Soo, soo blessed!

Now as some of you know, we recently returned from a whirlwind trip home for my graduation. I did take lots of pictures and plan to update the world on the trip...later. I have had a hard time getting myself to write anything because it was HARD to come back to North Dakota. But, while I leave you in suspense for the actual happenings of the trip, I want you to know that we are

Soo, soo, blessed!

Steven and I have always felt particularly blessed to have the families that we have. It was the biggest 'con' in moving across the country to be moving away from our family/ support network. The only thing that we have been disappointed with having our baby is that for at least a year, the baby will not be close to it's grandmas and grandpas and aunts and uncles.
We understand that many people think we are crazy for being this attached to our families. We're married adults and we should want to live as far away from our family as possible right? WRONG! We have both already been there, done that, and prefer to stay close to our family.

Never has this been more clear than with our recent trip home. Not only were we showered with attention and love, we were given many amazing gifts but more importantly memories to last a long time. As soon as we got off the airplane, my in-laws handed me the first part of my graduation gift- tickets to see Michael Buble that night. Then at the graduation ceremony, I got the second part- a brand new watch. This meant a lot to me as it is "Dorn Family Tradition" to get a watch when you graduate- I'm officially part of the family now ;)
Also, before graduation, I went to my parents house to do my hair, etc. We pulled up and low and behold there was my aunt and her family (that I consider to be my second parents/ family) standing in the front yard. Her and my Uncle, who met up with us later, drove for 2 days with 3 little kiddos (and one big kiddo-my cousin/ best friend) just to spend a few days with us...I cried when I saw them and I don't think it was a pregnant thing.
And the following day, my mom spent her day preparing for my party. She easily had a thousand other things to do, but spent the day doing things for and with me. The food ended up being so great and we were blessed to have so many friends and family come visit! Finally today, I received my graduation present from my family. My mom told me she was sending us one of her dogs, Gretchen. Well Gretchen is the new name of our Ninetendo Wii. Now, we are excited to have the Wii, don't get me wrong...but again it is the meaning behind it. About a month ago, we got our tax return and were faced with a tough decision: buy a crib or buy a Wii. We bought the crib and I told my mom it was the 'hardest decision of our adult life's'.
Now these are just the physical gifts we received in the past week. This does not even begin to include the laughter, games, spiritual experiences, memories, good food, and being taken care of for 5 days straight that we experienced.
I wish I could truly express in words how we feel. But, I'm in tears again thinking about how blessed we are (for the third or fourth time this week). We are truly blessed to be a part of the families that we are. We can feel the eternal bonds and are more thankful than ever to have them. We are excited to bring our baby into the world with such a loving family already in place. We know how incredibly lucky we are to have such close relationships with our families (and our in-laws). We hope that all of our friends reading this who may need an extra boost in a family relationship will take this opportunity to make the effort.
Family is important, and we are sooo, sooo blessed to know that!
We love you Mom, Dad, Talia, Kayley, Jaden, Dakota, Mom, Pops, Greg, Caitlin, Nathan, & Andrew! Looking forward to eternity together :)

Happy Easter!

Our Easter weekend was fabulous! Steven didn't have school on Friday or Monday. We got to spend most of the time together and the weather has actually been really nice. Here are a few pictures. We refuse to grow up so we hid Easter baskets for each other between conference sessions.Steven hid mine inside the ceiling panel...rude
I hid his at the bottom of the bag full of all the plastic grocery bags we need to recycle.

After, we went on a little photo shoot in our little neighborhood area. The baby was not particularly agreeable to my shirt, but we tried. Here are some of my favorites:

I'm not sure if you can read the sign but it says "Alley of Love". This is the alley behind our house...hence baby. I will maybe post more of the pictures on facebook.

We watched the second session of conference and then ate dinner. We had Chicken Cordon Bleu (because I am morally opposed to making an entire ham for just the two of us and at least this had some ham in it) with my delicious scalloped potato recipe (that we drove alllll over town looking for the right ingredients for), and strawberry lemonade. We also had rolls, but forgot they had to raise so we had those like 2 hours after the rest of dinner.
We were feeling a bit homesick being away from our families and traditions, but we are SO EXCITED to be going home on Thursday for a fun-filled weekend!!!

I think we are all caught up now...until Steven decides to update the world on his school stuff and his pneumonia! Look for upcoming posts about our fun weekend in sunny AZ :)

And the rains came down...

...And the floods came up.
We have never lived in a place where we were at risk for natural disasters until we moved here. We live across the street from the Red River. This river is kind of unique because it flows to the north. Every year when the snow melts, the river floods from Fargo all the way up to Canada. There was an extreme flood in 1997 that wiped out most of the downtown area. President Clinton came and declared a national disaster on the area. The water was above the stop signs on the streets in downtown. Wikipedia it, I'm sure it's there. Anyways...the river obviously melts every year and because of the insane amount of snow we get, the river usually floods. We were counseled to start praying that the flood waters would be tempered as early as the beginning of February. We didn't realize what a big deal this flooding stuff was. But, we were proactive and set up an evacuation plan if we had to leave our apartment.
We are above a store on the second story so we knew our things would be safe. We just needed to know how we would get out, where our car would stay, what we would take with us and where we would go. I never knew how much work all this emergency preparedness stuff was! We tried to do it in AZ but there wasn't a ton of motivation...
Anyways, they closed the bridge on our street almost as soon as the river melted. The flood gates go inside these slots in the "welcome to grand forks" gate. They also set up a police line all the way on top of the hill so people don't go down into the 'greenway'. The greenway is a park during the non-flooded, non-snowed months of the year. (so like May and June?! lol)
Anyways in all the excitement we decided to take pictures of the flood gates and such. (Be kind I am sensitive during this whole pregnancy weight gaining and shifting thing...and it was cold and windy outside)The flood gates are behind me...normally those metal things aren't there and it's the entrance to the bridge.
The water got just a little higher than this picture shows. There was something like 47 inches of ice pack and a lot of water when it melted. That sidewalk is where the greenway is.
That stone pillar thing in the middle...well the top (right before the peak of it) is where the water level was in 1997. Other years are etched on the side as well. There are actually park benches and a cement platform about 4 feet down in the water.It turns out that the flooding really didn't get as bad as everyone thought and was nothing compared to the 1997 flood. They were actually able to keep the larger, taller bridge that is about a mile north of this one open. We've since learned that when they close that bridge, then it's time to worry.
The bridge stayed closed for about a week. Then both ND and MN Dept. of Transportation had to go underneath and check to make sure some floating trees hadn't damaged the bridge and they opened it up again. The greenway is still pretty flooded and it is closed off in certain areas. I walked across the bridge today to the post office in East GF and the water was much lower and I could see the benches around that monument.
All in all, we ended up being just fine but we were prepared just in case. Now we are just left to wonder *again*...WHY DO PEOPLE LIVE HERE? It snows 8 months out of the year, floods for 2 and there is only 2 months left over that we hear are full of mosquitos...lovely :)

Our St. Patrick's Day date

So Steven recently believed me that I was Irish (after my mom and dad backed me up). So for our date night the friday before St. Patricks day, he planned a celebration!
We had to run some errands but the activity of the night was sugar cookies with green frosting. And we watched 2 movies in our very own living room (Amelia & Love Happens). It was a fun night and the cookies were delicious. We used a Betty Crocker cookie mix- I will never make sugar cookies from scratch again as long as Betty keeps making the mix!
Here's some pictures...
We ended up making more of the right side's color of frosting for the rest of them...it was less yellow!

Inevitably I smeared frosting all over Steven...and caught it on camera :)Yummy Yummy!!

There was also a parade on our street the next day. I was really not feeling good, but Steven came home from splits and we were supposed to go see it. He told me he had seen the beginning of it and we could probably catch the end...In the time he walked up stairs, I got my shoes on and we got back down the street, the parade was over. He had actually seen the entire parade go by. We walked the length of our street to see the floats at least...there was 1 'float' and the rest was the Shriners & their mini bikes, etc. Mostly, I think it was an excuse for people to come in green and then hit up the bars early in the downtown district. Oh well, it was a good walk :)

Dr. Visit #2

Sooo it has been awhile since we updated. Steven had a bout with pneumonia, we faced a flood (that turned out to be minor) and enjoyed Easter. Those posts will come later, but here is the latest about our adventures to parenthood!

For all of you who did not read my facebook status, today was one of the longest days of my life and included a 3 1/2 hr doctor appointment. This was the first appointment at the OB/GYN office. We got to the hospital center at about 1:30 to check in and register. That didn't take too long and I was upstairs and back with a nurse by 1:45. First off, I have gained about 4 lbs 8 oz since becoming pregnant. I think it is actually a bit less because I had my jacket on while being weighed. It is weird to see the scale keep going after where you are used to it stopping...
Now there were a lot of contributing factors to why this visit was so long. First, today is the first day they are all moving to a mostly-electronic system of records. Let's just say I'm almost positive they were inadequately trained (that is my professional decision!) So with the initial nurse, I got asked all of the questions at least twice. She was keeping a paper record and trying to write it in the computer system that she did not like or understand.
Eventually, the nurse practitioner finally came in. We went through the health history part which took FOREVER because of this new program. And they didn't ask me anything about Steven's side of the family- is that normal? They asked about me, my parents, my grandparents, my siblings and all of my aunts and uncles but NOTHING about Steven...isn't he half of the contributing factor to this child?
After that and a brief discussion about my prenatal vitamin (I'm going to start taking a prescription one I guess) the real fun began. First, she let me hear the heartbeat sort of as an incentive to go through the rest of the visit I think. I don't know if it is just me or what but it always takes them a little while to find the baby and get the heartbeat. Long enough that I start to think that maybe I'm making all this up, gaining weight, and there is no baby inside me! But every time they find the baby and all is well :) I can hear my heart start beating faster every time I go through that little panic that there is no baby. It's not that I don't feel, look, and act pregnant in every regard but wouldn't that be embarrassing if there was NO baby in there? Call me crazy...
Anyways, I won't go into details of my full body inside, outside, up and down exam but I will say it was not as bad as I had conjured it up in my head to be, but it was pretty invasive. It didn't take as long as I was expecting, for which I was grateful. It is so relieving to know that I am all around healthy, a blessing that I am realizing more and more.
After I got to get dressed again, the nurse practitioner came back in and we went through this mound of handouts and papers they gave me. A lot of the info I had already learned from my copies of What to Expect When You're Expecting and Pregnancy for Dummies. The one thing we talked more about was diet and prenatal testing that we will have to decide on. They gave me this book and the NP gave me page numbers to reference certain things for next time. She was good about not giving me way more information than I could take in at one time.
After we got through the folder of stuff, I went and got Steven so he could hear the heartbeat. Again, she had a hard time finding the baby and I panicked a little...it can't just disappear in the course of an hour can it?! But she got it and we could hear the heartbeat again. I love watching Steven's face when this happens. He comes back with me looking and probably feeling rather uncomfortable (no man wants to know what happens at the OB office I'm pretty sure) BUT as soon as the heartbeat comes on the monitor he gets a big smile on his face...I love it.
After hearing the heartbeat, the nurse left to go double check on my lab orders. While she was gone, I used the visual aids in the room to show Steven exactly what had happened to me in the past hour and a half. All he could say was, "I'm lucky to be a man..." and he kind of shuddered. He is right but our baby will be so worth all of this in the end.
Are you still with me? because the fun part is coming up ;)
After talking through some prenatal testing info with the NP with Steven there (decisions we have to make for next time) we were sent to the lab for more poking and prodding.
The girl asked me if I could give her a urine sample.
What I wanted to say was: "Girl, I'm pregnant yes I can pee in the cup"
What I think actually came out was something like: "YES! I thought you would never ask" How embarrassing...
After wards, I had to get a LOT of blood taken. In the few times I have had blood taken, I was in my own room with lots of privacy and there was a bed. At the lab, they have tiny cubicle things with just the chairs...I immediately sensed this to be problematic. Last time I had to get blood drawn was when we were engaged. They couldn't get it out of my arm and halfway through the first vial I got dizzy and about passed out when they moved me to the bed. They ended up taking it out of the back of my hand and I was dizzy for about an hour....so you could sense my anxiety over today.
Now, I knew I had to get blood taken today. I figured it would just be one or two of those tiny vials. We were at the hospital like 2 weeks ago with Steven and he only had to do these tiny vials and only like 2. Well the things the girl pulled out were about as long as my forearm and I think there were 6! But I saw an empty one at the end...so maybe she only took 5. They got me juice because I warned her I am not very good at this sort of thing. I was impressed that she got the blood out of my inner elbow. She told me she had too because she had to take a lot of blood and it was too much to take out of my hand...why that didn't send off a warning sign, I don't know...When she was done, I glanced at the blood on the counter. I always thought my blood would have more of a pink tint to it and I wanted to see it (it doesn't, bummer I ate pink starbursts all morning just in case it would help)...I figured I could handle it now that I am getting those special mom powers...well it didn't make me sick, but it didn't help the already queasy feeling I was getting. So I felt like an idiot but I slowly stood up and kept drinking my juice. She told me I could leave it there but I didn't want to risk it so I sipped it all the way back out to Steven and all the way back to the elevators and upstairs to the doctor.
I was feeling weak but I figured that was a combination of the whole visit and that I was getting hungry again. We went to schedule my return visit. In the process one of the nurses was like "Don't forget your immunizations" At first, I didn't even know what she was talking about...then I remembered that they had asked me when my last tetanus shot had been (I told them I'd have to ask my mom...I am totally an adult) but we had also talked about flu shots and the H1N1 vaccination. I didn't realize they were going to give me shots today! I thought it was like everything else where they say, "Think about it and come prepared with a decision next time"
We scheduled our appointment and went back to the room. The nurse brought in the shots and found some paperwork I needed to fill out. She left us with the shots on the counter right by my papers (with 2-3" needles on each one). I should have recognized something was up because my handwriting was kind of shaky. Instead I was feeling pretty proud of myself that I had not fainted in the lab and was almost done! After she got the paperwork, she had me stand and gave me a shot in my right arm (which is currently feeling like dead weight after all it's been through today). I thought it was the seasonal flu shot, but now I'm thinking it might have been that tetanus shot...we will have to check when we go back (isn't that terrible?!) Now you can see how out of it I was at this point. She had me stand there and was getting the H1N1 shot ready.
Now, I think I will explain why I chose to get that vaccine. First off, most people know that I was working at a daycare when H1N1 came about and the panic that ensued. I thought lots of parents were crazy to give their babies this vaccine as soon as it came out. Also, in general I am usually very opposed to flu shots anyways. I do not get the flu during flu season...I do not even remember the last time I threw up (a pregnancy blessing indeed). Even when at the day care I would drink lots of juice, take Vitamin C and sometimes Airborne. I generally am very healthy and have never seen the necessity to get flu shots. Oh, and someone told me flu shots have formaldehyde in them...I'm still looking into that. Well, the first week we moved here I found out that someone in our new ward had died of the swine flu. Then today, when talking with the NP she told me that H1N1 has really run rampant here in GF. She said she wished she could tell me that it was mostly under control here, but many people are still getting it (didn't this all start like a year ago?!) She also told me that if I got it, we would almost 100% loose the baby and I was at a higher risk of death because of all the things I can't take and they can't do while pregnant. I told Steven this and he said I was easily swayed...but when I was talking to the nurse this was the only thing she highly recommended I take--everything else including a stronger prenatal vitamin was left up to me to decide. Also, she pointed out that there is a special dosage of the vaccine for pregnant women. So, I felt I would be ok and just in case I would go ahead and get the vaccine. There is my reasoning...which is kind of irrelevant now-keep reading.
So I got the first shot (that I need to find out what it was tetanus or the regular flu shot) and I was still standing talking to the nurse while she got the H1N1 ready. I was standing there talking and I started sweating and things kept falling off to the side of my vision and I noticed I was dizzy. It felt like I had stood up too fast. I tried just holding onto the chair but that didn't help. So I mumbled something about dizzy and sort of fell into the chair. Well people started moving. Steven said something like "oh no save my wife" (ok not that dramatic but a girl can dream...and he did say something) the nurse opened the door and went and said something to someone she opened the cupboards, turned the water on, and started getting something wet (I later learned was a paper towel) Then in came the nurse practitioner who had me lay down on the table which I don't even know how I got there. Then she held my feet up while she sent the nurse to go get pillows and a washcloth. And I just laid there thinking how embarrassing, I was doing so good too! When things calmed down, I just laid there and tried to calm myself down and Steven talked to me so I was ok. The nurse left the door open and then kept coming in to ask how I was doing. To be honest I don't even know all that happened...I think Steven filled out a form and people kept coming in but I just laid there and tried to relax. After about 15-20 mins the NP came in and I was feeling quite a bit better and apparently looked a little better too. She told me I had been through enough for one day and they would schedule the H1N1 for next week. So after all of my debating in my head and everything about the vaccine, I didn't even get it! I felt like going down to the lab and telling the girl "HA I told you I would get dizzy! I just about died upstairs" But by the time we got out of there (they couldn't get the computer to make another appointment for me-HA) all I wanted to do was eat and lay down (but not in that order because I learned that is a no-no for pregnancy)
So my dear, sweet, supportive husband, took me to Subway to get a tuna sandwich. I learned I can have tuna and the only time I get that is at Subway because Steven doesn't like it. After eating and finally getting home the whole trip had been about 4 hours... I was feeling a lot better, but SUPER exhausted.
We came home and I started reading for my classes and Steven studied for his tests. He is pretty wonderful to sit in the waiting room for at least 2 hours to hear 30 seconds of our baby's heartbeat. Good thing he was there because I probably could not have driven home. He is also a good sport to let me eat tuna. All in all, he is fantastic and taking very good care of me. Not once in this pregnancy have I felt like I was doing it alone :)
We had quite the experience today but I have been assured the next check up will be MUCH shorter and I don't think much if any blood has to be taken! My right arm is sore in two places and moving or flexing any of the muscles hurts, but I'm sure that will wear off.
If you made it this far in the post, congratulations! I hope you had fun reading and Hey- at least it didn't happen to you!! :)