Pregnancy Letter #9

Stretch marks,

I hate you.

From the bottom of my heart,
Emily

Pregnancy Letter #8

To: the girl who just picked up that paper off of the ground.

We can't be friends. I am sure you are a very nice person, but your abilities are out of my league.

From: Emily

And I laughed...

Sam and I were having ice cream cones the other night. I scooped his and handed it to him and he immediately began eating it. Then I scooped mine (the same size as I had made his). Once I finished, I asked him to hold mine so I could put the ice cream back in the freezer. I did this and then turned around and he was eating mine! I said, "Hey! You have your own!" Then he made a sheepish face and said, "Yours was bigger..." Can you believe I am going to have two little boys soon?! :-)

A baby update (that is not so baby)

At the last ultrasound, they told us that the baby's weight was 6 pounds 11 ounces (48th percentile). Currently I am dilated to 1cm (yeah, I know, it's nothing) and 50% effaced. Everyone says that this will come to an end soon. Although I do not feel it will ever end, just in case it does, I want to remember a few things.

Work out routine:
Weeks 0-25: Aerobic dance (2x/week), swimming (1x/week)
Weeks 5-25: Stretching (daily)
Weeks 25-30: Brisk walks (3x/week)
Weeks 30-now: 10 miles on a stationary bike (4-6x/week)

Most surprising symptom:
Drooling. This doesn't happen very much anymore, but during the first five months I could not keep my saliva in my mouth while I was talking! It made meetings, presentations, and class in general very awkward.

Favorite part:
When Sam shakes my belly and wakes up the baby. He is so proud of himself and thinks it is hilarious.

Most terrifying part:
Labor. When people talk about the pain of labor I start feeling like I am going to throw up. I don't handle pain very well. But I feel like I could be tough if there was a good reason. And a baby qualifies as a good reason. But I have never experienced pain to the level that I hear childbirth reaches.

Most frequent craving:
It started out as spaghetti. I ate spaghetti for two meals a day many times. That faded around week 20. Then all I wanted was popsicles. That craving ended when I had the gestational diabetes scare. Now I eat baby carrots like candy. I eat about 2 pounds of baby carrots every week!

Most annoying symptom:
Not being able to sleep on my back. I hate sleeping on my side. I sometimes wake up on my back and feel guilty.

Weirdest symptom:
My memory. I don't remember ever being small. I feel like I have always been a huge, pregnant lady. And then other times I forget that I am pregnant. People stare at me and I get angry because I don't realize why they are staring.

Funniest memory:
My mom gave me a lot of maternity clothes and some of them are... awesome! Usually I would be embarrassed to wear some of the things but when you don't fit anything else, you take what you can get. Sam just laughs at the things I wear. (Thank you, Mom! You have saved me hundreds of dollars!)
Sam: What are you wearing?!
Emily: I already feel awkward. Why not look it too?
Sam: It's one thing being awkward, it's another thing looking polygamist wife-esque.

Weight gain:
Starting weight - 130 pounds
First trimester - lost 11 pounds
Current weight - 155 pounds

We are counting down!
Yellow and blue = still more time to go
Green = due date
Red = I want to die (overdue)

I get better parking than handicapped people at the grocery store!

Since we are moving to New York a few weeks after the baby is due, we do not really have an excuse to nest too much. That means no painting the nursery walls, no hanging pictures, etc. This is a pretty good excuse for me since I am not good at those things anyway. But here are some pictures of things we have done:

Crib (from craigslist)

Changing table (from craigslist)

Soft Carrier (from a second-hand baby store)

(Look at that bling on my finger!)

Infant/Toddler Tub (from a second-hand baby store)

Pants (from a second-hand baby store)
Sam's shorts are on the left and the baby pants are on the right. We bought those shorts for Sam at Old Navy last summer in Denver and when I saw the matching pants at the second-hand store I had to buy them!

Sports Toy (from craigslist)

(I know that this will not be needed for a long time, but it was free.)

Stroller/Car Seat Combo (from Target)

I even made Sam read the instructions so the baby would be safe.

We have a lot of other things from baby showers, Sam's sister, and a few very friendly ward members. We have been so blessed!

"Chosen e'er to witness for his name"

Remember my stud muffin brother? His name is Flannel. Actually, it is Nathanael but you can call him Flannel. He received his mission call to the Ukraine Donetsk mission (Russian speaking)! He reports to the MTC on October 7, 2009. I am very proud of him and I think he will be a very hardworking missionary. I am excited for him to have this new experience. I am so grateful my siblings are making good choices. I love my family!

Pro Football Hall of Fame

Who would've thought that the Pro Football Hall of Fame would be in Canton, OH? That is something I did not know (or care to know) before I moved to Ohio. Sam has been bugging me to go all summer so we finally went on Tuesday.

Sam loved it so much. He could not stop smiling.

I had a very good laugh about this picture.

Sam has got some nice calves.

Sam loves the 49ers.

The Arizona Cardinals and me.

The Hall of Fame.

Sam showed all the little kids how it's done.

I don't know why he looks angry.
He is excited for it to get cold so he can wear his new 49ers apparel!

Pregnancy Letter #7

Dear doors, walls, and corners:

Get out of my way!

-Emily's belly

Pregnancy Letter #6

Dear Ribs,

They call what the baby is doing "Rib tickling." Oh, how far from the truth. I still can't imagine how his little feet are getting in between you. Sorry for the abuse.

-Emily

Destination: Ithaca, NY

We went to New York last weekend to find our housing for the fall. We drove to Ithaca on Sunday afternoon. We were expecting a 7.5 hour drive but it was only 5 hours! We made the whole trip on one tank of gas. The grocery store we shop at has a discount on gas for buying groceries there but we could never find a gas station that had diesel (which is what Sam's car needs). Finally we found one and we used the discount! You can do the math yourself, but that works out to be about 80 cents a gallon!

Right after we checked into our hotel, Sam told me to stop judging Ithaca based just on that. So we figured we should go see more of Ithaca. We decided to go walk around campus. Cornell is built on a hill. One giant hill. And campus is huge! Sam will probably be taking to bus to campus every day because parking is expensive (almost $700/year) and far away from the center of campus. I love the campus though. It was so beautiful.

On Monday morning we woke up early and went back to Cornell for an official tour of campus. I didn't really know what to expect. Since it is an Ivy League school I didn't know if everyone would be... condescending and spend the whole tour bashing other schools. There were a couple of jokes about Harvard but they weren't condescending at all! Everyone was so nice! After the tour we met an administrator who Sam has been in contact with. She was very nice and answered any questions we had.


Then came the stressful part of the day: finding housing. I have heard that laundry explodes when you have a kid and so I really wanted to be able to find an apartment with a washer and dryer. We ended up not getting that but the place we are moving has a 24 hour gym, on-site (coin operated, boo) laundry, and free cable and internet. It is also only a six minute bus ride to campus. And they let us sign a contract for two semesters instead of a full year! Hopefully we will enjoy living there!

One side of the kitchen

One of the bedrooms

Living room

I am my own planet

I was sitting in the car a few days ago.
Sitting.
Not driving.
The car was not moving.
I was in the middle of a big city.
The GPS was on my leg.
Then the GPS slid up my leg and wedged under belly.

And then I heard what made me laugh and cry at the same time.

"Lost satellite reception"

The GPS apparently does not service my planet and orbiting moon.

So this is how it feels to be fat.

Bella Band

Image from here.

I am not sure why no one told me about the Bella Band earlier so I figured I would inform any pregnant friends who read this! I put my regular jeans back on and I was thrilled about it all day! It is just a stretchy piece of fabric that covers up that your pants are unbuttoned and keeps them up! It is really comfortable, too!

They sell them at Target (Be Band Maternity Band) for $17.

Independence Day Weekend

We spent the 4th of July weekend in Columbus with Sam's family! It is so nice having some family nearby and we will be sad when these weekend trips to Columbus cannot happen anymore!

We went to a parade and I enjoyed watching my niece and nephew chase after the candy being thrown!

Sam loves playing with his nephew Stephen

All of the children watching Toy Story

Lighting sparklers in the middle of the day

Getting ready for the fireworks show

Sunday was Ellie's (Sam's sister) birthday!

Seven States in Three Days

Sam had to go to Maryland to supervise another lead technician's office for a weekend so I went with him! While we were there, we visited some friends and family and saw a few nearby states too!

Friday, June 26th

We were trying to get from Maryland to Virginia and we were just following the GPS. Suddenly, we found ourselves on a ferry! $4 later and we had crossed the Potomac!

While Sam was working, I would just sit in the car. It was 90 degrees and I sat in the car for five hours! We spent most of the day in Virginia. Poor time management got us stuck in DC rush hour. It took forever to get out of that! We ended up getting to Baltimore after dark. In Baltimore, all of the houses are very close together. Most of the time they are touching! And everyone is outside wandering the streets.

We noticed the pretty blue flashing lights on top of the street lights but didn't know what they meant. We found out later that I was hanging out in the car in the blue light district! All of the flashing blue lights means that there is a camera there that is recording the area below. They have cameras to try to deter crime because it is so bad in those areas! Female, white, pregnant, and alone in the car. Scary!

Sam's old roommate is living in Baltimore for the summer so we went to visit him. He welcomed us in his Baltimore attire.
And we spent the next two hours just talking...

Saturday, June 27th

We were trying to get from Frederick, MD to Philadelphia, PA and ran out of money for tolls in Delaware! There was no where to get off and so they said they will mail us a $25 fine for "evading" the toll. Grrr on the whole state!

Because security systems are most often sold in the ghetto, that is where Sam was working! The ghetto of Philly is crazy! Just like Baltimore, everyone was out on the streets! We also went to Camden, NJ and stopped at a grocery store to get cash for the tolls on the way home (although we avoided most of them by taking the long way). Outside of the store there are metal fences that block people from taking the shopping carts more than a few feet away from the store!

We didn't spend the whole day in Philly's ghetto though. We also saw the historic sites in "touristy" Philadelphia.

City Hall

Masonic temple

Jeff squishing Sam

The Liberty Bell

Independence Hall

And you can't go to Philly without joining in the Geno's vs. Pat's Philly Cheesesteak Debate. We only went to Pat's because the lines were so long and it was already 11pm! I don't usually like Philly Cheesesteaks but it was delicious!

Pat's and a little view of the line.

The ordering directions! I was nervous and made Sam order for me!

Geno's is right across the street and looks like a strip club!

Sam approved. :-)

My attempt to take a picture of the Philadelphia Museum of Art stairs (the stairs that Stallone runs up in Rocky).

Sunday, June 28th

We went to church with some members of my extended family in Bethesda, MD and then had lunch with them! I don't get to see them very often so it was really nice!

Sam has cousins who live in Bristow, VA so we went and visited with them for a few hours as well!

When we got back to Frederick that night, Sam's friend had arrived home from his trip and we stayed up much too late catching up with him!

It was a very tiring and eventful weekend but I enjoyed it! I am so grateful we have the opportunity to do things like this!