Growing that baby!

Here's a sneak peek at my maternity pics. I think this one might just be my favorite! I've got some other projects I'm working on, but I can't wait to get the rest of these edited and shared!!

Passing the Test

The gestational diabetes glucose tolerance test, that is. And yes, I did pass! Hooray!

The night before was pretty rough. I was sick, and nervous, and rhythm stressed because I was sick and nervous. Needless to say, I slept pretty poorly, even by my standards of late.

At least it's gluten free...

Got up bright and early, determined to just get it over with. I headed to the lab (I was the first one there, so no waiting). The phlebotomists were really nice, and did a great job. Drinking the glucose was difficult for me, I really thought I was going to be sick before I even got it down. But I persevered, and managed to drink the whole thing. Then came the hardest part - the first hour of waiting. As soon as I sat down in the waiting room, I busted out the hypnosis tracks, and tried to focus on staying calm and relaxed, rather than feeling what my body was putting me through. It was difficult, but I managed to keep myself mostly there. When the first hour blood draw came up, I came out of hypnosis, and felt the full force of how reallllly sick I was. Almost threw up there :( Spent a few minutes in the bathroom calming down, washing my face and neck with cold water, and focusing on my breathing. Then I went to wait some more. Got back into hypnosis, and stayed there for another half hour or so.

Luke showed up just before my second hour draw, which was great. He really helped keep me calm. After they took my blood that time, I was actually feeling okay - as in, not like I was going to puke. Mainly I just felt exhausted. Like my body had given up fighting the sugar. I just had no energy. So I sat there, with Luke holding my hand as he studied, and rested. I tried to sleep, but it didn't work. I couldn't read (still too sick for that). So I just sat there. By that fourth draw, I was just relieved to be able to go home. I really wanted to sleep. But I forced myself to eat some breakfast - eggs, bacon and GF toast. Then I got sick all over again. So I laid down, and slept for a bit.

But! I managed to get through the day without throwing up! We survived! The little guy was super active the whole day. I'm pretty sure he loves sugar as much as his dad ;)


I'm really glad I was able to use my hypnosis to get through the hardest parts. I think it was a good exercise for what is to come. I feel pretty great about the next three months.

Now I want to celebrate! Milkshake maybe? Too bad I kind of killed my appetite for my favorite Jamba Juice after my initial test last week :P

Drank this for the initial screening test. It was so good, and so hard!

The Final Trimester Begins

Third trimester already?! I can hardly believe it! This all still feels so surreal at times. But my boy is still happily bouncing around in there, so I have enough moments of it feeling real. I'm getting so excited for our little coffee bean to be here!
Technically, according to my husband, my third trimester began several days ago (by dividing 40 weeks equally in three means that there are 13.33 weeks per trimester, so my second trimester ended after about 26 weeks and 5 days - so, like, Thurs, Oct. 11th?). I suppose it doesn't matter too much. I'm not on a deadline, just waiting for this little guy to be done cookin' in there :)

Guess I started things off on the wrong foot, because on Thursday, I failed my initial glucose screening! So, I get to go suffer through the the hour glucose tolerance test. I remember doing that when I was a kid, and they were diagnosing my hypoglycemia. Not a fan. Add morning sickness to the mix (yes, I'm still not over that!), and it's sure to be a fun adventure.


We had fun over the weekend - Took my maternity pictures down at The Grotto on Saturday. I think there are some really cute ones! Post coming soon! Then we got to talk w/ Millie and Ruben in Holland on Sunday via Skype. Ira is getting so big, and he is such a happy baby! Thanks for all the advice guys!

We're still sick, going on 2 weeks now :( Hopefully we can shake this soon. I really don't want to be sick the rest of my pregnancy, which is what I hear happens about the third trimester if you get sick...time to up the tea consumption!

Happy Anniversary!

Best nine years of my life!

Things I love...

I love that I can feel my little baby moving all the time now! He is so incredibly active! It's visible from the outside too. The girls at work are amused by it. So am I.

I love to just sit and watch my belly jump and twitch. It's a little creepy...but mostly awesome! Unless he's got his foot pressed up against my strained muscle. That hurts a bit. But I still love him.

I can't wait for him to be here! 15 weeks and counting (give or take...).

So ready to do this with my own baby! I borrowed this cute girl from a coworker.
She didn't mind, and neither did I ;)

Tuning Out Negativity

This article is awesome. It is a great reminder to me especially, as I am dealing with many things I can choose to see negatively, or not.

http://management.fortune.cnn.com/2012/08/09/colleagues-complaining-why-you-need-to-tune-it-out/

Adventures in Baby Growing

Life has been pretty crazy these days. Here's the reader's digest version of what we've been up to these days.

The Hiccups: 

Luke started business school at BYU last month. It has been non-stop for the past 4 weeks! Literally. There is so much going on! He is insanely busy, completely overwhelmed, but man, this is going to be an awesome experience! He's learned a ton already! I just hope I get to see him sometime soon ;)

Constipation. Not a pleasant side effect of pregnancy. Even worse when my anti-nausea medication compounds it. I've had a couple of pretty horrific experiences, of which I will spare you the details.

Yesterday as I bent over to fix my shoe, I got this horrible pain in my belly. Six hours later, the pain had not subsided, and I was crying on the phone to my doctor, who was thankfully on-call at 12:30 AM. I was terrified that my placenta had abrupted, or that my bowels were obstructed, or that something was terribly wrong. The pain was so excruciating that I could barely breathe. Movement made it worse, but even lying in bed didn't ease much of it.  After going through all my symptoms and non-symptoms, my doc determined that I had probably pulled a muscle in my abdomen. I went into her office this morning, and was checked out. She reaffirmed that I'm probably dealing with a strain to a ligament, which attaches right next to my belly button. Baby's heart rate was perfect, and he kept kicking the Doppler, so she said all is well there. Told me to continue taking Tylenol as needed, and rest more. Don't have to tell me twice!

The Good Stuff:

I think I am officially over morning sickness. I have a couple days a week where I have some nausea when I wake up, but nothing Zofran can't help me deal with. Most days I'm feeling pretty good by 9:30 or 10, which is great! I'm able to do more, work more, and I'm also less tired.

I feel the little Coffee Bean moving a lot! It's still really soft, like little flutters, or what I call tickles. But I'm learning to distinguish his poking and prodding from my usual gastrointestinal feelings. It always puts a smile on my face, and I say hi to him when I feel him "waving" at me. Luke's even felt it a time or two, even though the movements aren't very frequent or consistent. Except when I eat chocolate. He seems to like that :)

We finally got to go to Seven Peaks water park this summer! I actually wish I had taken advantage of more opportunities earlier on, because the water in the lazy river felt so great! I'm excited though, because as the wife of a BYU student, I have access to all the campus facilities, including the pools. I think I will soon be spending a lot of time in water!

I'm starting to grow! Thanks to not being sick all the time, I can actually keep some food in my belly, and I'm  putting on about a pound a week now. Yay!

We've acquired some good baby stuff. Thanks to the MBA Spouses Association (MBASA), I've been able to snag a few cute used baby items and some maternity clothes for free. We also found an awesome changing table for really cheap! It even matches the office furniture. Hooray!

I am loving my HypnoBabies birthing classes! They are getting me so excited about birth! I will post about them very soon.

Hmm, that's about it for now. I will post some pictures soon, I promise :)

Childbirth Without Fear

I read the most amazing book. I heard several people who I have talked to, or whose blogs I have read, say that this was such a monumental book to them. I am starting to understand why. Forget about the typical ”What To Expect” books! THIS is the book I wish I had read when I first got pregnant, or even before. "Childbirth Without Fear" has helped me to completely rethink my attitude about my pregnancy, symptoms and suffering. Not to mention my baby's birth.

I really wish this book was more widely available. It is an old book, originally written in the 1940's, and revised and re-released in the 1950's. I was unable to find it at any of the libraries in Utah county (I checked with three). So, it's been on my amazon to buy list since I first got pregnant, but I continued to postpone shelling out $20 for it.

I just so happened upon a copy at my first Hypnobabies class last week (more on that in another post!). Thrilled, I checked it out of the ”library” and brought it home.

I devoured this book.

It is a little thick though. Grantly Dick Read was a British obstetrician in the early 1900's. Thus, there is some thick, old-fashioned wording involved, and some doctor-speak, if you will. But if you can slug through the slow parts, you will find the gems within.

The basic idea is that childbirth is a natural thing. Women have been successfully bearing children for ages. And if you look back in history, or even travel outside of our modern western civilization, childbirth is viewed as something other than what our society treats it as today - a disease. People here are afraid of giving birth. There are negative connotations to the processes of being pregnant and bringing a child into the world. This is continually reinforced by our society.

The problem with that is, it actually causes a lot more problems! Dr. Read discusses in his book the "Fear-Tension-Pain" cycle, which is what the body and mind of the average modern-day woman goes through when preparing for, and giving birth. When you are afraid - in general - what does your body do? Tense up. All those muscles, which are ready to spring into action, whether it be fight-or-flight. This is a normal physical response, and it saved many lives when our ancestors faced predators and mortal danger. But what happens to a woman who is in labor, who is anticipating all the horrible things she was raised to believe she is going to experience, and whose muscles are trying to do two separate things (push a baby out, and tense up every muscle in her body so that she can fight or run away)? It causes pain. It can also slow down the birth process. Ever watched an animal giving birth? We had horses and cats growing up. They always waited until they were able to retreat to a safe, secure place before their bodies would allow their offspring to be born. We humans aren't all that different, biologically speaking.

The main theory Dr. Read has is that if you eliminate the fear of what you are going to be going through, your muscles will be relaxed, and given a normal birth setting without complications, they will pretty much just do their thing...push out a baby. It doesn't have to be scary. It doesn't even have to be painful. And it certainly doesn't have to require medical intervention, drugs, or other modern-day "tools," which can actually cause more problems or harm to mom or baby.

And that's what I like about this whole concept. I am a wimp. I seriously dislike pain. And signing up for pushing a baby out of this body was something I was raised by society to believe was going to be a terrible ordeal. But I've learned so much. I am no longer afraid. My body was designed to do this...without all the medical intervention people nowadays seem to believe is necessary for EVERY birth. I agree that there is a time and a place for the amazing, life-saving technology we have at our fingertips today. This stuff can save lives! What incredible tools we have at our disposal that our ancestors would have coveted dearly! But at the same time, a pregnant woman is not sick. Why must she be treated as such? 5% of low-risk mothers experience complications in birth. 2% of low-risk babies experience complications in birth. The chances of something going wrong when all the cards are lined up is pretty slim.

Nonetheless. I am not toting this as THE way to have a baby. Only as a way to look at the whole picture. To educate oneself. To understand what options are available. To rely on medical intervention when medically necessary. And to otherwise trust the body to do what it was designed to do smoothly and painlessly.

My husband laughs at me when I say this, but I say it sincerely. I am excited to give birth! Truly excited to be able to experience the miraculous event of bringing my baby into this world.

I owe so much of that to this fantastic book! I wish every girl and woman in the world could read this book, to help change the way our society views the beautiful process of childbirth.

Twenty Weeks!!

These pics blow my mind.

I guess this really is getting real!

10 Weeks!

20 Weeks!

Oh BOY oh BOY!!

That's right! We went to our 16-week ultrasound, and Mr. Coffee Bean was very cooperative for HIS first photo shoot!

Needless to say, we're thrilled! Now I have a valid excuse to blame this all on Luke ;)

We're so happy to finally put a HE to our little baby-to-be.