More birth stuff in the mix

This week should be a big one- that trip really took its toll on me. I have quite a week planned!

First, I need to finish cleaning the house (aka- do the dishes)! Tomorrow is an LLL meeting and I wanted to go and ask some questions. Thursday we're eating on campus- a company is giving CS majors + their families a holiday dinner.

So by Friday I should be able to relax. Now that Thanksgiving is over, we have time to think about buying all that stuff we've been waiting to buy. We're going to buy a fetoscope (though I'm sure a regular stethoscope would be enough for us to hear the baby on our own). That baby is kicking kicking kicking. I also need to get Laura Shanley's book. I meant to get that months ago, but things keep coming up. And it looks like I'll need more maternity clothes. I've realized that my big t-shirts won't last me forever. There's also some Christmas shopping I need to do: yarn for more presents, McKay's gifts. One of my visiting teachees is expecting at the beginning of this month and I'd like to get her something. And Monique is getting married, so there's another little expense for her bridal shower.

But hey, I'm doing alright. A little stressed about getting stuff done, but it's not so bad. It's not like I can do much about it; there are only 24 hours in a day.

And for those who are interested, there's a Trust Birth Conference next year. However, not only do I not have enough money to go, but I should be having a baby pretty close to those dates. McKay and I'll have to have our own little "Trust Birth Conference" at home. Though, it'll have less speakers and more baby-catching than the real conference. :)


How can I explain how excited I am about this birth? I'm REALLY looking forward to it. I'm really excited to be in labor. Not that I don't love being pregnant- I do. It's lots of fun, but I think the birth will be lots of fun, too. I'm so glad McKay wants to be there- I've always been worried that my husband wouldn't like to watch it- think it was too gross or something. Of course McKay is too awesome to think that. :)

Scenic?

I'm always jealous of the photos on Zeneedle's blog. She lives in Utah, too, and just gets nice pictures of the area and sky. So on our trip, I tried to find some pretty pictures, also. Here are a few. Pictures of me and McKay will be on our mutual blog. These were all taken from inside the car.

Heading south:


Approaching the Hoover Dam:


Electrical lines at the Hoover Dam:


Hoover Dam:


Heading back north after the trip:

A road near the Grand Canyon (sorry, we didn't actually take a picture of the Canyon, but it was pretty grand).


This canyon was amazing and this picture doesn't capture its majesty. This is on our way to Cedar City.

The trip was longer than expected; we had a pit stop in Cedar City due to low transmission fluid. We are back safely, and glad that the transmission fluid didn't disappear while we were in the mountains. I think the highest altitude we ventured on was around 9200 feet. Almost 2 miles up. Our poor little car!

Going Away

And hopefully to get some pictures. We never ever take pictures and this blog has been picture-less for some time.

Let me have the weekend to take some pictures of Arizona and Utah and our trip. Happy Thanksgiving, all!

They said "ewwwwww"

So my favorite question of the Board today was this one.

I'm going to be a fence-sitter on this issue. Sure, it's human milk, but human babies drink human milk. It's not like cheese made from urine or something.

So I'm not picking a side on this issue. I think I'd probably have to try some to give an opinion...

What are your thoughts?

Pregnant Thoughts

This is what went through my head this morning. It all probably happened within 2 minutes.

(wake up)

Ugh... What time is it? No, wait. Don't look at the clock or else you'll be thinking about how early it is.

I need to pee. But I'm so comfy here. And if I get up, I'll move the baby around and it'll wake up and I won't be able to fall asleep as quickly. Ok... Not going to pee now... Wait a little bit.

(alarm)

Oh. Well, I guess it wasn't as early as I thought... Fine. I'll go pee...


Also, in the exciting realm of pregnancy, I found some of my old jeans today and decided I'd wear them with the button undone. Well, I pull up the pants... and I guess I don't need the button undone! I can't believe I still have pre-pregnancy pants that I can still fit into! Woohoo!

Crazy Thursday

And something on the less serious side.

Today was "Maturation" day at the elementary school. "Maturation" is code for "the puberty talk."

In the words of a fifth grade girl, "That whole thing was all around gross."

I don't remember being that grossed out by the puberty talk. It made sense to me and I'm glad I understand my body and its functions.


But the best part of the puberty talk today: free food afterwards! They had a little table out in the hallway with juice and cookies. I don't remember getting juice and cookies when we had that lesson in fifth grade! I do remember the free samples of deodorant, though.

Alway remember kids, hygiene is defined as "how close people are willing to stand next to you."

Thankful Thursday

NHKnitting Mama wrote a post about Thankful Thursday, so I figured, I'd blog about what I'm thankful for.

Do you ever wake up and end up thinking about stuff before actually crawling out of bed? That's what I did last Sunday. This is what I thought about:

I'm really thankful for my health this pregnancy. Sure I had a cold last week, but everyone gets a cold once in a while. During the month of September, I kept having these intense migraines: harder than I've ever had before. I definitely lost feeling in my tongue and fingers during one migraine. I was a little worried about that, as that seems to border the definition of "stroke." I definitely wasn't a fan of what was going on in my brain that month.

Which brings me to my next things to be thankful for: priesthood blessings. I'm a FIRM believer in them. And that's also why my headaches are gone. I am so grateful that God still works with us and can heal us. I haven't had a migraine since September.

And then I started thinking about my favorite scripture: 1 Timothy 4: 12-16, particularly verse 14 because its reference to the laying on of hands.

I just love the priesthood. I love everything that comes from having it in my home. I enjoy good health because of prayers and blessings, and I'm glad of that.

Baby Beluga

This isn't the best picture ever, but I guess it'll do. It's from last Friday. As you see, I'm getting a little heavy around the middle.

And it's all happened in the last couple of weeks, too. I guess after not gaining a pound for 2 months, it was going to catch up to me sometime...

Interestingly enough, I felt the baby kick higher than I've felt before: an inch or so below my rib cage. I'm glad it's not there yet, but I'm getting a little nervous about that.

And one last thing. Last night when I was saying my prayers before bed, I thought about how we like to pray for the baby to be healthy and strong. I know some family and friends read this blog, so I'd like to ask a favor: please don't pray for it to be BIG and strong. Healthy is a much safer word. :)

I was thinking about that last night and then I had this dream about having the baby...

I had it here at home (like we're planning on) and when the baby came out, it was a nice, healthy size. It even latched on well in my dream. In fact, after 2 feedings (somehow I could tell how time was passing in my dream), I decided to weigh the baby in my dream because we forgot to when it was born.

Well, I found a scale, weighed the baby, and after two feedings, the baby was 36 lbs! So yes. Please don't pray for that.


And unfortunately, I don't remember the gender of the baby in the dream. Although I had a boy dream the other night. I still think the girl dreams are outweighing the boy dreams, though.

Sick Day

I'm taking a sick day.

I've had a bad cold, but I don't normally cancel a day because of colds. However, last night, this cold was agitated by my having to pee at 3 in the morning (thank you pregnancy!). My nose ran for 2.5 hours after that and wouldn't let me sleep. I'm taking a sick/nap day to make up for not sleeping between 3 and 5:30. Don't worry- I'll be drinking lots of fluids.

But I'll tell you, you think up all kinds of weird things when it's 4 in the morning.

And I think someone in the neighborhood's car alarm sounds like it belongs to a UFO...very Close Encounters of the creepy car alarm kind. Weird sounds happen at night.

A Quickie

After reading Beth's post, the Board drama about this talk, and re-reading that talk and a couple others, I feel like I should say something. Unfortunately I have a cold and not only is my nose congested, it feels like my brain is too.

But I do want to say that motherhood has been on my mind (probably because of what's in my belly). I wish I could say that I've always had a firm testimony of motherhood, but I haven't. When I was younger, I couldn't wait to be a mother someday. Sometime between then and now, I sort of lost that. Now with impending motherhood and knowing I should probably gain something resembling a stronger testimony of motherhood, I've been doing a lot of reading on the subject. I'd just like to say that I appreciated the talks from Relief Society General Meeting and General Conference.

Meanwhile, I'm going to go to bed. Yes, it's 6:30. I'm planning on reading for half and hour and then sleeping. Maybe it'll help my cold. And I need to drink lots of water. Surprisingly, I read today that Red Raspberry Leaf tea is good for colds; it's also good for feminine reproductive systems (and pregnancy!). Maybe I should invest in that for this winter...

Daylight Savings

Well, gaining an hour didn't help very much. McKay and I were kind of ill, so the extra hour of sleep wasn't actually any extra.

But hey, I guess I can look forward to losing an hour March 9!

But that date sounds vaguely familiar...

Oh RIGHT! This baby should be born sometime March 8-13 depending on what you use to determine due dates! Lucky me! Not only do I get to lose sleep over labor/newborn, I also get to lose sleep with the rest of America!


Pardon my sarcasm. I'm not really that bitter, but it seems I should be. Ok, maybe not bitter, but for some reason people consider "pregnancy" and "having a miserable time" equivalents . This past weekend, when we were out at dinner on Saturday night, every female in the party asked me at some point "if I'm feeling alright." Scratch that--every female who spoke to me; one didn't, but that's not unusual.

Do I look ill? Does being pregnant mean I'm going to drop dead any second? I hope not. I responded cheerily enough: "I'm feeling great! Should I feel bad? I haven't been sick in months."

One, though, probably to increase my optimism, told me, "Don't worry; it'll get worse later on."

Hey, thanks! I like the encouragement!


Ok. So I have a little more sarcasm in my system than usual. I'll be more light-hearted later this week.

Second Grade

A true conversation from yesterday in a second grade classroom.

"Mrs. Farley? Are you having a baby?"
"Yes, I am."
"Oh!" (more oohs and aahs and TONS of hands raised.

The children's comments will be in dark purple/blue, mine will be in violet.

"Is it a boy our a girl?"
"I don't know; it's going to be a surprise!"

TONS of hands went up at that point.

"My mom had a baby and I said it was going to be a boy and my sister said it was going to be a girl. I was right."

"The doctors are going to have to open you up and get the baby out."
"Sometimes it happens that way. Not always, though."
"They did that for my mom."
"I know it does happen that way sometimes."

"What do you want it to be?"
smiling: "I'm hoping it's human."
"Why don't you want an animal baby?"
"I don't know how to care for an animal baby..."

And then we had to go on to computers and the open comment time was over for now.

But that one girl was right: Why don't I want it to be an animal baby? :)

May I vent?

So yesterday, all my classes canceled on me, so I left work early (Halloween parties = teachers don't want computer class in the middle of the day). I decided that I needed to buy a new pair of maternity pants (as I only owned 1) and a black skirt for church. Black matches most any top, so I was being quite thrifty in this purchase.

Ok Mall. Sears and Penney's didn't have the best selections (couldn't find the skirts!) and I'm NOT going into a Dillards or Nordstroms. TOO EXPENSIVE.

So I try the Motherhood Maternity store.

When I get there the sales clerk is on the phone with her husband, and I go straight to the black skirts, pick one out, and start looking at pants. I was looking at some khaki colored ones for work since I already own a pair of maternity jeans. THEN the clerk gets off the phone and decides to be my best friends EVER. She complains about how she can't stand her husband and that he doesn't tell her he loves her, but he's a good father to their girl, so it all works out. And Blah Blah Blah. She asks if she can help me find something. I say I'm looking for a black skirt and some khaki colored pants, and she brings out more options. Nothing wrong with that, but then she tries selling me these bras... Supposedly they prevent breast cancer, but she didn't have the source information for that. And then she goes on and talks about her upset stomach and her cesarean and her daughter's ear infection.

The thing is, I don't really care about these things. I go to a store, pick what I want, and then buy it. I don't go to the store for girl talk. If I wanted girl talk, half the local population are female... I don't think I'd have that much problem finding girl talk.

More blah blah blah... her stretch marks... blah blah blah.

THEN, I mention that I haven't had an ultrasound and she goes BERSERK and I get a 20 minute lecture filled with, "I don't mean to lecture you...but..." and when another customer comes into the store, she goes, "Hey! You think she should see a doctor, right?" Of course the other customer agrees and now I'm out numbered.

It probably would have been wise to tell them that I know a couple of local midwives and I've talked to a few people about this and that I don't care about getting to know a doctor because I don't want to have the baby in a hospital, but I just wanted to get out of there (it's been an hour now- I only ended up with what I came in for- it's not like I was "browsing" and "shopping" for fun- I don't do that).

So I stand there with my plastic in my hand to pay for my few items and she spends the next ten minutes NOT scanning them and giving me more lecture. I tried to smile and be nice, "I understand your concern..." She cuts me off with a, "I'm not concerned, I just think..."

Ugh. My favorite part was when she said, "My mother had a 13 pound baby and had it vaginally. I don't know how she did that."

I really wanted to follow up with, "Well, a woman's pelvis is made to stretch and give birth. "Large" babies aren't a concern if you understand a little anatomy and trust your body." I mean, come on! She just gave me the perfect example of a birth that went just fine without a cesarean, why can't she understand that?

Anyway. I've never spent so long buying 4 items in my life (I also got some maternity hosiery because I always wear hose to church and my other ones are only going to stretch so far.)

Other highlights:

"What if you end up with high blood pressure?"
"I check my blood pressure on a weekly basis; that's more often than most doctors require."

"You know, there are things you don't think about: like when you want to cut the cord and stuff. You'll have had the baby and then all these other surprises"
"We already have that arranged, thank you." (Cut the cord when it stops throbbing-how hard of a decision can that be?)

"Are you taking prenatals?"
"Yes. I started taking those when we started trying. I had been taking a general multivitamin before that."
She then looked SO relieved...like that makes up for the lack of doctor. :)

I also liked how the other customer gave me her doctor's phone number. Yep. That's right. I'll take doctor recommendations from a stranger in a store. That got...thrown away quickly.

Maybe I should write to her manager. It wasn't that bad, but I don't like being pestered while I shop or lectured while I'm trying to purchase something.

Like my dad has said, "I don't go shopping, I go buying."