Baby Shower!

Well, we have our nursery all set up and it’s so pretty, I love it. It’s all neutral colors, pretty much just dark brown wood with beige and white accents, I’ll try to throw in a few colors when I make the curtains, but I haven’t even picked out fabric yet, so we’ll see what I can find, maybe I’ll just stick to the neutrals, I think they look really good, very classy, clean and fresh. 

Last Saturday Julia and Marianna (my sister and mother-in-law) threw me a baby shower, with some help from Clara and Deborah too, my younger sisters-in-law. Well, let me tell you, it was beautiful! It was more than I had hoped for! The colors were perfect, not just all pink, which I liked, she used yellows, greens and some oranges too, it was really pretty. The food was delicious, the games were fun, and the company was great! A lot of my friends were able to make it, which I really appreciated, and a lot of David’s family came to support me too which was really sweet, two of David’s aunts came and several of his cousins, so that made me feel really good. I received a lot of gifts for my little girl, which was so great! I’m so grateful for everything that we got and really felt blessed to have received so much. We got a lot of clothes that are so so cute! Our little girl is going to be stylin’ for sure! We got a beautiful, soft, homemade blanket from a sweet sister from my mission, an adorable homemade dress from an old mission companion of mine who recently learned to sew. We got crib sheets, baby wash, toys, and books! It was so amazing and we really are very grateful for everything that we received and for everyone who came, and of course for David’s family for hosting such a wonderful baby shower for me.

On Sunday we went over to Maile and Michael’s house to watch the Super Bowl! It was fun, I got to cuddle with David the whole time and eat yummy food, so it was a good night. As soon as we got in the car to go home though, I think I got my first contraction! Yeah, weird! It was in my upper abdomen where the top of my uterus is, it was a sharp cramping pain that lasted for about a minute, it wasn’t really severe or anything, but it was definitely uncomfortable. I haven’t felt any contractions since then, just the one, so that was kinda weird. 

We are still really hoping to get a local internship for David this summer, so since I work at a sheet metal fabrication company, we work with a lot of different engineering companies, so this week I decided to ask my boss at work if maybe he knew of any of the companies that we work with that are offering some kind of summer internship for mechanical engineers. My boss thought he might know of a few, so he made a few phone calls and had me talk to a gentleman who said he wanted to see David’s resume! So I’m feeling pretty good that I may have helped David find an internship, so we’ll see how it turns out! 

We are still waiting to hear back from the graduate schools that David applied to. This week he got a really interesting email from Purdue University, who is interested in flying him out to visit their school and check it out! Isn’t that so awesome?! We are so excited! David has already accepted and will be flying out there on February 28^th and coming back on March 2^nd. This is obviously a good sign for us, because they probably wouldn’t offer to pay to fly him out if they weren’t really interested in him, so we’re thinking that this means he’ll get accepted! So that was some really good news for us this week, especially because Purdue is ranked #8 in the nation for his graduate program! I’m super proud of David, and I can tell that he’s really excited. So, we might be moving to Indiana in August! That would definitely be an adventure!

Getting Ready for the Baby!

Well, we took a birthing class at my doctors office last Saturday, it was really informative. I always thought that you should go to the hospital when your contractions are 5 to 7 minutes apart, but boy was I wrong! I guess now they want your contractions to be 2 to 4 minutes apart, consecutively for 2 hours before you go to the hospital! What?! Well, when I was telling my mom about that she was a bit shocked because I guess when she had my sister Lisa, which was her first baby, she had her in just 2 hours! They say with your first baby that it always takes longer, but that wasn’t the case for my mom! The longest labor and delivery experience she had was only 6 hours, and it was with her second baby. When she went to the hospital about to have my sister, they checked her out, she was 3 cm dilated and they told her she was going to have a long night ahead of her and told her to go home. Well, when she couldn’t walk down the hall to leave because of the intensity of her contractions they admitted her. Good thing they did too because she went from being 3 cm dilated to 10, one or two pushes and my sister was here within the hour! Now, I don’t know that it’ll be the same way for me… Although I’m hoping a little ha ha. I’ve read about it and I guess it just depends, so I’ll talk to my doctor about it when the time gets a little closer and then I’ll just have to wait and see! The only downside I can see with having such a quick labor and delivery is that I may not have time for an epidural if I decide I want one, which would suck, but oh well!

We have all of the big stuff we need for baby now! My mom and dad bought us a stroller this weekend, David and I bought ourselves a Pack N’ Play a few weeks ago and then this weekend we ordered the rest of the stuff we need for the nursery! We were planning on borrowing a truck from David’s parents and going to Ikea and a few other places up in West Jordan area to pick up all of the furniture we needed for the baby and then hauling it all back down to Provo and then returning the truck to them in Alpine. Basically it was going to be an all day affair, and we weren’t even sure on the items we really wanted yet. But the other night I was browsing on the internet checking out other stores prices for cribs and rocking chairs and dressers. Well, I went to Walmart.com and found myself quite a good deal. I found a bundle for a crib and mattress for $135! Which is really good! We were going to spend $120 on the crib alone and then another $55 for the mattress! So yeah, that saved us like $40 bucks just on those. Also, they will deliver it to our house, which means we don’t have to borrow the truck anymore! Yay! So after we found that deal we thought we might as well order a dresser and a glider chair too! Everything came by yesterday and I was really excited for them all to arrive so that we could set them up and have our nursery all ready to go and beautiful for the baby! We were so excited that we set up the crib and the chair the same night we got them! Now all we have to set up is the dresser and we’ll be good to go! They are all beautiful and they match really well despite the fact that they are all different brands, you can’t even tell! There are a few things I’m going to make for the baby room still too. I’m going to make some curtains that will block out light, so since I’m doing that I thought I could make a matching crib skirt and pillow to sit on the chair out of the same fabric. I haven’t picked out fabric yet, probably won’t even go looking for a few weeks still, but it’ll be fun. 

Yay for the baby! She’ll be here in just 8 weeks now. We’re both getting really excited. I went to the doctor today and he said everything is looking great! He said I’m measuring right where I should be and my weight gain is right on track. I was starting to get a little worried because everyone always comments on how small I look still, so I was starting to think that maybe my baby was too small and not getting enough nutrients or something, but the doctor said she’s totally fine and that it’s probably just the way I’m carrying. I think it might be because I have a longer torso, so she has more room up and down to stretch out, rather than only growing out. Oh yeah, and David’s mom and sister Julia are throwing me a baby shower in a few weeks! They are so sweet to do it for me! I’m excited and I love them for offering to do it for me!

Adventure Time!

So there is this show on the Cartoon Network that David and I really like called Adventure Time. Seriously, we love it and I think the people that wrote it must be geniuses. It’s funny, cute, clever, and really entertaining. They have the funniest expressions, they say funny stuff like “Oh my glob!” instead of oh my goodness, or “Mathmatical!” Instead of awesome. Well, it’s about these two best friends named Jake and Finn. Finn is a human and Jake is a magical dog and they go on adventures all the time and fight bad guys and protect princesses and stuff. David always says how he’s like Jake the dog, which I can totally see. Well, he says I’m like a character named Lady Rainicorn (a magical rainbow unicorn), which I’m not really, but the reason he chooses her is because she and Jake are in love, ahhh. But in all reality I’m like Finn, the best friend… And they love each other too, so it still works. David is still adamant that I'm Lady Rainicorn though, so I guess I'm starting to accept it.

Jake and Finn in the foreground, Lady Rainicorn, Princess Bubblegum, and The Ice King in the background.

Anyway, we were watching the other night and Jake the dog had some new pups. It was so cute because he was obsessed with them! Like he couldn’t sleep because he was so worried about them, they were sleeping and he thought they were dead because they weren’t moving and then he freaked out and woke them all up to make sure. He got up extra early to make them breakfast, he took them on a walk and was paranoid when they started playing that they would get hurt. Basically it was adorable! We both thought that it was really funny and cute… Especially because we’re both probably going to be like that when we have our baby ha ha. We laugh about it, but we are pretty sure we’re going to be obsessed and paranoid about everything our little one does. It was cute, just the next night, out of nowhere David says, “I can’t wait to be like Jake.” He’s excited to be a dad and be obsessed with and paranoid about our baby… And I think that’s really adorable. Oh my gosh! Only 10 more weeks! 

Jake with pregnant Lady Rainicorn.

New Year, New Adventures!

Well, this is going to be a year of change for me and David. And I mean a lot of change! It’s so weird to think that our baby girl will be here in 2 ½ months! Holy cow! I’m 30 weeks pregnant now, that means there’s only 10 weeks to go! Becoming parents will be our biggest change for sure. I’m super excited of course, but I’m nervous too. When I think about it too much I start to realize how scary it is and start to think that I’m not going to know what to do or that I won’t like it or that I’m just not ready. I’m sure all of that is normal, but yeah… Also giving birth scares the crap out of me… So I’m trying not to think too much about that just yet. We have signed up for a birthing class that is in a few weeks, so I think that should be good. The class is offered at my doctor’s office by one of the labor and delivery nurses at the hospital I’m going to be delivering at, so I think it should be really helpful.

30 weeks! Only 10 more to go!

It’s so funny how now that I’m pregnant it seems like everyone I know is also pregnant! I guess I’m just at that point in life though where most of the people I know are getting married and starting their families. I’m pregnant, my best friend is pregnant, my sister is pregnant, my sister-in-law is pregnant, my good friend from high school is pregnant, my good friend from the mission is pregnant, my old visiting teaching companion is pregnant, my old roommate is pregnant, one of the girls I currently visit teach is pregnant… I think you get what I mean, I could even name more, but I won’t.

Our Christmas break was great! We got to spend time with our families down in the nice warm St. George, Hurricane, and New Harmony. Well, most days it was warm, it did snow like 3 times, but it wasn’t anything like what it’s been like in Provo, so it was ok. We were down there for 10 days. We got to rest and relax, hang out and play games with family. We saw tons of movies, ate really good food and got to see my dad sing at a local restaurant, so it was definitely a winner of a trip!

At the Brigham Young House with David's family.

David's adorable slider

David with our nephew Noah.

Now we’re back and David started school yesterday. I’m happy I don’t have school this semester. I’m just at work, I’m working Monday through Thursday from 8:15 to 4:15, so it’ll be nice to have Friday’s off to get stuff done for the baby, clean the apartment, run errands, see friends, and David has short days on Fridays too, so we’ll get to spend some more time together too which is always nice J. I had a lot of catching up to do at work  after I got back, so it was crazy for a while there, but now things are settling into their routine, for me anyway, I think David still has to get in the swing of his new schedule. David is going to graduate with his Bachelor’s degree in April, crazy! He’s really excited. Then we’re going to move to who knows where for grad school and start a whole new chapter of life. Man, we have so many new things coming up! It’s fun and crazy and we both wish we knew the specifics, but we just have to wait a little longer for that, so it’s ok.

Did I mention that I’m learning to sew? Yeah, I’ve made like 6 things since Thanksgiving. I think I might be nesting a little bit ha ha. I made 3 Christmas stockings, 2 maxi skirts and a maternity shirt, all with a little help from my mama. Next I want to make some burp clothes, curtains, and a little shirt or dress for our little girl, these will have to be easy because I won’t have my mom in the next room to ask for help and I’ll be using my own machine which I’ve never used before, so I’m sure I’ll hit a few bumps. I’ll put up some pictures of the stuff I’ve done soon and maybe even tell a little bit about how I did it.

My Mom's Experience

So I’ve been asking my mom a lot of questions about her pregnancies to get an idea of what I might expect, because I’ve been told that you have similar pregnancies and labor and delivery experiences as your mother. This is what I’ve learned.

• My mom had all of her children natural, no pain killers. She’s a rockstar, I don’t think I’ll be able to do that. My plan right now is to go as long as I can without anything… But “as long as I can” is very flexible… I mean, I might have one contraction and be like “forget this! Where’s the epidural?!” So yeah, I have a very flexible birth plan to say the least.

• My mom has short labors. I mean, it’s not unusual to be in labor for 16 hours. They say that 12-20 hours is normal for a first time mom. Well, my mom didn’t have anything close to that! When I was asking her about it she told me I was here in an hour after starting labor and the doctor barely got there in time to catch me. My siblings were not as anxious to get to the world as I was, but when she mentioned one of her birthing experiences lasting a long time I asked what that meant, “like 12 hours long?” She said, “oh no! Nothing like that!” So, I guess, I may have a short labor and delivery experience. Which would be nice… Unless I take too long to decide I want an epidural and then it’s too late… That would suck, but I’ll have to deal with that if it comes.

• My mom did not have gestational diabetes. I’m happy about that because you’re more likely to have it if your mom had it, so I’m feeling pretty good about my upcoming glucose tolerance screening.

• My mom got very little stretch marks. She said she only got them at the end of pregnancy, they were mostly just on her hips, and that they weren’t very bad. I’m ok with all of that. 27 weeks and so far so good! I put cocoa butter on my tummy and hips every night right when I get out of the shower, so I’m hoping that will help as well, it is definitely a lot less dry and itchy, so that’s already a benefit… And it smells good too :).

• My mom had most of her children past their due date. No preemies for her! This isn’t my favorite news because surely I’ll be dying to get my little one out by March 22^nd, I can’t imagine having to wait another week or two! From the sound of it I might have to though, and I guess that’s good, I’d rather have a late healthy baby than have her come early when she or I aren’t ready.

• My mom has big babies. I was 8 pounds 6 ounces and my siblings were likewise. I guess they're big, but not too big, at least they weren't like 10 or 12 pounders! Then I would be scared. 

• My mom had cute kids. Lets be honest, we're not a bad looking bunch! Ha ha, just joking. I just know I'm going to have a beautiful little girl though. She's going to have brown eyes and brown hair. I hope she gets David's lips, he has great lips. I guess this one doesn't have so much to do with my mom as it does me and David, but that's ok.

This is me as a baby, pretty cute huh?

27 Weeks and done with school!

Well, I’m 27 weeks pregnant now and loving it! I’m so excited for our little baby girl to come! I know it’s still a while before she gets here, but the second trimester has been awesome and it has allowed me to enjoy being pregnant and look forward to what we have coming. The first trimester… Well, the first 16 weeks or so actually, were really difficult. I was throwing up multiple times a day, I had no appetite, no energy, and I lost about 10 to 15 pounds. I finally got some anti-nausea medicine from my doctor and it saved me! I was actually able to function again, which was good since I started school and work again. I had to take the pills everyday for a long time and then I finally started to feel better and would only take them when I needed them. I still get the occasional fits of nausea, but they are few and far between, which I am very grateful for.

I feel our little girl practicing flips and kicks all the time now, she’s very active, which is fun for me… and sometimes a little weird. Sometimes a thought pops into my head that it feels like I have something living inside my stomach… And then I’m like, “Oh, I do have something living in there!” That’s kind of a weird thought, but it’s awesome… Sometimes it even tickles a little. David has been able to feel her move a lot now, the other night as we were lying in bed before falling asleep he had his hand on my stomach and she was going crazy! I think it was pretty exciting for him because that’s definitely the most he’s ever felt her move.

Other things, I’m pretty much hungry all the time, but I can only snack and eat small portions, if I try to eat a normal sized meal I feel super gross and bloated because there just isn’t a lot of room in there anymore. I’m starting to show pretty good now, at least I think so. David says it still looks like it could be a question of “is she just fat? Or is she pregnant?” Which I guess is true. It depends on the shirt I wear. I always think that people who don’t know I’m pregnant must think I look fat and wonder why I would wear the clothes I wear that accentuate my “fat” tummy, but in reality they probably don’t even notice ha ha, I’m just being paranoid. I’ve been trying to take pictures every week for the last few weeks now that it’s getting more noticeable, so here are the last few:

24 weeks.

25 weeks. 
(Note to self: That pattern makes me look huge. Good to know for future reference.)

26 weeks.

I can’t believe that I start my third trimester in a week! That’s so crazy! We’re planning on doing a birthing class in January, which will be good. They offer one at my OBGYN’s office, so that’ll be nice. We’ve also talked about maybe taking one with Maile and Michael, my best friend and her husband, who are due with a baby boy the day before us! So that would be fun, but we have different doctors and aren’t delivering at the same hospital, so I don’t know. The one they offer at my OB’s office is taught by one of the labor and delivery nurses at the hospital I’ll be delivering at, which I feel would be more beneficial to me, so I’m leaning more toward that one for now.

I was able to finish up school and pass all of my classes! I got pretty decent grades too… Which was my goal, I wasn’t too worried about getting all A’s this semester. I pretty much just wanted to pass. This is my last semester of school for a while. I “graduated” with my associate’s degree in “pre-professional” which is basically like pre-nursing or pre-dental. Now that I have my associates, I can transfer later to another school wherever we will be living, which will be nice. I’ll be stopping with school now because we are having our baby in March! I’ll keep working up until a few weeks before we have the baby, but after we have our little girl I’ll be able to stay home and take care of her, which I’m very grateful for.

David and I are both SO happy to be done with this semester of school! It’s been quite a doosy! We were both so busy it felt like we never got to see each other, and when we did we were so tired we could hardly enjoy it! But now we are enjoying life, catching up on sleep, and looking forward to the Christmas break! I’m still working this week, but we are headed down to Hurricane on Friday afternoon where we’ll be staying for almost two full weeks! We’re both excited to see both of our families, because conveniently they will both be down there only about 20 minutes apart from each other.

This next semester will be a lot better for both of us, I’ll be working about 32 hours a week until the beginning of March, no school, and David will be in school and working, but his classes this semester will be much easier than they have been in the past. Rather than taking all Mechanical Engineering classes like he has been, the majority of his credits will be in generals! That will make his last semester a little less difficult and busy which will be great in preparing and having a baby! He normally TAs for a math class for work, but this next semester he will be able to work as a research assistant instead, which will also be better, and might even pay a little more. This will make for a good last semester for David before he graduates. David has been turning in his applications for graduate school. He’s already applied to the University of Texas – Austin, and to Cornell University in upstate New York. He has two more schools to apply to, Purdue University in Indiana, and BYU. We are hopeful to hear back from all the schools and know where we will be going before March, but we’ll just have to wait and see!

Two Years Ago

It was two years ago today that I met my wonderful husband David. Yes I remember the day that we first met! We met the week before Thanksgiving at a church activity. Friendship night is what they called it. I didn’t really want to go that night, but I decided to go anyway, knowing that I would at least know one person because my roommate Shelley was already there. So I walked over only to find that my roommate was not there anymore and I now didn’t know anyone. I sat down on the couch feeling a little awkward, but I didn’t have too much time to feel awkward before the boy sitting next to me turned to me and said hi. Well, we ended up talking the whole time, probably about an hour and a half. I had a good time and I thought that he was one of the nicest people I had ever met. Eventually I decided that I should probably be heading home, so I left to walk home and as I walked I heard someone coming up behind me and saw that it was David. It turned out that we lived in the same apartment complex and that his apartment was just down the stairs and around the corner from mine, which turned out to be very convenient in the coming months as we started dating seriously. At first I was a little hesitant to get serious with David, not because he wasn’t funny and great and smart and sweet and fun, but just because I was scared. I had dated a lot of really dumb guys in the past that didn’t treat me so well. David was so different than anyone I had dated, which turned out to be exactly what I needed! I know I didn’t make it easy for David when we were dating, but he was great and I’m glad he stuck around. Once I finally got over all of my reservations everything became so wonderful. I fell in love with David quickly once I let myself. I knew that I was supposed to marry him before I even knew that I loved him, don’t ask me how that works. Either way, we got engaged on the 26^th of March and were married 5 ½ months later in the Salt Lake Temple. Now, two years later, we’re happily married, expecting our first baby and looking forward to a long future together. Two years ago who would have know that when we met on a couch in a stranger’s house that this is where we would be now? I sure didn’t know then, but I’m glad I’m where I am now. I love you David! You’ve been my best two years.

Well... We're Having a Baby!

Well, I guess it’s about time we tell people… We’re going to have a baby! I’m now just over 20 weeks along! I can’t believe I’m already halfway through my pregnancy! I’m in my second trimester and boy am I glad of it because the first trimester was pretty rough! I lost about 10 pounds, had no energy, pretty much just felt crappy all the time, and I threw up in some pretty awkward places…. So now that I’m in my second trimester, I have been feeling quite a bit better. Nausea is mostly gone, except for the occasional wave if I smell something nasty or wait too long to eat or something. I've got a little tummy showing and I can feel the baby move! David finally was able to feel the baby too a few days ago, so that was cool. I kept having him try to feel my tummy when the baby was kicking particularly hard, but he couldn't feel it. So I’m glad he was able to finally feel it too, he was excited.

We were lucky enough to get an ultrasound at my very first doctor’s appointment! I was 9 weeks and 6 days, which they were able to confirm by measuring our little baby, so now we know that my due date is March 22, 2012. I was so surprised to see how much our little baby was moving around during the ultrasound, I didn't expect that at all. But as we watched our little baby, it was kicking around and waving it’s tiny arms all over the place, it was so amazing!

Even though we have a picture and got to see our little one and hear it’s heartbeat, it still sometimes doesn't feel real. I mean, I know that I’m pregnant, but it doesn't seem real that there’s really a little baby that David and I created growing inside me. It’s a miracle and we’re both so happy! It definitely feels a little more real now that I can feel our little baby move and I have a little tummy to show for it. I really can’t believe that I’m halfway done with my pregnancy already!

After our first ultrasound, we anxiously awaited our second ultrasound, where we would be able to find out what whether we are having a boy or a girl! We both were having dreams about it, and we both had dreams about boys and girls, so we didn't know what was going to happen! Ever since I got pregnant though, I've felt like we were going to have a girl… And call it mother’s intuition, because I was right! We had our ultrasound on Friday, November 2nd and we are indeed having a little girl! We’re very excited.

The ultrasound was fun, I had a perma-grin the whole time and I kept asking questions, I’m sure I was annoying the ultrasound tech, but I don’t even care. We got to see our little girl and how much she’s grown since our first ultrasound over 10 weeks ago. She has adorable little feet and a cute round tummy. The ultrasound tech gave us a picture of our baby’s face, which basically just looks like a skull, but our baby girl actually looks kind of like a vampire in the picture… Which is awesome! It makes me smile every time I look at it. She is perfectly healthy and measured exactly with our same due date of March 22, 2013.

Here’s a link to a video about what will be happening with our baby in the next several weeks until we hit the third trimester at 28 weeks.

http://www.babycenter.com/2_inside-pregnancy-weeks-21-to-27_10312242.bc

We have a lot of changes to look forward to in the next year of our lives. I will be getting my Associates Degree in December and then taking a break from school for a while, I’ll still work until  a little bit before the baby is born though. David will be graduating in April with his Bachelors, he’ll get a summer internship and then we’ll head off to who knows where for Grad school in August. But the biggest and most exciting change will obviously be our addition to the family, our little baby girl. I love her already and I can’t wait to meet her.