Pregnancy Update

It feels good to be blogging again! And I apologize for not keeping you better updated on us and my pregnancy. Here's a brief overview of the last 8 months:

I found out we were pregnant right before Halloween. We had so much fun telling my mom because she didn't believe us at first and then got really really excited when she finally realized we were telling her the truth. That was pretty fun.

I had a lot more nausea, it seemed, with this one that I did with Hailey. I feel like as soon as I hit 12-14 weeks with Hailey, the nausea went away and the rest of the pregnancy was a breeze (besides the last week of it) and I honestly didn't mind being pregnant at all! This time, I feel like I've spent a lot more time on the couch much farther into my pregnancy. Probably up until about week 20 or so, I still had to lay down to wait for food to settle (still no throwing up though - that's a plus!), and I had only gained 5-7lbs the whole first half of the pregnancy.

Then something switched and I've been starving ever since! I know I've gained at least 20 more pounds since then, which is really sad for me to accept. I'm carrying much more forward and I feel so much bigger with this one that I ever did with Hailey. I also feel him move CONSTANTLY, which is different from Hailey because while I felt her move, it was just small, tiny little pokes. This boy MOVES. It's fun to watch and feel, and Scott says in one night, he felt Leo (that's his name :) ) move more than he ever felt Hailey that whole pregnancy.

However, from day one, as we discovered in our first dr apt, I've had high blood pressure. When I had to be induced with Hailey, it was because my blood pressure had gone from 120's/80's (very average) to 135-140/mid 80's (plus other pre-eclampsia signs). This time, I started out at the latter. I felt very strongly that I needed to see an OB specialist instead of just my GP for this pregnancy, so I switched over to Valley OB, where they have treated me so well and I have felt like I've really gotten the attention I've needed.

My BP did go down slightly during my 2nd trimester, but as I guessed it would, it has gone back up and it hasn't been pretty. A while ago, we bought an automatic blood pressure cuff so I can monitor my BP at home. Both my home readings and my appts started measuring really high, so they started having me come in every 2 weeks around week 28. I am now at week 33, I have to do weekly Non-stress tests (to make sure the baby is getting enough oxygen because high BP can constrict the flow of oxygen to the baby), and I am now on a BP medication called Labetalol. I've only taken it a few times, but I can already see a difference in my readings. Let's hope it stays good!

Because of my high BP, they had to do a growth ultrasound at week 32. I got to see my little baby! Wait, did I say little? I meant HUGE! His head and femur both measured on target at 32 weeks, but apparently his belly was at 34 weeks, or 95%!!! I asked the tech how much she guessed he weighed and she said about 5lbs according to the measurements. Oy vay! I gave birth to Hailey at 5lbs 10oz at 36 +6 weeks. I can only imagine how much huger this baby is going to be! And yes, I did say huger!

So I'm really tired and I feel huge and I get very hot, and I can't sleep anymore, and I go pee constantly, but I am still very very grateful to be pregnant and we just can't wait to meet our little boy in less than 2 months. We're almost there!

And I'll try to keep you better updated, too. :)

30 Weeks

Thoughts...

...Why is it I can only ever have one part of my house clean at a time? Sometimes it's the kitchen and it stays gloriously clean for several days! Sometimes it's the living room. But no matter what I do, it is ever only one area at a time and the rest of the house is a disaster! It's just something funny I've noticed lately. Someday, I'll get back to a full clean  house. Maybe? Ever??

...Baby must have gone through a growth spurt this week. I have felt more FULLER than I ever have, like I just ate a huge buffet. I could be starving, but I'll still feel too full to eat. And it only gets worse from here :) I am also feeling his kicks a LOT more pronounced than they were even last week. I guess I can enjoy that!

...Cleaning out one section of a room really makes a huge difference! I finally cleaned the disaster corner in the living room where everything gets shoved ,and suddenly, the living room just opened up more. It was amazing. I actually vacuumed (don't judge!) and I felt the floor was clean enough to finally get myself to fold some laundry. Again, don't judge.

...I keep dreaming about cloth diapers. Like, crazy nightmare dreams! I just can't wait to get my diapers and see them in person and know that they are real and more importantly, start using them!!!! I can't wait!!

...Scott is taking his Multi-Engine Stage 1 Check today. I can't believe how fast his instructor is getting him through Multi-Engine! I am very pleased.

I will now share with you a couple photos from late:

23 Weeks

1. She LOVES dresses. 2. New bike for her birthday! 3. She's just so darn cute!

Part 2: "Operation House: Overhaul"

As some of you may know, our house is small. I've seen apartments bigger than our house. We have one bedroom, a room just big enough for washer and dryer, and a storage room that technically can't be called a bedroom but we put Hailey back there anyway because that is the only space to put her. To give you a better idea of the smallness of our home, we have one inside door. And that is the bathroom.

Over the years, we have definitely filled our space. We had a baby, and with baby comes junk. We've been married here for 4 years, and with that time, comes junk. And sometimes it's not even junk - sometimes it's stuff you actually do need.

Many, many times, we have come upon opportunities to move. Once was to another home outside our ward, but we felt it was not time to leave our ward yet. We still don't think it is time to leave our ward yet. So we looked at another home for rent in our ward.

And I LOVED it and I so so badly wanted to move into it. It was just around the corner from our house, it was in the ward, it had THREE actual, real, legit, not-closet-sized bedrooms! Rooms that fit beds! And other stuff! There was space, and lots of it, and it was TOTALLY, easily within our price range.

So why didn't we take it?

I think this time, the Lord gave us a choice. He didn't say we had to do one way or the other. This time, it was up to us if we wanted to move or not.

So after weighing the options, even though we could afford the house, we wouldn't be able to start paying off our debts. Was it worth the extra space, or could we make do for just one more year where we are to save the money and get out of debt??

We made our decision. We decided not to move. We decided it was worth more to us to save our money, and pay the debts. And I told Scott that if we stayed, he'd have to majorly help me overhaul our house to make it work for 2 kids. So we're staying, and we are commencing "Operation House: Overhaul" to be completed before the baby comes in June/July!

The first step was to buy shelves and set them up in the laundry room. We will move our food storage off the built in shelves in the storage room and onto the plastic shelves, creating a TON of space to move things off the floor and onto the shelves. This will then allow us to set up a toddler bed in the storage room, with the crib. Oh, it's been done before. Trust me. The people here before us, when we looked through the house, they had it like that. So yes, it is possible.

I also plan to completely de-junk the storage room and get rid of everything we don't absolutely need at the house. Thank goodness for helpful parents who have offered up their storage rooms for things we don't need to store here.

Once the storage room is done, I will start in the kitchen and work my way through the house. I will empty out and re-organize each cupboard and cabinet, making sure the things inside are only what we need and get rid of or pack up what we don't ever use. After 4 years of living here, I can tell you there are quite a few things I haven't ever touched that I unpacked after the honeymoon.

I'm debating on moving furniture around, only to give the place a feeling of change, but that isn't a necessity. My goal is to basically go about as if we were moving, but re-moving into our home again. We are going to make our home brand new and start over. We can make the space work. I know we can, and I know others have, too.

My poor landlady, I don't think she expected us to stay this long, especially into 2 kids!

But we feel good about our decision, and while sometimes I'll pass that other house and dream of days when we could have had a bigger space, I know we can make do with what we have here. I love this stage in our lives. And hopefully, so soon, Scott will get his commercial license this summer, and we will be on our way looking for jobs.

And of course, things never go according to plan, but we feel good that we at least have a plan, and we feel the Lord approves, and that's good, and we just kind of go from there!

Also, here is a picture of Phase 1: The Gateway. This shelf alone represents so much more that we can do now in our storage room.

Happy Sunday! 

Part 1: Tax Return

Sometimes I think of all these things that I would like to share on my Facebook status, but then do you ever stop and think that it might sound a little boastful and prideful, some things you want to put? And you don't mean it that way, but I guess some people would take it that way. Anyway, then I remember that I have a blog and that I really haven't been taking advantage of it like I ought to. So listen to me while I update you on our life!

Tax returns came in. We have been SO SO blessed to have the size of tax returns that we do (I won't go into detail). Each year of our marriage, and even me before I got married, we have been blessed with just the amount we needed for whatever we needed at that time.

In college, it was just enough to pay for rent and stay up in Logan over the summer. And what an amazing summer that was.

Our 2nd year married, we gave our tax return to my dad to help with his diner. We never once regretted it.

This year, we had a couple loans that we so desperately wanted to pay off and just be rid of. One was a car loan - Sally the Sentra is now paid off!!! She is OURS and we should get the title in the mail in the next few days. The second loan was a signature loan that we had to take out to finish Scott's instrument rating last summer, and which we hated from day one. I am so relieved to say that is paid off and out of the way. We never have to think of that blasted loan again.

How amazing it feels to be free of some debt. It's definitely not all debt, but we are that much closer to being free. What remains now is Hailey's hospital bill (what do you expect when you have a crappy insurance plan with a $10,000 out of pocket and a NICU stay that met and exceeded that criteria alone??), one auto loan, and student loans. We feel so blessed to only have students loans and one car to pay on. Granted, our student loans are probably more than what 2 or 3 normal students combined would pay for their education, but that's ok! We know this is the course we need to take.

Next , we will snowball. We take the payments that previously went toward Sally and the signature loan and we apply them to our next lowest balance. Once that is paid off, we take that total and attack the next one. And the next and the next. Getting debt free IS possible, even if it takes a few years. Also, I know we will have plenty more bills to come, especially with a baby coming in July, but I trust, and we will be taken care of.

Now you can see why I can't quite post this stuff on Facebook! It would most certainly come off as boastful and prideful, but I only wanted to share with you our gratitude and how if you put your hands in the Lord's and continue to pay your tithing, you WILL be blessed.

For My Family

For those who may not remember, a couple years ago, my dad decided to open up a restaurant. It had always been a dream of his to own and operate a diner, and he felt very strongly that now was the time. He found a perfect spot, and he got to work! It took about a year to build/put together, but we were all so excited and really anticipated this great event. We had really high hopes for this diner and things felt good.

Well, they didn't turn out so good. The restaurant struggled to open and struggled to stay open. It barely made it 3 or 4 months before we had a family council and decided to close the doors forever. Some family members were OK with it. Some accepted this as the Lord's will for our family. Some didn't question why we were supposed to build a restaurant to only see it fail.

 

But some did.

 

Anyway, I came across this article in the January 2014 Ensign the other day. It brought me a lot of comfort as I read it, even though I have long come to accept this trial my family had to go through. I thought a lot of my dad as I read it and I really wanted to share it on here that Sunday, but I got kind of side tracked and forgot! Lo and behold, the very next day, my loving mother had sent us all an email with that very article attached, telling us how much she loved us and how she knew the diner was meant to be a part of our lives as a family.

 

So now that I'm thinking about it, I am posting the portion of the article that really stood out to us!

This is by Elder J. Christopher Lansing, Area Seventy, North America Northeast Area, from a devotional address to BYU-Hawaii on Oct. 30, 2012. The talk is called "Enduring Well."

 

"What We Become Makes All the Difference"

The business I own today was founded by my father nearly 60 years ago. He died in 1980, leaving me to take the helm of the company at the young age of 30.

In those early years, situations came up that required me to make decisions that affected the future of our frail business. I worked hard to act as my father would have acted, and I spent a great deal of time on my knees, trying to discern what to do. In all those decisions, I never felt a calming influence or any direction one way or another. I ultimately did what I thought was best and moved on. But I was disappointed I had not been able to get any confirmation of my actions.

One night my father came to me in a dream. I began to chide him for not helping me know what to do. He said he was aware of my situation but he was busy where he was and his former business was not terribly important. “Chris, we really don’t care about the business up here,” he said. “What we care about very much is what you become because of your business.”

That was a great lesson I hope I never forget. What we get during our life is inconsequential, but what we become in life makes all the difference.

Sometimes we forget that in premortality we fought alongside the Savior in defense of the Father’s plan of moral agency. And we won! Lucifer and his followers were expelled, and we received the opportunity to experience the life we fought for. The Father’s plan included the Atonement. Our job is to face our challenges and endure them well. As we do this, the Atonement has meaning in our lives and we fulfill the Lord’s work and glory: “to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man” (Moses 1:39).

Like I said, this article really touched me and I felt like sharing it today. I know the Lord gives us trials and makes things happen in our lives for a reason. I know we are supposed to be here on Earth to learn and grow, otherwise, what's the point?

 

Let me know what you think!