My First Born

So I mentioned a few posts ago that I started crying at how much I love my Max the other day. And oh is it true. He has been sleeping with me EVERY night. I get him out as soon as I get home from work around 2:15 and spend the whole rest of the day and night with him until it's time for me to go to work at 9. So basically there are about 5 hours that I am away from him. I am getting even more attached the more pregnant I get!



I think he knows I am pregnant. I don't know if he knows what pregnant means, or that a baby is coming, but I think he knows something is different. And I think he knows that difference involves my tummy. He is VERY cuddly around my stomach, and just nuzzles right up next to it. He also likes to step on "her" a lot and walk across my stomach. I can't WAIT until she kicks him back haha. Overall though, the last few weeks, he has been INCREDIBLY snugly. I absolutely love it.

And I have a feeling that Miss Kaycee is going to love him just as much as I do. If not more. He is a playmate that is her size. One of the MANY reasons I love my little dog. I just hope he doesn't love her TOO much more than he loves me or I might get jealous haha.



Snuggling last night on my bed

The night before last, laying on the mountain of pillows I use for helping my hip pain

Last weekend he got VERY tuckered out while watching me clean the house haha. He fell asleep in our hallway and couldn't get up to come back in the bedroom.

Watching out the front window for me to come home - looks VERY comfortable haha

Snuggling in his bed. He NEVER lays in this bed haha. He only does if he is trying to get a treat. He must have been VERY tired to lay underneath his blanket haha.

Sun bathing outside. He LOVES the sun, but then comes in and his body is SOO hot and he drinks TONS of water. I don't think he realizes the sun makes him hot!

His go to pose when he wants a belly rub!

I love my first born, even if he is a puppy. I am so grateful Jake let us get him. I am so grateful that he is so well house trained. I love his kisses, especially after a long day or first thing in the morning when I wake up alone before Jake gets home from work. I love how happy he is to see me. I love how fast his tail wags when I look at him - I don't even have to talk and his tail just wags and wags. I love that I know my puppy loves me. I don't know how good of a practice child he has been, since he is such a good dog, but I love him just the same. I can't wait to see him interact with Kaycee. A few weeks ago we brought him to my parents house and my step brother Matt's little boy Keaton was there {he's not quite a year} and Max sniffed him and then lost interest. I was SOO excited - I thought he would lick him and jump on him and scare him. He just sniffed him and oh cool and went back to what he was doing. It's a big relief knowing that he might realize it isn't ok to jump on little people. I sure love you Max!

Bridal Veil Hike

This past Tuesday, the youth in our ward had a combined activity. The Young Men were in charge and decided we should all go for a hike! They chose a trail up Provo Canyon at Bridal Veil Falls. Since Jake & I are both have the chance to serve with the youth, we both were able to go! Due to me being pregnant, and Jake's knees are REALLY acting up again, we decided that we would just wait at the base with anyone who didn't want to hike.

Well, all the youth decided to hike.

Starting up the trail

 

So unless Jake & I wanted to be the lame-o leaders that sat at the bottom, we needed to go too. We decided to just hang in the back in case anyone wanted to turn around. Well, no one turned around. Although we were a bit slower than everyone else, we made it to the "top" with everyone else!

Addy, Georgina, Katie & Elizabeth

 

It was gorgeous!

Some of the young men decided to jump in the water since it was so hot. Gotta love how adventurous boys are! It was really fun! The way down was pretty hard on Jake's knees, and I was super scared that I was going to fall since it was slick but we made it down! A few of the boys were trying to catch fish at the bottom and I told one of them I'd pay him $20 if he caught one and kissed it. Quite a few people tried to catch fish, but no one was able to so I got to keep my $20. It was super fun!

While we were coming down the mountain, Jake & I realized this is the 3rd hike I have done since I got pregnant {1 at youth conference, even though I was only like 4 weeks pregnant and didn't know it yet, 1 at Girls Camp and this one!} and I did my half marathon. This might influence our little miss to be active! I'd love that - I want a little Turbo/5K buddy!

10 Days

We are getting sealed in 10 days.

10.

That means tomorrow, we are down to single digits.

And I don't know if there are words to describe how insanely happy and excited I am.

Like seriously - I didn't know it was possible to feel happiness like this. This must be joy.

This morning while I was eating breakfast I started thinking about our sealing day and how great it's going to be. And how different from our wedding day it's going to be.

On our wedding day, I was an absolute bridezilla. And oh you may snicker or think I am being dramatic. I am NOT being dramatic. I don't know why Jake still married me. I don't know why I still had bridesmaids standing next to me. Well yes I do. It's because my sisters love me. It's because my husband is a far better person than I could have imagined. But oh seriously, I deserve to burn in hell or something for being that way on my wedding day. Everything had to be P-E-R-F-E-C-T. NOTHING could be out of place. Everyone needed to look X way and smile Y way and do Z thing and NO ONE could say other wise. I wanted THIS picture at this time in this place and it needed to turn out THIS way and blah blah blah. Control freak to say the least. And I was SOOOOO stressed leading up the wedding, and for most of the wedding day, I was still pretty stressed. I had to be on top of EVERYTHING - where is so and so, why is so and so standing over there, go make so and so fix this, blah blah. I couldn't just smile and breathe in the day.

And this time around, it won't be that way.

I apologize now for how emotional I am going to be.

I apologize now that I am not going to let go of Jake's hand for ANYTHING.

I apologize that I am not going to stop smiling like an idiot for a few days.

Because THIS is going to be the best day of my entire life.

I will FINALLY know that my Jake is truly mine forever.

That our princess will be with us forever - from next week on. No matter what happens throughout the rest of my pregnancy, we will have that peace of mind of knowing that she is sealed and connected to us forever.

I will FINALLY get to know that my family is forever.

Only 10 more days.

Wasn't Expecting This...

For the first time EVER, I am starting to be grateful that Jake works the night shift.

I can't believe I just said that.

Why, you may ask?

Because I sleep with so many pillows that there isn't enough room in our queen size bed for 2 people.

So it's really nice that we sleep at different times.

And that totally sucks at the same time.

I've never been able to sleep next to my husband for more than a week at a time - and that was when he took a week off work for vacation. Someday, we are hoping he will go to day shift and we can sleep at the same time 7 days a week, 52 weeks a year and get sick of how the other one snores or hogs blankets. I am hoping that "someday" will be before Kaycee makes her appearance into the world. Sleeping during the day is SOO hard anyway, let alone if I am home all day and there is a baby crying in the other room. Jake won't EVER sleep and I don't want his health to become affected or anything.

But for right now, it's a good thing he doesn't sleep the same time as me.

I sleep with 4 pillows right now. Kind of in a square shape - one for my head and neck, one on each side of me and one between my knees. The 2 pillows on the sides are "king" size pillows so they are nearly body pillow sized pillows. And ever since I started sleeping with all these pillows, it has made a huge difference in my hip pain.

Sometime last week, I realized I was having pretty severe hip pain, especially right after I woke up. And because of how far along I am, I pretty much can only sleep on my hips. Which makes them hurt worse. Which is awesome. Not. After using my go-to resource Google, I realized that hip pain is REALLY common during pregnancy. I had no idea. That's because your body has a hormone called Relaxin that makes your hips move apart so it's "easier" to give birth when it's time. Well, I KNOW that my body is making that hormone in LARGE quantities - my hips are like separating continents. They are moving WAY far apart from each other, which feels weird because it's what made my jeans stop fitting so fast, even though I hadn't gained any weight at the time. And this lovely hormone is making me feel like my hips slide out of socket when I sleep, which is possible considering how they are softening and all that jazz.

So sleeping on all these pillows is helping IMMENSELY! Just makes the weekends hard when we need 2 people to be able to sleep in the bed. I called my nurse midwife and explained the situation on their on-call voicemail, just to make sure this is all "standard" and not something to be overly concerned about. Good times. I had no idea that sleep would become something I kinda dread so early. I LOVE TO SLEEP! And I have been relatively tired this pregnancy. But sleeping isn't something I look forward to now, since I am in so much pain. But like I said, the pillows seem to be helping. And Miss Kaycee, you are TOTALLY worth it!

No Soliciting

Early last week, someone knocked on our door and asked if we were interested in a free water test. I said no, but Jake said sure and gave them his number so that they could schedule it. Jake is VERY nice to salesman at our door. They called and set up an appointment to come do our free test on Friday at 5 PM. Jake warned me that was when they were coming and just said I shouldn't answer the door. I would have preferred to call them and tell them not to waste their time coming out, but we just decided not to answer the door.

Well Friday afternoon rolls around and I am laying on the couch watching Law and Order with Max when the doorbell rings. Max always barks when the door bells rings and ran to the window next to the door and proceeded to bark at them. I realized too late who it was and opened the door {I'm pretty sure they saw me through the window anyway when they bent down to look at Max in the window}. And I spent the next 2 hours getting sold on a water softener.

I grew up in Eagle Mountain. I know how hard the water is. I know what it does to dishes, dishwashers, washing machines, etc. We know we want one. We just know we can't afford that right now. And this guy would NOT take no for an answer. For the first time ever, I was blunt and said straight out we can't afford it right now {going to one income is a REAL convenient thing at times like that!} and he seriously wouldn't stop pushing it. Brought up payment plans {I threw Dave Ramsey back at him - BAM!} and everything he could think of. I was NOT backing down. After 2 hours, we FINALLY got them to leave. Without buying anything. WOOT! Seriously this guy knows what he is doing - he was a GOOD salesman. But we finally got him to leave, and Jake and I were both super annoyed at how hard it was to get him to go. I proceeded to make this sign for our front door, since while we were getting sold a softener someone from pest control came to sell us something. I was DONE with salesmen!



I wanted to leave this sign up FOREVER but Jake said it was rude lol

Saturday Jake suggested that we get window tint for the window next to the door so that salesman can't peak in and see who is home. I thought it was a great idea, but decided we needed a window peep-hole so that we can see out, since a tint would make it so that we can't see who it is. So to Lowe's we went! We got a kit for hanging up the tint and a window peep hole for the front door. Have I mentioned lately how much I love my handy-man husband? He is AMAZING at doing things around the house. Seriously, I am SOO lucky!



Reading the instructions and prepping for the tint

The pose he struck when he saw I had my camera out. Seriously, I love this handsome guy.

He was a PERFECTIONIST about this window - took LOTS of concentration!

We didn't have the right size drill bit for the peep hole we bought, so we had to go back to Lowe's to buy a different peep hole {the one we bought also broke, so it worked out well} but for a while we had a nice hole in our door. But Jake got our peep hole installed and it looks great!

We both have had a hard time adjusting to the new window, since it's a bit darker to look out of from before but it's been really nice so far - we really like it! I am so grateful for Jake's handyman skills, and that we now have a way to prevent salesman from wasting 2 hours of our day!

18 weeks - a mango

I am very excited that I am back to being a "fruit" this week. I don't like sweet potatoes or turnips, and that's what I have been the last 2 weeks. Being a yummy fruit again is nice haha. Oh it's the simple things in life right?

I am starting to not sleep quite as comfortably. Jake helped me prop a pillow underneath the top of my spine to help me keep a little more in alignment, and then I lay on a pillow on the side of me, plus the pillow for my head, so I sleep with 3 pillows. Our queen size bed doesn't feel quite so big - I feels so bad for Jake! And add to that my blanket hogging problem... Seriously, babe, you're a trooper for putting up with me haha. Max loves to cuddle by sleeping on the pillow that I sleep with on my side, so every time I flip over it wakes him up. Well, pup, that's what you get for sleeping so close to me.

I haven't thrown up since last Friday - knock on wood. It's been pretty nice actually! I do still feel nauseous, but eating something and drinking loads of water helps.

I haven't been taking anywhere near as many naps. Now, when I get home from work, I work on cleaning the house for a little bit. I broke up my weekly chores into daily tasks, rather than saving all the house work for Saturday and it is working out AWESOME. Do a load of laundry and vacuum this day, bathe the dog and clean a bathroom that day, etc. I am keeping up on laundry, the house looks pretty dang clean, and Max actually smells nice {and so does his freshly washed bed!}. And I have been making dinner with that non-sleeping time too. It's been really nice to feel like I am accomplishing things again.

Working out went pretty good this week - I exercised twice. Doing CLX the other day made me SOOOOOO sore - my butt & hamstrings HURT. Like badly haha. I've heard pregnancy makes you more sore and that has GOT to be true because I haven't ever been this sore from CLX, let alone with only doing it with resistance bands! I did Yoga yesterday and that was nice and calming. I wanted to do CLX this morning but was a little too sore. I'll do it tomorrow - day late won't hurt anybody :)

I don't think I am really "craving" anything. All the things I want to eat are things I loved before pregnancy. I still don't really want sweets - ice cream sounds good but only because it's cold. I'd be fine with a cup of ice - that's new for me. I HATED ice before I got pregnant. I ate almost an entire jar of pickles this week lol. Like the big pickles, just straight out of the jar. I liked pickles before I was pregnant, especially since they are "calorie free" but I have been devouring them lately. Even though I threw one up last week - I still like eating them! The only thing I won't eat since throwing it up is sausage. That does NOT sound good anymore. {In case I forgot to share that story, I threw up a pizza casserole I made with sausage in it not once but twice. My mom couldn't eat sausage with me either - she ate sausage pizza and threw it up and hasn't ate it since. That might be me haha}. And my mom loved pickles when she was pregnant with me. So we have that in common. She liked grapefruit juice though and I do NOT like that haha.

I am starting to get a little bump that I can see even with clothes on. I feel like before it looked like I was just eating too much, but now it's starting to look like there might be a baby in there haha. Still haven't felt her move though. I think that starting around 20 weeks I will starting posting pictures of my "bump". So stay tuned!

Updated Crazy Cool

I haven't posted my goals in a while - last time I posted them was in April. A few things have changed since then, so I figured I should post new goals! These are things that I want to have accomplished 1 year from now, so by August 1, 2014.

1. I am a mom.
2. I'm a stay at home mom.
3. I am down to my goal weight of 152 {100 total pounds lost since starting in January 2012, 140 pounds total lost}
4. I have earned my Young Women Medallion as a leader.
5. We have a fully funded Emergency Fund.
6. Jake & I have been to every Salt Lake & Utah County Temple together
7. My hair is as long as my extensions were {naturally}
8. We are still debit free {not including the mortgage}
9. I have completed a Half Marathon since giving birth
10. I have made a baby blanket for Kaycee

I'm well on my way to being a mom - almost half way done! We are well on our way to having a fully funded Emergency Fund, and it's in the works for me to quit my job at the end of December. I started working on my Young Women medallion, and am doing good to be able to earn it by the time I have been in for a year. My hair is growing like a weed, so that one shouldn't be a problem at all. The half marathon is going to take some training, but I can totally make that happen! And by working out while I am pregnant and getting back into the swing of things as soon as I get medical approval, I will be able to get my weight down. And I am going to make Kaycee a blanket as a Personal Progress project, so that will kill a few birds with one stone! Yay for accomplishing goals!