Updates (New Apartment, Baby C, etc.)

It's been a little more than a month now since I posted something, and I figured something was better than nothing. We have pretty much settled into our new apartment now, there are still some totes that we need to figure out to where store, and the eventual arrival of boxes from my parents, but everything has it's place for the most part. Our apartment definitely has some quirks that I will need to get used to, but it's nice to have three bedrooms since we can set aside a room specifically as the nursery. It seems like everyday since we have arrived has been 100 degrees, and sometimes barely cooler. I am grateful that we have air conditioning...even if it's not the best, luckily the baby's room is the coolest so I won't have to worry about baby C overheating in the summertime. We have to watch River if she spends an extended time upstairs to make sure she doesn't start panting. The silly kitten wants to be with us so much that she won't go downstairs where it is cooler. Hopefully as fall starts to approach the weather won't stay nearly as warm, and we'll be able to enjoy many days of rain.

Brian will be starting his third week of classes at Claremont Graduate University and I can tell he is enjoying being in an academic setting again. He loves what he is learning thus far, and has some classes that he favors more over others. The class he dislikes most requires an obsessive amount of reading, he was saying that he to read about 300 pages of material over the course of a week. I don't know how he could read that much in that time frame and actually learn the material. Hopefully all will go well with this class and he won't feel too overwhelmed.

I am still searching for a job and so have had much time on my hands. I am getting a little bit of cabin fever, but it's too hot outside still to go exploring the neighborhood. I have an interview on Tuesday, so fingers crossed that something will come out of that. At this point I would be fine if a company just hired me on as a seasonal worker, since baby C is due at the end of January, and I don't know how a new company would feel about giving me maternity leave. We'll see.

I wish I could say that I had more news concerning the baby. Unfortunately we have had delays in getting insurance, and thus have not been able to go to the doctors. The last doctors appointment that I had was August 6th. I will be 21 weeks on Wednesday. I cannot believe that I am already halfway through with this pregnancy. And even though I am not doing much everyday, it seems like the days are just speeding by. Luckily we heard back from Brian's school on how to get me on their insurance, so hopefully I will be able to get a doctors appointment soon. Last Monday we did have an ultrasound done out of curiosity. There is actually an ultrasound technician school that does free ultrasounds as part of their training, and so I was able to convince Brian to go. The funny thing is that when we went none of the students were in the building at the time, so one of the instructors was the one who performed the ultrasound. (So I felt more comfortable accepting what she told me, versus having a student tell me things) Baby C was alive and kicking away at my bladder, which I've come to realize is the babies favorite place to kick at me. Baby C has grown so much in just a month. Baby C was cooperative enough for a couple minutes to give us a shot between the legs, and the technician gave us her guess.....which even though we agreed with her, I am not going to announce until we have had a doctors appointment to confirm it. In other news Baby C's kicks are getting to be so much stronger, like they actually feel like kicks now instead of light flutters. Brian has actually been able to feel Baby C kick his hand several times. Today we also saw my stomach move from one of Baby C's kicks, it was crazy to feel it internally and see it from the outside. It lets me know that Baby C is alive and well. It was funny, the other night I was laying down and I could totally see where Baby C was, the right side of stomach was protruding about an inch higher than my left side. Baby C stayed like that for a couple minutes, then moved away, and my stomach went back to normal. My baby bump doesn't seem that big to me, but moments like that make me realize how much bigger Baby C is now (supposedly 10.5 inches in length and 3/4 of a pound). Here is a profile shot from the ultrasound, and my most recent baby bump picture:

I am so excited for what the future holds. Hopefully I will have more concrete information concerning Baby C the next time I post.

River and 2nd Trimester

So you would think I would be better at keeping this blog updated because I am excited for all the life events that are happening, but like any other journal I have keep in my life I am kind of a slacker. I don't even think that I have mentioned that we finally got ourselves a kitten. We picked her up on May 29th and we love her to death, she has definitely become a part of our family. We named her River Song (for those who have watched Dr. Who, yes we were inspired by that character in the show). She bounces between being loving/cuddly and being quite the fierce little kitten. River has definitely helped us know how to baby proof our house a little more so she doesn't get into trouble. I have already packed my camera with its camera card, and so the only photos that I have of her right now are from off my phone. So not the best quality, but will still give an idea of her personality.

Here is Brian with River while in car on the way to Utah to see Batman. We discovered early on that she does not like car rides. We have a carrier for her,  but she starts freaking out and ramming her head into the metal bars. For fear that she will hurt herself, or panic too much we have taken her out. The strange thing is she prefers to be up on our shoulders instead of being down in our laps.

I don't think this will work for the drive to California though. So hopefully she will mellow out this time since we have been trying to take her on more car rides so she will get used to the movement. The  vet did give us some medicine to give her that is supposed to calm her down, and she does usually get pretty sleepy while on it, but she usually fights it and tries to stay awake.

River also likes to constantly have our attention when we are home. One of these days while we are in the shower I swear she is going to jump in. She has already taken to jumping on the ledge of the tub, but hasn't taken the plunge yet....thankfully. In the mornings while I am getting ready she likes to jump up onto the sink and then sit in my makeup bag. Strange kitty.

Last Wednesday, August 1, we took River to the vet to be spayed and declawed. Normally I would not think to have a cat declawed, but I have been scratched by River so many times I was paranoid that she would accidentally hurt our baby when it arrives. She has been such a trooper since we brought her home.

We were instructed by the vet not to let her lick her stitches on her belly or paws, and since she has been home she has tried to whenever she thinks we are not looking or are too distracted. The second day home we tried just taping her paws so she wouldn't like, but she would freak out each time we would try to apply new tape. I then had the idea for little booties that are made for animals, we couldn't find any so we decided to try newborn socks. They were a little big and so she kicked them off right away. So we ended up just taping the top, which is so much better than her whole foot and the socks are much more breathable too. She still tries to get these off, usually when we come into the bathroom in the morning she has at least one of them off. The sneaky little kitten.

Here she is resting with Brian, who is feeling sick right now too. Aren't they cute?

I am officially in my 2nd trimester of pregnancy now, currently I am 14 weeks 5 days. It is so strange to me to think that I am 1/3 of the way done. I keep thinking that January seems so far away, and yet at the same time Christmas seems like it is just around the corner, which also means the baby is just around the corner. I have been really blessed in this pregnancy thus far. I have only thrown up a couple times despite what sometimes felt like constant nausea. They say the morning sickness subsides in the 2nd trimester and I can see that my nausea is a lot better, being worse in the evening. The worse thing that I am having to deal with right now is the exhaustion and the headaches. I had horrible headaches pre-pregnancy and it's unfortunate that they are continuing and most days becoming worse than what I had previously.

Insurance is so frustrating. We have applied to several places in California since we will be moving, and have been denied coverage to most of those places because they count pregnancy as a pre-existing condition. I have looked into PCIP, which is insurance for those with pre-existing conditions, but we can't even apply for that because you have to be without coverage for 6 months in order to qualify. I am not sure what we are going to do. We will definitely apply for Medi-Cal, but that surely wont cover as much of the costs as a normal insurance would. I try not to stress too much about it, but it is definitely a huge concern. I want to find a doctor in California as soon as possible that way we can set up an appointment for the anatomy scan, I want to know if this little baby inside me is perfectly healthy and if it is a boy or a girl.

We had our last appointment for who knows how long this morning, and we asked to have an ultrasound since we hadn't seen our little one since it was 7 weeks and still had a tail. The midwife said she wasn't a trained ultrasound tech but said she would try her best to get us a face shot. It was so reassuring to see the baby. We have actually started calling it Baby "C" because both of the names that we have in mind start with "C". Baby "C" was doing flips all over the place. I have already packed my printer which has a scanner, so to show the ultrasounds I needed to take a picture on my phone. Here is Baby "C" at 14 weeks 5 days:

This is a face shot, Baby "C" looks kind of alien in this one, but it is still super cute. You can actually see the two hemispheres of the brain. And then one of Baby "C"s hands at the top.

Here is a profile of Baby "C". It has a cute little bump of a nose, so I am hoping it has my nose instead of Brian's. You can see a hand again, and then also one of the legs on the right. It was so cool to see our cute little Baby "C" and how much it has grown since the last time we saw it. During some of the utlrasound you could perfectly see its spine and ribs. Then we also looked at Baby "C"s brain, you could see the two hemispheres again really well. Baby "C" was moving around too much to be able to tell much between the legs. I thought I may have seen a nub, but it could have been my imagination. Again Baby "C" was moving around way too much for us to be able to tell. Either way I am super excited and happy that our baby seems to be growing healthily at this point. I am debating with myself whether or not we want to go to an elective utlrasound place that has a gender determination package. It would be nice to know for sure if Baby "C" is going to be a boy or a girl, but I don't know that I want to pay the money. Another question if we were to go would be how long should I wait. The one place I was looking at said they have a 99% guarantee for a gender determination, with a free rescan if necessary, at 14 weeks and up. So would I wait until 16 weeks, which would be our anniversary (August 15th), or do I wait until I am further along to make sure the results are more accurate? Not sure right now.


In other news, we are finally moving this week. We will pick up the moving truck on Thursday, and should be driving out of Rexburg on Friday. I feel comfortable with the amount of stuff we have packed right now. I told Brian I want to be finished packing, minus the fridge stuff, by Wednesday. Currently we just have the most of the kitchen stuff, a few things in closets and the laundry room, and then all the pictures around the house. I am so excited that moving day is almost here. I can't wait to be in a house that has air conditioning again. And I am excited to narrow down the colors I have for the baby's room and then paint it. Life is just exciting for me right now, and for Brian. He starts graduate school in less than a month now. I hope he doesn't get too stressed out by it. I am content with life right now. Until next time....hopefully with news on Baby "C"s gender.

Life Updates

I know its been awhile since I last posted something and so I feel like I should put some sort of update, even though not much has been happening. So I suppose the most interesting thing to talk about is concerning my pregnancy. Not much is happening except for extreme nausea when I wake up in the morning and throughout the day when I let myself get too hungry. Its hard to eat sometimes though because the nausea is definitely causing some aversions to food. Pretty much the only foods that sound good I shouldn't be eating everyday for every meal, i.e. grilled cheese. I would say I am experiencing much of the same things as a normal pregnant women should. This past Wednesday I hit my 10 week mark, I am a quarter of the way done, and finally into the double digits. I still hope and pray that nothing will go wrong and that I will lose this pregnancy, but as each day passes I feel a little more excited and confident that I will meet this little one growing inside of me hopefully by the end of January. We went to the nature park to take some photos to use for an announcement on facebook. I have my second appointment with the Dr.'s this next Friday, the 13th, so I will wait until then after I know everything is okay to post the picture on facebook. It's a cute idea that I saw from another mom to be on babycenter.com. We also ended up finally taking another picture of my pregnant belly, not much has changed, which isn't surprising since I haven't really gained any weight. But I can definitely tell my waist is getting bigger.  Here are the pictures that we took today:

That's all for now until next time when I hopefully have more news to share, or after my next ultrasound.

Yellowstone and....

It had almost been two years since Brian and I had the opportunity to go out to Yellowstone. Which is kind of sad considering its only a short distance away. Since Brian and I will be moving to California soon we decided to make it a priority to visit. I decided to check and see when the free weekends were scheduled and lucky for us we had one a few days later. Quickly we made plans and preparations. I insisted that we make a campground reservation since I didn't want to risk being left with no where to sleep.

So of course on the day that we were to leave (June 8) the weather would decide to change from its sunny and extremely warm conditions to cold and wet. Luckily I had checked ahead of time and so we packed appropriately for the weather. We arrived with just enough time to set up our camp before a light drizzle started. And through this light drizzle we made our yummy tin foil dinners. Since we had a little bit of light left in the day we decided to drive over to Old Faithful and look at the visitors center (since didn't have a chance to go in their last time). Unfortunately for us we were about an hour too late, the visitors center had already closed. Instead we decided to go into the gift shop. We found a great shirt for Brian, it was a black shirt with a yellow moose's head and resembled the Batman symbol. I found a long sleeve shirt, which I was grateful for that night since it got pretty cold. And finally we decided to get something for a baby since we wont have the opportunity go to Yellowstone again or for a long time.

As we were paying in the gift shop we could hear that the drizzle had changed to a downpour. It was a fun sprint to the car. It rained heavily that entire night and we were grateful for our nice mummy bags and a tent that has no holes. As we packed up our tent the next morning we were surprised how big the puddle under our tent had gotten. We had an extremely wet outside tent, but it was toasty and dry inside.

We decided to explore the upper loop of Yellowstone this trip since on our last trip we only had time for the bottom loop. It was very different from the bottom loop and reminded me more of Yosemite. Brian enjoyed climbing over giant boulders on the side of the road, I wish I had taken some pictures because he was grinning like a little kid. Here are some of my favorite shots from the day:

Brian doesn't pay attention to signs. This was at Roaring Mountain, the steam coming out of the mountain hisses so load it can be heard from 4 miles away.

We had seen a moose earlier in our trip, but hadn't had the opportunity to take a picture because we were rushing to set up our camp. Lucky for us we ran into another moose.

We found this really cool fallen tree that had moss growing all over it. I had wanted Brian to take a picture of it, but he insisted I stand next to it...I love my face.

The Artist Paint Pots are really awesome. I love the colors surrounding the area. We visited it last time and had time to visit it again. Just as remarkable as I remembered it.

This is one of my favorite shots from the day. It was cold and windy, but we still managed to get a good shot with the pools in the background. Sadly the colors weren't as bright as I remember them being last time.



Now for more exciting things. On Wednesday, June 13, I had my first prenatal appointment. I was so nervous and scared because on Thursday night I had had some light bleeding. I was afraid we would do the ultrasound and I would see nothing but an empty void. I was so happy to watch the screen and see an image show up. It's official, we our expecting our first our first child. As long as everything goes well and I do not have a miscarriage I will have a child in the beginning of next year. The doctor was able to measure our baby and according to the measurement I was exactly 7 weeks along. The due date is January 30, 2013, so we can either have a baby born in January or February. Here is a copy of the ultrasound:

In the top image you can clearly see see the little yolk, and the tail is still visible. It is so cute and tiny, only 0.933 cm. Even more amazing in the ultrasound we could see its tiny little heart beating. It brought tears to my eyes, I was so surprised. We were even able to hear the heartbeat for a few seconds. I can't believe how much it has grown in such a short time. Life is growing inside me, and I feel so blessed to be finally experiencing this.

Life Happens

It's not often that I sit down to write and I find that I have so many things I want to say, and yet ways to express everything is lacking. Where to start....how about last May. After nearly 3 years of marriage I finally convinced Brian that it was time to start trying to have a baby. I figured even if I were to get pregnant right away it would not interfere with my finishing my schooling because the baby would be due after I graduate. And so against Brian's fears he agreed and I went off birth control. Those first few months after I stopped my birth control were the hardest. My body was transitioning of the hormones in birth control and my period was anything but regular. There were a few months where I would think that my period was late, I would take a pregnancy test, and then collapse in tears...only to have my period start within the next 24 hours. I did not understand why we were unable to conceive. It hurt even more when I would look at facebook and see yet another friend announce their pregnancy. It was bittersweet, I was so happy for them, but everywhere I looked I seemed to see another pregnancy. I began wondering if I would ever feel the joys of motherhood.

So much has happened since those first months after I went off birth control. In December I finally graduated from BYU-I with a B.S. in Psychology. I admit there were moments when I didn't think I would ever graduate. I love psychology and I can't believe it took me so many years to figure out that was the field to go into and study. I am still at a loss for what I should do now that I have graduated. I feel like I have spent my whole life in school, and the idea of a break is nice, but I feel restless just working. For awhile I was playing with the idea of getting a masters in counseling specializing in art therapy, but after working with some of the kids at Access Point I don't know that it is right for me. Some of the kids that I worked with, doing behavioral therapy, were complete tyrants and I don't know that I would want to risk working with kids like that for the rest of my life. For the past month we have had Ninja in our home again (the rat I trained in my Principles of Behavioral Learning class) and it did make me remember how much I enjoyed training him and the chickens. Brian had the idea that I look into programs that I can do more training of animals. I like that idea, the animals won't talk back to me the way some of these kids have. I don't want to train dogs, because I am still terrified of them, but I think it would be really amazing to work in a zoo or at an aquarium as a trainer. I have to look into it more, but that is the direction that I am currently leaning towards.

I am so excited for life to move on right now. We have been living in Rexburg for nearly four years and I am ready to live someplace new. Luckily for us Brian did hear back from the graduate schools he applied to, and he was accepted into his top choice. Claremont Graduate University in Claremont, California. In March we had the opportunity to go to the school, look around, meet the professors, and make sure that he did indeed want to go to this school. It is awesome, I am so excited to be in California again, where it does not snow in the wintertime. Unfortunately we will not be able to leave until the beginning of August, and the semester will start in the beginning of September. One nice thing is that we will only be about an hour away from where I grew up, from my parents.

Now to the present. It has been about two weeks now since I was supposed to have my period. Last Saturday, before we left for Memorial Day weekend in Utah I took a pregnancy test. I was not expecting anything of it because it would not be the first time that my period was late. Three minutes passed and I got the nerves up to look at the test for the results. I nearly passed out when I realized there was the pink line to indicate that I was pregnant. After barely calming down I went to Brian and shared the news. I could not believe what my eyes were telling me. After nearly a year a pregnancy test was finally telling me the new that I had been hoping and praying for, for such a long time. The following day I took a digital test, oh how excited I felt to see the word "Pregnant" appear on the test. I have my first appointment with the doctor's on June 13. I pray that everything will go well with this pregnancy, that I won't have a miscarriage. I am so excited for what the future holds. I can't wait to hold this precious little girl or boy that is growing within me. Life is truly full of surprises and every moment that we breath we should cherish.