What's Up Down South

Here I am at around 30 weeks or so. I can't remember exactly when Greg took these pictures. It's hard to believe that I only have six weeks and five days to go before this little buddy will make his entrance into the world. I'm excited and nervous. I'm doing really great still. I think, after talking to Sarah today, that I'm probably having some Braxton-Hicks contractions but didn't really realize it. I'll have to start paying closer attention. Gotta love Zantac! It's been helping with the heartburn. I pretty much waddle around a little these days. It's hard not to. I'm still sleeping well at night for the most part. I laugh at myself trying to turn over though! It's like a beached whale! Really. I have to like literally try to flip myself over without everything going, "Snap! Crackle! Pop!" The same thing happens when I've been sitting at my desk and get up to walk around. It's like all my joints want to just...

My family and Greg's family had a baby shower for us in July. It was so great to see everyone! Here are just a few photos to highlight the event. I still need to get my mom's photos because she took more than I did. As the guest of honor, I was mostly required to open presents! Maria had her baby about one week after this, so good thing we got a picture of both of us pregnant at the same time. I wondered if that would happen! Glad it did. The awesome shower planners did a great job. The menu consisted of yummy fruit kabobs, chicken/rice salad on a croissant, nut cups, and delicious slushy punch. The decorations were so cute! It's hard to see in the picture, but my mom and sisters did sugar cookie cut-outs of sports shapes and then put "T" on some of them for Thomas. Sarah also made a really cute diaper cake. Stacie did the invites. And Sharon and Chan helped with all of the planning and logistics. It was such a fun day! I got so many cute things for th...

Happy 4th of July! Here I am at about 23 weeks. Feeling pretty good! For the 4th, my hard-workin', awesome, warrior, bread-winner husband was out supporting us (THANK YOU!) and I went up to Pleasant View to spend time with the fam. Emily's family is here from Nebraska, and we had a great weekend. Here are a few highlights. Sarah and Eliza. We can see where E gets those pretty blue eyes! Look at that little sweetie hammin' it up for the camera! This was the attempt to get a photo of the grandkids in their cute red, white, and blues! Tanner is the ham in this pic! Emily's new hair cut is so so so cute! And we were all so glad to get to see Colbie again. She wasn't sure who any of us were at first. But now Grandma tells me that Colbie will come to her. These two are only about two months apart.

Wow! I can't believe it's been 20 weeks already. That's halfway, right? I have had a terrific pregnancy so far. I have some of the common "aches and pains" but have done really well. It's awesome. I will have to post another picture again soon, because this bump is getting harder and harder to hide. Sometimes I feel a little self-conscious about it in a way, but I think I need to embrace it more and not try to hold it in! (Not that I do or can anyway!) The best thing lately is feeling the baby move more and more and knowing that's what I'm feeling. I totally notice movement after eating, and also sometimes when I play the organ. I think it's just louder so the baby can hear it and reacts a little. It will be fun to see if that continues and let's all pray they get Greg's awesome singing voice! We went to a movie last night, and the baby was really moving during that. Probably because it's so loud in the theater. A week or so...

Man! Full body shots are not at all my fave. I have to do a better pose next time where Greg's not looking up at me while laying on the couch. That's always been like my least favorite camera angle. But can you see that little belly showing? This is 17 and a half weeks. My waist is disappearing and it for sure seems like my already well-endowed bust line has expanded! I'm just trying to take it all in stride even though it's sort-of weird that your body isn't your own anymore in some ways. But I think it's totally awesome that my body is designed for this. Go women! Every day I really feel like it's a miracle that I'm even having a baby. That's such a cool blessing that I wondered if I'd have, and now it's happening, and it's really surreal at times, but totally awesome, too. Other than the fact that I've had a horrible sore throat (due to allergies) I feel great. (Well, still headaches here and there.) I'm not sure if ...

The weekend of Mother's Day we babysat my co-worker's dog. Her name is Chaco and she's a large Brazilian Mastiff. 100 pounds! She was very good and basically just followed me around the house wherever I went. The first night she was here, she slept on her doggy bed outside of our room, but in the morning she followed Greg down when he left for work, and started crying when he left! So I called her back upstairs and she slept right next to my bed until we got up for a walk. She has a hard time being alone I think. We had fun babysitting...or dogsitting, but we don't have plans to get a dog anytime soon! Here are a few photos of our Chaco adventures. She is a lummox and would just fall asleep by us wherever we were! When we tried to get her to stay outside, she would cry and bark and scratch our door. So she was usually in the house until on Saturday when Greg got the case of "We need to clean and vacuum and not have a dog in the house." So we left her outsid...

Heartbeat Yesterday we got to hear our little baby's heartbeat! It was really awesome and reassuring to know that everything sounded great. 170 beats a minute. I'm totally announcing the pregnancy now, although most people already know! I am almost at 13 weeks, which is good. I am plagued with horrible headaches though. Sometimes my sisters and mom would get them in the second trimester. I took one Tylenol and half of an Excedrin (the kind with Tylenol and caffeine) today, because I just couldn't think, and it worked. I hate doing that, but after suffering for three days, I just needed some relief. I hope these headaches go away sometime, but it's OK to have to live with it for awhile because I'm just happy that we have this little miracle growing and preparing to enter the world. If it comes out addicted to caffeine, we'll know why! Hee hee. Heartburn It seems to come more often now. Tums work though! Just a quick story about a night that I had the wors...

I think all pregnant women should indulge in a little brownie batter every now and then, don't you? I made brownies for a potluck tonight and I just couldn't resist that deliciously smooth, chocolaty batter! Now I have a headache though...do you think I overdosed?! Hee hee. We have another doctor appointment next week. I'm looking forward to that and hope we get to hear the baby's heartbeat. My life before the baby was so focused on trying to get one. Now it's focused on trying to keep it! And, probably when I have it, I'll be focused on trying to survive. I'm excited for that life though. So in other news...we had a great Easter and conference weekend. We went to Pleasant View to visit my family and also Greg's. Greg went with his dad to the Priesthood session and they both said how wonderful it was. My mom made a totally yummy brunch! I need to remember to post the recipe here. It's so easy and good and involves a crock pot, eggs, baco...

Greg and I call our little embryo, 'Embry.' We had an ultrasound last week and everything still looked great. It was a regular abdominal ultrasound, so not as detailed as I've gotten used to! But you could still see that there is still a baby growing in there. It's so weird to me sometimes because I've been so blessed not to be really sick or anything. And, I'm now off of the progesterone, so that's probably going to help me feel even better I hope! Here's some pregnancy stuff that I've noticed that I'm sure all the moms can relate to: One day I craved refried beans for lunch. Just the beans. No tortilla. No cheese. No chips. Just plain ol' beans warmed up! Funny lunch, but at the time it hit the spot. Smells are weird to me now. Even stuff that I thought used to smell good, sometimes bothers me. (It's been weird to experience all of this after hearing others talk about it. You never fully understand until you're the one e...

I haven't been as consistent at posting lately! Good thing I still have a real journal to document stuff. But, for those awesome people who love us, you're probably wondering how things are going with our baby quest. The short answer? Great! Here's a longer version. So, we did the embryo transfer while we were still in CA and that went really well. We were able to start driving home that same day with me just resting in the back seat. When we got home we had about a two week wait to see if everything was looking good on the bloodwork. And it was! Then we had about another one week wait to do another blood test and everything was still good. So then we had about a week or two wait to have an ultrasound, which we did, and that went really well, too! So things are progressing really well. We are very grateful and have had lots of amazing blessings throughout this process. I am still nervous about things at times because it's so early, at least to me, so you won...

Well, that might not be the best title, but it works. So last Sunday we did the egg retrieval and they were able to get 15 mature egss, which was great. Eleven of those fertilized. Another great thing! Now the embryos are just growing and dividing under the very capable hands of Dr. Stone, the embryologist. He's been calling us each morning with an update. Friday should be the embryo transfer, and we hope it works perfectly! Luckily I have been able to stay positive and fairly calm (except for my occasional moments of insanity that we all experience from time to time.) through this whole experience. We have been to the temple twice, and that has really helped I'm sure. Not to mention all the people praying for us. I am a prayer hog right now! Tonight's temple night was awesome. Greg and I were asked to be the witness couple, so that's always great. It was one of those times when you can feel that Satan is trying to give you all of these negative and contenti...

Here are some of our pictures from California so far. We all got new shoes at REI today on the 3rd Street Promenade in Santa Monica. Greg's shoes are Scarpa. Mine are Chaco sandles. Mom's are North Face with the "no-tie" twisty thing on the back that tightens the laces. She's excited about that. Here's me and Greg on the 3rd street promenade. Greg bought a little plane that helped him feel better and less nervous about flying here. He flew into the Long Beach Airport, which is small and easy to navigate and much simpler than going through LAX. Mom has been crocheting her dish towels. Here's the beach and the beautiful greenery here. The weather has been nice and in the low 60s most days. The LA temple is beautiful! It's really big and the grounds are immaculate. Route 66 ends right on the Santa Monica Pier, so that was kind-of fun to see. Zoltar told my fortune. He told me not to sleep in! Anyone who knows me will think that's funny because ...