30 Weeks!

I can't believe I'm 30 weeks today! It is crazy to me that in just 10 weeks our little girl is going to be here. Well, I hope she's here in 10 weeks. This mommy does not want to go very late!

Things I can still do:

1. I can still wear my pre-pregnancy jeans! And only on days where I'm feeling larger than usual do I have to use the rubber band trick. It's fantastic.
2. I still sleep fairly well. The only thing I have noticed is a little bit more difficulty in falling asleep, but I still sleep soundly. 
3. I can still wear most of my church shoes despite my swollen feet!

Things I can't do anymore:

1. I can't bend over to pick something up. I mean, I can if I have to, but I avoid it as much as possible. Looks like this silver toe nail polish is sticking around for a while longer!
2. I can't sit in an upright position sometimes because our baby girl likes to press her feet against my ribs and make it very uncomfortable.
3. I can't wear my black heels anymore due to my swollen feet.

I have recently started to feel more rib shots than I ever have in the past. But she is continually more and more active, and I love it! I can consistently see her kicks and movements. My stomach looks crazy when she is really active. There are bumps and waves everywhere! 

I am getting more and more excited every second to have this baby girl! I love every movement I feel and constantly think about what life is going to be like with her here. I know that it is going to change everything about my life forever, but what I don't know is exactly how it is going to change my life. 

I'm just so excited! We love her so much already!

Rexburg Baby Shower

My wonderful sisters threw me a baby shower here in Rexburg a couple weeks ago. It was so much fun! Thank you to everyone who came! 

Now, enjoy some lovely pictures.

Me and Abbie as she is preparing to drill holes in the tops of the baby food jars for the favors. Man, I look real big and pregnant in this one!

This is the food table. We had orange creamsicle truffles, Oreo cookie truffles, fruit, chips, and drinks.

And these are the ADORABLE favors that my sisters made for those who came to the shower. I love them!

Abbie and Caitlin getting things set up.

Me and Devin.

Some of the wonderful guests working on the questionnaire I put together about my pregnancy so far. I think they enjoyed it.

From left to right: Becca Jacobsen, Nicholle Tout, Maggie Dalton, Nicole Cope, and Kinsie Dunn.

Me welcoming my friend Shae. And while this picture is incredibly TERRIBLE of me, it makes me laugh so I just had to share it. I mean, why do I ever do things like that? Or make a face like that? But you have to admit, you laughed a little when you saw this picture.

Stephanie and Julie Potter. I love these ladies! And they saved the day too!

Cute Abbie giving everyone the answers to the games. 

Opening presents. 

I got AWESOME stuff from this shower! I love it all! I chose to show this picture because there's a funny story attached to it. 

Abbie gave me four frames, each with a letter inside of it. The frames were in the order "a-b-b-y" when I pulled them out of the bag, so I was incredibly confused, thinking, "What? ...I'm not naming my baby Abby..." It honestly took me about 30 seconds to realize that the frames were meant to spell out the word B-A-B-Y. 

Yeah. I'm a quick one.

And me. In all of my six and a half month pregnant glory. 

It was such a fun day! A big, GIANT thank you to two of my wonderful sisters for throwing it for me. And a big thank you to everyone who came! 

Derek and I are incredibly anxious for this little girl to get here!

Derek's 26th Birthday

I always feel so bad for Derek. While we're in school, he has to celebrate his birthday during finals week. How sad! So today's celebration was low-key, but very fun!

We had a nice, relaxing morning. We didn't have to wake up until 8:00am, didn't have to be on campus until 10:00am, and then got to come home around 2:00pm. 

I went to Maggie's baby shower (which was SO much fun!), came home, we had Chicken Bacon Stuffed Pizza from Papa Murphy's for dinner, and then had friends and family over for cake and ice cream!

Abbie, Devin, Adam Joseph, Jace, and Hallie came over as well as Weston, McKinsie, and Paisley. The following photo is courtesy of Aunt Devin, I never think to take pictures. I wish I did!

Cute little Hallie wearing a snow hat that I got from the Puyallup Fair years ago.

Paisley and Jace had a very good time running around and being crazy. They became good friends after about five minutes. As soon as Jace left, Paisley started handing shoes to her mom and dad asking them to go. It was darling.

I made Derek an orange cake with rainbow chip frosting and we had Berry Rainbow sherbet to go along with it. Delicious!

We'll probably go to Idaho Falls sometime next week after finals are over and eat at Red Robin and do some birthday shopping for Derek.

Happy Birthday sweetheart! I love you.

Up to There

Imagine Derek standing up straight with his hand stretched up as high above his head as he can reach. That is how far past my tolerance level this whole car accident has pushed me. 

I might not have mentioned this on my blog before... but on May 10th (the day we found out the gender of the baby), I was hit on the back passenger side of our car. The other girl was parallel parking on the side of the road, and as she was straightening out her parking job, she didn't realize I was in traffic and her nose entered traffic just enough to hit my car. 

Anyways, my patience with this situation is running thin.

I wish I could say more. And I would go off on a tangent about how frustrating it is to me. 

But I can't. 

Because saying things like that would be wrong. 

But I'm just tired of this whole thing. It's been over two months, and it still isn't resolved. 

I would say that I've had it "up to here", but that means I would demonstrate the level at which I'm being pushed to. And since Derek is taller than I am, I will say this: "I've had it up to there."

Font Freaks Unite!

I am no professional graphic designer or anything, but I do just so happen to be a font freak. I LOVE FREE FONTS. I think they are so much fun. If you like any of the fonts above, I've given you the links to all of them below.

Enjoy!

Covered By Your Grace - D Old Modern - Carnivalee Freakshow - CK Ali's Hand - CK Cursive - Green Piloww - Impact Label - Joe Hand - Just Another Hand - Matilde - Mailart Rubberstamp - MTF Cutie Patootie - Riesling - MTF Oopsie

TMI

If you have issues with reading the word uterus, reading about a woman's uterus, or more specifically reading about my uterus, then you might not want to read this post.

If you are perfectly comfortable with it, then I hope you enjoy.

This baby girl that is constantly moving around has been head-down the entire time. When I had my 12 week ultrasound, the tech noted that my uterus has a little "dip" in it that kind of forces the baby into a certain position. 

Basically, she's stuck. 

I just really love this picture. It's perfect because my
biggest pregnancy craving so far has been ice cream.

At my 19 week ultrasound, the dip was even more obvious since she had grown since my 12 week ultrasound. At my ultrasound on Tuesday, she is still head-down because of that dip. At least she's not stuck the other way around!

So while some expectant mothers might be able to say, "Ugh, the baby is jumping on my bladder!" or "Oh my goodness, that was a stomp on my bladder!", I get to say, "Holy crap, she just punched me in the bladder!" And then run to the bathroom. 

This also means that every little kick (or more like ninja kick! Crap, it hurts sometimes) is higher up. I haven't had any true "rib shots" yet, but she does kick quite hard. And sometimes she hits something that just doesn't feel very... comfortable. 

So, all thanks to the dip in my uterus, I have a bladder-punching ninja baby. And I think it's awesome.

Baby News

I had an appointment today to accomplish two things:

1. Take my glucose test.

2. Check on my placenta.

At 2:30 I drank my orange drink. The flavor wasn't bad, but the after taste KILLED ME. It left my mouth feeling all... nasty. But it didn't make me vomit or anything, so that's a good sign. When I got to the doctor's office, it was my doctor's birthday, so they were handing out cake. I sadly had to turn a piece down because I still had yet to have my blood drawn. So they rushed me to the back, pricked my finger, and then gave me cake. 

My glucose level was at 121, which is great because they want you to be under 140. Three cheers for no gestational diabetes! My hemoglobin count was right where it should be as well, so I'm not anemic either.

Then they brought Derek and I into the ultrasound room, and we got to see our sweet little girl! They looked at her heart, double-checked the gender (definitely still a girl), and looked at my placenta. At my 19 week ultrasound, they noticed that my placenta was incredibly close to my cervix. This is a little concerning considering that when the baby is born, it has to pass through the cervix. So, they didn't act like it was a huge deal at 19 weeks, because usually the placenta moves away from the cervix as the pregnancy progresses. Which is exactly what mine did! It has moved away and is not going to cause problems.

And we got some more pictures of our little pea, so I'll share her two profile shots. She actually kept quite still and let the ultrasound tech get a good picture! 

It's still crazy to me that there is this little person inside of me. It doesn't feel 100% real. I'm sure that it will take until I am laying exhausted in the hospital bed holding this baby girl for me to realize, "It's real. I have a baby. And this is her."

We can't wait!

Morning with Mom and Morgan

Yesterday morning, Morgan, my mom, and I went on a bike ride out on the Orting Trail. None of us have make-up on, and all of these pictures are pre-shower, but I had so much fun! It was so nice to get out of the house, enjoy the beautiful weather, and get in some fun exercise. 

 

My mom had to get a belly shot. That is my 27 week belly. So excited for this little girl to get here!

 

And this is Morgan trying to show off her belly. And I am laughing at her and how pathetic her "belly" is. Love that girl!

And here we are! Ready to hit the trail and ride our bikes like nobody's business. Derek was sweet enough to take pictures for us but he made us laugh, so in the other three pictures he took, there is at least one of us who is blurry.

Our bike ride was WONDERFUL! About 16 miles, and we stopped at the end in South Prarie to get Italian Sodas. We then rode back and came home to enjoy a nice, relaxing evening. We had the missionaries over for dinner, Derek went to the viewing for Marci Phelps at 6:00pm, and then we all watched the movie Gone that night.

It was a wonderful day. We love Washington!

27 weeks

I am 27 weeks along, and I can't believe how fast this pregnancy is going by! Being in school and having all of those deadlines to keep my mind occupied is definitely helping, but it's crazy to me that I'm only 13 weeks away from having this sweet little baby girl! I can't wait. Derek and I are so anxious to have her here!

Only 91 days left of this pregnancy!

Our July the 4th

Derek and I were lucky enough to be able to spend the 4th of July with our families this year. Under sad circumstances, we came home to Washington and got in around 2:30am on Wednesday morning. We let my parents know that we had made it safely, and then went straight to bed. After a long day of school and driving, Derek was exhausted.

Later that morning we got up, Derek ate breakfast and started helping my dad around the yard and with the boat while I worked out with my mom and Morgan, showered, and got ready. My parents and Morgan left for Ft. Steilacoom Park, and we went over to Brandon and Ashley's for a BBQ. It was really fun! And the food was delicious. Ashley had watermelon pieces cut out into stars, and I'm pretty sure that Tallie and I ate at least half of what was on the tray. There were also chips, a delicious salad, burgers, miniature cheesecakes, and white chocolate dipped strawberries with blue sprinkles. I ate SO MUCH. But, come on. I'm pregnant. I can do that, right?

(The pictures from the 4th that are in this post are ones that I've stolen from Marcie... thanks for taking pictures!)

 

Derek eating chips, probably one of his favorite foods. Of all time.

 

Me and my six month belly after totally stuffing my face with delicious things to eat. The 4th was my six month mark, so it was a very fun day to get to see family!

After the BBQ, we all headed out to Steilacoom Park and met up with my parents who had saved spots on the grass for us so that we could watch the fireworks show! All of the kids were given free cotton candy from vendors at the street fair (the parents were thrilled, haha) and we got bundled up and settled in to watch the show.

 

Derek and Beckham (Brandon and Ashley's youngest). Beckham loves Derek. Ashley told me that during the fireworks show, Beckham said, "Mom!" And so she said, "What?" And he said, "Um, where's Derek?" Pretty darn cute!

 

You'll have to excuse how drugged and large and pregnant I look. Tallie and Ady and I sat and chatted before the show began. And slowly but surely, I became surrounded by my cute nephews telling me that I should name the baby "Spiderman", "Elizabeth", and "Batgirl."

We had a fantastic 4th of July, and absolutely loved that we were able to spend it with family!