Checklist

I now have my hospital bag together. It was a relief getting it done. We have the car seat installed and the stroller put together. I've washed all of her clothes, but still need to put them away... not looking forward to that. I made a big wall decoration for her wall. It's the letter L in yellow gingham material with padding. I got my inspiration from the "E" in FRIENDS... haha. I'm getting really excited and impatient. It's all becoming very, VERY real. We have diapers and wipes for the beginning. I have all the little accessories to make her happy. The only thing we don't have yet is the crib, but we're not worrying about that until after Micah's parents are no longer here. We want to make sure there is enough room in the spare bedroom for them and we're using a bassinet for the first little while anyway. It will be fun assembling that. :) When her room is actually put together with the crib then I'll post pictures. Right now there isn't much to look at. I can't wait for our little baby girl to come! Hopefully I won't have to wait more than the 4 weeks I have until my due date and she may even come early as she already tried once. We'll see. Two weeks left of school... hallelujah. I love my job, but am SOOOOOO looking forward to the break. Any last minute advice? Anyone? We know that we can't really be prepared for the reality of it all, but we are trying. ;)

Pain

Apparently I went into early labor today. They didn't stop the contractions, but they have now sent me home with things to try and stop them. I'm only at 34 weeks, but I'm already 80% effaced. I'm only dilated 1+ cm though. I think everything will be fine, but boy is it painful. I can't go to work until Wednesday, but I'm grateful everything is fine and Lila is still healthy. They considered just having me stay at the hospital but they really want to try and make it a few more weeks at least. The whole time I was laying there I just kept thinking about all I still need to do and how I didn't have my hospital bag with me because I had left from work. Crazy! I know that I'm just rambling, but all these thoughts are spilling out of my head!

34 weeks

Here I am at 34 weeks. I feel huge, and I feel like I look huge, but I'm only measuring 4 days ahead and I'm not gaining too much weight so who knows. Some people have told me that I look huge and some have said that I don't look big enough to be due in 6 weeks. I'm sure people are just trying to be nice, but it sure makes me feel better than being told I look huge. Haha. I'm really not sensitive about it even though it sounds like I am. :) Anyway, it's going well, but I'm definitely getting REALLY uncomfortable and my pelvic bone and hips hurt really bad when I lay down or when I try and get up from sitting or laying down. They hurt when I walk too, but it's not super bad. Night time is the worst though. I have to wake Micah up any time I need to change positions so he can help me because I'm in too much pain. My poor husband is so loving even though he's losing a lot of sleep too. Any suggestions of what to do or did anyone have these kinds of pains? I'm not too worried, but should I be? I plan on telling my doctor about it on Thursday at my appointment and I think everything will check out. We'll see. My baby is huge so maybe she's just putting more pressure down there while my joints are loosening. Any advice or thoughts are welcome.

Has it really been 3 years?

I know 3 years doesn't sound that long, but I can't believe how quickly it went and how much I have grown! I feel like I've known Micah forever and I can't imagine loving him any more. Of course I thought that the day we got married and now I love him a million times more than before. He has been the most amazing husband, partner, and friend. I don't know how I got so lucky, but I'm so happy that it's only the beginning. We've enjoyed our time with just the two of us, and are really looking forward to our coming family. I could list all the reasons that I love him, but it would take forever and I'd be afraid of missing things. In the end, I just want to say that I LOVE YOU, MICAH!!! Thank goodness you are around. You make everyday worth it. I hope that I can live up to my end of the promises that I made you the beautiful day we were sealed for eternity. You are my everything.

It's been a busy week

There will be random pictures throughout this post and a lot of random little things to tell about, so I'm sorry if it's not cohesive in any way. It is also a LONG post so beware.

This week has been event filled, fun, and very exhausting.

Sunday I hit 32 weeks. Not anything too exciting here, but I have a picture so I thought I would mention this.



Monday was a long math day and the beginning of Teacher Appreciation Week so, while it was long, I got to spend the first hour of work eating breakfast while my room mom did a project with the kids. It was really nice.

Tuesday was the best of the week! Jared and Tracee moved their family back from Australia and surprised us all. We knew they were probably going to come back sometime this year, but we never thought it would be this early. No-one knew except for my sister Eliza because she was getting married. It was such a great surprise to go down to my parent's house and see them there. I finally got to see my ADORABLE new nephew. Thanks for the great surprise Jared and Tracee! So that night was obviously a lot of fun.

Wednesday I had another ultrasound and I got to see our beautiful baby girl. She is still looking just as adorable as ever and I got a lot of new cute pictures of her. She is healthy but VERY large. I have to admit that I'm nervous for delivery. :)

Thursday was my acutal doctor appointment and it went over very well. I no loner am measuring big, and I don't have extra amniotic fluid anymore so I don't have to take non stress tests. Yay! There was one thing of concern and that was my iron. It dropped even lower so I have to start taking iron supplements twice a day, drink prune juice, and eat prunes. It's going to be interesting, but I only have a few weeks left of pregnancy and I'll do anything to keep our baby healthy. Oh and because my daughter is so big Dr. Cloward thought about moving my due date, but decided not to because we already moved it once. I'm just hoping the ultrasound is off on the weight as they told me they tend to overestimate on it.

Friday was Eliza's wedding. It was freezing cold, but she looked beautiful and incredibly happy. It was a fun day in all and the wedding was beautiful. I'll post pictures of that day when I get some from family members. I'm really happy for Eliza and Josh and proud of them for making it to the temple to be sealed eternally. This picture is of Micah and I at the wedding...



We were exhausted by the end from having been on our feet all day, and we got home really late about 11:30 which is late for me. Especially for what I was going to do the next morning.

This morning I participated in a 5k at my elementary school. I got to the school at 7:30 to warm-up and it was cold, but when the sun would peek out from behind the clouds it wasn't bad. Being 8 months pregnant, many of the teachers were concerned, but I wasn't planning on running it so I wasn't worried. I did power walk most of it, at least a power walk for a pregnant lady, and I felt really good after. I'm really happy I did it even if it took me 55 minutes. Sad time I know, but I'm just happy I finished in under an hour. We had a great turn out and were able to raise quite a bit of money for our music lab so I'm excited. It was so much fun and I really enjoyed spending time with some of the teachers outside of work. I also have to tell you that the guy that had the fastest time ran it in 16 minutes. 16 minutes! He could have finished it four times before I even finished it once. Haha! He is my inspiration. Here are a couple of pictures from that great adventure.




Finally, as I said before, it was Teacher Appreciation Week at our school and I got lots of sweet notes and yummy treats from my class. Then on Thursday I received a few outfits for my baby girl. Because I missed school on Friday I wanted to look over the substitute's notes after the 5k so I went into my classroom. On my desk was a beautiful basket filled with baby items for me. My favorite thing was that the basket was actually a baby tub with suction cups to stick to our tub. I'm so excited to have these items to help me out and am so grateful for the love of all my students and their parents.

As you can see I've had what I feel was an eventful week and so many wonderful things are happening right now. I feel truly blessed and am grateful for these times. The last thing I'll be doing this week is going to Sweet Home Chicago Pizza tonight for my sister's birthday. I haven't had it before, but I hear it is really good and I think it will be a great way to end such a week.

I may have missed some things so if I remember anything and feel it is really important to mention, I will be adding things. ;)