Happy Friday! Thank you all so much for sharing in our excitement about baby #2. It feels so good to share the news and connect with other moms-to-be! Answering a few of the questions I got on Instagram yesterday below, but I’ll be answering several of the most commonly asked questions in my first trimester recap on Monday so stay tuned! Have a happy weekend!

1. How is being pregnant and chasing after a toddler? Asking for future reference!

I’ll write more about this in my first trimester recap, but it was a huge help having Will home during the first trimester fatigue! Teddy has so much energy right now and there were definitely days where Will had to step in so I could close my eyes in the afternoon. It’s no coincidence we finally hired a nanny when I was six or seven weeks pregnant — I’ve never been so grateful for an extra set of hands! But the plus side of being pregnant while chasing after a toddler is I have way less free time to stress myself out, read every article in every pregnancy app, and generally drive myself crazy thinking about every little thing that could possibly go wrong. The time has passed so much faster and I feel like late April will be here before we know it!

2. How did you find your nanny?

We found her on care.com. We did phone interviews with seven or eight people before asking to meet her in person and we both got a really good feeling about her from the beginning. We feel really lucky to have found a good fit on the first try and hope she’ll stick with us for many years to come!

3. Interested to know whether you’ll switch doctors after the way Teddy’s birth went.

Yes, I did! My first OBGYN went out of town for nine days before my due date and I had an unpleasant experience with the on-call doctor the day I gave birth, so it was important to me to find a better fit this time around. The new practice I switched to has you meet with each of their doctors throughout the course of your pregnancy, so you’ll always know the doctor who’s with you in the emergency room. It’s honestly been pretty night and day from my experience with Teddy and I wish I’d trusted my gut and switched mid-pregnancy last time!

4. Do you have any names picked out yet?

We have a few that we’re trying on, but nothing definitive yet! Of course I started fretting over it the second we knew the baby’s sex. 😉

5. Any idea what age you’ll start Teddy in preschool?

We would love to send him to a twos program a couple days a week next fall if it feels safe! I hate that he’s had so little exposure to little ones his age because of the pandemic.

6. Was it hard to psych yourself up to get pregnant again relatively soon? How did you know your body was ready to handle another pregnancy?

I went to my new OBGYN at six months postpartum to make sure it would be a good choice health-wise and other than that, we just waited until we both felt ready to start trying. It’s such a personal preference and the only timeline that matters is your own!

7. Where do you go for alone time?

Pre-pandemic, I probably had too much alone time working from home by myself all day while my husband worked long hours in the city. Now between having Teddy, my husband working from home, and my parents living with us, there’s a lot less alone time to be found! As an extroverted introvert, I love having my favorite people around more, but I also definitely crave time alone to reset and recharge. Having a nanny for a few hours in the middle of the day means I get a few hours to myself working from a desk in our bedroom while Will works in the office downstairs and it’s made a real difference in both my productivity and my overall mindset to get those hours to myself each day. 

8. When decorating a room, you mentioned you start by ordering swatches for upholstery, fabric, and wallpaper. Where do you typically order from? 

For non-custom upholstery, I order from the site where the piece of furniture is coming from (like Pottery Barn or Serena & Lily). If I’m reupholstering something we already own or deciding on pillows, Decorator’s Best carries a ton of brands or I’ll order from Mahone’s if I’m ordering something from Quadrille (which Decorator’s Best doesn’t carry for some reason). It helps me to see everything in person and mix and match a bit before I commit to any big purchases!

9. Why did you decide not to use a decorator? Trying to decide whether to hire someone or do it myself.

There’s no doubt I’ve made mistakes that a professional could have helped me avoid, but I guess for me it comes down to whether or not it’s something you truly enjoy! I kind of love wrestling with different decorating dilemmas and piecing things together on my own, but I have friends who love having a decorator help them narrow things down and present them with just a few options.

10. What is your favorite room in your home? Will you share the process of decorating for baby #2?

My favorite room is probably our new kitchen — it was fun to design a major project from scratch and we’re proud of how it came to life! Baby #2 will move into Teddy’s nursery and Teddy will move into his “big boy room” next door, albeit in a second crib for a while. I’ve made zero concrete plans for decorating his new room but I’ll be sure to share when I do!