Amy's Abode

Welcome back! Today's post will be going over my experience with the second, and most eventful (testing-wise) trimester of pregnancy, including my symptoms, appointments, various tests and my experience going through a scare due to abnormal test results.

Welcome back! Today's post will be going over my experience with the first trimester of pregnancy, including all of my symptoms (and how I managed them) as well as the different appointments and testing that occurred concerning my pregnancy.

Now, it goes without saying that what I did might not work for you, and it very well might not work for me the next time around. That's because there is never a 100% chance that you will get pregnant, even while trying every possible day during a cycle since there are many factors completely out of our control that even something like IVF can't make happen with a guarantee. However, there are things you can do to increase your chances of conceiving and I'd like to share everything I did in hopes that it will help someone like me who didn't know anything about trying to conceive (TTC) before starting my journey.

Disclaimer: I am a healthy woman in my twenties who does not have any conditions that would decrease my fertility (for example, PCOS, Endometriosis, etc.) with a very consistent cycle whose husband is the same age and also has no fertility issues of his own (for example, low sperm count). This makes our changes MUCH higher right off the bat so please keep that in mind. With this little disclaimer out of the way, let's get started!

You might be here from my old beauty blog, Pretty in Bronze, or possibly my Instagram account, but you might also be brand new. In any case, I'm really happy you're here!

As my first official post, I want to go over what the near future will look like for this blog. You'll probably see it go through some growing pains, including theme updates, broken links, 404 errors and other strange things. I hope this is kept to a minimum. Most importantly, I want to let you know that this is primarily a lifestyle blog that won't be super rigid in terms of topics. 

This blog will primarily focus on all things baby-related as I am a first-time mom with a lot of opinions, advice, product recommendations and general experiences I want to share. I also hope to incorporate a few posts related to home improvement projects and finances as we bought our first house a few years back and have pretty much done all of the renovations on our own.

As someone living in the GTA in their late twenties, it's very rare to own a home without financial help due to the market. It's even more rare to also have kids due to childcare expenses (and lack of availability) as well as the market and inflation as a whole. This has led to a lot of our friends and acquaintances coming to us for advice on how to reach their goals, including help with budgeting and general financial advice. For a while, my husband and I considered starting a YouTube channel or even a Podcast, but we don't have the time for that level of commitment while in the trenches of parenthood, maintaining full-time jobs and taking on a new massive renovation. Instead, we decided that a blog made more sense since I can easily compile posts and collect information from my husband as needed without needing to invest in any new software or other accessories.

I don't have anything else to say here aside from letting you know that I'm very excited to finally be launching this blog and will be starting out with my pregnancy and birth journey as well as product recommendation related to pregnancy, birth and babies!

See you soon!