Lillian Carlita

This is my favorite picture of her ever. Scott took it- and no we didn't pose her. She just sleeps with her hands like that a lot. :)

 Well- after 41 weeks, our little Lillian finally made it here. We had not decided for sure on the name Lillian until we saw her. We had a narrowed down to a few names, and that's the one that won in the end. Lillian is just a name we both love, and Carlita is my grandma's name. And I couldn't think of a better person for her to share a name with. If she turns out to be as sweet and good as my grandma, the world will be a better place.

She decided my womb was much to comfy to come on time, so on April 24, a week after my due date, we went to the hospital at 6am to begin the induction process. We got there, got checked in, and by 6:45 or so they had started the pitocine (not entirely sure how to spell it?). At 8:30, my doctor came in to see how I was making any progress and decided to go ahead a break my water to try and speed things along and so she could put the internal contraction monitor so it was more accurate.

Breaking my water did make my contractions much more regular and stronger, (and I ended up getting my epidural around 11:00am) and by noon I had dilated to about a 4, baby was waaay low, I was mostly thinned out and things were looking good... and then I proceeded to make no progress. We waited and waited, and around 4:30 or 5:00 that afternoon, a midwife (who I'd never met before) came and had me do some crazy positions to try to get labor started. Well- unfortunately Lilli did not take kindly to these positions and started to stress. Every time I had a contractions, her heart rate would drop down to the 60's.

My doctor (who didn't know the midwife had talked to me or given any authorization for her to do anything) then came in and was quite worried. The midwife then insisted on trying one more position, so they put more fluid in me to replace the water that had been broken for most of the day, and tried one more. Lilli did not like this one either, and evidently neither did I since it made me feel very light headed and almost pass out, or throw up. Neither of which I wanted to do. The doctor then told me that she was going to be honest with me, and things were not looking good for a traditional delivery and if the baby continued to stress after a little more monitoring we would proceed with a c-section. I had Scott call my mom, and my parents came over at this point. Glad they were there too. :)

So- they made me nice and comfy again and laid me on the side that I had been making the most progress on before. Thankfully, Lilli's vitals went back to normal, and I suddenly felt a very funny urge to push with each contraction. It was really weird. I hadn't felt any of my contractions for the most part up until that point, and all the sudden I felt that. I let the doctor know, and she came in and checked me, and I was suddenly dilated to an 8! She said she was going to go home for an hour (because she lives 5 minutes from the hospital), and by then we would probably be ready to go.

About half an hour after that, I had Scott let the nurse know that I really felt like I needed to push and it was getting unbearable. So she checked me, and low and behold I was at a 10 and ready to go, so we began the pushing process while they called Dr. Falk to come back in. I probably started pushing at about 6:00pm, and at 6:46, Lillian was born. Pushing was exhausting and not the most comfortable expeirience, but it was one of the coolest experiences I've ever had. I would try to describe how cool it is, but I don't really know how. So we'll leave it at that.

I think one of the coolest things about the whole experience is right as I was about to push the baby's head out, Dr. Falk asked Scott what size of gloves he wore. They got him some, and he got to be the one to deliver the rest of the baby after the head and put her on my chest immediately after delivery. It was so cool for him, and for me! He was officially the very first one to hold her. :) And then he, of course, cut the cord and helped clean her up while they stitched me up and all that good stuff.

Right after they wiped her off and weighed her

Proud daddy immediately after cleaning

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Our first family picture. :)

We got to come home on Friday afternoon- so we have been home for a few days now. We are so happy. Its funny how much drool and being pooped and peed on doesn't bother you at all like you thought it would. Lilli is so beautiful and perfect, and we can't do anything but love her. :) Even though our nights have been a little sleepless, we are happier than we've ever been and we seriously just fall in love with her more every day. Didn't know it could happen like that. :) I am sure you will all see TONS of pictures on facebook between Scott and I. We are a little picture crazy with the little girl. But she's just so cute.. we can't help it. :) 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

19 Days- Give or Take

Well, the countdown is on. For real. ha. We only have 19 days left until our due date. Which is just over 2.5 weeks. Which is not long at all! Thanks to both sides of our family throwing me a shower, my ward throwing me a shower, and some awesome friends throwing me a shower we finally have all the essential things we need (I think)! Just a few things left that we need to get. So thank you to all of you who helped us out. We are blessed with some pretty amazing family and friends. :)

The whole pregnancy I have been measuring small, so two weeks ago the doctor had us get another ultrasound to make sure the baby was growing appropriately. And she is. :) Turns out my torso is just freakishly long, so she has plenty of room to spread out without me getting too big. I hope this happens with every pregnancy!

She was measuring 5 lbs 7 oz at the time, and her measurements were all perfectly normal. Its pretty amazing to see how much she has grown. And how much better you could see all her tiny body parts and facial features. Here's a profile shot:

 So she should probably be at least a pound or so heavier by this week. And I can tell. She takes up pretty much all the room in my stomach. :) But I don't mind too much, because it means I can feel every tiny movement she makes, which I absolutely love. Even her feet constantly sticking in my ribs is kind of cool. haha. Uncomfortable, but mostly it just makes me laugh. Its also really cool to feel actual body parts rolling across my belly instead of just little taps and kicks.

At our doctor's appointment today, the doctor said the baby has dropped and I am beginning to thin quite a bit. So that's exciting (and crazy!) news! I had been wondering all week if the baby had dropped because I have felt a lot more pressure on my sciatic nerves on both sides. And it turns out thats probably why! She said it probably won't be this week unless things change significantly, but probably not long after that.

I hope she gives us a couple of weeks still. We do not have her room even close to organized. The only thing done is the crib, and we need to get our dresser before we have anywhere to put stuff. But then I can really let the nesting instinct take over. :) Our apartment is clean, and we have the things we need, but I feel so unprepared since nothing is organized. I also need to pack hospital bags pretty soon for both of us.

 We also hope she waits a couple of weeks more just for the sake of both our school situations. This week I am finishing up my last 2 assignments early so that I have nothing left but finals, and I am supposed to take one of my finals early on the 11th. And Scott has a pretty hard test on the 9th. So we are just hoping she hold on til at least that weekend. Which she probably will. Even though I am thinning and she has dropped, I haven't dilated and I haven't had any big contractions or anything. BUT- really its entirely out of our control. So we will be happy and excited whenever she decides to come.

And now to address the question that everyone has been asking... What are we naming her? I am afraid we are keeping that a secret. Haha. We have narrowed it down to a few, and we are waiting until we see her to decide. We have only told our parents what we have narrowed it down to, and nobody else. So we will announce it as soon as she is born and we actually know for sure. :)

In other non-baby news.... I graduate in about 4 weeks! So exciting. Its so weird to think that I am done with that part of my schooling! And awesome. School for Scott is also going well, too. After this semester, he will be half way done with Pharmacy School. This is also supposed to be the first of the two most difficult semesters, so he will have survived half of the worst of it. :) And time has seemed to fly by WAY faster since we have so much to do and not enough time to do it. :) Isn't that how life always is, though? haha.

Scott is also doing well with is knee. He had surgery over Spring Break, and he is recovering pretty well. Its taking longer than we thought it would since the surgery ended up adjusting his joint instead of just fixing his meniscus. But he's currently at work, walking all over the hospital. So he's definitely improving! :) Though I am sure he will be very sore tonight! He is getting pretty antsy to get back to playing basketball, and walking normally. But he's getting there.

By the time I blog next, we will probably have a new little baby. And life will be so drastically different. We are soooo excited, and its getting more and more real as we get closer and closer. I will post pictures as soon as we have some to share. :)

Back to School

Remember how I said I was going to blog more often to keep you updated on my pregnancy?.... Yeah... um. Sorry. Ha. I guess some things, like my lack of ability to blog consistently, will never change. :)

Winter break has been magical. Simply because I think both Scott and I desperately needed some time off together. We have spent a lot of the break at family parties, activities, etc. We have spent some time being responsible and going to work (which is where Scott is now). I was also pretty productive with my graduate school applications. I finished it and it is turned in. Now I just have to wait. People have asked when I will find out. The answer: I have absolutely no idea. The U is notoriously slow at letting you know about stuff like this, so I figure it will be a while. :)

Any extra time we have had we have spent watching Breaking Bad. I am not ashamed to admit that we have watched the first 3 seasons over the break. :) We really love watching tv seasons. I don't even know why. I guess because they keep you so enthralled for so long. And the break between semesters is the perfect time to obsessively watch something while we can. There's just something great about cuddling in our pajamas and watching a crazy show. Love it.

The pregnancy is still going well. :) I finally have a noticeable baby bump. I am 25 1/2 weeks-- which means I am almost done with the second trimester! Crazy!!! When I think about the fact that we only have about 3 months until the baby will be here... I freak out a little. I feel like there is a lot owe need to do-- but I don't know what any of those things are. haha. Suggestions are welcome. Really though, we are very excited to meet our little girl.

Things have been really cool though. In the last month or so I felt the baby move for the first time, then Scott was able to feel her. Now I feel her moving all day long. And boy, does she move. If I ever have anything resting against my tummy (say, like a laptop while I write a blog post) we can watch it move up and down as she kicks and moves. It is seriously one of the coolest things I have ever felt or seen. Scott thinks its pretty cool, too. :) She even keeps me awake at night sometimes or wakes me up in the morning. I don't mind though. Its a pretty cool experience.

According to my pregnancy apps and e-mails, this week she is the size of a rutabaga. Am I the only one that had no idea what a rutabaga really was or what it looked like? haha. Seems like kind of an arbitrary choice of vegetable to compare her to. My other e-mail said she is the size of a zucchini--something a little more familiar. :) Either way, she is over a foot long and weighs about a pound and a half. So that's really cool to think about. :)

rutabaga- for those who are as clueless as me.

So all in all, only 15 more weeks left. Which seems like a small number. And after my next appointment on February 1st, I have to going in every 2 weeks. I also have to do the glucose test on that day. Hopefully its not as bad as everyone makes it sound?

Anyway. We go back to school on Monday, and then life probably won't slow down. But that's how I like it. :) It means we are happy, healthy, and busy. And very fortunate to be where we are at. So happy back to school to everyone else who is going back as well. :) Here's to a good semester.

A Little Girl

Well- you've probably already seen on Facebook, but we will be having a little girl. :) And we couldn't be happier or more excited!

She wasn't super cooperative during the ultrasound, so we have no typical profile shot. So, instead you get a picture of her leg and foot and her tiny hand waving hello. :)

The ultrasound was actually a super cool experience. For some reason, I just assumed the ultrasound was pretty much specifically to find gender. But, it turns out (as probably many of you are already aware) that they actually do it to check everything. Even though she wasn't cooperative for the head-shot or the gender-shot, she was in prime position to measure her heart, stomach, diaphragm, spine, brain, and all of those other very important things. And it was really cool to see her little heart beat, her brain, aorta, spine, all her limbs, and nice healthy movement. She is all perfectly healthy and good, so that is excellent. :)

It was really cute, though. The whole ultrasound she was sitting with her legs crossed (thus preventing us from seeing whether she was a boy or girl until the very end of the ultrasound). You can see that in the first picture. I think its way cute...but I guess I am a little biased. She also had her hands covering her head the whole time (which prevented the profile shot). But I'd rather they have a good shot at all the other important stuff than have a profile shot. So-- all in all, we are so grateful and excited for a healthy little girl!

Scott's grandparents got her these little socks. :) I really think they are adorable. haha. Baby stuff- so cute.

We are also excited because we made our first baby purchase. :) Walmart was having a pretty good sale on cribs on Black Friday, and in addition you got a free mattress for the crib. So we jumped on that, and ordered our crib! Yay! 

People have been asking me if I have felt the baby move yet (since I will be 20 weeks this week, I guess lots of people feel movement by now). The answer was no-- until yesterday. I think. Last night I was working on my lesson for Relief Society today, and I am fairly certain that I felt the baby move. It was kind of a cool feeling. I am not 100% sure, since I don't have any experience feeling baby movement. haha. But I am pretty sure that's what it was. I am hoping by Christmas or so we will be able to feel the movement from the outside so that Scott can feel it. That would be neat. :)

Anyway- thats all. I was going to decorate our apartment with Christmas stuff today and take pictures. BUT- I forgot we took our little tree to Heber. And since pretty much all of our decorations consist of our Christmas tree and ornaments and the stockings, I decided to postpone that. I will try to post pictures, though, once it gets done. :) 

Baby Bump Pictures.. Finally

Okay. People have been requesting pictures, and so I finally am uploading some. But here are some things I have realized through these pictures. Taking baby bump pictures feels awkward. I stand there so Scott can take a picture of my belly. And so in all of them, I probably have an awkward smile. And I have realized that I really just stand funny. I always feel like I am standing normal when I am posing for the picture, so.. conclusion... I just stand funny all the time. haha.

I do think I am finally starting to show a decent amount, though. So here they are. :) Today's looks particularly slouchy. So, sorry. haha.

5 weeks

 

10 weeks

15 weeks

17 weeks- today

We are very excited. Only 5 more days until we find out what baby will be! Which is fairly exciting. :)

In other news, I totally didn't blog about our Halloween.

I say that like we did something super cool and exciting... we didn't. haha. Scott usually ends up working Halloween, and one of us always ends up having an exam at an untimely time preventing us from going to do anything super cool.

But- we have started a tradition of making cut-out sugar cookies each Halloween, or near it if he works. Its pretty fun. I love to cook/bake, and he enjoys decorating them-- and he enjoys eating them even more... :)

 Any of them that you see any intricacies on-- he probably did. Like Slimer from Ghostbusters, or creepy moons. I usually just put sprinkles on mine because I think its cute. :) 

Anyway. That's about it. Besides the fact that we only have like... 4 weeks left until we are done with finals. I don't know if I've ever been so excited!

Oh Baby....

Okay. I am FINALLY getting around to blogging and updating you all on... everything.

If you don't know yet, I am pregnant! :) I am about 15 1/2 weeks along, and I am due on April 17th! We don't know the gender yet, but will probably find out at either our next appointment (Nov. 2), or the one right after Thanksgiving. Its pretty crazy to think that I am only 4 1/2 weeks away to being halfway through the pregnancy!

Here is a picture of our first ultrasound at 9 or 10 weeks. We have had one more since then, but the baby was moving around so much that the picture doesn't really show anything. So we'll use this one. :)

To answer questions I have been asked:

How am I feeling?

Now, I am feeling great! The first trimester was a little crappy, but really not too bad. I got a little nauseous at night, and eating sugar and sweets (though they tasted good) made me feel quite ill. haha. But I never got sick enough to be physically ill, or anything like that. So I count myself as lucky.

The last couple of weeks I have felt much better. Probably due to the fact that I am now a couple of weeks into the second trimester. I don't usually get sick at all during the day or at night. And I can eat sugar again, though not in large amounts. haha. Which is probably a good thing. :) 

One weird thing that was really bad in the first trimester, and that still offends my nose, is the smell of peanut butter. haha. And the taste, but I wouldn't even try to taste it because I think it smells so bad right now. And I used to LOVE peanut butter. Not anymore!

So... whats our plan?

Most of you who have talked to me about my schooling plans know that I was planning on doing Graduate School starting Fall 2013. Well... this is still definitely the plan. :) The baby isn't changing any of our schooling plans.

No, we are not under any sort of false sense of security that this will all be a breeze. We are fully aware that it will be hard. We will both be in graduate school, and will have to find a babysitter during the day while we are both in classes, and we will have to get creative with funding. And doing homework will be harder. BUT- it doesn't change anything. I am very committed to finishing my education, and have absolutely no intention of dropping out. :) And neither, of course, does Scott. So, like many couples before us in this situation, we will work it out. And it will be wonderful. :)

Do I have a baby bump yet?

Not really. haha. Which is why I haven't posted any pictures. I am not a very exciting pregnant woman, I guess. BUT... Scott and I think that this week we are finally starting to see something of a bump, even in the weekly Sunday picture we took this morning. So if I am feeling ambitious, maybe I will post that one. But its really nothing very exciting, so I may wait til it looks a little more obvious. :)

Okay- non-baby updates!

School is going well for both of us. Scott is almost half way through his second year of Pharmacy School. That's pretty exciting! And life is seriously going by soooo fast! I don't have any idea where October went, but we're pretty much into November. But its a good thing, as far as I am concerned.

My classes are going well, too. I am in my second to last semester. I graduate with my Bachelors in May 2013. Woohoo! I am in the process of filling out Grad School applications and everything to get ready for next Fall.

We are both excited for the holidays! This is seriously my very favorite time of the year. And I am sooooooo excited for winter. All you winter-haters are crazy. Next to Fall, it is the best season.

That's really it, though. Our lives really don't change very much when we're in school. Class, work, study, sleep, repeat. If we're lucky we'll even get to see each other once in a while. :)

I do, however, promise to post an update once we find out the gender of the baby.   :)

New Year's Resolutions... and Updates

So.. Regardless of the title of this blog, it will be more about updates and less about New Year's Resolutions. :) But it does have a little of both, so its not completely deceptive.

Well, we survived 2011. And it was a pretty good year! December 26 marked 3 years of being married for us. Which is awesome! (And crazy, because I can't believe its already been 3 years!) Life has been good to us and we are very happy.

We had a couple of firsts this season, though. One of our firsts was our first Christmas tree!

Yay! It was about 3 1/2 feet tall. And it had these really cheesy, colorful lights. haha. But its the first time we have bothered to put one up, because in our new apartment we finally actually have room! I was very excited.

Another first was we went to our first Jazz game! For our anniversary, I gave Scott tickets to the game against the 76-ers. (How do you even write their name out???) We had pretty good seats. It was really fun!

This is right after the game and they shot off all the confetti because we won. Pretty cool. :)

Our third first is that we have decided that we are going to Hawaii! Woohoo! haha. We already bought our plane tickets and reserved our hotel room, so its pretty official. We will be going to Maui from May 15-May 20. And we are beyond excited. Its kind of our last chance to take a trip with just the two of us, seeing as this is Scott's last free summer for the next, oh, five or six years. So if any of you guys have ever been to Maui and have any suggestions on places to go, things to do, etc. we would love to hear it! Most of the stuff we want to do is hiking and stuff in the Haleakala Nation Park, and snorkeling, and lounging on the beach. So it should be a good time.

This is where we will be staying. :) I get so impatient just thinking about it! 114 days...

So besides that stuff, other updates are pretty unexciting. School is... going. As usual. And so is work. We are both pretty busy this semester. Scott is in his 2nd semester of Pharmacy school, and working part-time as an intern at the U of U Hospital. So that, plus studying, keeps him pretty busy. I am taking 12 credits, working part-time, and in the middle of doing a practicum for Wilson (a company that does tutoring for dyslexia), which has me going to Heber once a week at least. So I am also busy! But its a good busy for both of us. Nothing too unmanageable. :) So... as usual, life is pretty gooood.

Now, for the New Year's resolution.... I have decided I am running a half-marathon! I looked at different ones to run, and I decided I am going to run the Provo half-marathon on May 5th. That way, I am done training before we go to Hawaii, because I didn't want to try and figure out training runs while we were there. It should be a good time! I am a little nervous, but most training plans I have looked at say that you need to be running in between 10-15 miles a week to start training, and I am already running 15-20 miles a week regularly. So, hopefully when I start a training program mid-February, it won't be too bad. So... you know, if anyone else wants to run it with me... you totally should. :)

Okay, so thats about it. Exciting stuff! :) Happy 2012!