Week 28

Well, I made it into the 3rd trimester!  It's exciting to know that the baby could survive if he was born today.  We have almost everything ready, I think.  We got the stroller and car-seat yesterday and even figured out how to put it all together!  Like I told my mom yesterday, we have a place for the baby to sleep, something for him to wear, and a way to get him home from the hospital!  I know we don't have everything, but I think we have a dang good start.  Here are some amazing pictures....

 

 

I've been feeling the baby move around a lot more lately.  He doesn't have as much room as he did before, and I can really feel it.  I'm ready to be done with this.  As much fun as swollen feet and getting kicked in the ribs is, I think David should get a chance to hold this little bundle!

I do have a story about David.  Some people are born to be parents.  I know that I was not one of those people, but I've been doing my best to learn!  David is one of those people.  I've heard it said that men become dad's when they first hold their child.  I remember when we were just dating, my mom said (after only having met David once) that he was meant to be a father.  He already had that spark.  The other day, we were driving home from dinner with my family and David turned to me and said "I just don't understand it."
"Understand what?"
"Our baby isn't even a real person, but I just love him so much already!"
I think I almost started crying at this point (pregnancy hormones, I'm sure of it), but it touched me so much.  I had to tell him that our baby is a real person, he just isn't ready to come out yet.  David is going to be an amazing father.  I knew that from when we were just dating.  I love to watch how excited he gets when we get baby stuff or when he can feel the baby move or when we go to the doctor and he gets to see a little glimpse of our boy.  I'm so glad he's going to be there to help me through all my fumbling to become a good mother.  I know he'll be an amazing dad!

Weeks 26 and 27

Well, I'm about 2/3 done with this pregnancy!  Which is really good because I don't know how much longer I can stand it.  I love my baby, but I sure don't love being pregnant.  I probably won't put up the pictures for week 25 because they were on our laptop and that computer has recently died.  Hopefully we will be able to get the files off the hard drive at some point, but that won't be for awhile.  So here are some lovely pics!

Week 26

This is how my sister did all of her pregnancy shots.  She would try to suck in and make her belly not look as big, but I'm showing way more than she did so I just look ridiculous!

My mom told me to push my belly out and David decided he wanted to join in.

Week 27!

I had a doctor's appointment yesterday where they checked for gestational diabetes and did an ultrasound.  That was not my favorite test to do!  I haven't heard back from the doctor with the results so I'm hoping that no news is good news!

Some fun new developments are that I am now down to about 2 pairs of pants and 4 shirts that kind of fit.  I can't wear my wedding ring anymore.  I think that's more because I think I broke that finger about a year ago and now with all the lovely pregnancy hormones, it's making that all swell up again because it's a little sore when I wake up in the morning and I can't put my ring on, even when my hands are cold.  So I just wear it on a necklace and everything is ok.  We have just about everything (I think) for the baby, at least to start out with!  Thanks to everyone who has donated things for the cause!  We appreciate it all! 

This is an exciting week at our house because tomorrow is David's big concert!  I think he's getting a little nervous about it, but I know he'll do great.  I'm so proud of him and all the hard work he puts into his music.  I know that people always joke around about how little music teachers make, but I majored in art so I obviously don't care about making money!  As long as David is doing what he loves, I'm happy. If we can get a recording, I'll try to put it on here for those that won't be able to make it. 

So that's life for us around here!  More updates to come!

Week 24 (and David's dream)

I sort of missed weeks 22 and 23.  I don't actually remember if I got those pictures taken because life was pretty crazy.  Anyways, here are my 24 week pictures!  I feel like I look gigantic and gross, so please don't judge me.



My mom told me to wrap my arms around my belly to frame it...I felt very awkward....

April was super super busy.  The first week of April was David's concerto competition, I took pictures for my friends wedding, and getting ready to move.  The second week was finals for the concerto competition, my mom's graduation, and our concert with the IF Symphony (and getting ready to move).  The third week was moving out of our old apartment (including all the cleaning), moving into our new one, and driving to Missouri for David's brothers wedding!  Needless to say, last week I did not get a whole lot done because I was recuperating.  We still haven't unpacked all the way, but we're getting closer!

I had thought that travelling while pregnant wasn't going to be much different than travelling otherwise.  I was wrong.  My feet got incredibly swollen because of the super long drive and I got the worst leg cramps, especially on the drive home.  I didn't want to take my turn driving at all because I was afraid my legs would cramp up and I'd get us in an accident.  I tried to be as smart about travelling as I could and David tried to help too.  We took lots of breaks so I could get out and walk around, I tried to drink a lot of water, and I tried to put my feet up as best I could while in the van.  I felt bad for everyone else in the van because I was definitely the weakest link. 

Sometimes being pregnant can be very frustating.  You just can't do things the same way you used to, no matter how hard you try.  I don't like to feel like I'm not pulling my weight, whether it be at work, home, or church, and I feel like that a lot now just because I can't do everything I used to.  I got released from my calling and I think it's just because I'm pregnant.  Don't get me wrong, I love not having to play in church anymore!  But now I don't have a calling, David doesn't have a calling, and I just feel like we're going to get forgotten like we were for the first year and a half we were in our ward. 

Enough of that debby-downerness, I have another fun story about David's awesome sleeping habits!  Last night, I woke up to David pulling on my head (like he was trying to lift it off the mattress).  I thought he was trying to get me to change my sleeping position, so I did, but he kept pulling on my head.  Finally I asked him what he was doing and he said "Your head needs to come off.  He he he! " and then he turned over and started snoring.  I was very confused!  It actually took me a minute to realize he was really asleep.  I have no idea why he did that and he didn't remember doing it after I told him about it.  It makes me laugh now!

So Proud!

There has been so much that has happened in the last few weeks, I don't even know where to begin.  First off, I have to brag about my amazing husband.  David worked so hard to get ready for the concerto competition.  I wrote in my last post about how nervous I was for the preliminaries.  I was actually kind of relieved that I couldn't be there for the finals (I had to go to rehearsal for the IF Symphony in order to go to my mom's graduation that friday).  But my mom and my grandma went to support him in my stead!  That made me very happy because I was sad David wouldn't have family there to support him. 

 

During rehearsal, I kept looking at the clock and trying to figure out if he'd gone yet or to see if he or my mom had sent me a text, but all I got was a text from David saying "you can call whenever" which told me nothing.  As soon as we had a break, I jumped out of my chair to call him.  As soon as he got on the phone, I tried to decide if he sounded happy or sad, but couldn't decide.  I asked him how he played.  Oh, fine.  I messed up a little. So I tried to ask him how everyone else did.  Oh, pretty good I guess.  So do you want to hear who won?  Um...yes!!!  Well there was a saxaphone player......and......(I about started crying at this point because I thought he was going to tell me someone else for the 2nd winner).....and me......   I almost started jumping around at that point because I was so excited!  I knew how hard he worked for it and, no matter how much he tried to act like he didn't care, I knew he really wanted to win. 

 

I am so proud of him and so happy that such a good thing could happen.  It's easy to feel like everything is going wrong in life, so it's good when you get a win every once in awhile!  David asked me if we were going to get him anything special to wear and I said of course!  It might just be a colored vest and tie, but I think he wants kind of a big deal made out of this, so we're going to make a night out of it!  I don't usually like to buy frivolous things, but I can make an exception for this!  The concert, I believe, is on May 23 and we would love for any and all friends and family to be there! 

 

The next exciting thing that happened recently is my mother graduated with her bachelors degree.  37 years ago, my mom started her undergraduate education.  She started at (what was then) Ricks College.  She graduated from there with her Assosiates Degree, and then went down to BYU to get her Bachelors.  In the middle of that degree, she decided to come home for Thanksgiving dinner (something she was debating on).  Good thing she did because that is where she met my dad.  A month later, they were engaged!  And a year after that, married!  The only drawback was, they got married one semester before my mom graduated.  She dropped out of school so she could move back to Rexburg to be with my dad.  She told me that that was the biggest regret she had in her life, not finishing her Bachelors degree. 

 

Well, awhile back she got a job up at BYU-Idaho, and along with that job she could take a few credits every semester for free!  It was the perfect chance for her to finish and she took it!  This time, she decided that instead of textile and clothing, she would do an art degree with an emphasis in Illustration (she is an amazing artist).  It took her awhile to finish the degree because she had to start at the beginning of all the art classes and she also had to take a lot of psychology classes (either her cluster or minor, I don't remember). 

 

I remember when she first started taking classes, she was very nervous about being the "old lady" in the class.  But she got past those fears and worked hard to get a great education.  I remember walking with her through the bookstore and we ran into a girl I went to high school with that was also an art major.  She said hello to me, but spent 15 minutes talking with my mom about all the art classes they had taken together!  It made me laugh.

 

I am so proud of my mom for going ahead and accomplishing the goals that she set out to do!  I know it wasn't easy for her and she always said it was a lot harder for her (especially in the psychology classes) because she has an old brain that doesn't remember things as well.  I was always so impressed at how hard she worked and how much time and effort she put into her education! 

 

I have learned so much from her.  I've learned that you shouldn't let yourself be afraid of going after things that you want.  Also, that learning is a lifelong process.  She is always taken random classes like ceramics, ham radio certification, and all sorts of things like that.  It inspires me to take more chances and to try to keep learning all I can.

 

Well, she really didn't want to walk for graduation, but we all made her so that we could make a big deal and support her just like she's done for us all these years.  Here are some pictures of it to finish off this long post!



She's thinking "I wish I could just go home and chill with my doggie..."

My grandma entertained the boys very well through this whole thing!  Well, her phone did...

The two babies...

The man with the red is my mom's boss.

Yay for a degree!

All of the kids here for our Mama.

This is everyone minus Tyler (Lisa's husband) and David (my husband)

Way to go Mama!

Weeks 20 and 21

Well, I made it to the half way point!  In case you missed it, we're having a boy!  The more I think about it, the more excited I get.  I ran into one of my old volleyball coaches the other day and she told me that girls are fun and it's a great bonding experience, but boys are so much fun.  She says that especially now that her boys are getting to be teenagers, she gets to hear everything from the boys perspective and it makes her laugh every day!  I'm pretty excited.  Here's some pictures:

Week 20

 A little preface for these next pictures, I usually have my mom take the pictures because we go to her house for Sunday dinner.  But this week we didn't go to their house so I had David take my picture.  Well, 34 pictures to be exact.  Pretty much as soon as I gave him the camera he just started snapping.  It made me laugh pretty hard.

He started out by turning the camera towards himself and taking his own picture, something he loves to do!

This is my hair.  At least it looks silky!

Yes, he did take this picture upside down.

 A close up of my belly.

This is the best one.  Yay for 21 weeks!

It's still weird to me to have people I don't know comment on my pregnancy.  I'm so used to people not being able to notice that it's weird.  It's kind of like when I look in the mirror, I still picture myself as the way I was before I got pregnant so it's still a little bit of a surprise when I see my belly! 


It's been really fun this week to be able to feel my little boy kicking and moving pretty regularly.  During the day, it's not as regular.  But every night between 10 and 10:30 I can feel some pretty good kicks!  David hasn't felt it yet, but that's not because the baby isn't kicking hard enough.  David just always comes in right when he stops.  Maybe I'll make him just sit with me for that whole half hour so he can feel it! 


April is probably going to be the busiest month for the next little while.  I work at the chocolate shop, do some work for my mom, and play in the Idaho Falls Symphony so I am kept pretty busy.  We have a concert this weekend and it's going to be a lot of fun!  It's the concert for the concerto competition winners and we're also doing Beethoven's 5th Symphony!  Beethoven is my favorite composer so I'm really excited.  I don't think the baby will get a lot of sleep during that concert!  Also this week is my mom's graduation.  I'll probably write a whole post about that later, but my mom went back to school and is going to graduate with her bachelor's degree!  We're all very proud of her.  Last week I took some pictures for my friends wedding.  It was a very long day.  I took pictures and did the wedding, so that was a 13 hour day for me.  Next week we will be moving and going to Missouri for David's brothers wedding.  It's going to be busy.


Something exciting that happened last week is David made it to the finals for the concerto competition for the college!  The finals are this Wednesday night.  I won't be able to go watch because I have to go to rehearsal, but I'm almost relieved because of how nervous I get for him!  He did amazing at the performance last week so I know he'll do good for the finals.  I'll post on here the results and the video of his performance!  If he wins, he'll perform with the BYU-Idaho Symphony during the summer semester.


So many things going on!  When I think about the summer, I feel like it's going to be so much more relaxing.  Hopefully it is, because of things get much busier, I am going to have to try and wean myself off sleep.  Sorry this post is so long, but there's so many things to talk about!  Hopefully next time will be a little shorter. Tilln

Weeks 18 and 19

Well, I'm half way done with this pregnancy!  That's really exciting because I'm ready to be done.  People say the second trimester is easier than the first, and it has been for the most part, but I get the feeling that I didn't have it as easy as some.  For one thing, I have thrown up more the second trimester than the first!  That would be due to my awesome gag reflex that has surfaced.  Things that used to kind of make me sick now immediately send me to the porcelain throne.  So that's been fun. 

 

I also have had some exciting stuff happen, I have been able to feel the baby move!  I can feel him move around most at night starting about 9 or so until I go to bed.  I've read that that's pretty normal because that's what you sit the most and the baby doesn't get rocked to sleep so they are awake and start to get restless.  It's fun for me!  David says he's scared to feel the baby move because then that makes it real.  But I think when he finally can feel it he'll be really excited. 

 

I'm sure there is more to say, but I can't think of it right now.  Here are some lovely pictures!

 



Week 18

Week 19

We found out the gender this week!  I had the appointment in the morning, which I was really glad for because I was really excited about this appointment.  My doctor is kind of a quirky guy, but I really like him.  Every appointment I've had, he always says something like "Well, you're still pregnant" or "There's still a baby in there" and it's that kind of dry humor that always makes me laugh.  We got to keep a video of the ultrasound so when we went to my parents house for the gender reveal party, I got to show them!  They got to see the baby, his little arm he kept putting up by his face, how close the baby is to my bladder (yes, the doctor did show me that, probably to make me feel better about having to pee all the time!), and the bonus was that they got to see the baby sticking his tongue out!  That was funny to see.  David and I were both expecting it to be a boy so that wasn't much of a surprise.  It made me laugh, though, because now my mom has 5 grandsons and zero granddaughters.  We all decided that in about 3 years, any family gathering is going to be crazy and loud!

The cake I made - blue for boy!



It's a boy - And we couldn't be more excited!

Reclaimed

Today in Relief Society, this video was shared.  I remember when this talk was given because it's one of the few talks that actually mentions Idaho!  Idaho Falls is 30 minutes away from my house so it's something that I know very well.  I don't know why this talk touched me so much today, but it's something that I really believe in.  We all make mistakes and we do everything we can to get past it, but sometimes it's hard for other people to forget about the mistakes you make.  I think it's so great that through Christ we can be made into something beautiful even though we do things wrong.  Hopefully you enjoy it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a7V2ET7p5FA

David's Birthday

Last Saturday was David's 25th birthday!  I felt bad because I didn't have a lot planned for the day.  I let him sleep in for a long time (one of his favorite things to do)  while I got everything together for our trip to Wyoming and for getting our taxes done.  I woke him up just in time to go meet with our accountant and we went and got lots of money for our tax return!  Ok, maybe not lots of money for everyone else, but lots of money for us!  I think that was a good birthday present.  After that, I helped David with his homework so we could leave on our trip.  I drove so that David could sleep and relax.  It was a very long drive.  We were going there because my nephew was getting blessed.  We ended up getting there just before dinner got over, and ended up having cake and ice cream for David! (thanks for providing the cake Mom, and the ice cream David and Emily)  After that we went to our hotel (again, thanks Mom and Dad!) and had a lot of fun swimming with Joni, Chade, Ledger, Emily, and the boys!  And that was pretty much David's birthday.  Kind of boring so I hope David still had fun. 

So now time to talk about how awesome David is!  I know we have a VERY different relationship than most couples.  My mom has said that we act more like siblings than a couple because we are always teasing and being sarcastic and joking around rather than being smoochy and super nice and all that newlywed stuff.  But I have to say, I like our relationship better!  David is my best buddy ever.  Whenever something happens to me, he's the first one I want to tell.  Even when I crochet or sew something and I know he could care less, I still have to show him so that I can share it with him! 

He's also really great because even when he thinks I'm being ridiculous, he'll still induldge me.  Like my obsession with animals.  He thinks I'm so dumb when I freak out over cute puppies or kittens, but then when he sees some kind of cat video or picture on facebook he'll immediately show it to me so I can gawk over it.  It makes me laugh every time because he knows I like stuff like that and I know he doesn't, but he still shares it anyways.

I think the thing that I'm most excited for is when we finally have the baby.  I know David's going to be such a good father.  He is so good with little kids and is super excited to have one of our own.  When I first found out I was pregnant, I had a really hard time.  I don't like to tell people this because I feel like it makes me sound like a bad person, but after I found out, I was terrified and scared.  I wasn't excited.  I wanted to cry because of how awful I felt.  I knew I should be excited, but I couldn't do it.  I didn't even want to tell David because I wanted to wait until I could feel even a little bit of excitement.  But then I realized, that was stupid.  So I told him and he did everything I hoped he would.  He was so excited, his face lit up, and he did everything he could to help calm my fears and help me to be excited about this new phase of life!  It really meant a lot to me that he didn't judge me because of how I felt and simply tried to help me feel better.

David does some things that drive me crazy and sometimes I get a little overwhelmed by his extroverted-ness, but I'm very glad he's in my life.  He loves our little family and would do anything to make me happy.  Happy 25 David, and I'm looking forward to celebrating many, many more birthdays with you!

Red Dress Concert

Our first picture together!  Buddies for life!

Goodbye Sleep!

This last week has brought some....fun...changes to my life.  I have discovered that I am probably never going to get a good night's sleep for a very long time.  Right now, I usually wake up every 1 or 2 hours at night because I get so uncomfortable and sore.  Whichever side I lay on, after about an hour or 2, I feel like I'm getting bruises, especially on my hips.  So I wake up a lot at night because I have to reposition myself and attempt to get comfortable again.  I told my doctor about it and he said he'd never heard of that before, that most pregnant women don't have that much trouble sleeping till later and they usually just wake up because of back pain or the baby moving.  But I talked to my visiting teacher last night (who is also pregnant) and she said she was having the same thing.  She said she ordered a body pillow and told me she'd let me know if it helps at all!  I was thinking about lining my whole side of the bed with an extra layer of pillows, but one body pillow might be less fussy.

Another reason I don't sleep well at night is because of another new development.  I started having these terrible nightmares every night for the past week.  On wednesday, after a particularly bad night, I ended up telling David about them and was crying the whole morning (which actually isn't that unusual because I cry a lot anyways and it is always made worse when I don't get a lot of sleep).  He was very nice about it and bought me a treat and helped talk me into a better mood.  But I wake up a lot because of those nightmares.  I told my visiting teacher about this too, and she said she had heard of it a lot.  They aren't nightmares about having babies, they are all just really violent and dark.  I think they're getting better, though.  Either that or I have just been so exhausted that my body won't allow me to wake up.  This is one thing that I really hope goes away fast.

So between those 2 things and the fact that I have to get up and go to the bathroom and am growing a person, I am very tired.  But I still make myself go to work every day and play in the symphony because I figure that when the baby comes, I'm still going to be tired and I don't want to stop enjoying what I love just because I'm tired!  It's just good practice for when the baby does get here, or at least that's what I keep telling myself.

On a happier note, my stomache has popped this last week.  Before it just kind of looked like I had eaten to much or that I had let myself go after getting married, but now it is a for real baby bump!  I'm glad about that because I was starting to feel self-conscious because I just looked pudgy.  Although, right now I'm at the in-between stage where I'm almost too big for regular jeans but not big enough for maternity pants.  It's fine most of the time, except when I'm sitting in rehearsal for symphony and can't recline back or anything for 2.5 hours.  My mom said I should start wearing dresses, but it's still snowy and cold!  So I'll keep that for my backup plan in case I get desperate. 

Oh, and we find out the gender on March 25th (Mom, I know I told you the 28th but I was wrong), so that's something to look forward to!  You could probably all make your guesses now!  I told David if it's a girl he has to buy me shoes and if it's a boy then I have to get him sushi.  I don't care either way, but David wants a boy and I just want to disagree with him to be annoying.  So my next post (because I don't post very often) will probably be the gender!  Yay for us!

Recap

I want to get down just a few things that have happened the last few weeks.  The end of January, I ended up taking some engagement pictures for one of my good friends.  It was a freezing cold morning and they were really good sports about it!  I might post some of the pictures later.  I love taking pictures, but I don't love the editing.  That's part of the reason it costs so much to get your picture taken, because you are also paying for the editing time.  So I had that going on first.

Then, the beginning of February, my dad got a call that said his mother, my grandmother, was in the hospital and probably wouldn't be coming out.  My dad is from Seattle and that's where most of his family is.  He knew he had to get up there quickly so that he could be able to see her before she died.  For those of you who don't know, my grandma was one of the funniest, quirkiest people I knew, but she was not in good health.  My dad is the only member of our church in his family.  So because my grandma wasn't LDS, she smoked and drank coffee all her life.  She also had diabetes.  And a lot of other health complications that surfaces as she reached the end of her life.  But through it all, she still remained as spunky as ever.  We usually described her as a 60 pound, 5 foot tall woman who smoked like a chimney and swore like a sailor.  That's the most accurate description you will find!  Even though she wasn't a member, she still respected our family and the choices we made.  Especially when it came to getting an education and not living with our boyfriends before we got married.  Right after she became mostly unresponsive, my dad managed to find some alone time with her and give her a priesthood blessing.  I think that's one of the sweetest things he could've done for her.  I know her death was very hard on my dad because he tried to stay as close to her as possible.  He called her every week and drove up to washington any time she needed help of any kind.  It was a very sad weekend, but also stressful because of what happened next.  My grandma died on a saturday, and my new nephew was born on that next tuesday!  We all joked about how she was giving him lessons on how to be a true Mitchell.

My sister-in-law Emily had a very up and down pregnancy.  I'm not going to go into all the details, but basically she was having a lot of RH factor problems.  She has negative blood and the baby has positive.  A recipe for disaster.  I have actually always heard that that's why my dad has hearing problems, because of that same situation.  Anyways, they live in Wyoming about 2 or 3 hours away from Rexburg.  They were planning on having the baby in Jackson, but found out the night before the scheduled C-section that the hospital wasn't equipped to handle her situation and they would have to go to University of Utah or come to Idaho Falls.  They chose Idaho Falls which meant that we could all help out as much as possible.  My brother was able to be there for the procedure and to see the baby for a little, but then had to leave with one of their sons to go back to Wyoming.  He had already used up all of the sick days for work because of all the other doctor appointments.  While Emily was in the hospital and David was back in Wyoming, their (now) middle son Zach was pretty much homeless.  He was staying with my parents, but since both of my parents work, we all got a chance to help out and babysit!  He is actually a really good boy, but none of us are really prepared to deal with children of that age yet!  2 of us girls don't have kids and the other one has a 4 month old, so it was quite a change and very exhausting.  This wouldn't have been so bad if it didn't fall on the same week as the Idaho Falls Symphony concert!

On wednesday of that week, I had to leave to go to my parent's house at 8:30 so I could babysit Zach.  I left at 11:45 so I could go to work at noon.  I left work at 6 so I could be home by 6:10 so we could leave for rehearsal.  We didn't get home from rehearsal till 10:30.  So from 8:30 in the morning till 10:30 at night, I spent a total of 10 seconds actually in my apartment.  I love playing in the symphony and I wouldn't give it up for anything short of a major emergency, but that week was so tiring.  We had 2 rehearsals and a concert, I worked about 25 hours, and watched Zach for about 10ish hours.  It was a very full week.

 I was supposed to play piano in church that weekend as well, but I knew there was no way I would be able to find time to practice and I would probably play horrible because there were so many other things going on.  I told David that that was one of the weeks when we should've been on the relief society compassionate service list and had people bring us food or clean the house or something.  Because our diet consisted of Raman and crackers and we were both lucky to have any clean clothes or dishes.  David was really good throughout it all.  He knows that family is the most important thing to me, so when my family is going through a hard time, I'm going through a hard time.  And being pregnant doesn't help.  I cry a lot.  Like when I couldn't find chocolate chips at Wal-Mart.  It's easy to feel overwhelmed.  So he tries to help me calm down and see that everything is going to work out and that the house doesn't need to be clean, that this is one of those weeks when it can just be ignored. 

Things are better now.  The baby is still in the NICU, but doing well!  I have to play piano this week, so I'm not looking forward to that.  But things are returning to normal.  We had a relaxing Valentines where I worked for 10 hours, we went grocery shopping, then fell asleep at 9 while watching a movie.  But it was good.  Now we're off to do weather and get a pop!  So the weekend is starting off good!