Exciting Personal News - Baby #3 is on the Way!
About the episode:
I’m pregnant with our third! I’m so excited to finally announce this pregnancy and share about the first trimester as well as all the mixed emotions that have come with this pregnancy such as overwhelm, joy, and hesitation. In this episode I’m sharing how this pregnancy is different from my other two, how close the kids will be in age, and how I’m looking for answers in this busy season of life and motherhood. In Q4 the Lord gave me the gift of rest so I am enjoying time for that and spending time together as a family. I’m sharing my “up in the air” plans for next year, how I’m looking to hire a Squarespace designer, and more. I hope you enjoy this episode and it gives you permission to enjoy the season of surrender and trust that you’ll know the right moves to make when the time comes.
Takeaways:
How and when I found out I was pregnant
How I am balancing motherhood and entrepreneurship and why prioritizing what’s most important is key to enjoying the current season
Hitting a slow season of business has coincided perfectly with the first trimester and how I received it as a gift
The seasons of going through the “unknowns” or not having the answers is very difficult but I share what is grounding me and how I'm trusting God for clarity
Resources:
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Hello, hello, welcome to this week's episode of Rebrand with RuthAnn. Today's episode is very special as you can see from the title, baby number three is on the way. I'm so excited to just be more open and candid in this episode just talking more about personally how things are going, how we found out we were pregnant, how the first trimester has been, what I'm doing differently. So this will definitely be a little bit of a girlfriend chat episode, but I'm really excited to share with you all the things, give you some encouragement if you are in your motherhood and entrepreneurship journey. And I'm excited to share the news because yeah, it feels like it's been a while, so I'm really excited to dive in. So let's do it. So we found out we were pregnant at the end of October, we were actually getting ready to go on vacation as a family.
We went to Omaha, Nebraska, and it was the morning that we were leaving and the kids were both awake. It was dark outside and that's why I brought them in my bed with me and I was late on my period. And so I was like, I wonder like why haven't I started yet? I'm just I was just like wanting to kind of get it over with. So when we go on vacation, I didn't have to be on it. And so I like
Yeah, I had the kids in bed with me. I was like, hold on just a second. I ran in the bathroom, took the test, and I was just like, there's no way, there's no way. And so I came back, looked at the test, and it was the two lines, and I was like, you've gotta be kidding me. Like, I was just so floored. And Fuad and I definitely wanted a third. So it wasn't a surprise that we were pregnant with a third. I think it was just a surprise to me that it happened more quickly than I was anticipating.
We got pregnant when Sophia was about six months. And so the kids will be pretty close in age. They'll be 15 months apart. And yeah, it was just a bit of a surprise. And I'm so happy. Honestly, I'm thrilled. I'm so excited that Sophia or Zia will have a little brother or sister and I'm just, yeah, I'm honestly like so, so happy. And I think with my business though, it's definitely been I don't know if I would say challenging thinking about my business, but I think I'm just having a lot of emotions come up with when it comes to my business and how I'm navigating my business and what I can do differently. Because I am loving this motherhood season, I am in the young years of my kids' life and I want to be available to them. I think I mentioned this in last week's episode, but something that's really important to me available and knowing, I mentioned this in last week's episode, but I think for me knowing what success is, is knowing what season of life I'm in, what season of business I'm in and just really letting my life dictate where my business should go. And so when we found out I was pregnant, I was like, oh my goodness, this is just happening kind of soon and the kids will be close in age. It's just going to be a lot to juggle with work and everything. And so the first thing is so funny. When I was pregnant with Sophia, I think even Anzia, I feel like I had a lot of clarity. Like as soon as I was pregnant, I just felt like I had clarity. I knew exactly what I was going to do. I knew what I should, you know, the steps I needed to take to get to the goals I wanted. And with this baby, when I found out, I was just feeling a little overwhelmed. Like I don't know what to do. I'm not sure what I should be doing. Should I be pressing the gas on my business? Should I be marketing more? Should I be booking clients? Should I be resting? And it was just kind of an interesting phase to be in for myself, just to feel like I didn't have personal clarity of what I should do. But I feel like the Lord came through and just provided it for me. It's just been a really slow season of business in this October, November, December has been very slow for me, which is definitely not how it normally is in the years past. This has been my busiest time normally. And so the fact that it was slow, I just took it as a gift from the Lord and just that it was okay to slow down. It was okay to rest, especially going through the first trimester. I will say.
My first trimesters with my other kids, they've all been pretty distinct. With Zia, I had morning sickness. I definitely didn't have morning sickness very much with him, but I did have a few days of morning sickness and just feeling that sickness in the morning. With Sophia, I had pretty bad nausea. I remember from, I think it was mostly in the morning afternoons and that subsided at the end of the first trimester. With this baby, honestly, I don't know if I would...
have been able to tell if I didn't miss my period. So I've been pretty good besides the exhaustion, of course. So I think that has been the main thing was just being really, really tired, taking naps whenever the kids are taking naps and just trying to rest. And so I feel like my business being slower, it was really a nice little gift to say, like, okay, I can take this time to rest if I need it. I can take a nap if I need to. I don't have pressing client work that I need to do. So it has been really nice to kind of take that step back, even though that's not really what I wanted to do. I feel like if the clients were there, if the projects were there, I would say yes, because that's, I just love what I do and I love my clients. And so it's just natural for me to do that. And so, you know, having this break, so to speak, of like having, you know, really a lull in clients and projects has been, has been really.
I think good for my body and good for my mind and just giving me time to rest and kind of try to get that clarity that I am looking for. And so yeah, it's been a really pretty easy first trimester. At the time of you listening to this, I am 15 weeks along. So we are into the second trimester and I'm so excited to share this. I feel like it's been a long time coming.
But yeah, I'm just I wanted to share the news in person with some of my good friends and so I didn't really want to share it on social media until I was able to tell them and all that kind of thing. So it has been a good, a really nice, it has been a really nice Christmas season and just the last few months have been really nice family wise and just really spending time with the kids and Fawad and my family and I really, really enjoyed the time and it's just kind of showed me like you know, is this the time for me to pull back in my business a little bit? You know, my plan was to move forward with everything, of course, to not really make any big changes, to just kind of press on with my projects and to press on.
So yeah, I have been trying to find out for myself like what is the best plan of action for myself moving forward. Should I continue on? Should I slow down a bit? Should I take on less clients and projects? All that kind of thing has definitely come up and I have to tell you, I don't feel a lot of clarity one way or the other. I don't really feel like, I just don't have the answers, I guess. I just don't know if I should just charge ahead like I normally do or if I should slow down after the baby comes and all that kind of thing. So I'm just not exactly, yeah, I just don't have the answers and obviously I would love to give you like definite answers. But I'm just, I feel like with how my business has always been, I wanted to support my life and especially my values and my goals and stuff. And so obviously, you know, I do have financial goal. I do have financial goals. But I also I really value being a mom to my kids in their young years, just being available to them. That's something I'm really just trying to decipher for myself. What is the best plan of action moving forward? In last week's episode, I feel like I was so clear and I knew what I was doing. It's so funny because I just feel like, not that I go back and forth, but I just feel like it's not as clear as I want it to be. I'm just going through that of trying to get clarity, trying to get quiet, trying to know what it is that I want for myself. And so we'll see, to be determined, I guess. My plan was originally to do this podcast in seasons, and that is definitely something I think I'm going to do. I originally was thinking I would go to the end of May, and then I would take the summer off, and then come back in the fall.
So I do think that is the plan for now. We'll have to see how things go. But that is kind of what I'm thinking. And part of me is like, should I come back to the podcast with three little kids? Like, I don't even know. You know, I know people do this all the time. Like people have podcasts and businesses and they have little kids and all that stuff. So I know that it's possible, but it's just what do I wanna do right now in this season? I don't know. But I'm open to change, I'm open to trying new things, I'm open to just seeing what happens. So I know that's, it feels like a little bit of a wishy-washy answer, but I'm just praying about it and seeing what the best direction is for me and my family at this time. So changes I'm making in my business, I mentioned this in last week's episode, but I am looking for a Squarespace designer to bring on my team.
And I am very excited about this move. I do think this will free up a lot of time for me and it'll just help expand our team and our capabilities. And I would love to give someone the opportunity to, you know, do projects that they love in Squarespace. They don't have to worry about client management and client relations and finding clients and all that stuff. They can just be creative and do the projects. And I'm really excited about that. So I do think that is a change I am making moving forward. I would love to find a designer in January and bring them on in February and beyond. That's a change I'm making as I'm moving forward. I don't want to be the only designer anymore. I do need some help. If you are interested or know of someone who is looking to be a designer in Squarespace, they want to design websites and they like the R. Art Space style and brand, I would love to ask you to share about this opportunity so they can go to R Artspace.com/hire and that would be great so they can fill out an application and they can find out more about the job description. So that is a little change I'm moving forward and I think something something I'm learning and leaning into right now is just being okay with the unknown, which this is something I just, so many of us, we like control. I just think that's how we are as humans. We like control. We like knowing what's going on. We like having a plan. We like, you know, feeling like we're in charge and feeling like I don't have control in this situation. Like things are not like out of my control, but I mean, whenever you have a baby, things are out of your control. So, um.
It just is reminding me of how important it is to surrender and just to trust the Lord in this process of motherhood and in business and that the Lord will take care of me. And he always has taken care of me up until this point. And I know that he will take care of me for the rest of the way. I've been in my business for seven years and the plan is to continue on. And I don't mind shifting and changing my services if I need to, but it's...
Yeah, it's just a place where it's like, okay, what is next for me? I'm just asking for a direction and clarity. I still haven't found my word for the year, but I'm hoping it will come to me. But yeah, I think I'm just I'm open. I'm really excited for our family and I'm just yeah, I'm thrilled for the kids to be close in age. I'm thrilled just to be a mom of three.
And yeah, so this is a little bit of an update on how things have been, how things are going. And I'm so excited to share this with you and finally be able to, yeah, let people in on the news. So this is really exciting for me. And yeah, thank you so much for being here and just for cheering me on in my journey and just being such an encouragement and support. I feel like I have the best community and I just thank you from the bottom. I just thank you so much for.
Yeah, just the support and encouragement I feel.
whoosh
So I think that's it. I think that's a wrap. Still trying to figure it all out as I go, still trying to get clarity in navigating my business and what's next for me. And I am planning on working up until the baby comes, just like normal. I am planning on taking on clients like normal and doing my regular packages. And then after the baby comes, just like I felt like when I had my first two kids, I feel the same way with this one too. It's like...
After the baby comes, I'm willing to change things. I'm willing to make the necessary adjustments I need to to have that lifestyle I'm wanting. And so I'm open. I'm open and I'm excited for all this to come. I know the best is yet to come for all of us and I'm just so excited to be in this journey with you. And thank you so much for being here and just sharing in my excitement and I just really appreciate your support of me, of the podcast, of my business, and I just cannot thank you enough. So thank you so much for being here and I will talk with you next week.
