Luke Wallace Whitney

Though most of you know, we are so happy to announce that we welcomed our sweet little boy, Luke Wallace Whitney, into the world on December 1, 2013 at 8:29 AM MST. He was 7 lbs. 3.7 oz. and 20 inches long with a head full of brown hair (his most distinctive and admired feature). Those are the stats so stop here if that's all you care about-- the rest is about what led up to him coming and the aftermath. I've written it for friends and family to read but more so for me so that I can remember all the details in years to come.

Part I -- Labor and Delivery

Bryan and I were very particular about when we wanted the baby to come but we knew we had no control over it. We wanted him to come after Thanksgiving but before my due date. Well, on November 18th, Bryan's birthday, I went to my weekly ob/gyn appointment and was checked for the first time. I've written about that here before but as a recap, it was incredibly uncomfortable and they found that I was already dilated to almost a 4 and 80% effaced at a station 2. Bryan and I were a little freaked out and the check made me feel really crampy and I was worried that labor could come on any minute. That Friday we had tickets to see Brian Regan live and the next day we had plans with friends to see Catching Fire so we were really hoping he wouldn't come before then. In addition, our car was squeaking and we had an appointment the following Monday to get it fixed (which we were waiting on to install the car seat) and Thanksgiving was later that week, which I really wanted to be able to enjoy before the baby came. I put myself on a little self-prescribed bed rest, trying to take it pretty easy. Well, all those events came and went and the baby waited through them. Bryan and I then started wondering if we'd just been psyching ourselves out and that the baby would come after his due date, like so many others.

Here I am at 38 weeks:

On Black Friday I had some mild contractions and low back pain that started getting painful but that were irregular and alleviated completely by a brisk walk around the neighborhood. The next day we put all our Christmas lights up and finished decorating our tree and house. I started having some mild cramping and low back pain around 7 PM but it wasn't so bad and I assumed it was false labor again. It was comfortable enough that we went to bed assuming it'd be gone by morning. I was so afraid to go to the hospital and just have to be sent away. I'm not sure if I ever fell truly asleep but around 12:45 AM, laying there in bed, I suddenly felt a gush of water flood out of me. Sorry if that is too graphic for some! I was incredibly surprised because I wasn't expecting to have my water break since that only happens to about 15% of women. I was also grateful that my sister had warned me to put a towel under our sheets a couple weeks before. Well, immediately I said, "Bryan! My water broke!" and he woke up groggily still not quite sure what I'd said. We immediately got up and dressed and started packing last minute things for the hospital bag. I'm grateful I printed out a list of those things because I assumed that I'd be able to help Bryan pack between contractions. Instead I almost immediately fell to the ground in agony and he made a mad dash around the house getting everything together. When your water breaks you lose a cushion that was keeping you from feeling the full extent of pain, so I went from practically nothing to the worst pain imaginable within about 30 seconds. After at least five contractions that were more painful than I knew my body could experience, we got into the car and headed to the hospital. We called my parents and Bryan's mom on the way-- I had a contraction during the latter and the last part of our phone call was disrupted by me screaming at the top of my lungs.

When we got there, I had another contraction in the parking lot and collapsed to the ground. A couple who also happened to be outside ran in and had someone bring a wheelchair out to me. I remember when they checked me in at triage they had me sign some forms and give them my ID and insurance info and I just kept thinking, "I'm in agony here! Can we please hurry this up?!" Finally, they took me in and checked me and I was already dilated to almost a 9 (you start pushing at 10). I started panicking, thinking I'd missed my chance for an epidural and feeling really not sure that I could do it without one. The nurses bustled about hooking me up to IVs and started pumping penicillin into my body since I was/am a carrier for group b strep. They weren't sure that I'd get all of the dosage that I needed since I was progressing so fast. I kept asking where the anesthesiologist was, all while trying to breath through the excruciating contractions. The nurse would hold my hand and breathe with me and I would try to focus on staring into her eyes until each one subsided for a minute or so. They told me later that I did well breathing but I'm pretty sure half of the time my "hee hee hoo hoo"'s were pretty pathetic sounds as I tried not to cry out in pain.

After what felt like an eternity but was probably 15 to 20 minutes, the anesthesiologist came in and gave me an epidural. Honestly, I barely even felt that and then very shortly after the pain subsided and life was glorious again. Getting the epidural slowed down my labor a lot. It did what they called "laboring down" so I had time to get all of my penicillin dosage after all. I had been kind of worried about my being a GBS carrier so I was very grateful for that! Things calmed down a lot after the epidural. People stopped bustling around me and soon I had one regular nurse, Molly, coming to to check on me. She was so sweet and helpful and I felt like we were already good friends. She checked me at one point and was surprised to say, "Wow, this boy has a lot of hair!" Amazing that she could already tell that! Well, anyway, Bryan was able to sleep for a few hours on a pull out chair but I was only ever able to get as far as half asleep several times. My mind just kept racing. Around 6 AM or so Molly had me start pushing. It was pretty hard to do with an epidural since I couldn't really feel what was going on down there. I had always assumed that labor was mostly contractions with a little pushing at the end but I was pushing for at least an hour and a half. Molly's shift ended at 7 AM and she was disappointed to have to leave before I delivered-- she wanted to see this little boy and all his hair! I was sad to see her go and replaced by another nurse who, while nice, just wasn't Molly. She was kind of harder on me about pushing. I was trying my very hardest but, as I said, it was very difficult to focus my energy on the right area with an epidural. By the end, even with an epidural, there was so much pressure. It was incredibly uncomfortable! I would have been pushing for probably another hour but with each push his heart rate would go down and they decided to use a vacuum. They only had to do so once and then, with a few more pushes from me, he was born!

They placed him on my chest and, of course, I cried. It was so surreal to see this little guy that I'd felt kick inside of me. So surreal to know this was my son. We were truly blessed with an easy pregnancy and a labor and delivery without complication.

 Here I am just after Luke was born.

Part II -- Postpartum Recovery

Bryan and I were so amazed at how well behaved this boy was! He waited until after Thanksgiving for us but didn't make us wait too much longer, exactly how we'd wanted it. Bryan was pretty much immediately head over heels for our son. He's always been kind of nervous holding other people's babies but he revels in this. He is such a good dad to our son even already.

Well, they wheeled us in to our recovery room and sometimes I wish I was still there. I honestly didn't get a lot of sleep in the hospital even though Luke was taken to the nursery at night because my mind kept racing when I'd try to sleep, worried about taking him home. In the hospital I had amazing nurses who were all compassionate and I felt like I was great friends with each and every one of them by the end of their shift. I had a nurse call button so I had access to constant help and all these lactation consultants coming in to help with breast feeding. We were able to stay two days because they wanted to keep an eye on him just because of my being GBS positive. I was excited but petrified to bring him home. Bryan was pretty much ready to be done with the hospital after the first night, though.

We also had a hard time really settling on a name. I went into it thinking it would end up being Luke but we had a list of names as well in case he just didn't seem like a Luke. We waited until after his first bath to really see... and then we waited some more... it's hard giving a human being a name that they will go by the rest of their life! We always knew his middle name would be Wallace, which is Bryan's middle name (also the name of his great grandfather). Our family was getting so impatient to know his name and be able to tell people! Finally, I told Bryan we could wait no longer and so we discussed all the names and it all circled back around to Luke and so we officially decided for sure on Luke Wallace Whitney. The phone calls were made and the Facebook announcement went out. It was so fun to see the comments rolling in after that.

Finally, on Tuesday afternoon, we made our venture home. I've been really, really attached to Bryan ever since we had him. We're a real team now! 

 Luke's first bath!

 Not sure how he felt about that...

 Me and my boy after a shower and a little make up.

 Our new little family!

 Dad and Luke, both with parted hair.

 One of many phone calls to mom or one of my sisters.

 Can you tell I've been pretty emotional?

 Leaving in trepidation.

 Classic "Going Home from Hospital" Picture

Part III -- At Home

When we got home we kind of stood around not knowing what to do next. Eventually I fed the boy while Bryan went out to get my prescriptions. My angel of a visiting teacher brought us over dinner. And then the night came and we decided to sleep. I put Luke in his Pack 'N Play bassinet next to our bed when he was sleeping but he never could soothe himself in it. I don't think I slept a wink until somewhere around 3 AM when I asked Bryan to take him until his next feeding. So I got about two hours of sleep that night. The next morning Bryan and I had to take Luke back to the hospital to get a blood test for jaundice and then to his pediatrician. The pediatrician said his jaundice was high and had us go rent a "biliblanket" that he was to wear as much as possible. Basically it was a thin UV light thing that we had to have on his back that hooked up to a heavy box and then plugged in. Pretty easy to take care of a baby in... not.

My parents were coming into town that day and I was so overwhelmed-- I've never been more desperate to see them! Their plane from Denver kept getting delayed due to weather but eventually they got here. Bryan had to go back to work the next day so when the second night was much like the first I had my mom take him for a couple hours in the middle of the night. We had to go back to the hospital again the next day to get his blood retested. In fact, for all my talk of not wanting to leave my house for six weeks, we had to take Luke back to the hospital every day for a week to have his jaundice tested! That was so hard to do-- I just wanted my little boy to be healthy and every time I drove back to the hospital I longed to check back in and have the nurses take care of us. Finally, after about a week his jaundice levels started going down and we stopped having to worry about that.

In addition to that he would sleep well some nights and not others. We tried him in his swing and that worked for two nights, then we had him in his car seat and he slept amazingly but I got too worried about SIDS... I even let him sleep on my chest a couple of nights. My friend loaned us a baby positioner so he now sleeps in that in our bed with us. I never thought I'd have my baby sleep in bed with me but he seems to be comforted by my being nearby. The positioner keeps him on his back and keeps me from rolling over onto him.

Anyway, my parents stayed for a week and that was so helpful. My dad cooked amazing meals and my mom helped with laundry, cleaning and baby holding. I think the latter was her favorite. Luke is such a sweet and handsome boy-- it's hard not to want to hold him all day and stare at his little face. The day my parents left Bryan's mom drove in so again I had great help. Luke was circumcised the next day and Bryan took two days off of work to help with him since we all figured he'd be in a lot of pain. Usually they do this in the hospital but they wanted to see his jaundice go down and my pediatrician didn't have privileges at the hospital anyway, so we had to wait. Well, Luke actually did really well with his pain! He definitely slept a lot. We had to have him in diapers smeared with petroleum jelly for five days and that was the most annoying part of the whole thing. It was really hard to see Bryan's mom go on Monday-- she was so helpful and let me take as many naps as I wanted. Now Luke and I are at home together. Yesterday was rough because he is going through a growth spurt and seemed to be having a lot of intestinal distress. Poor little guy-- learning how to be a human being must be very hard! I'm glad I can't remember it.

Well, those are the facts of the coming home with baby story. However, there is another story that has been playing out alongside Luke's growth and development and it is a bit darker. My whole life my greatest desire has been to be a mom. Well, I think I've just about learned that the things we want most are always the hardest. Luke is a pretty easy baby but I've decided that even easy babies are so hard. There's the lack of sleep and the constant breastfeeding that are certainly difficult enough already. For me, though, there is more. I've been extremely emotional since he was born. This wasn't such a bad thing when, in the hospital, I started crying over how much I love him. Those were tears of joy. As we went home and life got obviously more stressful I started crying over anything and everything. It didn't take me long to realize I at least had what is termed "baby blues." I felt depleted and had a paralyzing fear of being alone at night when everyone else was sleeping and I was awake tending to Luke. The interesting thing is that I didn't feel badly during the actual night but in the hours leading up to it, usually starting around dusk. I felt great guilt and shame over having these feelings. This beautiful, miraculous thing had just happened to me. I'd been given the best gift I could ever ask for. Why was I feeling so poorly? I should be overjoyed (even if exhausted) at every second! I've had to remind myself that this isn't my true self. Those feelings are a chemical reaction to hormones resulting from giving birth. That hasn't made them any less painful or dark, though. As time goes on things get a little better each day. However, if you've gone through this-- I feel your pain. It is miserable but know that you aren't bad or flawed for feeling like this and it doesn't mean you don't love your baby. I certainly love my Luke so dearly. I love the way he melts against my chest when he falls asleep after nursing. I love kissing his cheeks and his head full of hair. I love to sweet sighs he makes. I love it when he's happy and alert-- his eyes get so big and sometimes his little mouth makes an 'o' shape. I love the real father that he's brought out in Bryan. Sometimes I catch him staring lovingly at Luke. It really makes me fall in love with him even more.

Well, that paragraph went from depressing to mushy fast. Anyway, I only mention all that because its real and other mothers, especially first time mothers, should know there are other people who feel this way. I didn't want to gloss over it because its been a big deal to me. Being a mom is the hardest thing I've ever had to do, I can say that for sure now. You are told its hard-- you're expecting it to be hard but, man, nothing can prepare you for it. So that's life so far! Now, here are some pictures from after we brought Luke home.

 A few minutes after we got home.

One of very few sleeps he has had in this bassinet. 

His face looks so smashed in this picture. I don't remember it being this way. 

You can really see the yellow color in his face due to the jaundice in this picture.
Even his eyes were yellow for awhile. 

Night 3: Successful Swing Sleep (note his UV biliblanket glowing on his back)

Here is a better picture of the biliblanket. Bryan called him his "cyber baby" when he wore it. 

Luke and Grandma Laine!

"Thanks for burping me so much, Grandma."

My sweet, sleepy boy. 

My mom kept saying, "Get a picture of his face like this!" That's why shes in so many pictures with him.

So much hair!

So snuggly.

Finally, we decided to finish up the progression series with my 40 week picture on my due date. I still look kind of pregnant here but I'm not at all ashamed. I'm proud to have carried him for almost 39 weeks!

A Nursery for Baby

Well, the time for baby to come is nearly at hand and I have his nursery put together for the most part. There are a few things I'd like to get but they will have to come later and aren't essential now. However, I thought I'd share a few pictures of the (pretty much) finished product.

Ta da! The quilt hanging over the crib side was the one I wrote about a few blog posts ago. My mom and I made that together. My mother in-law and I made the lanterns above the glider for my baby shower in Utah. I had the idea for a brontosaurus looking into the crib from a similar wall decal of a giraffe doing much the same. I talked to the Etsy store owner and she made this for me! I love the effect (though our walls are a little textured so it was a feat to get to stay stuck on the wall).

Here is baby's dresser and changing station. I am sad that the lighting was such that you can't see the final picture in the series. It goes with the stegosaurus one on the left (both from Target) and is of a blue brontosaurus. The middle picture was one I had the idea of from Pinterest and I made myself in Adobe Illustrator (what a wonderful 30 days it was to have that and Photoshop briefly). I also got the idea for the ribbons on the lampshade on Pinterest. Bryan's mom make the little polka dot brontosaurus and my sister Lindsay gave me the cute triceratops clock!

I love this glider. I could sit in it all day long. It is easily the most comfortable chair in our house and has such wonderful back support. We got it from Babies R Us as a part shower gift, part birthday gift from my parents. The quilt is another I made that was mentioned a few blog posts ago. I made the pillow with leftover flannel from the same quilt and applique material from the one on the crib. I'd like to get a small end table for the side of this for the baby monitor and maybe have a little book holder at the bottom.

I really wanted to have a pterodactyl mobile but I couldn't find one I liked. I had this idea mostly on my own with a few ideas from Pinterest. I used varying shades of green card stock and a pattern from Pinterest to make them and hung them from two embroidery hoops with fishing line. Then I put some felt clouds around those. 

I really like this closet organizer from Target, which is mostly the point of showing this picture. Eventually I'd like to maybe have a little white toy chest up against this wall. I'm sure the play center won't be a permanent fixture there.

Anyway, the mystery room from my house tour is finally unveiled! I hope you enjoyed seeing the pictures.

Bryan's Birthday

This is going to be a short, mostly picture-less blog post. However, I've always at least mentioned our birthdays on the blog so I felt I'd be remiss to pass right on by Bryan's. His birthday was this past Monday and he turned 27-- woohoo! For one month every year I am older than my husband. I'm glad that month is over-- we prefer just being the same age. We both feel like 27 sounds so much closer to 30 than 26 did but, as everyone says, getting older beats the alternative. Anyway, Bryan was able to take off work for his birthday. He has two floating holidays that he can take each year and he decided on Veteran's Day... and convinced his work to let him take it a week late. Clearwater is so awesome-- great work environment and so flexible and willing to work with you. We sure lucked out in that department. So anyway, we slept in and then had German pancakes and Bryan opened presents. One of his presents was a LEGO Wii game so we spent a bunch of time playing that. I didn't have the day off so I still did my normal Monday duties-- mostly laundry. We also took our car in to get looked at for a squeaking noise it's been making. We want it completely safe before we put to car seat in. That's going to cost some money so that's annoying. Anyway. after that Bryan came with me to my 37 week appointment-- more on that in a bit. It's neat because he got to hear the baby's heartbeat on his birthday just like I did! Then we went out to eat at Cracker Barrel. We love Cracker Barrel-- there is something so great about comfort food. After, we picked up the unfixed car (they need to order parts) and headed home. We had Texas Sheet Cake, the birthday cake Bryan grew up loving. Then it was back to playing our game. He had some surprise visitors from his primary class bring him cards and cookies! I think he was really touched by that. It was a simple day, but it was nice to spend it together. I'm grateful that I married the husband I did. I feel completely comfortable with him and I know that he loves me. We have a goofiness together that is all our own. I can tell he is going to be a goofy dad and that our kids are going to be laughing a lot. I wouldn't have it any other way. Happy birthday to my wonderful husband!

In other news, we had my 37 week appointment on Monday and they checked my cervix for the first time. First of all-- holy toledo that was uncomfortable! Baby is doing well with a heartbeat of around 148 bpm. Hearing that is always my favorite part of the appointment. Anyway, apparently I am already dilated to 3 cm (almost 4) and am 80% effaced. Um, wow? The doctor said this is not necessarily an indicator that he's coming soon. I have a lot of friends who say they were dilated early on and then their baby still surpassed their due date. Every baby, every woman and every pregnancy are so different, though. There is no way to tell if it will be tomorrow or if I'll end up having to be induced on December 16th! I sure hope it is somewhere in between. I would really like him to stay in until after Thanksgiving. Then we can enjoy delicious food with friends and decorate for Christmas so that when he comes we can really only focus on just him. Also, this Friday Bryan and I have tickets to see Brian Regan that were not really inexpensive and are non-refundable so... really want to make it to that. Also, we're going with some friends to Catching Fire the next day and I'd like to see that before he comes. Callie has been especially attentive and snugly to me lately and I wonder if she senses what is going on. Animals are very intuitive so I wouldn't be surprised. I call her my "sweetheart cat" because she is so loving. I'm grateful we got her when we did-- she was a huge comfort to me during all the difficulty of trying and failing to get pregnant. She gave me something to nurture and she has one of the best personalities I've ever experienced in a cat. Here's a picture of her this morning sleeping with her face smashed against my knee (under a blanket):

Anyway, I guess that wasn't as short as I thought it would be. I have a tendency to ramble. Oh, well. Here's my most recent bump picture at 36 weeks (we'll see if I make it to having a 38 week one or not...):

Halloween 2013

Bryan and I didn't do very much for Halloween this year but I thought I'd share the little that we did do. Most things this year have been pretty simple, especially the closer to my due date it gets. I love Halloween but it was no exception. However, it's not Halloween if you don't carve some pumpkins! We bought some pumpkins a couple of weeks ago and kept them outside until last Monday when we carved them for FHE. Here we are, getting started!

It rained all day on Monday and the pumpkins were freezing to pull the guts out of!

I wanted to do something to do with our big event coming up but I didn't want to make it cheesy so I carved a mom cat and her kitten. Cats are my favorite thing to carve on my pumpkins-- I should really branch out.

Like Bryan! He has a new idea every year and it's always clever, I think. He decided to carve a rocket ship.

Here are our pumpkins all lit up outside just before the trick or treating started. Last year for Halloween we lived in a townhouse that was near a couple of neighborhood but also near a very busy road. We thought we'd get some trick or treaters due to the neighborhoods but not a one showed up. We ended up eating a lot of Halloween candy over the course of the next week as a result. This year we were very excited because we live in a nice neighborhood with a lot of young families and we knew we'd get some visitors. We weren't disappointed! It was a lot of fun and sometimes pretty funny, especially with little kids. We had one little boy come up to our door, knock, hold out his bag and with some questioning say, "I want some candy." His mom called from the road, "No, what do we say?" He thought for a minute and then said, "Trick or treat?" It was pretty cute.

This year's costume was pretty simple. An orange shirt with a sewn on felt Jack O Lantern face. It cost me $3.45 plus the little time it took to hand stitch the face on. Bryan didn't dress up. We basically just sat in our living room waiting for our doorbell to ring all night but it was a lot of fun!

We are highly anticipating next Halloween with an almost one-year old! I already have costume ideas rolling around my head.

Last of all, here is my most recent bump picture.

Right now I'm about 34 1/2. Very exciting! Nesting mode has been enacted.

Busy Season Begins

Well, life has been crazy, crazy, crazy for the past few weeks and is just finally settling down. It's kind of nice to look at my calendar and see it blank for a little while, at least. At the end of September Bryan and I headed down to Utah for a Whitney family vacation. Generally when we go to Utah we bring Callie with but since we were headed to Snowbird, where we would be staying in a hotel, we left her behind and had some friends in our ward look after her and the house. She honestly probably preferred this but she is a very people-loving animal so we were afraid to leave her on her own but she seemed to do well and wasn't even mad at us when we got back! It was a relief to not have to worry about anything back home.

We got checked in to Snowbird on a Saturday when Oktoberfest was in full swing there. It was only slightly annoying to have a band playing loudly outside during the day but after Sunday everyone left and it felt like we pretty much had the place to ourselves, which was nice.

On Sunday we went down to Sandy and went to Sacrament Meeting at a local ward. We thought we were being so good but in conference the next week someone talked about going for all three hours when on vacation! I'm not quite there yet...

We participated in a few Snowbird sponsored activities while there. Each day there was a morning hike and Mike went out on those at least a few days a week. Shelley and the kids went to some kid friendly activities and I think Bryan and I only went to the movie ("Now Your See Me") and Bingo, pictured below.

We spent the rest of the vacation mostly just relaxing. We played board/party games pretty much every night, which was a lot of fun. Bryan and I also brought our Wii U, which was a hit. There was a lot of this happening:

Note the kids' involvement in the gaming. I especially love how in the first picture Bryan is playing with Ethan with his left hand and playing the Wii with his right-- look closely.

Months ago when the vacation was planned I couldn't wait to get in a pool, assuming that I'd be so heavy and lumbering around that it would be a huge relief. I bet when the baby is born I will notice a relief but so far I haven't really noticed this heaviness too much. Regardless of all that, I thoroughly enjoyed the pool, which was heated. We went several times while we were there and it was so fun. Everyone else had a chance in the hot tub but I didn't dare.

Here are the siblings enjoying a beautiful view in the hot tub! One morning we woke up to a snow storm! We decided it would be fun to go swimming in the snow, since the pool was heated. That was a cool experience. I wish I'd remembered the camera. Bryan especially enjoyed sitting in the hot tub while snow fell around him.

On one of the days Sandi, Shelley, Ella and I had a lot of fun putting together cute Halloween craft!

Here is my final product, which is currently sitting atop my mantel. Isn't it adorable?

Speaking of adorable, Ethan helped too. :)

From our hotel room we had a beautiful view. One day we went out for a short crisp walk in the autumn air and I snapped a couple of pictures.

I took a picture out our window on the morning of the snow storm but this doesn't really do it justice. There were several times when you'd look out and all you would see was pure white. Bryan said, "Well, it looks like the world got deleted."

We were there for a whole week and checked out on Saturday, October 5th. We drove down to Shelley's house listening to conference and finished up both Saturday sessions watching it at her house. I just loved conference this year. There were so, so many talks that I found inspiring and applicable to my life. As I said, we were driving during most of the first session and then we drove home to Boise during the last session on Sunday and I actually felt like driving while listening made it easier to, well, listen. Sometimes when you're sitting on your couch watching it its a little easier to become distracted or fall asleep, but sitting in the car, focused was really good for us. I'm grateful these sessions were so good for me since I'm worried I'll be kind of distracted during them in the coming months and years :).

Anyway, after Saturday session was over and we were still at Shelley's we set up for my baby shower, which was set to be during Priesthood Session (something we had planned before the church decided to make it available on TV and the internet, meaning Bryan sat in the other room on Ethan's glider watching it the whole time my shower was going on). Look at this awesome cupcake cake! It was so delicious.

There were many pictures of my opening gifts but I figured one would suffice. If you look in the back you can kind of see these cute Dino lanterns we made for the shower decor. I love them! I'll be hanging them up in the baby's nursery so you'll get a better view of them when I finish that and post pictures.

I just decided to include a few shots of my guests. Thank you to all who came! It was so fun and nice to see everyone. I'm grateful I got to have a shower in Utah with friends and family I don't see very often. Thank you so much Shelley and Sandi for all the work you did putting it together!

Well, as I said, we drove back to Boise on Sunday and the next day was my birthday!!! I had a lot to do that day to get the house back together and the bills paid after vacation. I guess that's what happens when you grow up-- responsibilities don't just fall to the wayside even though it's your birthday. It was a pretty low key day-- though I did have my doctor's appointment so I got to hear baby's heartbeat on my birthday. That is the best gift I could ask for. Bryan and I went out to eat at Goodwood and just ordered dessert since we didn't have anything for cake at our house. Afterwards, we went to the movies and saw "Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2" with movies tickets we got for free when we bought our car! Bryan and I both love the first movie-- this one was entertaining but, I'd say, not as good as the first. Still, it was fun.

Later that week Bryan and I attended a "CPR for Friends and Family" class at St. Luke's downtown. I'll actually be delivering at St. Luke's in Meridian but this was the only place the class was offered. It was kind of a maze to get to but we made it on time. It was very long but I'm glad we went. We're not really doing many classes but this one seemed so important. What if something happened to my baby and he needed CPR and I couldn't help him because I hadn't attended this class? I'm not saying I'll have a cool head in such a situation but at least I have the knowledge and all I can do is what I can do. Even still, Bryan is better with handling such situations so I would hope he'd be there if it did happen but I know I am prepared, at least. Anyway, it was good to take the class.

This past Saturday I had my second baby shower thrown for me by my good friend in the ward, April. We had a milk and cookies bar and everything was so cute and put together! It was kind of themed after the book, "If You Give a Mouse a Cookie..." which was one I loved as a kid.

Don't you love the milk and chocolate milk cooling in canisters over ice? I thought that was so clever.

Here we are measuring my belly with ribbon. We played a game where everyone had to cut a ribbon and guess how big my belly was. My friend Celeste won! I think she won like three of the games, in fact!

Here I am with all of my gifts, which I somehow fit into this big bag. Thank you everyone for the awesome gifts!

Again, here are my guests, not including April herself. I wish this last picture wasn't so blurry because it is so cute!

Thank you for all your hard work and for throwing me my shower, April! It was so much fun!

Well, last but not least here are the latest pregnancy pictures, which I've been lagging behind on in this blog. I do have my fresh off the press 32 week picture, taken minutes before I pressed publish on this post!

32 weeks-- I can't believe it! It feels so much closer now. I think I still am having a hard time believing I'm going to give birth soon. I just have no idea what that will be like, no matter how I try to prepare myself. I also can't believe this is my son in here-- what will he look like? Who will he be? As I'm typing this he's nudging me in the ribs. I love feeling him move on a much more regular basis these days. It's definitely becoming more real. Anyway, enough rambling. Peace out, internet.