94 Percent and Sagas of Sleep Training

Well it's official, Tacy and I are awesome!  I had my final evaluation with all my instructors on the 14th where we talked about how I did for the semester.  They all think that I am awesome and have done a great job.  I got one b+ (89%) and then 92% and 94.5%.  So all in all not bad!

I took Tacy with me and everyone loved her.  She just sat on my lap and did her shy smile.  She is so funny in new places because she can't eat well because she is too distracted by all of the things to look at.  This is funny until she gets really grumpy because her tummy is empty.  

Monday, Dec. 17th, Tacy had her 4-month appointment.  She is 26 inches long (94th percentile) and weighs 15 lbs 8 oz (70th percentile) and her head is in the 25th percentile at 40 cm (but the doctor says she is fine because her head has always been in the 20th percentile).  Tacy was given a clean bill of health and got more shots.  Even though the visit interfered with her nap time, so she was pretty grumpy, she did manage to smile a little for the doctor.  And we were told that Tacy can start to have baby food! 

Not too happy about rice cereal

Since being home all day with Tacy I have learned some funny things about her.  For instance, Tacy loves to talk, but she really loves talking to things like the ceiling fan and the mobile of her swing, especially when they slow down or stop spinning.  It can make eating breakfast or getting ready take a little longer when I have to keep getting up to turn them on again, but it's worth it to see her smile and laugh.  Plus it is so funny to hear her carry on what sounds like whole conversations while the mobile. 

Tacy also loves staring at lights, whether they are on or off.  She has talked some to the light in her room or just stared at it.  I lay her on the floor in her room in the morning while I get ready so she can stare at the light and watch her mobile spin.  

We went to IKEA this weekend to look for things to try and baby proof our stuff.  Well Tacy LOVED IKEA.  There were so many lights to look at, people, and bright colors.  She could not turn her head fast enough.  It was a little hard to hold her when she is kicking and squirming so much because she was so happy and excited. Brad and I had to take turns holding her.  I also got a few funny looks when she would do her back bend to look at the lights above us or things behind us.  Yup, that's my daughter.

Tacy holds her bottle every now and then, but this weekend she got so hungry (during our errand run) that while I was mixing the bottle, she grabbed it out of my hands and shoved it in her mouth.  She held the bottle the whole time until she was done (that was a first because typically she gets tired of holding it after a while). It made me laugh so hard.

Tacy is still working on being able to sit up unsupported.  She has the foldover down (this is where she leans so far forward when sitting that her face is practically touching her toes) but she still wobbles sometimes when sitting up straight.  Today she had a whole body shake that made her pop backwards.  She has also started doing this funny scoot/crawl.  Tacy is not the best at reaching with her arms when she is on her tummy (particularly her left arm).  So to get something she uses her mouth and when her mouth is not close to what she wants she will kick and push with her legs.  She really gets her legs going and gets them right under her.  If only she started using her arms she would be crawling.  Instead she scoots and gets rug burns on her elbows, but she eventually gets what she wants.  It's really funny to watch.  One day I will try and get pictures of it but I'm usually too busy trying to help her move her arms.

the "foldover"

We have also been working on standing.  Tacy likes standing.  Sometimes I will pull her up to sit but she keeps her legs straight so she stands instead of sitting.  She has taken 3 steps (kinda).  I am always holding her up and am helping to lean her to one side and trying to encourage her to move a leg.  But 3 steps is all we get then she sits down.

I started sleep training Tacy last week because she had started waking up 3 times during the night and was not napping well.  After a very fussy and unfun day with a tired baby, we started.  I put her down to sleep when she started rubbing her eyes.  As long as her diaper was dry and her tummy was relatively full, she did not fight too hard.  The first night she slept 7-8 hours straight.  Her naps were getting better because I did not wait for her to fall asleep but put her down when she was tired and let her cry/talk herself to sleep.  We have had a few nights where she did need some help, like classical music, but she is getting so good.  She took 4 naps yesterday and slept 13 hours last night.  Now if we can just get her to nap during church, we would be great, cause this past Sunday was a nightmare because she would not sleep so she was grumpy and fussy the whole time no matter what I did.

The 5 generation shot: Tacy, headband made by Mom, onsie made by Grandma Cramer, blanket made by Great-Grandma Bennett, and sweater made by Great-Great Grandma Rottman

5 years and 4 months

Well Brad and I had our 5th year anniversary last month.  So crazy that we have been married that long, but at the same time I feel like single life was forever ago.  I will be on facebook and see friend's posts and then think "how do I know them again?" That's when I have to hunt through the cobwebs of my brain to remember people from my first two years of college!  It makes me laugh when I hear some of the girls at school talk about how long ago high school was for them only to hear that they graduated from high school in 2009 or 2010.  Yup, I feel old.  

In review of our 5 years of married life, here are some of the big things that happened to us:

We were married on 11/24/2007

We went on a cruise with Brad's family Jan 2008 (my first cruise) and Pres. Hinckley died on our drive back.

Obama came into office as our first African American President 2008.

Christmas was in Connecticut and NY with my family to meet my new cousin.

I graduated from BYU April 2009, we went on a cruise with friends, swine flu hit and instead of going to mexico we floated in the ocean for a few days.

We moved to a house by campus and I started working full-time as a medical assistant.

We moved again to a nice apartment south of campus.

I was rear-ended on my way to work (Oct. 2010), our car was totaled, and we bought a Civic.

Brad graduated in Dec 2010 and we moved in with his parents (thank you Obamacare and a car payment)

Brad started working full-time in Feb. 2011.

We went on a cruise with friends in April 2011.

We went on a christmas cruise with my family 2011.

We found out I was pregnant, and then I found out that I got into nursing school.

After 3 years and 8 months, I quit my job, went to the hospital and had our beautiful daughter.  5 days later I started nursing school.

I have now survived my first semester, Tacy is huge, and Brad is still working and waiting to hear about PA school.

Basically we moved a lot, went on a few cruises, both got our bachelors and are trying to actually get degrees that will get us decent paying jobs, and we have a baby.

As for the baby, Tacy just turned 4 months on Saturday.  New things with her:

She has taken up crying for attention and then laughing once you check on her.  Very cute, except when you are trying to get things done.

She loves to stand up so we practice sitting and standing a lot.  She is still working on her core muscles so she doesn't tip over when she sits or fling herself backward.

She loves to look at anything that has an electronic screen (TV, computer, tablet, cell phone, etc.)  They all calm her down and she gets unhappy when you turn her around so she can't see them.

Tacy loves to lean WAY back to see behind or above her.  You have to be careful if you are holding her or she might topple out of her arms when she does this.  The girl throws her head back with force.  It's pretty funny to watch because she will just lean back forever to look at ceiling lights or people behind her.

She still loves putting everything in her mouth and enjoys taking her binkie out of her mouth but she is not so good at getting it back in the right way so then she gets mad.

  

We love our little girl.  She is adorable and fun.  She loves to smile and laugh and tell all sorts of stories.

Snow?! I forgot what that was like

I can't believe that it is almost December!  Life has been flying by, which is good I guess because that means that it's almost Christmas break for me.  It also means that Tacy Lou is getting huge!  I look at her every day and wonder how in the world she got to be so big.  She barely fits in my arms now when I'm feeding her a bottle.

Tacy was blessed on November 11th.  It was a crazy weekend because a snow storm had hit pretty good so it was very wintery and white.  A lot of family could not make it because of the snow.  But my parents drove in, my mom's parents flew in from SoCal, grandma and grandpa Taylor made it, Brad's parents, and his sisters: Jody (with her husband Eric and son) and Kimber (with her fiance Sam) were all there.  Also, our friends Sean and Ashley and Madison and Joni were able to come.  Oh, and Brad's uncle Dave and aunt Kareen.  So all in all, there was still a good crowd.  Tacy was blessed by her dad.  The circle was pretty big as it was with both grandpas, 2 great-grandfathers, 2 uncles, a great uncle, and 2 friends.

4 generations: Grandma Cramer, Mom, Tacy, and Great-Grandma Bennett

It was nice to get to see my grandparents and have them meet their first great-grandchild.  It was also fun to see my parents as always.  Tacy loved the attention, although she was a little fussy Saturday but I think that was because she was a little parent clingy and had never seen some of those faces.  But she was a champ on Sunday.

Tacy Lou with her Great-Grandpa Bennett

Tacy can hold her own bottle (when she wants to, which is rarely, but she can).  She has taken up napping on her side.  She does not love to roll over, but she does love to roll from her back to her side.  She is also quite the talker!  She just loves talking, sharing stories, and talking with people.  Some words sound so clear, like "Hi Dad".  She has said that twice now.  When she is sad/mad she will sometimes say mamama, but I really don't know if she knows what she is saying or just repeating things she hears all the time.  Still fun though.  Tacy smiles all of the time and laughs a lot.  It's especially funny when she is eating and pauses to giggle then goes right back to eating.  It really makes me wonder what is going on in her head.

Our little side-sleeper

I have not weighed her recently, but i'm sure she is at least 12 lbs.  I did measure her and she is 26.5  inches long!  Like I said, she is getting big!  Tacy is also getting better at grabbing things.  She has a set of rings that she will grab now and shake.  It's fun to play with her.  She also has discovered her tongue.  Now at least half of her smiles have her tongue sticking out.  It also means that she drools a lot (I think she learned that from her cousin).  Sometimes when she is talking it is very gargled from her tongue and all of her drool.  But she loves it and blows lots of bubbles when she is talking and laughing.

Tacy still loves to put her hands/arms in her mouth.  I need to wash her teething toys, not because she is teething, but so she has other things that she can put in her mouth.  We pulled out her high chair and have been putting her in that so she can sit at the table with us.  She loves it.  Tacy is happy as long as she can see people to talk to, so her high chair really helps out.  She just sits in it, talks, laughs, and kicks her feet.

Tacy was doing some karate moves for her Daddy - she kept punching out her arms and kicking her legs

As for Brad and I, Brad is still working hard.  He is such as good dad and husband.  We celebrated our 5th anniversary on Saturday.  It's hard to believe that we have been married so long.  We went out to dinner at Tucanos Brazilian restaurant while Tacy stayed with her grandparents.  It was nice to get out and not have the baby to worry about, plus it was a good excuse to use Brad's free birthday meal.

Thanksgiving was a mad house.  We had 20 adults and 2 babies all in one house for dinner.  Insanity if you ask me.  Tacy was woken up by the insanity.  I didn't get to eat Turkey, mashed potatoes, green beans, and some other things cause there was not room at the table for me so I missed when those were passed around.  Oh well.  I like smaller groups a little better because it's easier to all interact with each other.  I was in my own little world with Tacy.  Brad and I ended up going in a different room that evening to try and find a quieter area for Tacy to nap while everyone else played games.  Another reason I don't love big groups - I hate playing acting games with lots of people because I'm self conscious and it's worse with big groups.

The tongue

School is going....I'm still surviving one day at a time.  I have one more paper left, 2 practice NCLEX tests, and 3 tests for the semester.  Oh and a final Focus pass off, where we have to do an assessment on our simulation patient while the instructors watch and grade us on how well we assess the patient and evaluate their chart etc.  I'm super nervous about that.  I had a presentation today on my personal nursing philosophy. We had to do an art project to represent our philosophy and present it.  Most of the grade was based on our creativity.  Not my favorite because if I was creative I would have been an art major, not a science major.  But I made a collage and all my classmates said that it looked good and that my presentation was great.  I still get really nervous presenting but apparently I hide it well.

I have some Christmas decorations out, but I still need to hang by snowflake banner and some red ornaments cause so far the only decorations out are nativity scenes, gold stars, and snow men.  So it's all very not Christmas colors.  If we had room for our little Christmas tree I would set it up, but we really don't.  Maybe this Christmas break I can make some green/red decorations (for next year).  I dunno, we will see.

Tacy is 16 weeks old (can you believe it) and has her 4-month appointment in 2 weeks.  So we will find out just how big she is then!  

12 weeks and Halloween

Just being cute with her bib

Wednesday Tacy officially became 12 weeks old!  I can't believe it has been that long!  Then I pick her up and realize how big she is getting and 12 weeks sounds about right.  It's getting hard to remember when she fit so nicely in my arms and weighed so much less!  Now, when she stretches out I have put her legs over the arm of the rocking chair.  It's pretty funny because when I am burping her and she is mad because she is still hungry she will stand up in my lap so she is on her tipee toes and yell.  Other than the fact that this sometimes makes me feel deaf, I think it is hilarious.  I don't really understand what stretching herself out does for her when she is mad, but she does it every time.  

Now when she is on her tummy she just likes to look up at you

Tacy doesn't cry or yell a lot, but when you take her bottle away to wipe up her milky chin and she happens to still be hungry, boy will she let you know.  You'd think I was trying to cut a finger off.  The other day I was taking her clothes off to give her a bath and she went from sleepy to screaming at the top of her lungs.  Apparently she was cold and it was not until we had her in the tub and Brad was pouring warm water all over her that she finally stopped screaming.  It really freaked me out because she was not breathing much and her legs were turning blue.  Winter sure is going to fun if that's how she reacts to cold now!  Tacy has also started to pout when she is sad so she sticks out her lower lip and quivers.  It is the cutest/sadest thing ever.  I keep trying to get a picture but she stops as soon as she sees the camera.  Tacy is very talkative now, and her favorite things to say are "Aagoo" which I interpret to be her way of saying I love you.  She also loves hey, hi, aye, be, eee, and dee.  The aye and be are usually said when she is mad.  Hey as well like she is trying to scream for our attention.

Sad face, you can kinda see the lip...

Tacy was a skeleton for Halloween.  We went trick-or-treating at my sister-in-law's work.  It felt kind of silly taking candy when my child is a little baby and obviously won't be eating the candy.  But oh well, Brad and I enjoyed it!  Brad dressed up for Halloween again.  He was a bigfoot hunter.  I think he just loved the excuse to carry around a nerf gun.  He got face paint and put it all over.  It was so funny to see him talking to Tacy while he had it on because she looked at him so funny and you could tell that she was really confused because she could hear Daddy but he didn't really look like her daddy.  I of course did not dress up.  On Halloween I actually had the day off so I finished my big Care Plan paper and studied for my mental health test, oh yea, and took care of Tacy.

School is very busy.  I had two tests this week and another test on Monday.  I thankfully finished my care plan already which is due tuesday.  I have had 7 clinical rotations and am getting a little more comfortable with it all.  I got to administer a suppository (I know, you are super jealous).  I have done lots of flu shots, a pneumonia vaccine, and insulin shots.  I did a wound care rotation and got to change some dressings.  I saw some pretty crazy stuff from these people who had diabetic neuropathy and had ulcers on almost every single one of their toes.  Insane.  I also did a hospice care rotation which was interesting but I still would not prefer to work in that field.  I survived my fist 12 hour hospital shift and have my second tomorrow.  I start at 4:45 am and end at 5:30pm.  Fun!  One of the places we go has some really sick people, a lot of whom have traches (the opening in the throat).  At school we have learned how to suction traches and clean them.  Well, during my clinical last week I was so glad when the nurse I followed just assumed I could not suction because watching the patients choke and gag while she did it was terrifying.  I know I need to do it, but traches just gross me out.  I can handle feces, blood, urine, etc but nasty mucous coming out of the trache and causing patients to gag is not my cup of tea.  I have decided that if I ever have to have a trache to stay alive, I don't want to live.  Seeing those peoples quality of life was sad because the majority of them cannot talk, are unresponsive, and are bedridden.  

All dressed up for church

Brad's birthday is today.  I heart attacked the bathroom and Tacy's room for him.  Hopefully he gets home early enough that we can do something fun before I have to go to bed (since I have to get up at 3:30am).  

Too happy and excited to hold still

Brad is hanging in there, still hating his job, but trucking along and he loves being a dad.

2 months old!

On Monday, October 8th, Tacy turned 2 months old!  I cannot believe that she is already that old and that Brad and I have been parents for that long.  The week before I measured her and she was 23 inches long and weighed 11 pounds!  She is getting so big, but mostly I feel that she is just getting really long.  She has a doctor appointment this Monday so we will see what her percentages are.

Tacy said "Hi" to me on Wednesday night!  It was pretty exciting.  She also said "oh dad" on thursday.  Granted I really don't think that she knows what she is saying and is just baby babble, but the Hi was very clear and she said it to me while smiling at me.  She said "oh dad" when Brad and I were changing her diaper I think.  But it's still cute when her baby babble sounds like actual words!  

Crazy nap hair!

Now that she is 2 months old Tacy likes bath time a little more.  She will at least only cry when she first gets in the water and then she calms down and starts to smile.  

Tacy is talking a lot, in my opinion at least.  She loves to babble and it's so cute.  

She can roll over, but she only does it when she really wants to.  She rolled over 15 times one night.  But then there are other days where she refuses to roll over.  She also will sometimes just roll onto her side and stay that way and never go onto her back.

Ready for Halloween!

Tacy now cries if she has a poopy diaper, she did not do this before.

She still makes lots of funny faces, but she smiles a lot more at us.  However, she has not yet laughed when she is awake, only in her dreams.

Tacy wakes up at 8am almost every day.  She still isn't sleeping through the night but she has started to sleep for longer periods (4-5 hours).  Unfortunately for us she fights sleep now at night so even though she is tired she will cry and we have to rock her, bounce her, etc to try and coax her to sleep.

Tacy sits in her bumbo now and doesn't mind it as long as it is not for very long.  But just like with rolling over, she is only good about holding her head straight up when she wants to.  She tends to lean over when she sits in the bumbo and will sometimes put her arms up on the side like an arm rest which is really cute.

chilling in her bumbo

When Tacy is mad, she stretches her body out (emphasizing how long she is) like she is trying to stand and will be stiff like that until she gets what she wants (usually food).

Overall Tacy is a very happy baby still.  It is so fun that she gets to spend every day with her Aunt Jody and cousin Grant because I think she and Grant are getting to be close.  She was crying one day and Grant reached over and rested his hand on her like he was trying to comfort her (Grant is 5 months older than Tacy).  Also, Granted started rolling across the room when he wanted to get close to Tacy.  The second time that he crawled, it was to get to Tacy.  Now if she is on the floor and with him, he will start crawling for her.  It's cute, but we have to protect Tacy a little because Grant is still working on trying to be soft.

With Mommy

As for me, school is going good but getting crazy.  I started my clinical rotations this week.  I was really scared to actually be caring for patients (I know, silly when that is what I want to do for my career).  But they went great even though all I really did was pass medications, check a blood sugar, give insulin shots, and helped toilet a patient.  Exciting I know.  But now with clinicals, we only have Monday, Tuesday, and Friday for lecture.  So we have a test or quiz and an assignment due almost every class day.  Fun!!!

Other than all that, life is good, and we are staying very busy.

Tacy and Daddy

One Month

Our sweet little Tacy is one month old today. Can you believe it because we sure can't!  We love her so much and think that she is the cutest baby in the world.  Here are some of the things Tracy does right now:

Tacy hiccups. She hiccupped a lot in utero but she still has whole body hiccups. I feel bad for her but its kind of funny too. Unless of course its the middle of the night and then the hiccups wake her up. Her aunt Christine calls her Hiccup (from how to train your dragon).

She makes all sort of faces and is such a poser with her face and hands.

Tacy loves to have her hands by her face.  It can make feeding her hard sometimes when she won't move her hands away from her face.

She has really strong arms.  When she locks her fingers together it is hard to get her arms apart.

She has a very strong neck and loves to swing her head back and shake it like crazy.

Tacy laughs in her sleep and we think she has some crazy dreams because she will have a big smile on her face and then a huge frown and then the maddest face.

If Tacy is ever mad and crying you just have to start smacking her back like you are burping her and she gets happy again.

We love our sweet baby.

"How do you do it?!"

Sweet Tacy doing some tummy time

Five days after having my baby I started nursing school.  It was a good thing I had her early because otherwise she would have been born during school and I would have missed a lot and been behind, which was a big concern for me and the instructors.

Well, having a baby and starting school right away had not exactly been a cake walk either.  The night before school started I was an emotional wreck.  I was crying uncontrollably and freaking out and paranoid about being a bad mom and failing school.  Brad thank goodness is amazing and calmed me down and gave me a blessing.  The first day of school went okay.  The program director was happy to hear that I was healthy, that my baby was healthy, and that we no longer had to worry about me missing school to have a baby.  My nursing class has 40 total students, 5 guys and 35 women.  I'd say about half of the students are parents.  We all had to go around and say a bit about ourselves and why we wanted to be nurses.  Well, telling everyone that I had a baby 5 days previous has made me very memorable.  I had girls coming up to me asking "How are you doing this?" or "You are amazing I don't know how you are doing this!" 

They are all very nice and ask me every day how my baby is doing.  I was ready to quit after the first day of class though.  When they went through the schedule and how fast the program moves and how demanding it is, I was ready to quit.  Brad once again calmed me down and assured me that I could do this.  I survived the first week, even with minimal sleep because Tacy woke up every hour some nights.  The next Sunday night I had another breakdown though.  I had a test the next day and was freaking out because I had not been able to study as much as I would have liked and didn't know how I could manage school and being a mom.  Brad calmed me down again (see how lucky I am to have him?).  

I passed my test the next day.  I can thank my husband and family for helping me by watching Tacy so I could study.  When I have homework or studying to do, there is usually someone I can pass her off to.  Other than the crazyness of balancing school and baby, I have been having a hard time being able to rely solely on breastfeeding.  My doctor said that even with pumping, it's probably just all of the crazy stress/life that I have right now with my crazy schedule.  Granted, formula does help so Brad can get up and feed Tacy at night, or family can feed her while I'm studying, but I wish breastfeeding satisfied her enough because formula is expensive.  Oh well, I keep doing my best and hoping that fenugreek helps. 

On the plus side, I have been doing well in school and actually got a 98 on my test today, which is pretty awesome.  We will see how it goes, but hopefully I can survive this crazy time with a sane mind.  One good thing about my schedule is I have no time for postpartum depression because school keeps me occupied when I'm not home with the baby.

We Have a Baby

For those of you who haven't heard, our daughter was born on 8/8/12 at 6:50am.  Here is the story.  So I went in for my last ultrasound on Tuesday, 8/7, and at the ultrasound they did an amniocentesis. Well the nurses told us that the baseline for lung development was 50. Our baby was 208 so her lungs were really ready. My doctor then called me and told me to go to labor and delivery at 6 that evening to be induced.

So I went back to work and Brad was shadowing one of my PAs for the day.  Everyone told me I was crazy for working instead of going home but I needed to stay busy.  Well 6pm finally came so I said bye to all my coworkers and Brad and I headed to the hospital.  After checking in and getting situated in our room, my nurse was hooking up all the monitors that checked baby's heart rate and my contractions.  She then told me, "did you know that you are having contractions every 2-6 minutes?" I told her no but my back had been bothering me that day. Brad and my nurse laughed when she told me that was contractions. I was still only dilated to a 2 so my doctor said they should still give me pitocin. By the time the IV was started I was having contractions every 2-3 minutes.  My nurse said that if I hadn't come in to be induced that I would have been coming in anyways to have the baby.

Well by 10:30 I was almost completely effaced but only dilated to a 4. So my nurse called my doctor and she asked a resident to come break my water.  Well the resident came in and said that he thought he got it.  My nurse didn't think so because of the lack of fluid but he said he was pretty sure.  Well I stayed dilated to a 4.  The pain was getting worse and worse from the contractions so finally I got the epidural.  Man alive I was in heaven.  I could finally sleep and no longer wanted to punch my nurse very time she did a cervix check.  I think Brad was happier to because I was more pleasant.  

Right after getting the epidural and feeling pretty good

Well by 4am I was still only dilated to a 4 so my nurse called my doctor and they decided to have my nurse break my water.  Well 2 hours dilated I was fully dilated and effaced so my doctor came and after a little pushing and the help of a vacuum our sweet baby was here.

Because I'm diabetic the hospital had to monitor the baby's blood sugar for 24 hours because babies of diabetics can have blood sugar issues since they are used to compensating for their mom's highs and lows.  Well our baby girl had a blood sugar of 23.  This is way low and Brad was not happy that the nurses seemed to be really slow at feeding our baby.  Come to find out babies blood sugar runs lower than adults and 50 can be considered normal.  Well our baby's blood sugar got up to normal. We spent 2 days in the hospital and I had a lot of great nurses and cnas.

5 days after having her I started school.  Everyone was pretty shocked that I had my baby already and that I was at school.  I'm crazy that's for sure but what are you gonna do.  Our daughter is perfect and healthy.  School is hard.  Doing both is harder but I have an amazing husband who helps a lot.  So now I'm learning to function on almost no sleep.

Effaced is a Funny Word

I have started my goodbyes at work and it's hard.  I have been working at the same place for over 3.5 years so this is crazy to be leaving.  Tuesday was the last day I worked with John, one of the two PAs (physician assistants) that I work closely with.  I did not realize it until halfway through the day when one of the other girls, Halee, reminded me.  I forgot again until right when John was asking if we (Holly who is replacing me and myself) had any questions for him before he left.  He was walking away and I shouted, "John!  Today is our last day working together!"  John came back and was like, "What!  You didn't give me enough warning to cry!"  It was sad, I really have liked working with John, he is so chill, funny, and easygoing.  

Today I had to say goodbye to Garrett, one of the psychologists, who has been with the company just a little longer than me.  Garrett is great.  He got me through a lot of stressful times because he is such a good listener and friend.  Garrett showed me that psychologists don't have to be stiff like in the movies.  He is also absolutely hilarious.

Next week I get to say my last goodbyes and it will be hard.  I have worked with a lot of great people, it has been a good job, and I have had a lot of good experiences there.  I have also said bye to a lot of great patients.  Now, there are definitely patients that I wanted to shout hooray when they left and I knew I would never see them again.  Just like after some phone calls/patients and I would be so mad/frustrated/done I just had to remind myself that I just had a few more days to go.  

Other than my goodbyes I have already done and still have coming, I have been busy with doctor appointments.  I had 3 just today, a non-stress test (NST), my OB, and the diabetes clinic.  General consensus is that I'm doing great.  Because of the timing of my school starting, I asked my OB if instead of waiting until 8/20 to induce me (which is a Monday), if we could possibly start the Friday before so that Brad wouldn't miss a lot of work and I didn't miss a lot of school.  My doctor told me that I can have an amniocentesis on Tuesday, when I see Maternal Fetal Medicine, and if my baby's lungs are fully developed then she would be fine inducing me next week.  Crazy!  On top of this, I had my first cervix check and amazingly I am already dilated to 1.5-2cm and 70% effaced.  I was shocked by this because I have felt no contractions (at least that I am aware of).  My doc said that this is good because it means they would probably just give me pitocin to get contractions started.

So craziness.  Now I have a bunch to make sure is ready just in case the doctors decide to induce me next week.  Exciting, nerve wracking, and all that.  I have been especially putting off getting stuff ready for the hospital cause I have no idea what I need.  I will take any suggestions, in the mean time I am just going to grab a few things, go to the store to get stuff we still need, and start reading my fat nursing text book.  

The Waiting Game

Well, life has been interesting lately.  I'm training my replacement at work.  So far we have had 3 days together and she can room patients and do vitals pretty well.  I showed her how to use our scheduling system and have had her listen to my phone calls, but I need to let her try and schedule people.  Then I will let her take nurse calls.  Then I'm supposed to help her with authorizations, indexing, etc.  Oh boy, only 3 weeks to do it all.  I'm just a little worried.

I have now had three non-stress tests.  So far so good.  The nurses always tell me that the baby is doing well and her heart rates is good and healthy.  My test this Thursday I had a nurse who I wanted to slap.  While watching the baby's heart rate, she started to talk to me about names we liked.  I told her we like Tacy.  The nurse says "Tasie is interesting, I have never heard that before."  It bugs me when people hear the name wrong, she even had me spell it for her.  Then she tells me "It's a cute name for a little girl, but what about when she is older?"  Oh my goodness, if I did not have a bunch of monitors attached to me...I mean seriously, this nurse works in periantology where she works with lots of pregnant women and she criticizes baby names!  It pissed me off to say the least.  She then went on about how I could use a grandma's name for the middle name, so at least there is a more adult name option.  I stopped talking at that point.  I just wanted her to leave me alone.  Thank goodness during these tests they are only watching my baby's heart rate and not mine, cause I would have failed miserably.

Thursday night my mother-in-law through me a baby shower.  It was nice and we got more clothes, some towels, burp clothes, car stuff, and a glider.  My mother-in-law also sewed a really cute diaper bag for me.  Now that all the baby showers are done, I just want to get everything organized and ready.  But I can't.  Why?  Because we are waiting for the room to be available.  

So we live in a basement and currently use one bedroom, a bathroom, and the living area down here.  But there is a second bedroom.  Brad's parents said that we can use the second bedroom for the baby.  After measuring and everything, Brad thinks the second bedroom would work better for us because the space would be more accommodating for our stuff and sleeping baby.  So then we would use our current bedroom for her nursery.  Problem is, the second bedroom is still full of his sister's stuff, stuff she left behind when she went to college, got married, and now lives in an apartment with her husband and baby.  Stuff she apparently wants to keep, but is not important enough to take with her.

Brad's mom has said she will clean up the room.  Brad is ready to throw all of his sister's stuff in boxes, and he tells me he would not care to be nice to it all because she hasn't done anything with it for 4 years.  My hesitation with his plan is that there is a ton of stuff, a desk full of crap, picture boards, and a full closet.  

So we are waiting, and waiting, and waiting.  It is driving me crazy because I want to feel more ready for this baby.  We still don't have a crib, which Brad's parents are buying, but they are waiting for a sale...Oiy, the baby is going to come and we will still be in the same room, with nothing for her to sleep in, no dresser set up yet, and all of her clothes in bins stored in the storage room.  This is my nightmare.  I'm sure it won't come to this, especially since Brad gets more and more frustrated with it all and if it comes to it he really will just toss everything in boxes so we can move our stuff in.  I just hate waiting.

In the mean time, I'm also trying to get ready for nursing school.  I called up the program director with a few questions and in the process she told me that she is really worried about me having a baby and being able to keep up.  I wanted to scream!  I spoke with her in May about me being pregnant and she was all optimistic and saying they could work with me.  Now she tells me she is worried and sounds all pessimistic about the situation.  Just another irritation to my life.  Thank goodness Brad can calm me down.  So now I will be calling her again and seeing if I can go meet with her and go over this whole thing since she has changed her tune and her optimism in May was the whole reason we decided I could do this: newborn and nursing school.  So much fun.  

One day we will be ready for the baby and one day everything with school and having a baby will be worked out.  Until then, I just have to keep my cool and wait patiently (ok I try and wait patiently).

Prayer for Rain

The news last night said that Utah has already had 450+ fires that have burned more than 250,000 acres so far this year/summer.  That is ridiculously high.  It does not help that we had not had measurable water for 38 days.  So May/June were extremely dry. 

The fourth of July really had me worried because of this.  I was worried the whole state would be in flames from fireworks.  Our stake fasted/prayed for rain to come.  I hear that people have been praying for rain all over Utah.  

Well the fourth we went to the Kaysville City parade and luckily had seats under a tree, so it was not too bad temperature wise.  The bands and dance squads sure made my baby girl move a lot.  Meanwhile our nephew was passed out through it all.  The boys (Brad, Eric, and Sam - Kimber's bf) got in a lovely water fight at the end of the parade when the fire trucks all drive by and spray the crowd down and everyone still hanging around shoots people with water guns or water balloons.  Some people got a little upset with Brad, Eric and Sam's water balloon bombarding so they came charging after them.  I got a little wet from that.

After the parade we all drove up the canyon and the boys and Kimber floated down the Weber while Brad's mom, Jody, Christine, 4 month old Grant, and I drove along and watched them.  Then we had a nice BBQ.  At night Brad and I just watched the neighbor shoot off fireworks, but they were a little scary cause some of them would go haywire and come shooting sideways instead of up.  I really thought the tree was going to burn down, or me for that matter.

Well, Thursday morning Brad and I were leaving for work and we saw that it was drizzling.  By 10am it was raining pretty good in Orem and it did so until about 2pm.  It was awesome.  It was actually a little cold, smelled like rain, and was exactly what we needed.  Apparently the whole state got moisture which is exactly what Utah needed.  Thank goodness for rain and prayers being answered!  Plus, what better day to rain than the day after the fourth of July?

Need a mechanic? I know a good one in Price...

Brad and I were talking with family about mechanics in the area and this is what Brad said "I know a good one in Price."  For those who don't know Brad or anything about Utah geography, this was completely sarcastic.  Here is the story behind it:

One of Brad's co-workers talked about wanting to take his family down to Goblin Valley State Park to hike a slot canyon.  Brad mentioned that he has hiked Ding and Dang Canyon (yes that is the legit names) several times and that it is less busy than Crazy Horse (the popular slot canyon).  So his co-worker, Craig, asked Brad to come on the trip to be their tour guide.  Brad never passes up a trip to Goblin Valley so he said yes. Brad invited our bro-in-law Eric to go as well.

So Friday (June 22nd) the boys gathered their supplies and left a little after noon.  Now I had rented The Vow and was planning a nice girls night with Brad's mom and sisters.  At about 3:30 Jody, who's husband Eric went with Brad, asked me if I thought they would make it down to Goblin Valley.  I looked at her funny and said "Of course, they are probably almost there." Jody then told me that they were in Price because something happened to the car (my Civic).  Well, Eric had apparently already text Jody about this but Brad had yet to call me.  At about 4pm I get a call from Brad and he tells me that after getting up the mountains to Price the check engine light came on.  He found a mechanic in Price who ran a diagnostic test on the car that said the VTEC failed.  VTEC is my car's engine.  Fantastic!  So Brad got referred to a different mechanic who said that it could simply be that the car needed an oil change (it was about due for one), new oil filter, etc or it could be a whole list of other bigger issues.  The mechanic said that 60% of the time he saw this error changing the oil fixed it.  While changing the oil they also recommended an engine flush cause it looked pretty bad.  So, $140 later Brad and Eric drove the car around a bit and it seemed to be working fine, so they decided to continue on to Goblin Valley.  

Brad says the mechanic was really nice and that everyone they came across seemed to love having new people to talk to.  While waiting for the car, Brad and Eric went to Taco Bell where Brad says that they double the lunch rush.  Yea, Price is slow like that.  When they left, the mechanic gave him his number and told Brad to call if he needed a tow because he would love an excuse to get away from his girlfriend. 

Well the boys made it safely to Goblin Valley and had no other car issues.  Brad just drove slow the whole way so they got there late.  Saturday Brad led Eric, Craig and his family through Ding and Dang canyon and had a fun time.  They even got to help a couple other groups out who had no idea how to climb a slot canyon.  Everything was going great, until they were driving back and had to go over the wonderful Price mountains again.  The engine light came back on.  Brad called me to let me know.  At that point I really hated mountains and thought my car was broken.  Brad told me to go an get 2 new tires put on his Civic because he figured that I would be driving his car to work Monday while he took mine to a shop.  I went and got the new tires put on that we had been planning to do a little later.  I also had his alternator tested because Brad's car had been making a funny sound, however the alternator and battery were good.  Brad and Eric drove really slow back home and Brad went to researching the issue.

Brad changed the air filter and did some other stuff under the hood.  Lots of stress later, Brad had me drive my car to work, but he told me not to let the RPMs get above 3500.  Basically, this meant that I could not accelerate fast.  So a slow drive to work later, and worrying the whole time about driving that far with the engine light on, I made it to work and back home just fine.  Tuesday on my drive to work, the engine light came off.  Brad talked to his buddy who knows a lot about cars and his buddy told him that the car will do system checks and if it goes through 9 cycles with no issues, it will turn the engine light off on it's own.  My light has not come back on and a mechanic said most likely the clog in the engine was cleared and all is good.

Good ending to my car, unfortunately Brad's car still made a weird sound and on his way to work Wednesday it started acting weird.  So Thursday we took his car in and found out that the timing belt was barely holding on and the mechanic was seriously shocked the car was still running.  Apparently the pulley thing that holds the timing belt was bent to the point it was barely holding the belt.  If the belt had slipped, the engine would have been toast.  So count our blessings we got the car there in time.  

We are just crossing our fingers that the car issues are done for now.  In one month we spent $1500 on our two cars between 6 new tires, oil change/engine flush, and a new timing belt, serpentine belt, and water pump.  Yay!

Last Trip For the Summer

We love going up to Brad's family's cabin in Island Park each summer, but when planning this year we decided to do it earlier than normal so we did not have issues with me being pregnant.  So we planned a trip with our friends, Doug and Natasha and their two boys, and went up from June 14-17.

Going up in June was really nice because it was much cooler than when we typically go up in July.  Doug and his family have never been to Yellowstone so we went into Yellowstone on Friday.  With two little boys (4 and 18 months) it made the trip a little interesting because they would get restless and bored pretty fast.  We stopped at a few geysers, saw Old Faithful blow, and saw LOTS of animals (elk, a grizzly bear, bison, and antelope).  After a half day in Yellowstone, the boys were done, so we went back to the cabin.

Brad loves to fish in Island Park, so he and Doug brought their fishing stuff.  Doug thought his 4-year-old would enjoy it too, so they took him to the kiddie pond after we got back from Yellowstone.  I stayed behind at the cabin (as fishing bores me) while everyone else went.  Not 10 minutes later did Natasha come back inside carrying her 18-month-old who was drenched from head to toe.  He is a fast little guy who loves to climb on everything and destroy everything he touches.  Apparently she had turned around for a second and he dashed straight into the pond ending in a face plant.  I'm sad I missed it because it sounds pretty funny.  Natasha rescued him right away of course.

Saturday morning, Brad and Doug went fishing, just the two of them.  While they were gone, Natasha and I spent the morning doing our best to entertain the boys.  When Brad and Doug finally came back, we headed into West Yellowstone were we went to a Bear/Wolf Preserve.  Brad and I had never heard of this place, but basically it houses animals that are unable to live in the wild (usually due to injury).  We got to see lots of grizzly bears, wolves, and some birds (bald eagle, a hawk, an owl, and 2 golden eagles).  We learned that golden eagles will attack deer (these birds are massive) and that one of the wolf packs in Yellowstone specializes in hunting bison.  Crazy.  After this adventure, we walked around a few stores in West Yellowstone, but once again did not stay too long before one of the 4-year-old was done.

Sunday we went and looked at Big Springs, where the Henry Fork of the Snake River starts, and a cabin that was built by this 4'11" guy back in the 1800's.  Doug loved it because of all the intricate work and really chatted up with the volunteers at the house learning all about it.  It was pretty funny.  After this, we split off and headed our separate ways back home.  Brad and I were able to visit my little sister in Rexburg and then make it back home in time for Father's Day Dinner.

I say it's the last trip of the summer because as it was, I did not do a whole lot of activity in Island Park because it was easier to stay sitting in the cabin/car.  And while the temperatures were in the 60's, it could still get a little warm if you were in the sun.  Needless to say, I will not be going on any more trips until after this baby comes.  I'm glad we were able to go on one last trip and enjoy the beautiful Island Park.

When It Rains It Pours

Well, this week has been extremely emotional and hard.  Last week ended with getting some big bills for my teeth.  Yay. With 2 insurances, getting bills has been a bit of a slow process, which on the one hand is nice, but on the other I just want to be done with them.  But getting 2 pretty hefty bills back to back is not easy to handle.  Brad and I also have been talking about getting 6 new tires (4 for my car and 2 for his) because our tires are getting a little worn.

Then Sunday ended on a bad note.  Sorry, no details, it was just bad, always is with stubborn bull-headed clashing.

I figured that was enough bad for a while, so when Brad and I left for work Monday morning I just kept thinking about how excited I was for my doctor's appointment that morning where we would get to see our baby again.  Everything went great on my drive until I got to Lehi, where all the crappy i-15 core construction starts.  My car all of a sudden started to wobble/shake pretty good.  I figured it must be the lane, even though it looked pretty smooth.  So I changed lanes.  Shaking did not stop and now there was an awful noise.  I was next to a semi so I wondered if it was him...and then a piece of tire went flying past my car.  Crap, I knew I was sunk.  Luckily I was close to an exit so I got over and took the exit and parked in Subway.  I probably went a little farther then I should have before stopping, but pulling over on the freeway terrifies me.  I was already freaking out.

Well, at Subway I got out of the car and went and looked at my tires.  Low and behold, my back right tire looked like shrapnel had come spitting out of it because it had 6 nasty/jagged holes in the tire wall and was completely flat.  Good news to the bad news was that the whole tire had not blown off, so my driving had at least been on a bit of rubber instead of just my rims/wheel.  However, the rim still looked all scratched.

Not my tire, but pretty close to what mine looked like

I have watched Brad change a tire once, so I new where all the stuff was in the car.  But I was freaking out, a blown tire was not what we needed right now, plus I was going to be late to work.  So I called Brad.

Brad is an amazing guy.  He has been my calm, comforter this whole awful week.  He told me to calm down and that he was on his way.  When I told him that I was trying to follow the picture and jack up the car, he just told me to sit in the car and wait for him, not because he didn't think I could figure it out, but I always not in a good state of mind and not sure if I was doing it right.  So I sat and used my handy smart phone to find tire stores near by.  I also called my manager and let her know that I would be late.

Well Brad showed up and got right down to the business of changing my tire.  I meant to take a picture of it, but for some reason my poorly functioning brain only thought I would use the picture to show Brad, who was going to see it anyways, so I did not take one.  Oh well, it looked awful.  Brad gave me his keys and told me to go to work and that he would take care of the tire and meet me for the doc appt.

Work thank goodness was not too crazy that morning.  Brad just had all 4 tires replaced.  At least we drive cars that do not require really expensive tires, but it's still a lot of pay for when we were not planning on it just then.  My appointment went great.  Our baby weighs 3 lbs (which the doc said is good and normal for 28 weeks) and everything looks great.  They took some 3D ultrasound pictures which was really neat to see what her face looks like.  She already has some chub to her cheeks.

I made it through the rest of my work week in one piece, no more blown tires for Brad or I, and I finally slept well last night.  I have only gotten through this week because of my amazing husband.  He has calmed me down after everything that has happened, wiped away my tears, held me close, and rubbed my back to help me sleep.  Thank goodness for my husband!  I do not know what I would do without him.

Brad lost his softball game Monday night, which was sad.  He played really well though, so despite the loss he took it pretty well (Brad is pretty competitive so once again I was amazed by his calmness).  Then last night we were all suprised to learn that Brad's little sister, Christine, put her mission papers in and she called to tell me she was opening her call.  She is going to the Monrose, New Jersey mission!  We are so excited for her, the little sneak.  Apparently my scream of surprise made everyone laugh when she told me she was going on a mission.  Luckily she leaves a month after our baby girl should be hear, so she will at least get to meet her niece.

It's been a rough week, but I know we will make it through.  Thank goodness for sturdy/calm umbrellas in rain storms!

Oh and funny enough it did rain this week and we have gotten some strong wind storms.  So fitting for my week.

Nesting and Newscasters

I've always heard that in the last trimester you hit the nesting faze where you want to get everything ready for baby to arrive.  Well, it's happened...to Brad.  I came home from work one day and he started talking about getting plastic bins to organize all of our stuff.  We have a bin that we have been putting my crafts into, and a bin for baby gifts, but he was talking about putting all of our storage stuff that is currently in boxes into bins.  He researched prices at different stores and everything.  I agreed.  I came home Wednesday night to find our place a mess - there was stuff scattered everywhere from Brad organizing and repacking everything!  I was given the assignment of going through one box of my stuff to decide if it was all worth keeping.  I basically spent 30 minutes on one box while he successfully re-packed everything else.  I've always told Brad that he is really good at tetris (he can make anything fit into our car for instance).  Well, when all was done at 11pm, he showed me the storage room, which he managed to fit more things into now and there is still room available for more.  Brad is very happy and pleased with himself.

Wednesday night was also the last night of one of our favorite newscasters, Bruce Lindsey.  I know, weird to say that we are attached to newscasters, but we are.  For the past week the station has been doing little stories about Bruce's career in news casting, then they did a final story/montage Wednesday night.  He is retiring to go be a mission president in Australia.  It was all very touching and emotional.  I just love Bruce, he is so good at reporting news.  It probably doesn't help that I am overly emotional, but it is still sad.  

Everyone is noticing my bump now and commenting on it.  I'd say at least a third of the patients now ask me about it.  It makes rooming patients take a little longer because they all want to know when I'm due, what I'm having, if we have picked a name, and of course all of their own stories and suggestions.  It's nice, they are all very sweet, but sometimes I really do not have the time to stand and talk when the provider is ready to see them.  Oh well, one patient did guess that I was 3-4 months along and was shocked when I told him that I'm actually 6 months.  Everyone tells me I'm just so cute and little.  I feel big, mostly because I can't hunch over and still be able to breathe, but I guess I should be enjoying my littleness while I still can.

I figure I'm probably due to put up a picture.  Brad does not like baby bump pictures.  He thinks they are awkward, I dunno.  But I have him take one every week to send to my sister in California.  So here is week 26!

Wow that baby is growing!

So last week we went to good ol California and visited my parents.  This was the first drive we have had that allowed us to drive through Reno during the day.  Brad looked at me and said, "Wow, this is a totally different city during the day!"  He also said that he didn't know you could cross the Sierras without chains and snow.  So we laughed and thank goodness did have run ins with snow.  And luckily not much road construction (that is until the drive back to Utah).  

We left Wednesday, May 9th, the day after my birthday.  Everyone kept asking me if I had a good birthday, and well my exact birthday was not so fun cause I worked 13 hours and did not get home till 9:40pm and then had to finish packing.  But if our trip is part of my birthday, then it was good.  We rolled into Rocklin at about 2:30 on Wednesday (nice and early!) and got to talk with my Mom until Dad came home.  Then we went to dinner at BJ's Brewery for my birthday and we finally got to meet Mark, my older sister's fiance.  The food was delicious as always, I had a pzookie even though we went home and had ice cream cake (you cannot not get a pzookie).  And guess what, we do like Mark.  

My mom bought me a cute elephant ring that I just have to get sized because apparently size 7 is like size 9-10 in Monterey, CA.  Oh well.  Thursday we (Brad and I and my parents) drove to the Jelly Belly Factory.  Brad had never been and it had been years for me.  It was fun, and we disgustingly learned that Very Cherry is the #1 flavor, Buttered Popcorn is #2, Juicy Pear is #4, and guess what #3 is?  Yup, I guessed right, Black Licorice.  Yuck.  We tried lots of flavors after the tour (they have a sample bar, how awesome?), Dad bought belly flops, mom bought lots of red apple and baby socks that say "You know what I mean Jelly Bean?" (my nickname was jelly bean growing up so my mom could not resist), and Brad and I got an assortment of yummy jelly bellys.

After that we drove through no man's land California to the Ghirardelli Chocolate Outlet.  My dad treated us to ice cream sundaes and my mom bought lots of cheap(er) chocolate.  Then we went up and visited my 97-year-old grandma, who broke her hip and has since been in a rehab nursing facility.  It was nice to see her and visit with my aunt.  After getting home, we ate dinner and my mom took me shopping for maternity clothes.  Busy day.

Friday, we went to Folsom Lake!  I have not been for 5 years (since Brad and I were engaged).  It was a very warm day.  Brad, Dad, and I threw around a football and my Dad was happy to see that I can still throw a mean spiral.  Then I had to go swim cause I has hot.  My dad went in with me while my mom and Brad sat in the shade.  That night Brad and I went out with Katie and Mark.  We went to Lorenzo's mexican food.  Then we went and played minigolf at Sunsplash.  Now Brad and I do play a lot mini golf during the summer, but Brad usually always wins.  Brad told them about our contest for whoever gets the first hole-in-one gets to pick dessert (since Brad typically always wins overall, hole-in-ones are much more evenly matched).  Katie and Mark agreed.  The very first hole I got a hole-in-one and then Brad did.  Brad got the second hole-in-one so he said he won the contest (since no one else got a hole-in-one that hole).  Well, Brad, Mark, and I are competitive.  The entire game we kept trying to be better than each other.  Mark finally looked at us and asked if we practiced before because Brad and I were doing good, much better than normal (at least for me).  Katie and Mark kept joking that we had lied about how good we were.  Well, at the end of the game Brad totaled the scores.  And guess what, I won!  I apparently got 7 hole-in-ones!  Crazyiness!  I had 39, Brad had 41, Mark had 43, and Katie had 53.  Katie was a good sport.  Due to my winning Katie sided with me getting to choose dessert, so we went to Coldstone.  It was definitely fun hanging out with them and getting to know Mark better.

Saturday my Dad made yummy waffles for Mother's Day (church was too early Sunday to make breakfast).  I learned how to make syrup and my mom made lots of fruit syrups (apricot, plum, and rhubarb).  They were all very yummy.  Then it was craziness while my mom did last minute cleaning before the baby shower. Brad and Mark went golfing during the baby shower and Dad took a nap.  The baby shower was good, my mom had lots of games planned.  Older women and games can be interesting.  But it was fun to see my friend's Katie and Tamie and chat with women who I have known since I was 12.  Our baby will be well dressed!   Dad really wanted to see Avengers, and my mom did not, so Dad took Brad and I.  He loved it, and Brad and I loved it just as much the second time around.  However, I did find it interesting that there were different previews.  Does each theatre/state play slightly different previews?  

Well Sunday was church and then everyone made dinner (except Mom).  It was delicious hamburgers, fruit salad, and potato salad.  Yummy.  

All in all, we had fun.  We left monday morning, and apparently were awful at checking to make sure we had everything because I left my keys and Brad left a pair of shoes and his church clothes.  Oh well, thank goodness my parents are nice and are mailing them to us.

Going back to work was hard this week because I was so tired and Tuesday was a long 13 hour day at work.  But thank goodness for my long weekends so I can clean and try and organize our baby gifts.

My Dad said something really funny Sunday night before bed.  He looked at me and said, "Wow she really is growing in there!  You have gotten bigger just in the few days you have been here!"  He also told me that I  just needed to live long enough to have his granddaughter.  Oh Dad.  I told him that was not nice and he laughed and said that he didn't want me to die.  When we left Monday morning he told Brad to take good care of his granddaughter, which he told me included me as we are a package deal.  I told him that deal again ends as soon as she is born.  Dad thinks he is so funny!  But it was fun.  Trips are always nice.

I did take my camera with us.  But once again, I never used it.  Brad just laughs.  I need someone to follow me and take pictures of what I do.