last month i traveled with some girl friends to Bali for a girls trip! our husbands get to go on a guys trip at the end of the summers for work. the past several years they've gone to hawaii and this year was to the dominican republic, so we figured us ladies deserved our own girls trip! ;) we ended up finding an awesome groupon deal to BALI and figured, why not go?! go big or stay home, am i right?!

While visiting our friends in baltimore, we decided to take a little drive to Annapolis one evening. i wish we had more time to spend there, but with the time we had, it was enjoyable.

 no one warned me about how quickly time flies with the second kid! i seriously cannot believe my little baby jace is just a few days shy of 6 months!

we thought colsen was a pretty easy baby, but jace is literally the easiest kiddo ever. we are so blessed! he brings such a light and joy into our home and we all love him so much.
Here's some pictures of Jace over the last 6 months :)

With this pregnancy, I found out that I had gestational diabetes. I didn't have it with my first pregnancy, so that was quite a set back for me this time around. In the end, it wasn't that bad; if anything, it helped me to eat healthier and not give in to my sweet tooth :) I felt healthier this pregnancy because of it and i didn't gain as much weight as i did with colsen. With gestational diabetes, the baby tends to be bigger and gain more weight. I made sure to keep my blood sugar regulated, but throughout the pregnancy, he was measuring 2 weeks ahead. It really had me worried that I wouldn't be able to do a VBAC (vaginal birth after cesarean) and throughout my pregnancy i was very nervous about how the birth would go and i REALLY didn't want another c-section.

The last couple weeks before he was born, he wasn't measuring bigger than the weeks I was at, so that gave me hope. This pregnancy, I was having braxton hicks contractions a TON which I didn't experience with my first. At my 36 week appointment, I had my cervix checked and I was already dilated 1cm and effaced more than 50%. That really motivated me to do all I could to get the ball rolling for an early delivery (since i was scared if i went to 40 weeks, he would be a big baby, most likely bigger than colsen was and he was 8lbs 4oz). I went on long walks and was on my feet most of the day. I used clary sage essential oil on my belly to hopefully help my braxton hicks to kick into gear ;) My OB said that the two most effective ways to get labor going is sex and getting your membranes stripped; so of course i/we checked those off the list!

I went to my 37 week appointment praying that i had made some progress and sure enough, i was almost all effaced and 2 cm dilated!! So the doctor stripped my membranes again and that night we got to it haha! Later that night, my contractions started to become more and more painful, waking me up a few times. I got up around 4:30 and went to the bathroom, then went back in bed. Then about an hour later I woke up because my contractions were getting more painful and I was feeling it more in my back and lower part of my belly. Kevin woke up to use the restroom and i told him that I kept having consistent and painful contractions. He said that he had woken up because of a bad dream about a dam breaking and he was trying to save us, etc. Then he said, wouldn't that be funny if it was a foreshadow of your water breaking? We laughed about it and laid back down to go to sleep. I started wondering if I should be timing my contractions. At that moment, my water broke! I told kevin and we laughed thinking about his dream. My sister Elise was in town staying with us, so we woke her up to tell her that we were heading to the hospital. I called my other sister, Stephanie, to tell her my water broke and she excitedly headed to the hospital to take photos/video of the birth.