(warning... a post totally dedicated to being preggo)

31.5 weeks here. I can't believe that in nine weeks or so we'll have a sweet little bundle to add to our family. Crazy! Still getting chubbier. Kylie likes to come up to me and pat my stomach or offer her blanky to my belly. The good news is that I still am still sporting an "innie" for a belly button and no stretch marks so far.

This past Saturday Jared and I took an all day third trimester birthing class. Doing so (along with being in an obgyn office as a preggo patient, walking into Motherh.ood Matern.ity etc.) are just one of those things that for the longest time I didn't ever think I'd get the chance to experience. I guess it's like a bald guy walking into a hair extension shop... it's hard to shake the feeling that I shouldn't be there. Regardless we learned a lot in this class, perhaps even more than I needed to know. Oye! It was an eight hour class so there was just heaping amounts of information to go over.

The first topic the instructor mentioned that got my head turning was about "how our bodies are meant to do this". Which I know is true in theory, but the instructor used the logic that our bodies are full of parts that are meant to fulfill their basic functions. For example, our arm sockets are meant to allow our arms to rotate pain free. Our knee joints are meant to move our legs pain free. So she tells us that there's a circular cycle of fear--tension-pain that leads us to believe that childbirth is painful. According to the instructor apparently our bodies know how to get these babies out of our bodies and so it is best to engage in relaxation techniques, visualizations, hypnosis, encouragement etc to get our minds off the pain and let our bodies do what they are supposed to do. While I'm hearing all of this the first thing that pops into my head is "well, if that logic is correct then I should have had no problems getting pregnant within a year or two since a uterus is "meant to do this". But WAIT!!! That didn't happen. So maybe my body REALLY doesn't know how it's going to get this baby out of here if it couldn't figure out how to get it IN here. " And so that's how it goes when an infertility patient is finding herself sitting in a third trimester pregnancy class. Still not convinced I belong, through my belly tells me otherwise.

I'm getting a bit more anxious about the labor part of all of this since it's starting to loom on the horizon. I was happy to learn about some relaxation techniques and breathing exercises which I'm sure I'll utilize. Both Jared and I learned a lot from the class and I'm happy we went. We learned a lot of useful information. Still am planning on having an epid.ural (sorry miss instructor!) and I just hope that it works and that it does what it's supposed to do. So far I've never met a medication that I didn't respond well with so we shall see. It didn't work well for Abbie, and for my sister the epid.ural totally wore off when she got to the point of pushing. Which they say isn't a bad thing, but three hours of pushing later, then forcepts and being stitched up after an episi.otomy with practically nothing to take the edge off of the pain.... well you get the idea. Thankfully for what her labor lacked and the excruciating pain that was involved my totally adorable nephew makes up in cute looks.


































(ps. Thanks Vaylene for watching Kylie while we were at the class. We owe you big!!!)

My poor laptop is getting bogged down in the memory-department but I was finally able to get some of Halloween's pictures off my camera. Wahoo!

The little miss dressed up as a bee this year and when we'd ask her what she was going to be for Halloween she'd proudly proclaim "BEE!!!!" We have a book that has a bunch of scripture stories in it and her favorite page is the one that has a bunch of honey bees on it.

The day before Halloween we went trick-or-treating at Jared's office and she sure picked up on the idea quickly! At each office she would pick out exactly one piece of candy and would put it into her bucket. She had a bit of a scare though at one office. They had a costume contest and his co-worker Dave dressed up in a full body penguin costume (as in the penguin from Lin.ux). We stepped into his office, and the penguin turned around in his chair. I couldn't even tell who it was at the time because you couldn't see his face. Kylie took one good look at this life sized penguin and bolted down the hallway. Jared went chasing after her and you'd think we were going to feed her to the lions! The poor thing was genuinely scared. We got a good laugh anyway and it sounds like she wasn't the only little one that was spooked by Dave's costume. We went to the ward's costume party that evening which was fun. They had a DJ and music playing. It was fun to see Kylie in her little costume dancing to the music. She loves to dance!

Halloween day was a fun day. I set the bowl of candy down in the front room a little bit before we left and Kylie made sure to fill her bucket to the absolute brim with the goodies she had found! Jared still hadn't been feeling good so I took her around to the neighborhood and Jared dished out the candy at our house. She did great going around to the neighborhood and we did many more houses than I expected- probably at least thrity! She caught on quickly and would slap her little hand right on the door when she'd get up there. She finally got tired on our way back with only three or four houses left and I had to carry her. She had filled up her little bucket (which we emptied before we left) right up plus some. We had more trick or treaters this year and went through our stash of candy in just the right amount of time.

Halloween is one of my favorite holidays and it was really fun this year. It's great when they are old enough to get the hang of it!

EXCEPT that I spent an hour last night dreaming in full-panic mode because I had lost Kylie at Fred Myers.

Which wouldn't be so bad (getting back to sleep that is), until I fell back asleep and then spent another hour dreaming about arguing with three other ladies at a store with why "I" should be the one who should purchase the cute clearance $10 red sweater which I had found, and that they were wanting something terrible.

I was awfully happy to wake up and to realize that Kylie was safe in her crib. Lately it seems like when I'm in dream mode I might as well be watching a movie all night long. I've sure been tired today.

Our little miss Kylie has turned two!!!

Kylie had a great birthday this past week. The excitement must have been thick in the air because goodnesssssss she was she a handful that night! She had way too much sugar for one day. Kylie spent the morning playing with a bunch of balloons that we had blown up for her. She even took a bath with one of them because she was so excited. Jared has been sick with flu-like symptoms all week and took the day off. It was really nice that he could take the day off on her birthday but I wish it had been under healthier circumstances! So because of the sickness factor we just had a little celebration with the three of us.

I didn't get around to making dinner until late that night so we sang to her and ate birthday cupcakes just before bedtime. She must be a girl after my own heart because after giving her several options to pick from at the store she wanted chocolate frosting and chocolate ice cream. We had fun letting her help put sprinkles on her cupcakes . A few of those cupcakes had heaping amounts of sprinkles on them! We sang to her and Kylie blew out her two candles like she's been doing it for years. All by herself! Jared and I both thought the funniest thing of the evening was watching her eat her cupcakes without her hands. For whatever reason she just chowed down on those cupcakes without touching them until they disappeared. She's such a silly girl and it was a fun evening. Kylie was running around this evening for hours on end with endless energy. She knew it was her special day and took full advantage of it!

It's crazy to think how much she's grown in the two years she's been with us. Our tiny 6lb 9oz baby girl is now almost thirty pounds and not quite half of Jared's height. It makes me wonder how many more changes will happen in the upcoming years. Time flies by so fast. She's brought so much happiness and laughter into our home. I think both Jared and I can say that her joining our family has been the best thing that ever happened to us! Sometimes she wakes up in the middle of the night and one of us will bring her into bed with us. Not the best habit, but we love cuddling with her. When we bring her in she'll look at us and give us a great big "hi!!!" at five am in the morning, or whatever time it is. She's so easy to love, even when she's running around crazy-like.

Happy birthday love!

I had my 28 week appointment this past Thursday. Everything looked great- low blood pressure, no proteins and weight gain right on track. I did do the glucose screen and the nasty pink stuff I had to drink gave me the dry heaves all morning. They say it tastes like flat soda, but I've had flat soda before and I think this was more along the lines of watered down cough syrup. Bleh!

I had been a bit concerned the week before because I had only been feeling the baby move maybe once per day, sometime a little more if I was lying down. She did a quick ultrasound in the office and the fluid levels look fine and he was squirming around. I found out that I have an anterior placenta so that could be why I don't feel his kicks as much. When I'm up and walking around I rarely feel him move, but I can when I lie down. So I have a hunch that it's because I'm chasing my munchkin around the house all day instead of chilling on the couch! I really like my doctor. I was unsure about going to a female obgyn but I've been pleasantly surprised with how much I like her office, their staff and the doctor herself.

So far I seem to be a very boring pregnancy patient, which is a great problem to have. I'm glad to know that even though it took us so many years to get pregnant, that at least my body seems to be handling things just as it should be. I'm trying to be hopeful that things will continue to be complication free and that he'll make it to our family safely. It's a big sigh of relief to me to be this far along. Everyone keeps asking me how I'm feeling and so far I've felt great! I'm starting to really feel chubby now that I've gained twenty pounds, but I've also gotten a lot of comments that I don't look very big for how far along I am. I'll either have to attribute that to having such nice friends, or that it's just my first pregnancy.

I think it's safe to say that Kylie will be pretty excited once he gets here. The other day I went to see my sister and her new baby and she wasted no time wanting to hold baby Ethan and give him his bottle. She's always been head over heels in love with babies of all shapes and sizes. I'm curious to see how she'll do once the initial excitement wears off but I have high hopes for her. She's a great helper and I think as long as we keep her involved as much as possible that she'll do great!