We're packing again.

At the end of May, just a day before our big trip back east, I woke up to a text from our property manager saying she was sorry, but the owners of our house wanted it back at the end of our lease. I sat in bed and cried, not because I love the house but because I am so incredibly tired of moving. And because finding housing in the Bay Area feels impossible sometimes, and I've never had to do it with a 7-month-old baby before.

But I also cried a little because I love the house.

Our property manager is comically bad at her job. I laugh about it because I don't think it's good for my blood pressure to do anything else. She ignores texts, refuses to get broken things repaired (once she told me to "YouTube it" when our garbage disposal stopped working), and regularly leaves the country without telling us how to reach her. The base of our front gate is held in place with good vibes and bricks I carefully spaced out along the edge.

And yet, this is the house we brought Sophie home to that Thanksgiving afternoon. Where I labored for hours days before. Where we spent countless early mornings and late nights on the couch feeding her all winter. Where she refused to sleep. Where she slept through the night for the first time. The first place she ever crawled. We crammed a lot of memories into this place.

I was packing up the books in the nursery the other day and had to take a moment to sit in that rocking chair where I would hold her in one arm as she nursed, my other hand holding my phone and watching The Big Family Cooking Showdown at 2:00 or 3:00 or 4:00 AM. At the time it was all I could do to not nod off, but now that the newborn haze has lifted and I actually sleep 6-8 hours every night I look back and think man, that was a beautiful time.

Our new house is bigger and brighter and only 5 minutes away. It has air conditioning and the people who own it live in another house and have no intentions of moving back or selling it. They want us there for as long as we want to be there, and it's probably the first house Sophie will even remember. The first place she'll walk. The first place she'll sleep in her own room.

There are still plenty of firsts.

It's so crazy to me that in September we will have lived in California for as long as we lived in North Carolina. Charlotte felt like home, we miss it, and we always count down the months until we get to visit again. But the Bay Area actually is home. Minneapolis sometimes feels like a distant memory and I wonder when Charlotte might feel the same.

My mom came to visit us last week and while I pumped and Sophie napped she boxed up our kitchen and garage. This is her third time staying with us in this house and it was bizarre to think that the next time she'll be back Sophie might be walking, and that we'll definitely be in a new home. We have a few things we always do when she's here, and after I dropped her off at SFO on Wednesday morning I added a new memory to the bank: of cruising down the San Mateo bridge by myself after dropping a loved one off at the airport, latte in hand, Lana Del Rey blasting through the stereo, the morning air still chilly. It breaks my heart a little every time but somehow I still love it--the same way I think about driving back from the airport to our apartment in snowy Minneapolis every time my brother or mom would come visit. It's just part of the deal.

I could go on and on about the weather here because I'm still not used to it--the disorienting coolness of every morning and evening, making you stop in your tracks and have to actively remind yourself what time of year it is, because it might be June but every night the crisp breeze feels like fall is on the horizon and makes you want to go home and bake a pie. And no matter what house we're in, whether we're moving in or moving out or finally staying put, Rob is there and Sophie is babbling and Ender is curled up on the floor with a bone.

And I'm home.

This post was sponsored by Avion Pharmaceuticals and opinions are my own.

I'm so excited to be teaming up with Prenate® vitamins again to talk about the importance of prenatal vitamins. Once again, I can't stress enough how lucky I felt to have a straightforward, uncomplicated pregnancy and then be able to give birth to a healthy baby, so the issue of access to prenatal vitamins has become something I've been really passionate about these past few months.

Maybe it's my family's history of breast cancer or my BRCA gene mutation, but a lot of the time when I would imagine pregnancy and childbirth I always pictured complications that were out of my control, so it was really important to me to try to stay as healthy as possible leading up to getting pregnant and throughout my pregnancy. I focused on my diet, fitness, and actually started taking prenatal vitamins for about a year before we planned to get pregnant, which seems like a long time--but it takes time for folate levels to rise enough to help reduce the risk of birth defects, so it's recommended that you take prenatal vitamins for at least 4 weeks before conception. ^1-3 Folic acid is one of the most essential nutrients women can take to protect the health of the baby, lessening the risk of neural tube defects ^1-4 , so I really wanted to make sure I gave myself some time to get those levels up.

I think we all know how important it is to keep up with them, but a prenatal vitamin truly is one of the easiest things you can do to take care of yourself and your baby before (and after) he or she even gets here. During pregnancy, drinking enough water and taking my vitamin became the thing I knew I could do and control no matter what other symptoms I may have been feeling. I was super nauseated the first trimester and about half of the second. After that, I had heartburn that really defined what I did (or didn't) eat, so I was able to rest knowing that Sophie was getting the nutrients she needed from my prenatal vitamins, even when my diet was lacking a little bit. Iron is another important mineral that supports the baby's growth, development, and may prevent iron deficiency anemia in pregnant women. ^5,6 I still ended up with anemia about halfway through my pregnancy, so my midwife added an iron supplement to my vitamin regimen as well and it took care of it after a few weeks.

And now that I'm nursing, I continue to take prenatal vitamins to ensure that Sophie gets the vitamins and minerals that she needs from me. I pictured my life after baby and it included lots of healthy food and plenty of exercise, but those first few months were a bit of a whirlwind. Between recovering from labor, sleep deprivation, and the crazy hunger I felt from producing breast milk, there were several months where I would eat pretty much whatever you put in front of me. Six months later, I'm finally starting to take control of my diet again, but I'm so glad to have my vitamins to fall back on when my diet and/or lifestyle is less than ideal.

That's just my experience so far, but on a more general note, did you know that women are more likely to take their prenatal vitamins when prescribed by their physician⁷? And that in many cases they can be covered by insurance? Prescription prenatal vitamins are often made more affordable through Medicaid coverage to women who would not have access to prenatal vitamins through other sources, giving as many women and babies as possible a solid start. In addition, many prescription prenatal vitamins often offer savings coupons to help reduce the cost. I didn't know that prescription prenatal vitamins were a thing, but i love the idea of prescribing vitamins for before, during, and after pregnancy--they're just as important as many other prescription medications, so I think making that shift is so smart.

You can visit Prenate.com to learn more about prescription prenatal vitamins, which I didn't even know about until recently! Thanks again to Avion for sponsoring this blog post--I'm honored to have the opportunity to spread the word about an issue so important.

This post was sponsored by Avion Pharmaceuticals and should not be construed to constitute medical advice. My personal story and opinions are my own. I am not a medical professional and am not qualified to give medical advice. Please talk with your doctor about your individual medical situation.

References:

1. Czeizel AE, Dudás I, Paput L, Bánhidy F. Prevention of neural-tube defects with periconceptional folic acid, methylfolate, or multivitamins? Ann Nutr Metab. 2011;58(4):263–271.
2. Chidambaram B. Folate in pregnancy. Journal of Pediatric Neurosciences. 2012;7(2):81. doi:10.4103/1817-1745.102559.
3. Greenberg JA, Bell SJ, Guan Y, Yu Y. Folic Acid Supplementation and Pregnancy: More Than Just Neural Tube Defect Prevention. Reviews in Obstetrics and Gynecology. 2011;4(2):52-59.
4. NIH. Dietary Supplement Fact Sheet: Folate. Office of Dietary Supplements, NIH Web site.
http://ods.od.nih.gov/pdf/factsheets/Folate-HealthProfessional.pdf. Reviewed March 2, 2018. Accessed April 24, 2018.
5. Scholl TO. Maternal Iron Status: Relation to fetal growth, length of gestation and the neonate's endowment. Nutrition reviews. 2011;69(Suppl 1):S23-S29. doi:10.1111/j.1753-4887.2011.00429.x.
6. Raman TR, Devgan A, Sood S, Gupta A, Ravichander B. Low Birth Weight Babies : Incidence and risk factors. Medical Journal, Armed Forces India. 1998;54(3):191-195. doi:10.1016/S0377-1237(17)30539-7.
7. Robison, J. More Women Aware of "Pre"-prenatal Vitamin. Gallup Organization, on behalf of the March of Dimes. http://news.gallup.com/poll/6130/more-women-aware-preprenatal-vitamin.aspx. June 4, 2002. Accessed April 23, 2018.

Greek yogurt with a spoonful of peanut butter, topped with sliced strawberries and a handful of oats.

Washing my hair and changing the sheets on the same day.

Opening the garage door and rowing on our new erg when it's still a little chilly outside in the morning or evening.

Sitting down at the table with Sophie in her high chair and watching her get so excited about solid food.

Discovering a plum tree beside our house and watching the fruit go from green to deep purple over the past few weeks.

What are some of your favorite things right now?