20 week survey

How far along? 20 weeks, 5 days

Maternity clothes? Still not completely necessary. I mean, my pants are miles apart and I couldn't zip or button them if I even wanted to, but the maternity pants are just a little too big.

Stretch marks? Not yet, although my belly has been itching like crazy this week!

Sleep: sleep has really started becoming tough. Laying on my back is hurting and pinches some kind of nerve, so I have to be on my side and that starts hurting after a while too. My back isn't made for this...and to think, it has to endure SO much more.


Best moment this week: You know, we had a bunch of amazing baby moments...but one completely kicked the others butt. Yesterday morning, our active Liliana was kicking like crazy and I lifted up my shirt, and BOOM Evan and I saw my stomach move and saw her move!! Most people don't start seeing this for at least another three weeks, but we're just lucky and our girl is just so strong. It was awesome. A few hours later, we both commented on how we hadn't stopped thinking about it. It just felt so real. She really is in there and will be blessing our lives in less than 5 months (but hopefully, not much shorter than that).

Movement: Look above...the girl is goin crazy! It's a blast to feel her move so much. Evan's really enjoyed finally being able to feel her kick for real.

Food cravings: I had some pineapple and couldn't stop eating it the other day. Too bad pineapple ain't cheap.

Gender: Liliana Rose Lacefield - a girl. We're so proud: Liliana isn't in the top 50 most popular names of 2009. It was top 100, but I kinda like that. She has a unique name, but not so darn weird that nobody has ever heard of it. It's perfect.

Labor Signs: nada. Apparently I can start having these things called brandon hicks contractions any week now, but I'd be happy without those too.

Belly Button in or out? Innie, but each week it makes more of an outie transition. It's cute to see.

What I miss: I miss not being some definite clothing size. For the last week and probably for the next week or so, I really don't fit in to regular clothes but am still too small for maternity clothes. While the bella band is amazing, it still shifts around all the time and I have to fix it at least every couple hours. I just want to wear something and have it fit me. If it wasn't so cold out, I'd be in dresses much more often because I can wear maternity or regular dresses, but somehow, 10 degree weather doesn't make dresses seem very appealing.

What I am looking forward to: I have another maternity appointment this week. It's always fun to hear the heartbeat and have the doctor tell me everything is picture perfect, so hopefully that's exactly what we'll hear.

Weekly Wisdom: If you're really busy as Evan and I are, start your nursery work EARLY!! Neither one of us have time on the weekdays to work on the nursery and only have time every few weekends, so we know this process will take time. Fortunately, this weekend gave us lots of time to do nursery work, and boy did we take advantage of it. We painted the walls (after having to go back to walmart and repaint a wall because we hated the original color we got), got new curtains (after having to go to Target and return the original ones we bought at Walmart), etc. etc. It just takes time...but it's all worth it.

Milestones: Two milestones this week: seeing her move AND we bought my graduation dress! I got it at motherhood maternity and it's simple and cute. Plus, it was $34 bucks...for my graduation dress, I consider that a good deal. I was terrified I wasn't going to be able to find one. Now, I just have to make it to graduation...

Being on a Law Journal

Two summers ago, I got awesome news as a law student: I had been selected to be a member of the Texas Tech Administrative Law Journal. If you are a law student and wondering whether you'd like to do all the work to try and get on a journal, I highly recommend doing it. At Tech, the way we do it is with a tri-journal write-on competition. We have three journals at the law school: Law Review, Administrative Law Journal, and Estate Planning Journal. Right after taking your last final first year of law school, you go pick up the most daunting packet you've ever seen and spend the next two weeks working full time editing two papers and writing a case note. It was pretty horrible finishing the first year and going straight to working hard for two weeks, but it was all worth it when I got the email saying "congratulations."

Immediately, once your second year starts, the journal puts you to work. You do an editing assignment once a week and eventually add a page proof (editing with a partner) too. This can start taking quite a few hours each week and is stressful, but very rewarding. I really enjoyed seeing our published book and seeing all the work we had done. Shortly after I started my second year of law school, I decided I wanted to be on the board of editors, so I tried my best to get great grades on each weekly assignment, getting to know that years board, and making it to each event our journal sponsored.

Fortunately, I was lucky enough to get chosen to be on the board after my interview with last years board. This year, I served as the professional development chair. This means that I help with organizing a fundraiser, interview our current second years and prepare them for On-campus interviews (a whole blog topic in itself), and review resumes whenever they ask. You can say I've become quite a interview and resume expert, but that's helped me a lot with my own life, so I can't complain! Alongside those duties, we meet once a week for an hourly meeting and also read ALL the editing exercises turned in by the first years when they do their write-on competition.

Last week, another big duty came about. Eight of our 20 staff editors get chosen to be published in our journal. Therefore, I had to read all 600 pages and then we got together as a board for nearly two hours and discussed their comments (papers). I'm really happy with what we chose. The topics range from CPS, to property taxes, texting while driving laws, wind law, and insurance reform.

Shortly after we made the decision, we got an email that school was canceled because of snow and ice on the roads...yay, a day off! Then this morning, after I woke up, I got another call...school and work at the law office was canceled AGAIN! This time though, the roads really are quite icy. Therefore, we've stayed in and worked on the nursery for HOURS...but I'll definitely do a "nursery decor" posting one day.
In the mean time, to all you 1L's out there...WORK AS HARD AS YOU CAN and make sure to get on those law journals. It's by no means a career killer if you don't get on one (I had students tell me that and I stressed so much). There are PLENTY of students that get jobs without being on a journal. But in my opinion, it has made me a much better law clerk, a better law student, and it made me finally enjoy law school - that was pretty priceless.

And one more weekly survey...

This is the survey I did just last Sunday (January 24th). Since writing it, our bedding and dresser already arrived and are in the nursery. : )

19 Week Survey

How far along? 19 weeks, 5 days

Maternity clothes? I wear the tops pretty often and think I’ll be in pants within the next two weeks. The bella band is an absolute must now!

Stretch marks? Nope, although I’ve noticed the back of my legs and my butt are looking a little more dumpy…

Sleep: I slept better this week thankfully! I had some back pain for a couple nights, but that’s to be expected isn’t it?

Best moment this week: I had a few: I worked out for the first time in a LONG time and that felt amazing, we ordered the stroller and it should be here this week, we ordered our bedding, AND we got to see our beautiful girl in an ultrasound again. It was an AMAZING baby week!!



STROLLER – City Mini Jogger
- Things we loved:
o The look
o How EASILY it folds (one step - just pull a strap!)
o The size
o The canopy
o Maneuverability
o safe from birth, so don’t have to attach car seat



BEDDING – Lily Bedding
- Things we loved:
o The colors were bright
o It wasn’t: princess, butterfly, fairy
o The price (it was from Target)
o It didn’t come with a blanket, so we could use whatever blankets we get (we’re sure we’ll get plenty)
o I dunno…it just called to me. They kept having it on backorder and I kept thinking about it OVER and OVER again. So we finally decided to order it thinking it would take months to get here, and it shipped within 12 hours of our order!

Movement: oh yes. We had our ultrasound this last week and they couldn’t believe how much she was moving. To quote the ultrasound tech: “you’re gonna need skates to keep up with this one!”

Food cravings: I wanted ice cream yesterday! That was exciting because I went and bought some, and ate it all! I still have only gained three pounds, so I’m trying to put on some weight.

Gender: it’s for sure official…we had the gender ultrasound here in Lubbock, and they agreed with Abuela: LILIANA will be here in June!

Labor Signs: um, I guess it’s a sign that I’m getting bigger?

Belly Button in or out? still in mostly. I didn’t see as big of a change this week as I did last week.

What I miss: well, I tried doing sit-ups this week…that’s pretty impossible when you have a big uterus in the way! Haha.

What I am looking forward to: look above…stroller and bedding arrival! : )

Weekly Wisdom: make sure to work out throughout the pregnancy. It just put me in such a great mood. It’s more than wanting to lose the weight after the baby comes…it just feels good.

Milestones: my first work out since week 7 of pregnancy. I had told myself I wouldn’t workout until I had three days without feeling really sick. Unfortunately, that lasted until now, but man was it nice.

Behind on Weekly Surveys...

As of today, I am 20 weeks and 1 day pregnant. Therefore, I'm pretty behind on what my pregnancy has been like up until now. I have been doing surveys, mainly for me to make a journal after the baby is born, but decided for today's post I would update a little about my pregnancy life the last two weeks by posting my responses to the weekly survey I'll do every Sunday on here.

Survey #1

How far along? 18 weeks, 5 days

Maternity clothes? I don’t wear any maternity pants, but have definitely worn some tops (usually just because I fit in to them…not because they’re totally necessary).

Stretch marks? Nope! I’m hoping this continues until…oh how do you say…forever!!

Sleep: my sleep hasn’t been great, but that’s mainly because I’ve had this cold and face pain (from the sinusitis) forever.

Best moment this week: FOR SURE when the crib was finally built! It looks amazing. I’m proud of Evan for building it that quickly.



What we liked about the crib:
- It was very gender neutral.
- It could be made in to a toddler or full size bed with an expansion kit later
- It was sturdy
- The cherry color (not pictured here) was pretty
- It went with just about any bedding
- Little did we know: it was easy to put together!
- Abuela paid for it! : ) Thanks Abuela!

Movement: she’s moving EVERY DAY! She LOVES warm things on her belly. Whenever I put my laptop on my belly, she goes insane. She really likes the warmth I guess.

Food cravings: none actually. I haven’t had ONE craving. I’m just trying to eat and gain weight…that’s the only thing I’m trying to do so far.

Gender: a gorgeous beautiful baby girl! : )

Labor Signs: thank goodness no! I can’t have ANY of those until at LEAST week 36.


Belly Button in or out? In still, but there’s definitely some changes in my belly button. It’s coming out more and I even have this weird mark underneath my belly button that I just discovered today.

What I miss: not having the line underneath my belly button and NOT FEELING SICK. I haven’t felt well since week 8 of my pregnancy – either morning sickness or feeling sick with this cold or feeling like I am going to faint constantly. I want time to enjoy this pregnancy!!

What I am looking forward to: our ultrasound this week! It’s the “official” gender ultrasound…haha.

Weekly Wisdom: I LOVE putting Evan’s hand on my belly every single chance I get. That’s amazing. Also, it is a great idea for a husband to seem amazed be his wife’s belly…somehow Evan makes me feel like I have the prettiest little belly that anyone has ever seen.

Milestones: We had our first trip to the ER, I had my IV, and I didn’t faint!! HUGE HUGE milestone.

Where to Start...

I'll use my first post mainly to describe what this blog is all about and who's writing it. With time, I'm sure I'll use this blog to post about life in general, life as an attorney, as a wife, as a mother, as a woman who loves to work out, as a woman who loves to bake (the last two kinda contradict each other right?), and so much more.

But for the first few posts, I'm sure I'll talk about two things mainly: law school and pregnancy. I'm a third year law student set to graduate in May 2010 (109 days away) and am married to a wonderful man: a third year medical student, set to graduate in Spring 2011 (I won't put the countdown for him, that's just depressing to think about).

Evan and I are high school sweethearts. We started dating on June 7, 2002 and really, from the beginning, knew we were meant to be together. We both graduated from Texas A&M University in May 2007 and got married two weeks later in June 2007. Our first challenge as a "grown-up" couple was the fact that we both wanted to be very successful in life. It seems to be that usually one of the two in a marriage feels that it's their duty to slow life down for everyone's benefit, and while I see the beauty in that, I think perhaps we were both naive and said "let's both go for it!" Fortunately, we both got in to our respective graduate schools quite easily and believe it or not, Lubbock was the best match for us. I got a full scholarship through my three years of law school and we loved the concept of our schools only being 5 minutes apart, so we could occasionally meet for lunch (sometimes the only time we're able to see each other).

I'm not going to lie: the first year of law school sucked. In fact, I pretty much hated it. My husband convinced me to stay in school and said I would regret it if I quit. He was beyond right. I've really come to like the last two years and finally started finding purpose in my days.

Evan and I have always known we wanted to have a big family. We thought the best time to try was going to be in my second semester of law school. That way, I'd be done with the bar and could interview for jobs without a big belly. In the past, I had some medical complications and was not ovulating, but after talking to my physician, he told me not to stress and that when we finally deciding to start trying for a baby, to come see him. I called his office months in advance and made an appointment...little did I know...that appointment would be for my first prenatal visit!

On October 4th, after my boobs had been hurting me to the point where even my t-shirt was hurting, Evan told me he thought I should take a pregnancy test. I thought this idea was ridiculous for a few ideas: we knew I couldn't get pregnant, we were being careful, but most of all...I couldn't have a baby 4 weeks after graduation and while I was studying for the bar exam....RIGHT?? WRONG! He convinced me to stop at Walgreens and I took the first test. I brought it out of the bathroom and just watched while this faint second line started to turn pink...what the hell? I told Evan to come inside, thinking it was all in my head, but all he said was "huh..." HUH??? Oh goodness. We quickly looked on google what a faint second line meant. Everything said, any second line = pregnant. I was still in disbelief, so at 10:30 we went to our grocery store to buy a digital (something I will do from now on, because those other ones are worthless). The grocery store didn't have them...on to Walmart! We bought a digital test at Walmart and I had to come home and wait to pee again. Evan and I normally go to bed early because he wakes up so early through his third year of medical school, but we decided, this night was worth waiting up for. We tried watching T.V. go get our mind off things, but obviously were both quite overwhelmed. I went in to the restroom at midnight and 3 minutes later, it said "yes." All I said was "umm...baby?" Evan quickly jumped up and hugged me while squeezing me so tight. He was beyond thrilled and my tears, well, they were tears of happiness.

In that one moment, I realized how small law school seemed and how much bigger and brighter our lives were about to be. We were pregnant.