Pre-baby Update

Well, in case you didn't here, the baby is here!! But more on that later...
I still need to update on 3 things so here goes!
Baby Shower- It was awesome! A big shout out goes to McKenzie & Anna for hosting such a fabulous party! I do NOT like being the center of everyone's attention...moreso I don't like my belly being the center of attention. BUT, it was a fun party and I'm so thankful for all the hard work put into planning and throwing the party as well as all the kind gifts we've been given. Steven even showed up at the end to eat and help open presents.

Fall-Well fall has come to ND. Actually, it's mostly come and gone by now. The leaves changing were beautiful and the weather was perfect. I love the crisp feel of autumn in the air. Steven has never lived somewhere to experience changing seasons before so naturally he wanted to take some pictures. Man...was I really THAT big?!

Nursery- Well the good news is, we finished the nursery before baby got here. The bad news is, I never took any pictures before our lives got turned upside down by the little tornado that is the baby. So, I will maybe save the official nursery post for when I can tidy it up a little and take pictures...and I still have to add one more artwork thing of his name.

Ok there's my update...now onto the labor story and such.

Remind me...

Someday when this little monster is a teenager...
and driving me crazy...
and the house is a mess because his clothes and toys and shoes are all over...
and he tells me "you just don't understand, mom"...
and I suddenly become the dumbest person he's ever met...
and it's not cool to spend time with mom and dad, only with friends...
and he doesn't want to take care of his sister, dog, gold fish, whatever...

REMIND ME...
how much I prayed to be blessed with the ability to have children...
how much I prayed to not miscarry...
how much I prayed for all his pieces, systems, etc. to develop appropriately...
how much I loved having him inside of me to talk to every day, when he couldn't talk back...
how much Steven and I NEEDED to have a baby to complete our little family...

Remind me how much I wanted him to be here and how impatient I got while waiting for him. Remind me.

How are you?

So, since everyone and their mom (literally) asks me this all the time, I will tell you.

I am still pregnant.


I am 34.6 pounds (at last weigh-in) bigger than I ever have been in my life.

I am tired of hearing about how everyone else I know has already had their baby or has a scheduled C-section. Not that I'm not happy for you, I just want my own baby to join the party.

I am miserable. Steven told me I have chronic miserable-ness. He's right. I even tried avoiding going out with people for an entire week because I was afraid I was too miserable to be around. When I finally did go out, I talked to one of my friends and it turns out, I'm just miserable at home around Steven...because I can be-but not around everyone else (thank you Anna!)

I am having regular contractions...they just don't progress or get worse. I have been having them for 3 days steadily and the past 2 weeks on and off.

I am having all sorts of other weird things happening (pressure in my pelvis, etc. etc. ) I told my doctor and she just smiled and said "Good. Your body is getting ready for baby"

I am dilated to almost a 3, 75% effaced, and the baby's head is dropped so low that they don't even count it after it goes further than this because he'll be coming out.

I am super tired of heartburn. Honestly, even water gives me heartburn. I sleep propped up with 4 pillows so I don't feel like gagging all night.

I am fully packed, prepped, and ready to leave for the hospital. I bought myself a hospital bag-it's super cute and has pink giraffe trim on it.

I am not sleeping through the night. Besides having to get up and pee, it's just uncomfortable having a small beach ball (Steven has upgraded my size category from basketball) to try and work around. But hey, good practice for the little one right?

I am even working ahead in my classes so just in case I have to leave to the hospital, I'm ready. My classes are over in 2 weeks and I've done most of the work already. Normally, that would be great except now I'm running out of things to do.

I am project-less. Over the summer I started collecting these unfinished projects. Well, they're finished, done, hanging up, whatever. I even made up about 25 new projects and they are all done too.

I am 80% done with Christmas presents...and Steven and I made all of them.

I am still hungry all the time. I have to eat little portions 85 times a day. There is just no room in me for my a full stomach, a fully-cooked baby, and all the organs and other important stuff.

I am tired of people telling me I look cute. Really, I appreciate it, but I have a mirror...I know what I look like.

I am currently watching my delirious husband give me a sock puppet show at the top of my computer screen because he is just as bored as me. I wish I was joking about this one.

I am 37 weeks 3 days pregnant, technically full term, and wishing more and more that I wasn't running out of things to do waiting for this little guy to make his entrance.

So there you go...since you asked ;)

I'm an updating maniac!

Did you realize that I just provided you with 4 blog posts before this one?!?! I fully expect people to go back and catch up on the last 2 months of our lifes by scrolling through those posts too ;)

These are the things I still need to blog about:
- My baby shower
- Fall
- The nursery
- Crafting adventures

Currently I am just waiting for this baby to come out at any moment. So, while I wait I suppose I will update the blog in anticipation. Maybe that's what baby D is waiting for...

Maternity Pictures

2 weeks ago, we drove to Fargo to have maternity pictures taken. Now, let me clarify that having pictures taken when you are huge and pregnant is in no way appealing. However, we figured for posterity we would do them...Ok really it was part of the "First Year" package that we bought for baby so we went with it. Despite all that, we are really happy with them and think the photographer did a great job. She was easy to work with and it was worth driving down there. She will be photographing Baby D as a newborn and then at 3, 6, 9, and 12 months. Pictures are important!
Here are a few of our favorites :)

Random Thoughts from a Crazy Pregnant Lady

I am SO pregnant. I have a three minute attention span. I thought it was kind of a joke when everyone told me about baby brain but it's NO joke. So here's what's on my scattered-brain tonight:

1. I love three day weekends with my sweet husband. Today is our last long weekend before the baby gets here. We watched 2 1/2 hours of Pawn Stars, cleaned our house, did our laundry, took a long walk in the rain, enjoyed dinner together and had lots of study time. Today was so simple, but so wonderful.

2. I love the rain. I have been listening to the wind rustling the leafs outside and now finally the rain. It's so relaxing. It is kind of weird to have a rain storm that lasts so long though- this is no AZ monsoon.

3. Baby D is going on a growth spurt. I am SO tired today. This happened at about 18 weeks too. All I did was eat and sleep. The difference is that now he is so big and doesn't have as much room to move around.

4. The nursery is almost done. I will take pictures and post about all my craft projects when it is done.

5. My business ethics teacher is FINALLY giving us a break this week. Last week there was almost 200 pages of reading. I tried to do the assignments without reading and it was impossible so ALL of my assignments were late. The weird part--it didn't even phase me. I am pregnant, busy and just didn't feel like reading 200 pages in less than 3 days. This week we only have one chapter, one discussion post, and one case study- easy peasy.

6. On the other hand, I really like my research class. I have no idea what the end goal of the class is, but we are working on it.

7. I'm starting my thesis. I decided to research employee turnover. We'll see if it's as interesting as I need it to be to write a short book about it.

8. I'm going to the doctor again tomorrow. I will update on all that business later. Maybe I will even post the names we are thinking of.

9. My husband is a hottie. I will spare you the details of every detail of him, but we just bought him a black polo and it is SO HOT. It shows off his arm muscles and accentuates his features. We also bought a blue one and a green one and I can't wait until he wears those. I think it's a good thing I still think he's hott.

10. I am bored writing this now so I will leave it at ten random things. We've been busy doing other things and maybe someday I will tell you all about it.

22

So my birthday was last Saturday. Here are the highlights:
-Joleen and the kids came and kidnapped me and took me to Ihop for breakfast. I haven't got to hang out with them for awhile and I loved it.
-Anna took me to see Eclipse (for the second time-don't judge us) on Friday afternoon and it was wonderful again!
-I called and talked to my dad (we share a bday) on Friday which was his Saturday. He loved his present and it was just good to talk to him. We haven't really missed celebrating our birthday together since I was born.
-Steven and I stayed up until it was 12:01 AM and I opened the package from my mom and the card from my in-laws.
-My sister Talia was the first to text to say Happy Birthday and Steven only beat her to it by half a second.
-Baby D let me sleep in for 2 extra hours (minus bathroom trips). It was awesome!
-Steven showed up to the house with flowers after his flight.
-We tried to go to a clay center that we thought was a paint-your-own pottery place. It was more like a non-profit place with a small exhibit in the front. But, the guy gave us the background and the whole tour of everything.
-Steven and I ran errands and he bought me a storage ottoman that I've been wanting.
-Anna and Sam came to visit and brought me pink flowers and chocolates!
-Steven made me dinner.
-We installed the AC unit in our bedroom. (Steven also slammed his finger in the window in the process)
-My mother in law called and I got to talk to her.
-Steven took me to see the Eclipse movie again.
-Steven made me birthday cupcakes and we ate all but one by ourselves.
-My phone stopped working at noon on my bday so if you text me or called me, I didn't get it but thanks anyways!
-Joleen & Mike and Sarah all threw me a combined FHE birthday party the following Monday. Sarah picked up a sweet pinata and Joleen made a wonderful ice cream cake. It was fun to celebrate with so many good friends. And, I didn't even know it was a bday party until we got there. Here's some pictures from that because I didn't feel like having any other pictures taken that weekend :)







PS Steven said he was going to post 22 things he loves about me...we'll see what happens!

Things not to say to a pregnant person

There are a few things I've decided just shouldn't be said to a pregnant person.
I don't think that I am a typically overly emotional person, but being pregnant changes things. Here are a few adjectives most pregnant women do not appreciate:
-Hippo
-Baby Whale
-Extra round
-More to love (emphasis on the 'more')
-Many others--feel free to add in the comments.

We also don't want to hear about how our clothes are tight, our skin is oily, or we look like we waddle.

Most of all, we don't want to be called "Chunk" when you're taking a picture of us.

Steven learned that the hard way after taking these pictures:




June 27th: 23 weeks 2 days

Don't worry. We've had a talk about what not to say to your pregnant wife.

Pink or Blue Day

Here's me the week before Pink or Blue day at 19 1/2 weeks:

June 4th was pink or blue day. It was much anticipated by not only us but most of our family and friends too. We started the morning off by waking up early and me downing 32 oz of water in 30 minutes...if you've never done that, well don't unless you have too. Then we had breakfast and I had some juice so the baby was very wiggly by the time we got to the hospital.
We finally got to the ultrasound room and I thought my bladder would explode. The technician started using the probe (what is that thing called anyways?) to see the baby. Baby was very wiggly and uncooperative and kept going lower and lower and she kept making me lower my pants and the blanket down so she could find the baby. After checking the heart and the organs, she let me go to the bathroom. When I came back, it was more measuring. Every time she would get a good measure on one leg, baby would completely move around and she would lose the other leg she was trying to measure...This happened a lot.
Finally it was time to go look for the gender...Well baby wasn't having any of that so baby decided to wrap the umbilical cord between the legs. The tech was brought to laughing at this point because baby was wiggly and uninterested in making her job any easier. She went back to trying to measure bones and then went for the second time to look for gender...NOPE. Baby still wasn't interested and moved to the opposite end of me and she lost her view. This is about the point where Steven realized that baby really is as wiggly as I say, even if you can't feel all the moving!
Back to measuring...really I think she was just stalling so we could try a third time to see the gender. So, while stalling, we got to see tiny little feet:


The face from the top...kind of scary looking for us at first because all you see are the giant eye sockets.


A profile picture:

The blur is because baby was trying to eat his/her hands. Well, little ones are rather uncoordinated at this point and before the hands got into the mouth, they smacked the face a few times...but baby finally got those hands in there to suck on. No thumb sucker for us, but that's ok by me.

Finally, she told us she would go look at the gender the third time. She assured us if she couldn't find it, she would have her manager come and try before they officially gave up.
And...





It's a BOY which officially makes this day BLUE day. Third time looking is the charm I guess.

He was really wiggly (ya that happens with juice we've learned) so most of our pictures are hard to decipher in person, let alone the scanned images.

He was measuring right at 20 weeks and 0 days (which is exactly where we were). He has all his pieces. His 4 different heart sections are all developing (that is so neat to know his little heart already has valves opening and shutting at 20 weeks!). All in all, he's right on schedule. I can't remember the weight she guessed but it was whatever it should be right at 20 weeks.
After, we talked to my doctor and she checked on me and the baby's pictures and everything is fine there too.

We called my mom to tell her first...well right when we were about to tell her "It's a..." my dad called from Australia. Sorry mom, dad's calling long distance. He was using a calling card so I had to answer his call. So, my dad was the first to know...and he called at 3 am AU time to find out. Then we called my mom back...she was happy to finally know. Then we called Steven's house- no answer. Steven's dad's work phone- He answered and got to find out while he was buying a boat. Then, we finally got a hold of Steven's mom on her cell phone. She was in the doctor's office with Andrew and she was giddy to find out pink or blue. We only got to talk to her for about a minute and then she called later and got the full scoop.

So, it's a boy! We are pretty excited about that! We were worried at first because of our lack of boy name ideas. But, we've been working on it and it's getting better. More than anything, we're just excited to know one way or the other and happy to pick out blue things for the nursery (pictures to follow)!!

Updates from the Great Plains-But no pictures!

Well, we haven't updated much on what we are actually doing these days. First off, since this is the most frequently asked question I get- Steven, Me & Baby D are all doing pretty good. The baby is growing big and strong and I am feeling pretty good 95% of the time! Moving on-there are really 4 main parts to our lives: Church, School, Work, and Family so I will update in that order.

Church- Well Steven is still calling-less. But a lot of the ward is either gone for the summer and the military families are all being reassigned to a different base so I'm hoping he will get a calling soon! I am still doing the RS activity board and primary music leader. The last 2 weeks I have had to do both Junior & Senior primary. Wow was it a lot of work!! I had no voice at the end of the first week and the second week I only made it through Junior primary with my voice in tact. But, we are learning and having fun. I went to a Stake leadership training and got lots of good ideas that I'm excited to try out!

School- Someday we will graduate and look back at these posts and think "Wow life was so much easier when we were in school" At least that's what people keep telling me...Steven is taking one summer class right now and will be taking 2 more starting in 4 weeks. He is also finishing up his flight stage check from last semester. When that is finally over he will get his Instrument Rating- he's been working on it for the past 2 semesters+ so we're excited to see some progress. This summer he will do the commercial class and then in the fall is multi-engine! UND likes to make random hoops for us to jump through but overall we like the school.
As for my school, well I'm still going and getting good enough grades. It is hard to focus on hard classes when I have the baby brain thing going on, but so far so good. I will be done with 5 of 12 classes required to graduate at the end of my semester in 4 weeks. This time next year I will be DONE DONE and you can all call me Master!! *Granted the baby cooperates and I actually write a thesis...*

Work- Well, this area of our lives has not improved. We are managing ok, but just waiting to see what Heavenly Father wants us to do. Right now the biggest priority is the baby so we are just waiting for the inspiration to come and we will follow it. Steven has applied to a few work study jobs for the summer so we will see if we hear anything about those!

Family- Well as of Saturday, my family will be in 3 different states and 2 different continents. My dad leaves for Australia for six months on Saturday. My sister Talia and my brother Jaden are living in Utah for the summer. My mom, Kayley, and Dakota are living at home and me, Steven & Baby D are stuck here in ND for awhile. I mostly feel bad for my mom who will now have to juggle everyone's different time zones to keep in touch with everyone.
Steven's family is doing good too! Nate just graduated high school officially last week and Andrew promoted from junior high. That combined with the parent's anniversary and Nate's birthday made for quite a few parties in 2 weeks! We were sad to miss it! Greg & Caitlin are doing ok too as far as we know. Caitlin is taking classes and Greg is working for her grandma. They celebrate their anniversary next week-has it really already been a year?!

As for our little family, we are doing good. We are making new friends and reconnecting with old friends too.
We try to go on lots of walks together. Steven didn't believe me that most days my feet and legs just hurt because of the extra weight of Baby D. Then, he went to his physiology class and they talked about how hard it is for pregnant women to have circulation to their limbs. He came home that night, propped my feet up on pillows and I got the best foot rub of my life. He wanted to make sure I was circulating the blood flow or something. Now, if I could just get him to get reminded of that every day at class, I'd be even better!!
Steven has really been excellent with me being pregnant! He says the biggest thing he didn't know about what happens when you get your wife pregnant is that you have to become her live-in gourmet chef. I don't know why but the food is just better when he makes it!! At first I didn't help because the smell was too strong- but now, I'm the sous chef and he's the head cook.
I started feeling (and recognizing) the baby kick last week. I still don't feel it every day, but I feel it now and they seem to be getting more frequent. It is the neatest little thing ever! Steven is a tad jealous but I'm sure in a few months we'll both be ready for the baby to be out and kicking in his/her crib!
The only other update we have is that we're moving! I wish we were moving home, but that is a few years off still. We are finally moving into on-campus housing. We went and toured one of the apartments like the one we will have today. It is not a ton bigger, but it is more open, there are closets and lots more storage!! Also, we have reserved parking and it will be close enough for Steven to walk to classes! We are moving out at the end of June and are very excited! We found out yesterday that if we find someone to rent out our current apartment we will not have to pay out all the fees they make up. The lady didn't think we would have any luck but we posted the information on craigslist and on the UND Underground (it's like the school's craigslist) last night and we've already had about 10 people email or call. I think 5 have already talked to the leasing office and one came to look today and another will be looking at it tomorrow. It will be such a blessing if one of these people apply and get approved and get to move in!! Either way if we find a renter or if the leasing office does, we are excited to move out into a better environment for us and Baby D!
We haven't taken pictures of anything recently but we will take pictures of our adventures this summer!! The next post will probably be the pink or blue day post!! Hopefully the baby will cooperate with us enough to let us see the gender! A week from tomorrow-we are soo excited to get to see our baby again (and hopefully start shopping for appropriate-colored clothes!)
Stay tuned to share in our excitement :)