Busy, Busy, Busy

and still pregnant.

I have a lot going on today - that's nice to stay busy. I have tons to blog about, but I'll get to that later. Gotta go.

Happy Anniversary to Us!

Wahoo! We love anniversaries! Yesterday was really fun. We hung out with Ryan and Melissa (brother and soon-to-be sister-in-law) and my parents most of yesterday. We played games (til almost 3 am) and went to a playground at a camp where Ryan works. We were dropping him off at his cabin to start his work week today. Matt and I also went and walked around Temple Square (hoping to see lots of flowers but really seeing more construction than great landscaping. Oh well.) It was nice to enjoy the weather and just be together the two of us.

This morning we got up and came back to Provo to get Melissa to work on time. Matt surprised me last night with the news that he had taken the day off today. So we didn't have to rush him off to work as I had been planning. Yippee!! I was thrilled (and still am.) So far to celebrate we went straight to a mechanic after dropping Melissa off. It's the third time in about two weeks that Amy and I have hung out at this shop because our check engine light came on. Each time they would try something relatively simple (and cheap) and then ask if I just wanted to drive it around for a few days and see if the light came on. That was nice of them. Unfortunately, it always came back on. So the problem was bigger and more expensive than we would have hoped. We're looking at about $500. But what do you do? We'll manage.

So they are still fixing our van, and a nice man drove us home. But I promise the rest of the day will be more fun. I have an appointment at the OBGYN, and we're going out to dinner tonight. So we're enjoying ourselves.

oh, and I'm still pregnant. But right now we're glad. We don't really want to have a baby on our anniversary - and on a day when our van is getting fixed which means that we don't have a vehicle that we can tote Amy around in. So we want to wait at least a few more days now. (I know, not what I was saying last week.) It really would be fine if this baby waited the 1 remaining week until her scheduled induction. Yay 1 more week!

Happy Memorial Day!

Nothing to report in the baby category, but we're excited to go celebrate our anniversary today. (It's actually tomorrow, but Matt doesn't have to work today.)

I Had Some Contractions Last Night...

They stopped. I'm getting ready to go to church in a while.

Still Pregnant

My cousin, Kara, recommended that I post every morning til the baby comes so those of you who are not as close by will know that if I don't post it's cause we're at the hospital.

I'll try. I'm not going to promise that I'll remember every day. But we are planning on bringing our laptop to the hospital to post very soon after the baby is born.

So the news of today... I'm still pregnant. No news today. Or yesterday for that matter. Which is better, nothing at all happening or contractions that become a false alarm. The natural guess would be that contractions that become a false alarm would be more discouraging not to mention painful and therefore worse. But not having contractions or any serious contractions is at least as discouraging I think. So I don't know. Today I've had a few contractions, but nothing serious. We're hanging in there and having a good time, though.

My mom came down yesterday and helped me organize Amy's closet and my closet as well as a few other spots in the house that needed attention. She's great. So now we're that much closer to ready for the baby to come. (We're ready enough anyway as far as I'm concerned, but it never hurts to get a little bit more done.)

Well, many of you know that Matt and I rushed to the hospital last night after a while of hard close contractions. (Thank you Maria and Kristi for taking care of Amy and for all the rest of you who were willing!) I thought I should update.

They checked us in and after a while checked me to see if I was dilated anymore. I was a 3+. Sounds good. Then wait an hour while I'm on the monitors. I was still contracting, and it's kind of fun to watch the monitor to see how hard it registers the contractions. Like it legitimizes my whininess and the fact that I'm in the hospital AGAIN still not sure if I'm in labor.

I had the AWESOMEST nurse. She was very personable. She predicted that based on my contractions (and my recent false alarms) I probably would not be making it to my induction date. She wouldn't have been surprised at all to find me in active labor (meaning I dilate 1 cm in the hour.) Unfortunately, I wasn't. They sent us home again. She thinks (and so do we) that it probably won't be too long before I'm back. I sure hope so.

At the end of the hour I was still a 3+. The sweet nurse gave me a morphine shot to take the pain away from the contractions. With the pain, I think the contractions left too. So I got a great night sleep out of it, but this morning I'm back to random contractions here and there. Nothing too promising. They tell me to come back in when my contractions are 3-5 minutes apart for at least an hour. Every time I start seriously having contractions, they start out that close together. So it's hard to know. The nurse said to wait until most of the contractions are so hard that I can't walk or talk through them. Some of them were that way last night, but not most of them.

So... I am still pregnant.

False Alarm #4!

That's right. Last night we had our 4th false alarm. In order to qualify for a false alarm, I have to have regular contractions for at least 45 minutes to and hour and/ or think my water might have broken. When those things happen, I call my sister and brothers and parents, partly to keep them updated and partly to arrange Amy care. And to give them a head's up in case they need to be coming to Orem soon to meet a new baby.

We never necessarily thought I was in labor - until last night. I really wasn't positive, but we thought there was a chance that my water broke last night. So Ryan and Melissa came over to hang out with Amy, and Matt and I went to the hospital.

From everything I've read, it's normal towards the end of pregnancy for lovely things to happen that may or may not be water breaking, and it's quite common for women to not know if their water broke or not. I've been told that I should go to the hospital if I think it might have happened. So we did.

Well, I'm not posting about having a baby, am I? It wasn't my water breaking. I thought as soon as I found out I would be really disappointed if I wasn't in labor. And of course I would rather have been in labor, but I was blessed with peace and comfort about it. The disappointment didn't hit as strong as I thought. In fact, I feel comforted that the Lord is taking care of us, and I am starting to feel like being under 2 weeks to go is actually a short time. I'm grateful for that help.

The thing that is difficult today is doing any of my normal responisibilities - I've struggled with that a bit lately. Sometimes I feel depressed, sometimes lazy, sometimes terribly unmotivated (a variation of lazy) and sometimes too sick or sore or tired to do anything. Today I'm tired and a little discouraged. I had the house almost totally clean last night when we went to the hospital. It's still not bad, but I just wanted it to stay clean for a few days while we were away. Nope, it's messy now. It's really not bad, but I'm not feeling quite as motivated as I was yesterday to take care of it.

I'm also sometimes a little concerned that my family is going to very sick of all the false alarms. When I suggested that to Andy last night, he said they like knowing what's going on. I know my mom and Laurel feel that way too. So I guess I'll keep calling them at the slightest hint of labor. I just wonder how many false alarms there will be before this baby comes. It's hard not to get my hopes up when I'm having lots of contractions so I am looking forward to the real thing. But I can handle 13 more days.

Hope this wasn't whiny - I tend to be whiny these days. Just thought I'd update everyone else - after I found out that it was a false alarm. Thanks for all your support!

Another Round of Contractions and My Progress Report

Saturday night I had another round of contractions for about 2 1/2 hours. They came close together right from the beginning. When I started timing them, they were about 5 minutes apart for about an hour... and then they just stopped. One came a while later out of the blue, but that was all. I can't seem to help but get my hopes up when I am having contractions so I was really disappointed when they just stopped. By this point, Matt and I were both feeling like we'd rather just have our baby. I'm not sure how many false alarms we can take - not that we necessarily thought I was really in labor - we just knew it COULD be labor if it would keep going. I know, we'll take as many false alarms as we get because what else can we do about it? Nothing. But they are unfortunate as far as getting hopes up. And it hurts to have contractions. I assume that goes without saying, but it is a bit of a disadvantage.

Yesterday was a very good day. Other than usual discomfort and soreness - almost a constant thing with me at this stage - I felt well. This was a blessing particularly because Amy and I had to be at church for 5 1/2 hours. We got to ward council before church and choir practice after. It makes for a long day. We both handled it remarkably well, and I was grateful.

This morning I had my weekly doctors appointment. I asked the doctor to check me just because we have been curious if these contractions have been making a noticeable impact on my dilating. So far, the answer had been no. But today he said I was a 2 to 3. Yay!!!! Matt and I are really thinking this week sounds GREAT to have a baby. But we'll see. Still, it's just nice to know I am making progress.

THe Funny Man We Met on Our Date the Other Night

Friday night Jason came over to hang out with sleeping Amy while Matt and I went on a date. We were going to walk on the Provo River Trail, but it was getting too dark too soon. So we decided to watch some little league baseball games a the diamonds right by the library. I love watching baseball - I know that probably surprised people since many people don't think it's fun and if you know that I am NOT athletic at all. Matt likes it too, but we agree that he's not as interested as me.

Anyway, it was a little cold while we were out which made Matt even more snuggly than he naturally is. So we were sitting on some bleachers close together with Matt's arm around me when a man who we didn't know came up behind us and told us to stop it because we were getting him in trouble. Apparently his wife thought we were cute for being snuggly. We explained that Matt was cold and somehow brought up that I was pregnant - not that that is a secret at this point. We got talking about how pregnant ladies have internal heaters. He talked about how when his wife had been pregnant she would always freeze him out. He would still shiver under 5 blankets. He would want to go sleep somewhere else so that he could be warm. But his wife would whine about not wanting to be alone. The man said he would reply that she wouldn't be alone - she had the baby with her. He would be alone... and warm. Maybe you had to be there, but we were so amused. Later, as we discussed how funny the man while walking between the diamonds with my arm through Matt's, we saw him again. He told us we really needed to stop such things and that this is what got us into our "predicament" in the first place. So we laughed all the harder and continued looking over our shoulders the rest of the night to see if we'd get "caught."

Super Fun Weekend Part 4

Yes, the super fun weekend continued past Sunday night. Aren't I lucky?

Monday morning began with the realization for me that after not enough sleep and all those contractions the night before I wasn't going to expect a lot of myself that day. I can easily overwhelm myself with all the things I think of to do. I knew I was tired, and I didn't know what the day held in store for me as far as contractions or how I would be feeling. So I just planned to take it a little easy. Plus having a day or two like that here and there makes the other days - where I work hard and try to be productive - more manageable.

We hurried and got ready for my doctor's appointment first thing. I was excited to see what the doctor had to say about all those contractions. Unfortunately, it wasn't much. He said lots of women just contract a lot quite a while before labor. I knew that, of course, but I wanted him to tell me SOMETHING. It's funny because he told me we have the date set with the hospital for me to be induced on June 2nd - which is the date we picked within the bounds he gave us. We even have all the arrangements made for Amy to be taken care of while we have the baby on June 2nd. It just sounds so fun to be progressing anyway. But I'm not. No dilating. Nothing. He did say the baby is low - I've known for a while she's low. She dropped a week and a half ago. But it's nice to hear the doctor agree. So no news. That's still good because I'm not quite full term (for two more days.)

After we got home, I called my sister to give her the update and then realized that going to my mom's for the day would be WAY more fun than staying home. Andy and Nita and their family were planning on spending James' actual birthday hanging out with my mom, and I had heard them making arrangements about what time they would all meet there. So we just went too. It was fun to surprise them.

We spent 6 hours outside playing. James, Amy, and Grammy swam in the kiddie pool. People rode bikes and dug in the dirt. Andy mowed the lawn, and my mom dug up some weeds. She loves yard work. We ate snacks and sat around talking. We walked down to the canal by my mom's house and fed the ducks. We played part of a game of rook. There was even a water balloon toss after Papa got home. Nita and I agreed that it was so nice to not have things we needed to be doing. We just relaxed and played together and with the kids. It was a wonderful day. Plus there was cake and a few more presents for James. It was hard to leave and go home. Except for the fact that home meant I got to see Matt. Lucky me!

Amy fell asleep on the ride home since she had only taken about a 20 minute nap because of all the fun to be had. After getting her in her bed, we had Family Home Evening. Matt and I played a super long game of Mastermind. We both really love that game, and it was very fun. Matt did AWESOME! For those who know Mastermind, he guessed the answer most rounds in 4 tries, one round in 5 tries, and one round in 3 tries. That's AMAZING! Anyway, FHE was fun. Even though we were both very sleepy. A huge weekend of fun ending with 2 nights of not enough sleep. Yikes! I'll manage cause I get a nap today, but I'm concerned for Matt. He may have to work super late tonight (probably), and it will be rough for him to stay awake.

So that's our super fun weekend! I loved it! And Amy really loved it too! She was just so happy and excited to have so much family spending so much time with us. Luckily, she hasn't seemed too sad today that it's just her and me again. (Although her first word this morning that Matt heard was THE - Ryan's nickname.) Yay for family, birthday parties, games, relaxing, Mother's Day, good weather, and being spoiled!

Our Super Fun Weekend Part 3

the contractions started. (See previous post if you are confused. Read it first.)

I had had another 1/2 hour to hour period in the evening where I was having contractions and random symptoms, but this was different. From 10:55 to 12:45, I had 16 contractions. (We started timing them because they were so frequent and more distinct than previous ones had been.) They were still varying quite a bit one to the next in strength, length, and frequency. But they were pretty close together considering I managed to fit in 16 in 2 hours. They were mostly not that strong relative to what I know is coming. Except the second to last one. Matt was winding down and falling asleep. That was fine with me. I would just read between contractions until they got worse or went away. Then I had this sudden pain in my stomach. I started feeling very much like throwing up, and a painful contraction started. I suppose relatively speaking it wasn't nearly as painful as they can get, but it was so much stronger than what I had been having. Matt was suddenly wide awake, helping me breathe and relax. Afterward I decided that it would only take me 2 or 3 of those kind of contractions to make me want to go to the hospital. So naturally I only had one more contraction, and it was quite pathetic.

Then they stopped and we went to sleep. End of that story. We hadn't necessarily thought I was in labor. It was too soon to tell. We were just wanting to keep track of what was going on in case it continued and the contractions became more regular and frequent - meaning that I would have been in labor. And we just wanted to be prepared. Andy and Nita were sleeping in American Fork that night, and so I called about 11:30 to ask Andy if he'd be willing to drive down if we needed to go to the hospital in the middle of the night so that someone would be with Amy. He was so nice about it. But he didn't end up needing to come because the contractions stopped, and we all slept.

So we slept in a bit this morning. And now for some RIDICULOUS reason Matt and I are still both up even though we are very sleepy and it's midnight. (We just finished our Family Home Evening activity - so our reason isn't really ridiculous.)

Anyway, as usual I was very longwinded. Hope you weren't too bored. And I hope everyone else had a wonderful Mother's Day.

Our Super Fun Weekend Part 2

Sunday: I woke up at 7 something to a quiet house. Matt was up and going, already making the breakfast he had promised to make me. (Isn't that sweet?) He didn't have to be at meetings until 9:30 which was nice for the making me breakfast thing. It was especially nice since we had so many other people at our house who we don't normally feed. (If I gush this much over every nice thing Matt did for me Sunday this will be a very long post.)

It was nice to have the quiet time to read scriptures and work on my talk that I was giving in Sacrament Meeting. It was mostly prepared; I just needed to get everything organized on my outline and practice. By the time I was done with that, breakfast.

The whole morning went smoothly. I had much to do - prepare for talk, nursery singing time, choir practice as well as get myself and Amy ready. Plus there were all those other people at our house. That was actually helpful. My mom gave Amy her bath, and my dad was getting dinner into the crock pot. So that did take off some burdens that I often have. I was actually ready for church at 10:30 (church starts at 11) and didn't know what to do with myself.

When we got to church, I went to the stand and started to get concerned. Could I really sit for an hour and 15 minutes straight without wiggling or being too uncomfortable? I also had had visions before church of having contractions when I was supposed to give my talk. Plus I was sad because I couldn't see Amy (who was sitting with Ryan, Melissa, and my parents.) I was sad to not see what she was up to. As it turned out, I was really blessed. I enjoyed very much sitting on the stand. I didn't get too uncomfortable. It helped that I got to stand up for 15 minutes in the middle to talk. And it was a blessing to not see Amy just for one meeting. I was able to concentrate more than normal. And I enjoyed giving my talk. I felt like I was blessed to be able to articulate much better than I had when I had practiced that morning.

Sunday School is next, and it was wonderful as always. We love going to our family relations class and enjoyed having my parents there.

Nursery was also quite fun. I love doing singing time in there.

Relief Society was great too. I got to sit by my mom and really enjoyed the lesson. About 15 minutes before it was done, our little friend Rudy joined the women in the meeting. On his way to his mommy's chair he got distracted by me. I was flattered. Rudy and I like each other. So Rudy sat on my lap or stood by me on the floor and played with Amy's toys and ate Amy's snacks pretty much the rest of the meeting. My mom and I were having a great time entertaining him.

Choir practice went well. I'm so grateful for all the faithful and wonderful choir members who are working hard to get ready for Stake Conference in a few more weeks.

After choir, Matt and I wanted a few minutes together so we drove home in the same car even though we had driven separately. We left the truck at the church. When we got home, Andy and Nita and their sons had gotten to our house, but most of the family was enjoying family flop. We were not needed (and our bed had been taken over so we couldn't nap if we wanted to) so we walked back to the church together and got the truck. (My parents had brought Amy home right after church so we didn't have to bring her to choir. That was nice too.) We enjoyed our few minutes together, and it was beautiful so the walk was nice.

The evening was fun with lots of helpers working to get dinner together and cleaned up and then some play time. (My family LOVES playing games and always does so when we are together.) Matt continued to be super duper nice to me all night. He helped so much around the house and with taking care of Amy. It was my dream mother's day as far as the gift he gave me - helping so much and relieving my burdens. I was so impressed with him for working so hard to give me what would make me really happy. And he didn't get frustrated or stressed; he was happy all day. How pleasant!

After the family was all gone, we were looking forward to getting to bed. We were trying to have scripture study and get ready for bed as well as finish talking about our days - a favorite Sunday tradition - when...

Our Super Fun Weekend Part 1

I have so many things I want to blog about - busy and fun weekend.

Friday: My mom came to Orem to get a surgical kind of procedure done on her mouth. She has these implants. She was drugged up and couldn't drive. I picked her up and brought her to my house and took care of her the rest of the day. Various members of my family continued to show up throughout the day. Melissa (Ryan's fiance) then Matt then Ryan then my dad (I think.) By the end of the night we had 6 adults and Amy sleeping at our house - very fun! My mom and Melissa helped me work on my choir conducting that I needed to practice. Thanks you two!

Saturday: My parents left early to go to a convention in Fillmore. Ryan and Melissa left with our little family in the late morning to go to James' birthday part in Logan. He's 4 today. It was fun to go. Andy and Nita do great jobs with birthday parties. They had crafts and and obstacle course and a pinata. Lots of treats and fun playing. James got some awesome loot. It was very fun. I got to see some of my cousins I don't see to often, and Amy had a great time playing with her cousins and other kids.

That evening was James' dance recital. He's in a class that does ballet (and tap? not sure) with only girls and him. He was SO excited about his recital and kept asking everyone if they were coming to it. Luckily, he had quite a fan club there to see him. Even putting on his outfit for it was exciting. He kept saying, "Look at me, Bonnie." And he did AWESOME in the recital! We loved it. Some of the kids were really funny.

The only down part of the dance recital was that Amy was quite moody and didn't stay still well. We took turns chasing her in the hall. At one point she was on my lap and got so upset at being with me. She walked over to Melissa and held up her hands and was so relieved to be with her instead of me. Anyone who didn't know would think Melissa was DEFINITELY her mommy, not me.

Oh, and I was having contractions. I felt nauseated. I started dry heaving on the way back to Andy's house. So that was another downer of the dance recital. I had had some contractions on Friday night too. They were sporadic and as much as I didn't like them, not too bad relatively speaking. Both Friday and Saturday they lasted around half and hour to an hour. I felt better afterwards. We drove home and had the same 6 adults and 1 toddler sleeping at our house that night. Great day!

More later...

Now Do You All Want to Know How Amazing Amy is?

Last night when we were putting Amy to bed, Matt called on me for prayer. I decided on a whim to see if Amy wanted to try praying. Earlier in nursery, I asked the kids to say the words of a song after me. Only one kid who was there (Aubrey) talks well enough to do it. Well, Aubrey and I had fun with it. Anyway, I think that's what gave me the idea to have Amy say the prayer.

So the prayer was mostly just one of gratitude - thanking for the things that Amy really is thankful for such as:
family
friends
animals
binkie
bottle
nursery

And Amy did awesome!!!! She was totally into it. She's been saying Jesus and amen for a while now, so even closing the prayer was exciting for her. Matt told me later that he was having a hard time holding himself back from saying "Muy bien" after everything she said. We were both thrilled with her. We're going to have to see if she consistently likes to say prayers or if she won't be in the mood. And I'm wondering if she'll say them in nursery.

So she's adorable. And we're always so pleased with everything she learns.

Do You All Want to Know How Amazing Matt is?

On Saturday Matt left in the morning to get a hair cut and an oil change. He brought a book because I think it's criminal to go to places like Bon Losee and Lube Doc without something to read. We have a book we are reading together (and sometimes seperately in such cases so I sent it with him.)

Little did I know that Matt had no intention of just sitting and reading. He had been planning all along that while the truck was getting fixed he'd do a little shopping. When he came home, he and Amy went into Amy's room to get the surprise ready. When they came out, Amy had on new shoes!!!!! They are adorable and the right size and what Amy has been needing. Matt was paying attention all those times we were discussing the fact that Amy's feet have been growing very fast and that she needed new shoes. And he even knew what size to buy her. Now aren't all you wives impressed? The best part is the shoes are really cute! (I'll take a picture of them and post it later.) Go Matt!