She'll be coming soon

I had another OB appointment yesterday, and I was really dreading it. The last couple of weeks it seems like nothing is really happening. I'm huge and getting a bit tired of being pregnant. And tired in general. Don't get me wrong, I totally wanted this, it's just that my attention span really isn't this long and I figured it would be over by now. My sisters both had their babies early and I thought I would follow suit and baby would be here at latest by 38 weeks. I am now just 5 days away from my due date and no baby. So, I settled in for going over, after all it really does seem as if nothing is happening. My "practice surges", or braxton hicks,have completely stopped. Like non-existent. That was actually kind of stressing me out because every appointment for the last four weeks my doctor has been asking "are you having contractions that are coming more frequently? are they harder" and I feel like there's some sort of end-of-pregnancy test that I'm failing, because I have to think really hard then say "well, I think I had one a couple days ago, but I'm not really sure, and nothing uncomfortable". So, I was dreading this appointment. I told Joel I would probably leave crying because he would say the same thing he's said for the last four weeks, "nothing really happening, see you next week". And my appointments fall on Wednesday, so next week would be a day after my due date. I really don't want to still be pregnant on my birthday (next Thursday)! But this time my regular doctor was out of town (he'd in Ireland until Saturday night), and the other doctor checked me and told me that he wouldn't say nothing is happening, I'm 80% effaced, which means my cervix is basically gone. I'm not dialated at all, which was a bit sad, but at least something is different! Maybe it won't be an eternity! He also took pity on me being sick and gave me drugs to clear up my cough and congestion. Yay! So pregnancy is hopefully coming to an end soon. He told me if he doesn't see me this weekend I'll see my normal doctor on Monday. Which is at least better than Wednesday.

New Camera

Joel and I decided that for our anniversary this year we would buy a nice camera. But, we wanted to buy it early even though our anniversary isn't until July 28, so that we could have it for when the baby comes. So we started researching cameras in January, and decided that we really liked the features of the Sony DSC-H50. So, we started saving money and almost 2 weeks ago had saved up enough money for our price range for a new camera, and we re-researched. Well, I had been looking and found the Sony DSC-H20 and thought it was the same one we originally wanted so we decided on that one, and purchased it from Dell, because I get an employee discount. About 2 hours after we purchased it I realized it was the wrong camera and that we really wanted the H50. So after some talking we decided to try to cancel that order, and we did--though we still haven't received our refund. Then we looked everywhere for the H50 and found a site that had it fairly cheap (oh, we buy just about everything on the internet), so we decided to buy it. At the confirmation screen a message pops up that says something like "though your order is final the price may not be, depending on location insurance may be added on later". What?! Then they send us an e-mail saying they need further verification to complete our order. Joel calls them, and it turns out the camera we were trying to buy didn't come with a battery (about an extra $60-$80) and the insurance would be an extra $26. So we decided maybe we should try to find a cheaper site. In my research we found out that the DSC H50 was discontinued. Well, we didn't really want to buy a discontinued camera, so we thought maybe we'd go with our second choice, a Nikon Coolpix L100. While I was looking for a good deal on that I found a higher model Nikon (Nikon Coolpix P90) on sale for not very much more. So we finally bought it from Best Buy and picked it up at the store. Yay! So this is our new camera:


We have only used it a few times to play around with it, but I'll try to post pictures soon. So far the ones we've taken have turned out pretty well.

Trip to Labor and Delivery

So after my craft fair last Saturday I started noticing this weird discomfort in my lower abdomen, kind of like a pressure and cramping sensation. I decided it was probably from sitting all day at the craft fair on an uncomfortable metal chair and decided to just ignore it. Well, the cramping sensation kept happening on and off for the next couple days, but I just chalked it up to being tired and getting bigger. Well, on Tuesday around two in the afternoon, the cramping sensation got much worse, and now it actually hurt. So after about an hour of these tightening cramps coming and going I decided to call my doctors office. Afterall, I have no idea what's normal and they're the ones that deal with pregnancy all day everyday. Well the nurse told me that she couldn't tell me that I wasn't going into pre-term labor. So I asked, what does that mean? And she said "that means you have to go to labor and delivery right now, how close are you?" Well, I work at the hospital so not very far actually. Okay, so I leave work a bit stressed. As of Tuesday I was barely 31 weeks (I turned 31 weeks on Tuesday) so preterm labor would mean 9 weeks early. So on my way over I call Joel, me: "Hi Honey, how are you?" Joel: "I'm okay, I'm getting ready to go take my final soon. How are you?" me: "I'm okay. I'm actually headed over to labor and delivery right now." Joel: "Why?" me: "I might be having surges." (Surges is what we call contractions, we're taking a natural childbirth class and they don't call them contractions, they call them surges, and braxton hicks are practice surges). Joel: "Do you want me to come?" me: "No, I'm okay, just go take your test, I'm hoping to be back to work by 4:30" (At this point it was around 3:30). Well, by the time I got to Labor and delivery the "surges" had stopped completely, now I just feel like a silly pregnant lady with moniters on my belly. So they checked me out and it turned out that the pressure was because the baby is really low and pushing on my pelvis and sitting was causing the pressure. The "surges" were likely from being dehydrated (I had drank like 5 glasses of water right before going to L&D which is probably why they stopped). So they let me go home about 5:30 that night, but said I couldn't go back to work that night (I asked). All in all it was a very exciting trip. Poor Joel was pretty stressed out during his final and showed up at labor and delivery as I was walking out. The labor and delivery floor at Utah Valley is really quite impressive. The room I was in was huge, though I was a bit discontcerted about being covered only in a hospital gown with the windows facing 500 W wide open, and the nurses were very nice. Baby's heartbeat was nice and strong, fluctuating between about 145 bpm and 179 bpm. Hopefully we don't have anymore scares for at least 7 weeks.

Craft Fair

Wow, I haven't posted in a while. Well, remember about six months ago I got my Cricut? Well, I have started using it a lot. In fact, I have been selling vinyl that I cut with it (like vinyl Wall Words, and the cookie jar I made for my mother in law for Christmas). I haven't sold much, but it's been a really fun hobby on the side. I'm still getting used to the program that I use for it (Sure Cuts A Lot...it's cheaper than Cricut Design Studio and has more options). So on April 18th I'm going to be a vendor in a local craft fair. It's in Springville and I'll have an 8' X 4' table. I'm really excited to participate in a craft fair. Joel is helping me put together albums with previous stuff that I've done as well as the fonts that I have available. It's hard to get ready for it with everything going on like work and school, but it's a lot of fun to see new things that I can do with my Cricut.

If you guessed boy...

You were wrong! But it's okay, I was wrong too. We're having a baby girl! Joel guessed right. We are so excited, I'm especially excited for all the pink and dresses we get to buy. Or, borrow from my sisters who have girls. Joel's more excited about the clothing from my sisters than shopping. But either way we're so happy! Her official due date is June 23rd (or June 28th depending on which doctor) but she is measuring a bit big, closer to June 18th (which was my original guess). But I guess she'll come when she feels like it. This last month she has gotten very active. I think she rolls around a lot because most of the movements don't really feel like kicks or jabs, they feel more like rolling something across my insides. She loves the sound of Joel's voice. When I get home at night and he starts talking she gets really active. Especially when he is reading the scriptures. She must like the cadence of his voice when he reads. Maybe she'll like reading. That would be neat. She does not really move for me though. She has started responding a little bit when I tap on my tummy, but for the most part she responds to voices. Some of her favorites are: her daddy's voice, male voices with similar tones, Grandma Wenerstrom's voice (we discovered that last Sunday), and someone at work. I think the work voice is Torey, since I'm around her the most. It's fun to see her starting to respond to things. Our last ultrasound she was faceplanted into my back and would not roll over. The ultrasonographer was banding on my tummy where her head was with the ultrasound paddle and she just batted at it with her little hand and reared back with her head but didn't roll over. They have to repeat it so that they can see her face. I was told to drink soda or juice next time so that she'll be awake. We're over the halfway point (I'll be 23 weeks tomorrow) so we get to meet her soon.

Valentine's Day 2009, Part 2

On Valentine's day Joel and I did my family's tradition of heart shaped pizza and pink milk. Every year growing up mom would make home made pizza dough and we would make heart shaped pizza and dye the milk pink using red food coloring. I decided when we got married that I wanted to continue that tradition. We missed it last year, but this year we decided to do it and have Torey (a friend from Arielle's work) join us for dinner. My mom e-mailed us her pizza dough recipe and Joel and I made the pizza dough. Because I don't like getting my hands dirty, I got Joel to knead the dough, which it seemed he quite enjoyed.

For the pink milk we decided to have strawberry milk instead of just dyed milk, because Joel wanted the strawberry milk. So it looks like our pink milk will be strawberry milk. I thought that the amount of dough didn't look very big so I split it up a little more to make "personal" pizzas. They turned out quite a bit bigger than I expected once we rolled them out (using a beverage glass because I didn't think to buy a rolling pin), so we each had about a medium sized pizza and I had extra dough to put in the freezer for next time. Overall it was a fun tradition that I hope we keep.

My Pizza

Joel's Pizza (he started eating before I could get a picture)

Torey's Pizza
Drinking our pink milk

Valentine's Day 2009

For Valentine's this year Joel and I went to Chef's Table in Orem. We decided we wouldn't do well as rich people because we're really awkward in fancy restaurants. It's very pretty, and the lighting is very romantic. When the seat you they unfold your napkin and place it on your lap. And if you get up to go to the bathroom they refold your napkin. Crazy. Right when they seat you, after taking your beverage order and giving you water, they bring lemon sorbets out so you can cleanse your palate. I always thought those were supposed to be between courses, but I guess our palates weren't clean enough to even begin eating. We had to ask the waiter the proper protocol for eating it, then after he left I wished I had also asked which spoon to go for (we decided on the top spoons since that's where they put the sorbets). Well, dinner was very good, I had Alaska salmon with a dill holandaise sauce and Joel had tenderloin Marsala. The waiters and everyone were all way nice, the waiter even folded up table clothes to put behind my back because my back was hurting. Kind of funny. We should have had someone take a picture of us, but instead we took a picture of ourselves.