Yellowstone

Well, I've decided that I don't really need another trip to go to Yellowstone. The three foot geyser I had coming out of the hot water connection to our washing machine and subsequent 1" of standing water in our "laundry room" area was excitement enough. Then, after Dan had fixed it last night with one whole load of laundry through without incident, this morning I woke up to lake placid outside of my bedroom door. Apparently it started leaking just after he left for work and I cleaned it up. I have used ALL of our towels in the last two days to get this managed. When I left for work this afternoon I just shut off all water to the washing machine and decided that more drastic measures will need to be taken before I will ever get to wash clothing in my own home (which I have been waiting to do since last October).

In more up-beat news my mother-in-law is coming today. My sister-in-law is due to have her baby at any time now (and will be induced Friday if she doesn't start on her own) and she's coming down to help watch the kids. I consider this time for free sewing advice, which is always welcome.

Speaking of sewing last weekend I sewed the binding on a little receiving blanket for my sister-in-law's new baby and also a bunting for mine. They both turned out so unbelievably cute and it was good to have something productive to do with myself for a while. The bunting was incredibly easy and boosted my confidence with my new sewing machines! After the laundry bag fiasco, it's good to know that I really do know what I'm doing.

As for pregnancy news, I went to the doctor yesterday and I asked him about the iron making me puke all the time. He said that I should stop taking the iron. My counts aren't really that low and if it's making me throw up the food that I'm eating then it's probably not helping with iron (or any other vitamin/mineral I need) anyway. So I'm off the iron. Other than that I'm just great.

Post Birthday Wrap-Up

Well Dan's birthday was a roaring success! I was so keyed into getting up and going at the same time he did that I didn't really sleep the night before. It was just like Christmas. Then when we got up he went to the shower while I hung his HAPPY BIRTHDAY letters (which I think I will leave up for at least a week because I like them so much) and make the pancake cake. In my family the birthday breakfast is a big part of the day. At the birthday breakfast you get to have a pancake cake and open all your family presents. So when I finally finished the pancakes and he blew out his candles he got to open his presents.

• A pair of pajama pants with horses on them
• A nail brain teaser
• The Everything Father's first year book
• $25 gift card to Walmart
• Country Living interior book
• Soldering Unit

All in all he had a pretty good haul for his breakfast party! Later that day more presents arrived:

• A rotary sander
• Birthday card

Then today another birthday card came from his parents! Man he is loved! I'm pretty sure more presents are in the mail for him too! Plus, I made him an applesauce cake. He asked me to make it so I thought I'd acquiesce. Since I didn't have the recipe I had to get it from my sister-in-law, but it was worth it. He also got a chocolate cake for his birthday from his brother and sister-in-law and I think his brother took him out to lunch. I think it was a pretty good day for him!

Castles in the Air

Lately I've been thinking a lot about the things that my husband and I do without. (If you think this post is going to be complaining, then you should read on because it's not.) I am married to a "bowl and spoon" sort of man. By that I mean that if he were on his own he would have in his apartment: a bowl, a spoon, his crash pad, and his clothing. With these things he would be perfectly happy and content. Through the past year and a half of our marriage I have learned a whole lot about being content in this manner. He is teaching me so much just by how he naturally thinks about things! We live without some things partly becuase we don't have all that much money and partly because as we have lived without some of the things we have learned that we don't really need them. I think our little single wide is cute and funny. Granted, I don't have a dishwasher, washer and dryer, TV, the internet, or even a bathtub that I can fit into. In fact the other night I decided I'd take a bath and while bending my legs into some sort of contotortionist maneuver to try and maximize the amount of body that was actually touching water I just started to laugh at myself.

Despite, or perhaps because of, all that, I really am truly happy. I love where I am, and who I'm with and what I'm doing. I do have to exercise self control and not get everything I see and want. I bet this will probably get much harder when I see things that I want for my children to get and we wont be able to. That is to say, living without somethings doesn't really come naturally to me. I do catch myself building castles in the air. I see where my husband and I are now and where we might be in 10, 15, or 30 years. I like to think about our family growing, and the two of us growing together. I like to think of milestones and achievements. I do admit that I also like to think of how established we might be. That we might eventually own a house (perhaps it could even be the house that my husband draws plans for?). I would enjoy having a dishwasher, and a big bathtub. Today, in fact, my husband is moving in our washer and dryer! They're probably something like 30 years old and the loudest things I've ever heard, but I'm so excited for them.

I don't think there's anything wrong with building castles in the air for our future so long as I remember how happy I am with what we do have now.

We're Back

Well, it certainly has been a long time since I updated. Since I do this during down time at work, when there is no down time there are no posts. Anyway, as for updates I went to my doctor's appointment last week and they told me that I'm anemic. So now I have to take iron supplements. I have to take them in the opposite time of the day as my prenatal vitamins. Since I take the vitamins at night (because they tended to make me sick) I now take the iron in the morning. Ever since I started taking the iron guess what little friend popped back into my life. Barfing. Yep, last night I completely emptied the entire contents of my stomach from dinner on at about 11 PM. So I guess I'm really back to taking the anti-nausea medicine because I threw up again this morning. Although yesterday afternoon I went on a crazy cleaning streak where everything I touched needed to be spotless, organized, and sanitized so at least the toilet bowl was sparkly clean as my face was in it!

But on the plus side of the iron supplements it really got me motivated finally to exercise and drink enough water. The funny thing is that all the benefits to exercising that they told us at our childbirth class (quicker delivery, quicker recovery after delivery, less complications in general) didn't really motivate me to get back into exercising once I had stopped months ago. The threat of constipation from the iron supplements got me completely motivated and I haven't missed a day since I started. I guess I just needed the right sort of motivation.

So now that you've heard all my disgusting pregnancy updates I'm sure you all wish you were me. I really do feel good besides all that. Exercising has really helped reduce the annoyance factor that I have been feeling lately so I'm sure my husband is also happier.

My baby is so cute! Everyone told me how later on when she got stronger she would move a little arm, leg, or bum across my stomach and you could see it. Well, she doesn't really do that. What she does like to do is stick an appendage straight out from my stomach so I get this small very hard lump. My husband's favorite thing to do is feel around my tummy and find the hard lumps and push them in and see where the next one will appear. It's pretty funny.

Another cool trick is that she can detect changes in light. When I put a flashlight on my tummy she moves away from wherever the light is. It's so funny! You can follow her around with the light and she'll always move away from it. That makes me wonder if she's afraid of it or something so I don't really do it too often.

She also will always wiggle around when my husband talks to her tummy. He'll come home or lean over and start talking to my tummy and I tell him that she must be asleep because she hasn't been moving much lately, but as soon as he starts talking to her she starts moving. It's so funny!

Actual conversation at 12:30AM a few nights ago:

Me: "Now I can't sleep because I'm really hungry!"
Husband: "Hmm that's too bad."
Me: "I wonder if I can go to sleep and just eat in the morning or if this will keep me up and I should just go eat."
Husband: No response
Me: "What do you think I should eat?"
Husband: "Perhaps a smackeral of honey."

Guess what tomorrow is? My sweetie's birthday! I have wrapped the present that I'm giving him and also put a bow on the card that came from my aunt and uncle in the mail and also the two other presents that came in the mail from my family so his birthday breakfast should be pretty good tomorrow. I'm so excited! Honestly I think I might be a little more excited than he is but 25 is a big one isn't it? Maybe not, but I just want him to know how special he is. This morning I spent some time cutting out big HAPPY BIRTHDAY letters that I'm going to hang up in our trailer to surprise him in the morning. Oh I hope he likes my present to him!

Guess what happens two months from today? My due date! Woohoo!

Bragging

Last Saturday my Sweetie took me out on a date. We weren't planning on going out, but when we got everything done we had planned for so quickly we just looked at each other and said, "Now what should we do?" Since we have no TV, and we've seen all our DVDs about a billion times the choice to go to town (30 minute drive) seemed pretty straight forward. What a treat! We haven't gone on a date like this in a loooong time. He took me to Sonic and we got ice cream and then we walked around Smith's Marketplace just looking at all their stuff for a while. I know this isn't really a fancy date, but it was so great to just be with him and talk and walk around. Then we made it to the infant clothing section of the store. He said that we needed to go look at the stuff. I'm always in for looking at cute little onesies and such so I agreed. Then he found a onesie that he fell in love with. He said we needed to buy it and I said, "We should probably take stock of what we already have. We've gotten a lot of clothing already so we need to know what size to buy the onesie in." His reply to this was, "We can get this for her going home outfit." Then he found cute little pink sweat pants to go with it (since it will be Logan in March) and worried about needing a hat or some other such things. Then he found a pack of 5 onesies that he decided to get too. As we were walking back to our car he said, "The first clothing that we bought for our little girl!" He was so happy! He was so cute! I love him so much!

Keeping with the same train of thought I thought I'd like to list just a few more things that I love about my husband and how great he is:

• He just finished my Christmas present last night and it is amazing! I love it so much! He spent 30 minutes last night just washing the mirror off so that it's sparkling clean. I think it's so cute how he puts his all into every project he does.


• The other night I was so uncomfortable in bed that after laying there for 20 minutes I just threw the sheets off me and stomped out of the room. When I came back in he just asked me how he could help! Then he gave me a back rub!


• Did I mention how much I love that he does the dishes every other night?! Isn't that amazing?! Oh how I love that man! I've taken two photos of him doing the dishes just because it makes me so happy! He thinks it's weird that I take pictures of him doing them because he doesn't think it's a big deal.


• Every night when he comes home he takes time to give me a good kiss and tell me he loves me! I try very hard to make sure that I let him know that I love him every day because I read in the parenting magazine that on the online pole they had 86% of moms had told their kids they loved them that day, but only 34% (I think that was the number, but even if it wasn't the number was so low I was surprised) had told their husband/significant other that same thing.


• My husband is so funny/silly. I know I post a lot of silly things he does, but rest assured that I don't post the bulk of it. He seems to love to make me laugh.

Well, that's it for now. I have to go think of something special I can do for him today because he's so great!

30 weeks!

Can you believe it?! I'm at 30 weeks! I realized yesterday that I must have completely lost the morning sickness sometime in the past 10 weeks. I can't really be sure when that happened though mostly because of the stomach flu I had sometime around week 27. I might have lost the morning sickness earlier, but those 3 days wanting to die really cloud my judgement. At any rate not only am I no longer getting sick, but I'm also off the anti-nausea medicine! I weaned myself down little by little (the doctor told me I could of course) and for a few days now I haven't taken any! Man this feels great!

The only drawback to being off the medicine is that the wonderful side effect of it being a sleeping medication is gone now too. I feel great during the day now, but at night after about an hour of laying down my entire body starts to scream at me. "How could you possibly think that laying down to sleep would be a good idea? Don't you know that your extra weight in the front of you will make the rest of you ache and hurt?" This morning I woke up at 3:30am and didn't fall back to sleep until well into the 5 o'clock hour. My Sweetie didn't have to leave for work until 7:30 today and on those mornings I really like to get up and have breakfast with him (I secretly think he really likes this too), but this morning when he gently asked me if I was getting up I had to say no. I should have just gotten up because once I was awake my body started to scream at me again and sleeping wasn't much of an option.

Does anyone know of any trick to sleeping that I'm unaware of? I'd really like to not continue taking the medicine just because I'm a wimp that can't sleep. (Although my doctor did say that he does give it to women that complain about not being able to sleep at the end of their pregnancies.) Plus, I realize that it makes me sleep in a whole lot more than I would like.

In other news I got my week 30 gift. Pink and cream striped fleece pants with a little pink bow. So cute!

Sewing

Well yesterday I was so excited about my surger being fixed that I went out and bought fabric for two projects that I've really been thinking about. First, the cradle mattress cover. Second, fabric to make replacement bags for our laundry bags. We bought a laundry bag hanging system when we got married and it works great. It has a plastic frame and three mesh bags that hang from it where we put our dirty clothing. Well, the mesh bags have not held up well. So I decided to get some lightweight canvas type fabric.

After I got home I decided to start with the bags since for that project I already had a pattern (the old bags). Well, let me tell you I must have been completely looney yesterday becuase I purchased only half the amount of fabric needed. That wasn't too bad I decided. I just started to make the first one anyway. Then when I was trying to put them together I cut out the bag so wrong somehow that it was 4 whole inches short in circumfrance! I have absolutely no idea how I managed to mess up that bag so badly! I was so upset by this that I decided to just give up on that project all together for the day. I'll go purchase more fabric and start over from scratch.

So to boost my spirits I decided to start on the mattress cover. I ended up making it like a duvet cover and I think I'll just get some velcro that I can put on the flap that goes around the back. If I had been a little more patient I could have waited for my mother-in-law to help (I didn't read that comment until this morning) and it probably would have turned out much better, but now it's done and it's servicable. I think I'm going to wait for my mother-in-law to help me with the laundry bags (since I've obviously proven my inability to make a simple bag.) It would be nice if I could put button holes in the canvas to go over the frame and I can't do that with a surger.

PS. As for photos of Charlotte's nursery, they're coming, I promise. I'm just having a little difficulty with transferring them. It shouldn't be hard so I don't really understand why it isn't working. (And this is where I show everyone my slowness with technology, oh well.)

Two Quick Questions

Three posts in one day seems a little overboard, but I had two questions:

1. I finally took my surger in to be repaired so now I can sew a mattress cover for the cradle mattress. I have to sew a new one since the piece of foam that I got from the upholstry store is thicker than the old mattress and I couldn't fit it in the old cover. (Don't even get me started on how I will never work with that upholstry store ever again!) Anyway, I was thinking about how I could do this without having to put in a zipper or hand sewing. My sister suggested that I make it like a pillow sham with two pieces that just overlap in the back. I thought this was a good idea, but I'm not sure. What do you think about getting the foam in and out of the cover like that? (My mom told me a trick with a garbage bag that might work.)
2. How long after Christmas can you leave your Christmas lights up on a single-wide trailer without looking like white trash? We're moving sometime in July so I know they'll be down by then.

Photos-my growth

My mom just showed me the photos that she took during Christmas and one was of me and my expanding mid-section. My perception is so distorted right now! I don't really feel all that large most of the time. I think that's just becuase I grew little by little and I've been big for a while now. I looked at a similar photo she took of me in September and I realize that I've grown-a lot. So I thought I'd let you all see my expanding girth.

This is me back in September. I think it's funny that I actually thought I was getting big back then! Yes, that is my single-wide trailer in the background. Isn't it beautiful?

This is me at Christmas. Neither of these photos are really great of me, but you get the idea. At work I sit behind a tall counter so that when customers walk in they can only see me from the bust line up. When a mom and daughter came in the other day I got up to show them something in the back of the store so all they saw was my bust line up and then my back side as they followed me. When I swung around to show them something the daughter said, "WOAH! When are you due?" and the mom said, "Congratulations." I thought the delayed reaction was so funny!

Patience is a Virtue

Well, I forgot the CD I had with all the photos I took on it at home when I went into work today so you wont get to see the glorious bounty that baby Charlotte already has. You'll just have to be patient.

Speaking of photos I decided to use my $50 from grandma/pa to get a memory stick. We borrowed one from my mom last year during the school year and ever since we gave it back to her I've missed being able to carry around all that information in such a compact and convienent format. When I told my husband my plan he was very supportive of it. I think this is because he plans on using it for med school in the coming years. This is fine with me since I've never even been close to needing all the space on one of those things at once. I was actually thinking that maybe I should buy him one for his birthday. (January 24th for anyone that wants to give him something or call him or think good thoughts for him.) I decided against it though since the main reason I wanted to get it was to use it as an easy and convienent way to transport photos from home to work so I can email them to family and friends. It seemed a little selfish to get him a present because I wanted to use it too. I have decided to get him something else entirely that I'm sure he'll enjoy and I really have no use for. Anyway, can you guess the first thing that went on the little device after I got it? Well, it wasn't any photos. It was my Sweetie's letter of intent that he's working on. Plus, he took it with him to California so I can't use it at all while he's gone! Lest anyone think I'm complaining, I'm not. I just think the whole situation is so funny! I never thought he'd like it so much! I'm sure I'll get plenty of opportunity to use it for my own reasons. I just need to be patient.

For the astute readers out there, yes my husband is in California. He left yesterday and had his interview at Loma Linda today and will be back tonight. I had awful sleep last night. He wasn't there and I've gotten used to him propping up my leg while I sleep and having a pillow at my back so that my ribs stop hurting. He wasn't there last night and boy did I feel it! Also I have this anxiety about his interviews. I thought that would pass once he was accepted into one school, but it hasn't. I still feel very anxious each time I know he's in an interview. I think it's just that I want the people he's interviewing with to see how incredible he is. He still has two interviews left (Ohio State, and NYMC). I'm not sure of the dates for either one though. I hope it's before mid February because I really don't want him in another state that close to my due date. Applying to medical school is the longest process! (I'm sure applying to dental school and law school are too.) I just wish it were over. I still day dream about him getting into UW and how great it would be to be so close to family. Not that a five hour drive is all that close, but it's way closer than Phillidelphia. Patience. Patience. Patience.

This next part isn't about being patient, but it does tie in becuase it's about my Sweetie. You know it's time to get yourself bigger undershirts when your husband sees you wearing it and comments on how you look similar to Winnie the Pooh. (How Pooh's shirt is always short over his tummy.) I did ask him if he knew that Pooh is described as being "tubby" and "stuffed with fluff." He said that Winnie the Pooh is also described as being a bear and I'm not a bear (also that Pooh can eat a whole meal just out of honey and I can't do that either.) Mostly I just thought it was funny, but I did get new undershirts.

Another thing that I have to be patient about is Charlotte's weekly present from Aunt Katie. My sister is the best sister/aunt ever and my baby hasn't even arrived yet! I know I've mentioned how I get weekly gifts from her before, but I've never gone into the excitement and anticipation I have each week as I visit the post office. I will make special trips each day just to check the mailbox. The only other things I get in the mail are bills and bulk mailings. It's been so great to know that each week I get something in the mail just for me (well for Charlotte, but for me too!) This has been the happiest mailbox I've ever had, even though I have to go a block to get to it! I feel so blessed to have a sister that is so excited to be an aunt! She's the only one (except for Daniel of course) that has been excited to feel the baby move. Sadly that didn't happen as much when I wanted it to. I wait, with varrying ammounts of patience, each week for our little manilla envelope of joy!

The thing I really need to be patient for right now is the arrival of baby Charlotte. After that childbirth class all I can think about is her arrival. Will my mom be here at the time? Will Charlotte come so that my sister's spring break lines up with it? When will we bless her? What will she look like? Will she have red hair? Will she have hair at all? I talked to my mom about her labors (my sister and me) and both were pretty short, if that's any indication of what I have to look forward to. Another change since the class we went to is Dan's attentiveness. He is such a sweet and loving husband! He keeps saying how he thinks I'm so brave and strong to do this and he would help me if he could. I think it's sweet, especially since I don't really feel all that brave or strong while complaining all the time. It's not like I really have any choice about this baby coming out at this point anyway. The only part of the birth that I think he will get distracted by is that I'm pretty sure that if/when I get the epidural he'll want to see that process and how it all works. Not that he's totally unfamilliar with the process though. I'm just so excited that I can't wait! Let's just cross our fingers she doesn't decide to arrive March 19th!

Childbirth Education

We just got out of our Childbirth Education class today. Wow, was it looooong! Dan kind of feel asleep for a while, but I couldn't even really get upset with him because it just took so long! (Plus, I don't think our baby is going to suffer that much if her daddy doesn't intently watch all of the amazing things your newborn can do video.) The class was really good though. I think I got some good information that will help me feel prepared when the big day finally does show up. Namely I learned what the hospital procedures are. They also went into detail about the stages of labor and what to expect with that. The thing about that is that they would say here's what happens first and it might last as little as 30 minutes or it could last 10 hours or more and this is what you can do to get through it, but only if it works for you. So I basically came out of the class with the general idea of things, but with a more go with the flow attitude. Luckily I have a good husband/coach that really knows that I like to have good guidance and direction to follow. Hopefully he'll actually practice some of the things I liked from the class with me and not laugh too much. I think we were the disruptive students of the class because we sat in the back and he made funny comments under his breath to me the whole time. Some of which really got me to giggling. ("That baby doll looks like it's doing a swan dive through the pelvis!")

Here's the question that I had that I never got the guts up to ask. I always assumed that the actual baby coming out of you was the most painful part of labor/delivery, but I think that might be wrong now. They talked about the final phase of stage one labor (transition) being the most difficult over and over in the class. Does most difficult mean most physically painful or does it mean mental or emotional difficulty?

Things which I am unsure about:

• pain medication-I'm a wuss and I never considered not getting an epidural. On the other hand I'm a wuss and I saw what they have to do to give you one and I don't know if I want that either. Let's face it, I have a hard time getting blood drawn. Plus, I also like the idea of being free to move around more if I wanted to.
• leaving with enough time to get to the hospital-they talked about not having to go right away since you're typically in early labor for a long time. We do have a 30 minute drive to get to the hospital though and that's with normal weather conditions. I'd like to get to the hospital with enough time that I'm not nervous about time. There's enough else that I will have to concentrate on besides making it to the hospital. At least we aren't the couple in our class that lives north of Preston, ID. They need to schedule for a 50 minute drive.

Things which I am totally sure about:

• Number of people in the birthing room with me-The hospital allows up to four people (besides my coach) in the labor/delivery room with me. That's five extra people! I don't really think I need an audience. The people I would like/feel comfortable in the room with me are 1) Dan, 2) my mom, 3) my mother-in-law. Those are the ones that if it's possible for them to make it I want them there. People that I would be OK with also being in there are my sister (although I'm pretty sure she doesn't want to see the actual thing happening, but if she does and she's there I'd be ok with that).
• I don't want the mirror-watching the head pop out of me isn't necessary.
• Feel the head coming out-in some of the videos the doctor told the mom she could reach down and feel the head coming out and the mom did. I so don't need that. Let's just focus on getting the baby out.
• My husband's interest in all things medical-although he did lean in and tell me during one video that OBGYN is totally out of the question for his specialty.

Mostly I'm more nervous about breast feeding than I am about labor/delivery. That may sound silly, but the fact of the matter is that in labor/delivery I will be surrounded by medical professionals that know what they're doing. They've done it many, many times before and although I am aware that every birth is unique and different, I'm in the hands of specialists. Breast feeding is all on me and I don't know what I'm doing. I don't want cracked, chapped nipples or mastitis.

Holiday Highlights

Well there's so much that has happened over the holiday! I think I'll take some time and just share a little. First, my husband made me the most beautiful Christmas present ever. He made a wooden mirror frame for me and I absolutely love it. I can't wait until it's stained (he didn't stain it before because he wanted me to chose what I wanted) and hanging in our house!

Second, the best way to make any holiday miserable is to get a bad case of the stomach flu here after to be referred to as the death sickness. First my dad got sick, then my aunt, then my other aunt, then me, then finally my sister. My dad was so sick we had to take him to the hospital. I on the other hand just spent three days laying around thinking about death. To all of you who are thinking, "She should have gotten a flu shot," I reply, "My dad got a flu shot and he was the first to get sick."

New Year's day was fun yesterday. We spent the day painting and working on the in-law's new house. It looks fabulous by the way. The only low point of the day was when I decided that I needed to chop the onion so fast that the tip of my thumb could go with it under the knife. I cut through the nail right into the thumb and bled all over the place, but luckily my husband is good at first aid. Now all it needs is a supply of band-aids and time to heal.

My sister came up and stayed in our trailer with us for a day and that was so much fun! We didn't really do much, but it's always fun to hang out with her. She says I'm on my trailer vacation and to tell you the truth it does kind of feel like one big vacation since we're only going to be living here for a year. We put the mattress in the crib and put the swing together and everything looks so good! I'm going to start having to figure out where to put everything. Daniel said the other day that we already have too much stuff and we don't even have the baby yet. My answer is how can you have too much stuff for your baby? Plus, I'm getting very good at organizing and fitting and packing stuff away so that it all fits into our little space. We just have to be super vigilant at not leaving stuff out because then we have no space to actually live.

Speaking of what's happening next year I almost forgot to tell you the big news! Daniel's been accepted into medical school!!!!!!!!! Isn't that just absolutely exciting?! He got into Temple University. Although moving with a four month old baby to Philidelphia where I know nobody seems really scary right now I'm just so excited that he got in! He's still got two more interviews to go to, (NYMC, Loma Linda) but it's just so great! It feels like our plans have been so fluid for so long that it's great to finally be able to count on the fact that my husband is going to study to be a doctor! I can say it with confidence.

With the holidays over the next big thing is my sister-in-law's baby and then mine! I can't believe how fast December went! I hope January and February go by just as fast! I'm sure there's something I'm missing, but that's all I can think of for now. I hope everyone is just as happy as I am today!