waiting and watching and we've scoured a few things off of craigslist for dirt cheap, and we already purchased our crib because it was being discontinued. I feel like our timing has been really good because we've gotten everything on clearance.

Just today we got this at Target for $39 marked down from $80. Yes, I realize it's blue and brown so it's not necessarily gender neutral but I don't care, I think it's adorable. And it has owls on it, my very favorite. I would have no problem using this should our baby be a little girl. I was super pumped. I love it because it's sturdy but has an option to fold up if we want to put it away. All the fabric is removable and washable and the tray can be taken off and put in the dishwasher if needed {wow I realize I'm such a mom with this post!} And the best part? I asked my Dad to come along to help me carry it to the car and he purchased it for us!!!! Even better.

The nice thing is that we have 6 more months to keep watching for sales and clearances on the things we need so that we won't have to pay full price for many items. You really don't realize just how many things you need to get to prepare for a baby! We are excited none the less, and we'll just keep working hard at stretching our money as far as we can.

I feel the need to put a disclaimer on this post: this blog is acting as my scrapbook, as I have no time or money to scrapbook anymore...so I'll be posting a lot so that we can remember everything. That means there maybe be multiple daily posts and silly updates that no one but us will really excited about. Oh well, such is life, right? Thanks for sticking with me this far!

**update** we opened the highchair when I got home so we could look at it together and it's definitely a teal/greenish blue instead of a baby blue like it looks in the picture, so it seems more neutral to us and we loooove the color. Score!

Questions

Here are some pretty common questions we've been getting:

When are you due? My estimated due date is February 5th.

Will you find out the sex? definitely. We can't freakin' wait. A few more weeks!!!

Do you have names picked out? Haha. No. I laugh because we don't agree on many. We actually talked about names a lot more before we knew we were expecting, and it hasn't come up too much since then. I think we'll wait until we find out the sex and then decide, making it much easier to agree on one gender specific name!

How have you been feeling? Overall, I feel great. I have had a few times where I've gotten sick but it was my own fault. It's hard for me to continually eat when I'm not hungry. I have never once woken up to 'morning sickness' or been sick for no reason. Praise God! I went through 2 weeks where I was really very tired but it didn't last long and was manageable. Here and there if I push it too hard I'm pretty tired but nothing we can't handle!

Is your husband excited? This one makes me giggle. It's like the go-to second question after asking how I'm feeling, and I know people just want to know what he thinks-but it sometimes sounds funny, of course he's excited! I think I hear "I can't wait to have a baby with you" every single day.

Any crazy cravings? Today was the first day I really craved something, besides that nothing. I have major food aversions and have a lot of trouble finding things I want to eat (this is very difficult when you need to stay full all day every day). Mostly it's been fruit. I have only gained one pound so far, and I'm quite certain it's all in my chest!

How big is the baby? Right now it's about the size of a plum :)

If anyone is wondering something specific, please don't hesitate to ask! Last night we picked out the color for the nursery walls and went to Home Depot to make our purchase. I don't know when we'll be able to paint it, but I'm so excited that the paint is decided and bought and sitting in the room. Squeeeee!

My pregnancy

Here are the first pictures I've shared from my pregnancy. I started once we knew we were expecting but I'm missing a few, and I forgot to stand the same way each time. Oops! I am just starting to see a tiny little bump on my way to 13 weeks. Most of these pictures I took with a self timer because I usually take them in the morning before work and I don't want to wake Jay up, so they sort of suck. I need to do better. I think from now on we'll take them in the nursery where the lighting is better. We finally got our extra bed taken down and stored over at my Dad's house so now we can really work on the nursery! So excited. More on that later.

6 weeks

7 weeks

8 weeks

10 weeks

11 weeks (I took this after lunch so my belly was puffed out, you'll see my next week picture is smaller than this!)

11 weeks close up

12 weeks (and a sneak peek at our crib!)

Overjoyed.

We are having a baby!

Yep, there's a bun in my oven. I tried to think of a clever and witty idea to unveil our secret, and then I just decided that the news itself is the best thing I could ever share. This is why I've taken such a long hiatus-it's impossible to blog about everyday life when it's one big secret!! But I am entering the second trimester and am back in action. We are so excited to share what's been going on with our family.

We are completely overjoyed and feel so, so blessed. I'm exhausted right now so I'll share more tomorrow. I planned on a long detailed post with pictures, but one of the many joys of my pregnancy is sudden periods of intense exhaustion. You learn to go with the flow very quickly ;) More to come tomorrow.

Blessings to you all on this special night.

Love,

Abbey, Jay and Baby Feldkamp.

Home sweet home.

We're back!!!!!!

I have a busy day at work but will post lots of updates later complete with photos + a new blog look!! {hopefully tonight}

So exciting!

Au revoir!

I am yours, You are mine.

[engravings on our wedding bands]

Our Anniversary was nothing short of amazing.

And now we are preparing to jetset to Paris + explore France.

Where we'll continue our celebration + start new adventures...

au revoir minnesota, bonjour paris!