Spoke too soon

Well, up until lately I've felt pretty good being pregnant, but this past week I've felt the urge to vomit everyday. I'm tired and achey and I don't know how I am going to survive even 24 more days of work. Don't get me wrong I am still so happy to be pregnant and looking forward to Carter, I am just trying to hang in there and feeling really cruddy.
This month is going to be an insanely busy one. I have a shower this Saturday, after which Dave and I are going to a baby expo at the Wells Fargo Center and then going to my step dad's birthday dinner. Not to mention I am teaching the Young Women's lesson on Sunday.
The following Saturday I have another shower. The Saturday after that I have another shower and the following Sunday I have a shower. I am super excited about all of these showers, but I am just hoping I start to feel better so I can enjoy them without a massive tummy ache.
The baby is doing good and has been getting the hiccups on a regular basis which is cute. He's been recognizing his daddy's voice and likes to kick him in the head (out of excitement of course) when he gets really close to talk to him. He also likes the song King of the road. He was completely still until that song came on the radio while we were driving to work and then he started going nuts! Like he was dancing (he dances crazy like his daddy!) I think he just likes the low voice in the song because he thinks it is Dave.
That's pretty much what's going on. We will hopefully be blogging more this month as we will be doing more interesting things. Sorry we had such a big lapse in blogs but thanks to our readers for continuing to be faithful readers through the dry spell.

Reader of the Week!!!

Our Reader of the Week is our youngest reader, Mr. Aden Pierce! We recently found out that he's been reading our blog more than some of our family members. We just wanted to give him a shout out, send him our love, and thank him for faithfully reading our blog. Keep practicing that Rubik's Cube and one day you will become a Rubik's master. We love you Aden!

We found it!

Brook and I were out shopping yesterday in Corte Madera and found this snow suit we had been searching for in the right size. Attempts to find this at 4 other gap stores and online had failed, but we got lucky yesterday, grabbing the last one the store had. Now Carter will be nice and toasty in Utah!

The perfect gift

Happy Valentine's Day, everybody! Brook and I spent the evening attending our second birth class. This time it was much more in your face, no pulled punches than the first time. We got to watch a video about the different stages of labor, culminating with the actual birth of a baby. It was pretty much what I expected and at the same time very new and informative. It is one thing to read about and a totally different thing to see and talk about with a group of people. I am sure that when Carter is born, it will be an amazing (and private) experience.

For Valentine's day, I tried to be a little more creative with Brook's present. Since becoming pregnant (and even before that), Brook loves juice. So, instead of a bouquet of flowers, I got her a "bouquet" of different juices and a Jamba Juice gift card. I "wrapped" the gift in a huge Victoria's Secret bag with scantily clad women on it to confuse her before she opened it. She appreciated the thought and I am glad I didn't have to spend $50 on a dozen roses.

Just swell...

Well, things are moving along. I can't believe that next week I will be 8 months pregnant! Lately Carter has been moving more and we've been able to watch him when he makes my belly move around all funny. He got the hiccups today, probably not for the first time, but the first I've felt it. For the past few weeks I've been swelling a lot. Luckily I changed my rings 2 days before the swelling started "just in case." We have a doctors appointment Friday at which I have to get a note from my doctor saying that I can wear flip flops to work. By 3 everyday my shoes feel almost permanently fixed to my feet, so it will be nice to wear something more comfortable.

In other news: I've committed not to commit to anything until after the baby is born. I have been very stressed out and still volunteering to do things that somehow I think I have time for. So, from now on until Carter arrives (and probably for a little while after that) I will be attempting to take it easy and not doing anything that I don't need or really want to do. Hopefully this makes things easier and slightly less stressful for me, Carter and Dave. I need to continue to relieve stress which is difficult for me since I am a compulsive planner and I really have no idea when this baby is going to come. I just need to make sure that I'm ok with whatever happens.

Let them eat cake!

There has been a lot of excitement this weekend. On Friday, Brook got me an early valentine's gift. It was slightly selfish in nature, but I refuse to complain about my new PSP (play station portable). In order to justify a purchase like this, Brook said that it would come in handy during labor to take her mind off of the intense pain. Regardless of the why, I think we will both enjoy playing with our new toy.

Today, Brook and I went to San Francisco with the young women from our church to see the Marie Antoinette exhibit at the Legion of Honor Museum. They had on display paintings, furniture, drawings and such from the queen's chateau. After seeing the exhibit, we took a couple of the girls to see paintings by Monet, Picasso, Cezanne, Saurat and Van Gogh. They had never seen paintings by these masters in real life, so it was cool to see their excitement. Here is the group outside the museum:

Little Emanuel testing out our stroller.

One of us didn't enjoy class!

No, it wasn't me or Dave... we got a lot of our questions answered and actually got a lot out of the class. When we got home Carter seemed to be displeased with the entire birth class experience and he was very motivated to escape from his little home. The second we got home the little Mann was kicking and punching like mad! He was hitting so hard that we were sitting there watching my stomach going nuts. Hopefully this is not a regular occurance because I actually think he will eventually find a way out!
Besides going to birth class last night we started Carter's scrapbook. I found a website where you can create scrapbook pages online and have them shipped to you. It's great because I hate dragging all of my stuff out and spending a bunch of money to get stuff to make like one page. Hopefully we like the finished product!

Nevermind...

I guess my Great Grandpa's birthday is the 28th which would still be too early for baby Carter to come!

Sooner than expected!

Well, we had a doctor's appointment yesterday and we got some interesting news. So far I've gained 28 lbs (4 in the past 2 weeks) but the doctor seemed to think that was fine all the sudden so I'm not worried. She also said I was measuring at 31 weeks instead of 30 weeks which is funny because at our last visit I was told that I was "small average." She had trouble finding the heartbeat but soon found it under my belly so she says the baby is starting to drop already! She seems to also think that he will be coming early. We have Dana Carvey tickets for the 29th of March and my mom is out of town from the 27th to the 30th so I'm hoping he can atleast hold out until she gets back on the 30th. I actually think it would be really cool if he was born on March 30th because he would share his birthday with his Great, Great Grandpa and would turn 1 when he turned 100. We'll see when he decides he's ready!
Here's me this morning... Still growing strong!

Busy weekend!

Friday night we went on a triple date with 2 of my friends from work and their husbands to Outback. It was really fun and of course the boy's conversation quickly turned to sports and the 3 of them ended up at the bar watching the Warrior's game. After a while we went over there to see when we would be leaving and somehow got shipped off to Walmart! it was fun though and we got back right when the game was ending.
On Saturday I had an oppertunity to get free maternity pictures taken! It was really fun! Here is a link to the online gallery: http://www.flickr.com/gp/8679477@N04/h0kMcQ
After that we tried to get a bit of grocery shopping in, but because of my celiac we have to go to like 8 different stores so we were only able to hit 2 of them before I had to be at the beehive conference. It was fun and the girls seemed to enjoy it so that was good.
Saturday night we went over to our friends the Skabelunds house. Our other friends Katie and Jeremy were there (Katie is about 2 weeks further along than me) and we had SUCH a good dinner! Susanne must have taken in to account that 2 preggos were coming over because there was so much food.
Sunday after church we drove out to Sacramento to spend the day with John, Noelle and Abby. We had a lot of fun AND Noelle helped me find the perfect blessing outfit for Carter! I had been searching online for months and she found it in about 2 minutes. What would I do without her!

(Those are pants, not shorts.)

This morning I was not feeling well so I slept in and Dave is going to take me to work on his lunch (since we now only have one car.) We are feeding 5 missionaries tonight and we still have to do the rest of our shopping after work so wish us luck!!!

"Dude, where is our Instructor?"

Brook and I had a minor letdown tonight when we went to our birthing class. After waiting 40 minutes for our class to start and repeated calls to the front desk by a custodian, we were informed by a nurse that our teacher was a no show. To make it up to us in the class, she passed around a piece of paper and had us write down our names and numbers, promising us that when the time came for us to go into labor, we would have priority for the private rooms. The class was then taken up to Labor/Delivery for a tour of the rooms and to answer any questions we had. Because our class ended early, Brook and I were able to go get our stroller (with a portion of the newly aquired funds from the sale of Brook's car). The following pictures depict me putting the stroller together (it was a piece of cake) and the final product.

We love you Carter!

Hogwarts: A History

This is the result of my Hogwarts model set I got from Brook for Christmas. It was more difficult than I first thought.

Going, going....

Well, I thought it would be hard to sell the bug, but the day after we posted it on Craigslist I was talking to a coworker about it and she was really interested. She test drove it today and she says she wants to buy it so I am totally stoked! She didn't even try to haggle the price! We also got an email Saturday morning from a girl who saw it on Craigslist. She seemed pretty interested because she wanted to drive up from Marin that day to see it, but I told her we weren't available because I hadn't gotten a yes or no from my coworker. Well, She wants the car and thinks she can have the money to me by Monday, but the girl from Marin wanted to set up a time next weekend to see it so I will have to let her know the car is no longer available. I didn't know so many people would be interested that quickly!

A salute to tums

One of the biggest issues Brook has had to deal with since becoming pregnant is her seemingly everlasting heartburn. She heard from someone that lots of heartburn during pregnancy means a hairy baby, so hopefully we are not going to have a chimpanzee for a son. Her antidote to this consistent discomfort is downing a few tums (withing the recommended dosage, of course). That being a "big" issue, we have been pretty lucky so far with this pregnancy thing. Hopefully our luck will continue after Carter is born.

In other news, I finally heard from UNLV a few days ago, once again receiving an acceptance letter. Unfortunately for them, I will have to gracefully decline their letter. U of Utah still feels right for both Brook and I and we are getting more and more excited on a daily basis. To further back up those good feelings, I heard from a tile setter I know that UNLV is basically a 4 year junior college. I am still waiting to hear from ASU, not so that I can decide where to go but more for a boost of self esteem.

Our baby registry is 99% complete, with a few odds and ends left to add. We decided, with a little help from our friends, that the blue car seat is the winner. We can always get a different cover if we have a girl later on. Carter has been more active (well, at least felt more) in the past week, probably because he is getting excited for our birthing classes to start next Thursday. It should be fun.

Can't decide!!!!!!

Many of you may have received a phone call from me for an opinion on a car seat. Well... I still can't decide. We need help! Here are the choices:

If you can't tell the blue seat has little sports things on it.

Officially for sale!

The "mirth mobile" is now on craigs list! Here is the link if anyone knows someone looking for a cool car:

http://sfbay.craigslist.org/nby/car/549431032.html

Another trip to the doctor...

Well at least this time it was a good news/bad news kind of thing.
Bad news: I've gained 5 lbs in the past 3 weeks which brings my total up to 24 lbs (it's actually the high average.)
Good news: We were seen by one of the midwives in the practice and we actually really like her. She is #1 on our birth list so far including 2 of the doctors in the practice.
Bad news: my iron is a little low so I need to watch what I eat and make sure I increase my iron a little.
REALLY good news: I don't have gestational diabetes!!!! Hooray!
All in all it was a good appointment. I still look healthy and the baby's heartbeat is as it should be. I go again in 2 weeks so I will give another update then.

A bad day turned good

I'll try to make a long story short by saying I had a bad day. It seemed like every thing was going wrong. Well, a few days ago I noticed that our registry showed Carter's bedding as "online only" which I KNOW is wrong because I added it in the store. Kaisa was going to Target at lunch so I asked her to just make sure it was still there and she got to inform me that it was on clearance and being discontinued! I was freaking out and asked Dave if he just wanted to pick something else but he said no way because we had not only been planning with this color scheme in mind but we had already matched the colors to paint the letters of his name and the thousand (exaggeration) of polka dots hanging in his room. So we decided to just buy whatever was still in the store. Well, I mentioned this to Kaisa and she confessed that she had purchased the bedding set when she saw that it was discontinuing so we just had to get the stuff that went with it. We were only able to find the mobile and some boxes (which were both on sale) at the Santa Rosa Target so we drove to the Rohnert Park Target and found almost all of what we wanted... also all on sale. We will check the Fairfeild Target tomorrow for the remaining items and if they aren't there we will just get them online. All in all it turned out great because we got everything on clearance and we got to set up his room.

Growing every day

I feel like my growth is like exponential! Every day I keep getting bigger and bigger! Last night I was laying on the couch watching Gilmore girls and I could not get comfortable. First I tried laying on my left side, then I sat up then I flipped to the other side of the couch, then I moved to the papazan chair, then I ended up turning off the T.V. and going to the computer chair and finally I gave up and just laid in bed. At 7:00pm. I know it's only going to get worse I could just feel my ribs being stretched! Anyway, I still think he is going to be quite a large little man(n) and I am looking forward to my doctors appointment on Monday to see if the home cooked food is helping keep the weight off.

For those of you that doubt the resemblance

Carter:
David: I rest my case!

Selling the mirth mobile

We've been carpooling so often that we really only use my car about twice a month. We have decided to sell it. If you know anyone who would be interested let us know!

26 1/2 weeks

Sporting the XY and the belly!

Carter in 20 years

Carter looks like his Papa!

Some pictures from the 4D sonogram today:

A big smile for the camera! She said he was the smiliest baby she had seen all day!

He likes to suck on his foot!

He's definitely a boy! ... And what a boy!

Finally some good news!

I'm not contagious anymore! Yeah! I've actually been able to leave the house which means I don't have to miss any more work. I'm still on antibiotics and eye drops, but I feel better.

Also, Dave has decided on University of Utah even though he has not heard back from the other schools. We have been talking about it since he got his acceptance and everyday we were leaning more towards it. The other night he just said "So, Utah?" and that was pretty much it.

We have our 4D sonogram TOMORROW!!!! We are so excited! The best part is they are running a special for the month of January so starting today we can get the best package (which we weren't going to get originally) for only $99 instead of the $245 it was originally!!!! I'd say that's good news!

We've also been doing really good at eating home cooked meals and neither of us have eaten out since the "epidemic" hit our house. We feel pretty good about that.

Carter seems to be moving a lot more and his favorite time to play is about 10:00PM. It's fun for Mommy! Carter also has story time every night when Daddy reads one of his children's books to him. Tonight's book is "If you give a mouse a cookie..." (a book that Brook identifies with).

Pretty much good news all around!

When it rains it pours

No, I'm not talking about the recent storm, I'm referring to the fact that my cold is still here and now I have a nasty chest cough and pink eye in both eyes. It's fantastic! I went to the on call doctor today and he prescribed me TONS of medicine so hopefully that will help and not hurt poor Carter who has to go through this with me. I can't afford to miss another day of work so I am just going to have to deal with it. Blah.

Most likely Utah

Well, Dave and I have been talking about it and it seems that everyday we are leaning more and more towards U of U. We have not received anything from either of the other schools, but I think there is a reason we got the acceptance from the U first. It is causing us to think of all the good things that Utah has that neither of the other schools/states have (mainly family and friends) and reevaluate the pros and cons of each school. Those of you who know me well know that I am an over analyzer and I think I had overlooked a lot of the pros of Utah because I was so focused on the cons. I told Dave it is ultimately his decision, but it seems that he is starting to get his heart set on Utah which is a good thing because he's already been accepted there. So... I will brace myself for a cold winter next year!

Some stuff

Well, Dave and I are both sick, but he is taking it more like a Mann than me. I feel miserable!

We had a doctor's appointment Monday and got some... news... first off I've gained 7 lbs this past month which puts my total weight gain at 19 lbs. That's a lot considering the only place I've really been gaining is my stomach. I asked if that meant I was going to have a LARGE baby and she said we would have to wait and see. She followed that up by saying that she thinks I might be able to birth an 8 lb baby naturally, but doesn't think that I could do a 9 pounder since I am so small. She said natural birth is ideal, but not to freak out if I end up needing a C-section. Oh fabulous!!!!! My mother in law had 6 babies and not one of them was under 8 lbs! Let's hope this boy takes after the babies in my family which were all under 8 lbs. (I doubt it though.)
Our doctor also informed us that she is pregnant and due April 6th which means she will not be delivering our baby. I hadn't really expected her to be delivering since it all depends who's on call, but I hoped it would be her and now there is really no chance. So that was a bummer. She started out that sentence with "I have a confession to make and you're going to be mad at me..." not exactly a phrase you want to hear coming from your doctor, but I was glad that it wasn't a lot worse.

In other news: we have our 4D sonogram in a week from tomorrow and we are really excited to see if we can tell at all who this baby looks like. We will be posting pictures from that hopefully next weekend.

Until then we are both going to try to get healthy again. I've been really lucky to have had a great pregnancy so far, but I have gotten 3 colds since I got pregnant and it is so miserable. Luckily Dave takes good care of me.