The last week

Well, I'm up two and a half hours early and can't sleep... so I thought I'd update my blog. This last week has been both amazing and pretty busy. First of all, Jer had Monday off, which was not just labor day but it was also my birthday. I didn't really want to do anything huge because I feel like we're always trying to watch a movie or play a game... so we slept in, and took Ada to feed the ducks at the pond. She fell asleep in the car, but woke up immediately once she realized that there were ducks. My favorites were actually the turtles. There were several turtles sitting on a log in the middle of the pond just sunning themselves... then one more tried to make its way onto the log and that was just too much for it... the log rolled and dumped all of them into the pond. Then all the turtles tried to get back on the log, but they were all trying to do it from the same side so the log kept rolling and it looked like they were some of those loggers walking on the rolling logs for a competition. Finally they got to the top, and one of the turtles kept walking and dumped all of them into the pond in the other direction. I honestly think that America's Funniest Videos would have loved it, but I told Jer that I didn't want to carry around both the camera and the video camera... whoops... that one was my fault. We went and routed the handrails for the slide on our stairs, and we went to have ice cream and cake with everyone. It was a fun and relaxing day. Of course... after all three day weekends my sense of days was all messed up for the rest of the week, but oh well...

We've had fun making smoothies with our new "will it blend" Blentec blender. It's a nifty thing and it's supposed to be able to handle frozen fruit where our other one isn't. Thanks to my brother who has been working for Blentec and for both him and my parents for putting in money towards it for my birthday... we only had to pay about $80, which would get you a fair blender at any store, but not a great one.

We've also been looking at refinancing... but the people keep forgetting to call us back, so we have to keep pestering them... I think we'll keep trying this week, but I'm starting to think that our loan looks better and better just because of the hassle that it's been to try to get information and quotes on other options.

Jer's brother and his family moved here over the weekend... he spent the weekend helping his parents get their house ready for their family to stay with them... and I felt useless.

On Wednesday I went to my final doctors appointment! YAY! I'd only gained 33 pounds... which is far better than the 60 lbs that I gained with my pregnancy with Ada. He checked me and said that I was still only dilated to a 1 1/2 but that I was almost completely effaced. He stripped my membranes too so that my labor would go faster . We'll see if it worked. When my last doctor did that because Ada was overdue... nothing happened, but when this one did it... I was crampy and sore for at least two days after. That was bad timing because I was trying to help with Margarets baby shower, go to the temple with my brother before he moved to Baltimore, and get the house clean before the baby was born. I ended up watching Emily do the shower, skipping out on the temple, and asking my sister if I could pay her to clean my house for me (which she did but wouldn't let me pay her in the end... the punk). Now I'm only 2 days away from being induced and I've got all my work stuff bundled up and ready to pass on while I'm on maternity, I have an energetic toddler that wants to go play outside even though my body doesn't want to move that fast, feet that swell up if I don't have them up most of the day, VT reports that need to be finished and passed out, and a husband... who almost never catches a cold... has a head cold and is completely miserable. And even with all that I feel like I have nothing to do except sit around and wait for the baby to come... which is making me nervous. If I don't think about the actual labor I'm excited and ready to be able to bend over and get rid of my heartburn... but when I actually think about Friday... I'm scared stiff. When I gave birth to Ada, I went into labor Wed night at 7pm... went to the hospital Thurs morning at 7 am... and gave birth to a beautiful daughter after pushing for an hour and a half at 11:30 pm. I had to have an episiotomy and I still tore because she insisted on being born with her fist up at her face. My epidural only worked from the waist up... my mom says that I should have told them sooner so that they could have done something about it... how was I supposed to know it wasn't working from there on down when I'd (a) never gone through labor before and didn't know what I was supposed to be feeling and (b) couldn't feel most of my contractions until they just gave up on the epidural in the end... but I could feel the birth and the stitches afterwards even with a local anaesthetic. By the end of my labor, I didn't want to see my baby. I felt like a terrible mom... because after all the excitement and love I'd put into my pregnancy, I didn't even want to hold her. I felt much better the day after and I couldn't put her down, but I don't want that to happen again. I want to want my baby from the get go, but I don't know how I'll feel at the time. I'm scared to go through that long and painful day again, but excited to see the new little personality that I'll be bringing into our home. Wow... who knew that just a couple of days could go by so fast and so slow at the same time.

Favorite pictures

Since I'm terrified we're going to lose our pictures again, I'm determined to get as many of my favorites in as many places as possible. Including my blog... so here we go! I couldn't get the pictures to line up either... I probably could if I deleted them all and reuploaded them, but it's time to go to bed.

This one is Grace at the Ogden Marathon.

This is Ada and my dad playing.

This one is just a portrait (19 months old).

This is Ada feeding the ducks.

Ada at the park.

On our front porch.

Ada and Lizzie being cute.


Ada and sidewalk chalk.

Our cul-de-sac.

Easter... remember I'm big pregnant.

Coloring on the sidewalk with our neighbor... check out the blue pants!

Ada in Grandma's apron.

Seth and I... I think I win... Mine's a boy... not sure about his though.

Ada and Daddy... buddies

Just makes my day

Well, the last two days of work have just really been horrible. I've been running around doing other peoples jobs and tracking down things that shouldn't have been lost in the first place. That plus my end of pregnancy hormones have not made me a happy camper. I had planned to set up the little swimming pool and spend the afternoon out there with Ada... but when all this happened I almost didn't do it. Now I'm grateful that I forced myself into it. She had a blast going from the pool to coloring on the sidewalk with chalk and back to the pool. Then our neighbor brought their son over to jump in with her and that was fun to catch up with them before they move. Even though I was on the phone most of the time that we were out there I loved being out there with her and getting to experience her joy and curiosity. If it weren't for Ada and our swimming party my day would have been something that I couldn't look at with joy. Here are some pictures of it. It was fun.

New Room

We got Ada into her new room and completely into the toddler bed without any problems... thanks to glow in the dark stars and a cork board. My sister and Jer helped me get everything moved over before the baby comes, and Ada and I got most of the stars stuck on the walls and Janelle got them on the ceiling... and then Ada and I colored pictures of the Little Einsteins and stuck them on the cork board that I had left in that room when I moved the mightyauthors office into Jer's office. We haven't had a problem and it's been at least a week. He schedule hasn't really changed yet either. She gets up a little earlier but she just sits and reads books in bed until she's ready for us to let her out of her room. It will be interesting when she can open doors to see what she does. But I am so grateful!

Ada said Thank you!

Usually Ada says, "Welcome!" whenever you ask her to say thank you... but today she actually said it! We were walking down the sidewalk... Ada on Jer's shoulders and me holding her blanket. She asked me for her blanket and when I gave it to her she smiled at me and said, "Thank you Mommy!"

Brain Freeze

Jer's been drinking smoothies with a protein shake mixed in for the last week while he's recovering from his marathon... Ada tried one and didn't like it, but she watches Jer while he drinks his. My favorite time was a day or two ago... Jer took a big gulp then grabbed his head saying, "Ow! Ow!" I guess it was just too cold that time. Ada then grabbed her head and started saying, "Ow! Ow!"

It's starting

I'm really excited. I've got two weeks to go before I have baby Samuel... and with Ada I didn't dilate or efface until the after I had passed 40 weeks. But I went to the doctors today and he said that I was dilated to almost a 2... the baby is still posterior, and I'm still really high and my cervix is really thick... but it has begun weeks earlier than it did with the first... hopefully that means that my labor with him will go a lot faster than it did with Ada... but first he needs to turn to come out the right way!

Mother's Day present

Jer is definitely thoughtful. For mother's day he gave me a slide. That sounds really funny, but I've been looking for a slide that I could cut the legs off of and put down our stairs so that Ada would have something to do when I couldn't go out to play as often when the baby is born... I looked everywhere from Spanish Fork to Ogden and I couldn't find one that would fit for under $100... but Jer bought the wood and is building one for me... Thanks Jer!

Keys are important...

My mom got a gift card for Mother's day to buy some new clothes, both my sisters were in town and so my mom made a big day of it. Ada would follow my mom in and out of the dressing room and look in the mirrors while she danced and played. One of the times that my mom went in there without her, she looked under the gap between the floor and the door (which she could easily have crawled under), stood up and jiggled the door handle... when it wouldn't open she said, "Locked..." patted her hip and said, "oh, keys..." Both the store clerk and I got a good giggle out of that one.

Exciting weekend

We've had a very busy weekend. Friday night we dropped Ada off at my mom's house for the night (THANK YOU MOM!) and went up to Ogden. We got there, checked into our cheapy hotel then headed off to Union station so that Jer could check in for his very first marathon. Once he was checked in and we had wandered around the booths a while we decided to run to a grocery store for some sun block and find somewhere to eat. We ended up eating at Ye Olde Lions Den... because they have amazing scones and Jer was trying to carb load before the race. We got up at 4 am Saturday morning to get Jer to the buses on time... It was absolutely amazing to see how many buses they had lining the street waiting for the 1700ish marathoners and as many half marathoners. I went back to the hotel, but of course.... the baby was kicking like crazy so I didn't end up sleeping any more. I watched Emily finish her Half Marathon in great time, and then met family and waited for Jer to come in. I was scared to death that he'd be one of those that came across the finish line and just collapsed... but when he came in he looked absolutely wonderful. He even did it in 3.46. I was really mad at the crowd though... I found a really good place to get pictures of him coming over the finish line... and just as he was coming in a little crowd of people decided to cross the fences that they had to keep people back... and park themselves right in front of me. Well, obviously that wasn't the best scenerio for pictures but oh well... we got wrapped up and met Amy, Becca, and Jay at Mimi's cafe to celebrate. Then we headed home. I was planning on going to Jill's baby shower, but I almost fell asleep 4 times in the 1 1/2 hour drive... then I was contracting a ton because I was dehydrated... but it was a good day.

I'm so mad!

So... because Ada is our oldest, a girl and Jer and I had a hard time getting pregnant in the first place... not to mention that I love photography and playing with my camera... I've taken hundreds of pictures of Ada in the last year and a half... including several hours of video (especially since she started talking). We've been keeping all that stuff on a seperate hard drive that we got in case our old desktop decided to crash on us... Well... it crashed and we lost all the pictures and movies that I've done since last April. That's the worst, all the pictures of my baby... but I also lost my entire portfolio, including the last five families that I took pictures for. At least I still have my daughter... but I no longer have a record of the last year.