Any Day Now...

I don't have any super recent pics but here's a few from what's been going on in the last month:

34 weeks

36 weeks

a cute diaper cake made for my Target shower

I am currently 39 weeks and VERY ready for little James to get here! Just in the last few days I have grown extremely uncomfortable (some days are worse than others). I also think I've dropped a little. I continue to have lots of contractions and since about 37 weeks they have become more painful but still tolerable. They have never been regular though. I actually have been having lots of contractions from about week 28 so hopefully that means I won't go past my due date and possibly it'll be an easy labor???

The last 3 weeks Dr's appointments they have checked me to see how I've been progressing....not much going on there. I have been a fingertip dilated each time but the effacement part has progressed I was a 30 the first time, second time 50% (last week they were running behind so she only told me how dilated I was). The doctor said for the first time that's kind of how it goes: you usually progress in one area at a time in the first couple weeks so I guess it's all normal. I have an appointment tomorrow (Thurs.) so we'll see how it's going.

My due date is right around finals for both Carson and I so we are busting our bums to get as much done as possible. I think things are going well there. It's sort of nice having school/clinicals to focus on. It helps the time go by faster and helps get my mind off of how uncomfortable I am.

We are crossing our fingers that I don't go into labor before April 1st since our insurance changes on that date (I know, we're really pushing it) :) We will have a significantly lower deductible come April 1st. Earlier this week I didn't think we'd make it...but I'm feeling optimistic about it now. I am REALLY hoping that we won't have to wait much longer after April 1st :)

We do have an induction date of Tuesday April 12 so if all else fails, we will have the baby that day. It's nice to have a date but it seems so far away!!! :)

Getting really anxious to meet the little guy!

A lot to be grateful for

Kind of a funny/sad story....it's actually super sad but it starts out pretty funny:

So last week I was at clinicals at the hospital and got an order to do a chest x-ray for a 15 year old female patient from the ER.

I walked into the exam room where the patient and her mother were waiting. The patient took one look at me and asked, "Are you even able to take x-rays?" I immediately thought, oh here it is, she thinks I look way too young to be doing this (I've been waiting for that comment). So I laughed and answered, "I know I look young, but I assure you, I am old enough to do this."

She responded, "No, I mean...." and looked down in my abdominal region (you all probably have already figured out what she was referring to but for some blond and ditzy reason I was not cluing in :)) My badge that reads "Student" hangs right in that area and I again assumed wrong and thought she was referring to me being a student so I said, "Oh, because I'm a student?...don't worry, even though I am a student I have to get my worked checked off by a licensed Radiology Tech so you are in good hands."

Her mom then said, "No, she's talking about you being pregnant!" The patient then said, "Oh I sure hope you are pregnant because I'm starting to feel really bad right now!"

I should have played around and said something like No...what are you talking about? but that's just mean to do to someone sick :)

I quickly reassured her, "Oh, that!?...Yeah! No, don't worry, I AM in fact pregnant, I just forget sometimes! And yes I can take x-rays when I'm pregnant" Haha I am such a dork!

So we all had a good laugh and I continued to take her exam. This is where it gets sad. I first asked her why she was in today and her mom explained that she was just diagnosed with Leukemia on Jan. 11th. That's always hard to respond to, especially when the patient has just learned this themselves and hasn't had much time to cope AND when they are so young.

I positioned the patient and as I was doing so the mother mouthed something to me. The only words I caught were "she" and "pregnant" so I whispered back, "Is she pregnant?"

We have specific things we have to do if we need to x-ray a patient such as, ask special permission from the Radiologist, and double lead the patient, etc.

The mother responded with a No so I was super confused. I didn't want to be whispering behind the patients back so I took the mother aside and asked, "Ok, is she or is she not pregnant?" The mother explained to me that she was pregnant but had to get an abortion on finding out that she had Leukemia in order to try and save her life. This was the first time she was able to talk to someone who was pregnant and ask them questions about it and not break down.

WOW!! I can't even imagine not only being 15 and getting pregnant (I mean she can't even drive!) but finding out you have cancer AND have to abort that pregnancy....

It definitely was an experience that left me very grateful for my life and what I have. I am so grateful for my health! So grateful for my unborn baby who is growing strong and that I am able to healthily carry him!

30 weeks!

I've hit my 30 week mark! Wow, that sounds crazy! I remember thinking at 12 weeks that 30 was SO far away....that seems like it was only a few weeks ago.

I am still feeling quite well. Busy working about 25 hours a week and doing clinicals 24 hours a week with scheduled classes about 6 hours a week. (I think that's why it has gone by so quickly)

I am in my 3rd trimester. They say you start to slow down and feel tired again in the 3rd trimester....boy were they right! I swear I hit my 3rd trimester mark and instantly I was more tired :) It's not near as bad as the first trimester, though I still have 2 months....I guess we'll see.

My legs and feet really ache at the end of the day (good thing I have Carson). Haven't had any swelling yet thank heavens!

The baby moves around a lot more now and his kicks and punches are getting stronger. We got a 3d/4d ultrasound but the little rug rat wouldn't let us see his face much. We did get some cute pictures of his feet and a 2D one of him scratching his head :)

We are slowly getting the nursery together. We have the dresser, just waiting for our crib to get in stock. Can't wait till it all comes together!

New Years

Holy cow I have a hard time blogging.

Well, here we are starting a new year. Now we're not the type to make New Years Resolutions but this year Carson and I thought it would be a good idea to try one since we have a problem....

We tend to criticize others

Whether it be while driving, at the grocery store, at school....whatever we find something to criticize someone about! haha I guess we get irritated easy.

I found that once I started criticizing it just escalated and ultimately made me in a bad mood. When Carson and I both criticized someone together, it was just bad new because we fed off of each other, usually resulting in both of us being in a bad mood and being annoyed by everyone.

So....one day we decided we need to stop criticizing.

Reasons:

first- it's not the right way to view people (I mean come on, I have faults too and I'm sure there are people out there criticizing me)....Do unto others as thou wouldst have them do unto you

second- we found it was making us unhappy

Result: Well, it's only been a few weeks but I really can tell a difference. Now we are not perfect and at times find ourselves starting to criticize, but we quickly correct our actions. The other day we were at the grocery store. Carson was saying something to me and I couldn't hear him because this guy was talking SO loud on his phone. I was super frustrated and almost mumbled to Carson, "Well, if this guy wasn't talking so loud I could maybe hear what you are saying." but I bit my tongue and thought of my resolution and my frustration vanished almost instantly.

We are a work in progress :) So far it's been a good experience.

One More Year To Eternity

December 29th Carson and I celebrated our 3rd Anniversary!

Carson surprised me with a Flip recorder!- We'll use it to film the birth (kidding)

I can't believe it has already been 3 years since I married my best friend. I am so grateful I stumbled across him at a gas station of all places :) The Lord works in mysterious ways...I won't go into it, but it definitely wasn't just a coincidence that we met. I absolutely needed to meet Carson at that time and the Lord knew it. I think that is why things happened so quick. We only dated about 4 months before we were engaged. :)

These past years have been great! A list of some of the things we have experience the past 3 years together:

We have lived in 3 places, both go accepted into our educational programs, we have experienced job loss and also a new job (for Carson), position changes at work (for me), then stepping down after working 4 and a half years in management and switching stores, getting debt paid off, then adding some more (student loans- I guess it's a good one to have if we're to have some :)) hanging out with awesome friends and sharing our families with each other, enjoying the addition of 2 new nieces and 1 nephew, being able to travel (Disneyland, DC, Cruise to Mexico), helping each other through heart ache and sickness, church callings, Netflix changed our lives :), coming up with nicknames for each other, sharing the journey and excitement thus far in bringing a new member to our little family!

I couldn't ask for a better spouse to share all of lifes ups and downs with. LOVE YOU CARS!

Half way there!

This is kind of a late post. I am actually over half-way through my pregnancy...can't believe it! I am 22 weeks (about 5 and a half months).

We went to the doc for our 20 week ultrasound a couple weeks ago to check on the health of the baby and to verify that it was a boy....as you will see from the picture, it is in fact a boy! Hard to miss it :)

He is looking perfectly healthy as far as they can tell. Carson and I couldn't believe how much he has grown since our first sneak peek at 16 weeks!

They do want us to go back for another ultrasound to double check the heart. He was in a difficult position for the tech to get good, detailed views but from what she could see, it looked normal. So we may just do a 4D ultrasound when we go in cuz why not????

One other exciting happening: Not only have I started feeling the baby (first felt the "flutters" at 18 weeks) Carson was able to feel his first kick on Thanksgiving! What an awesome experience for the both of us! Since then, we have enjoyed feeling him move around before we go to bed (he's more active at night for some reason).

Halloween

For Halloween this year we were invited to a Murder Mystery Dinner-Party hosted by our good friend Leslie. This was held at our other friend's Jeff and Holi Chambers home up in Salt Lake.

It was a 20's themed mystery with a whole bunch of characters in the mafia and such. We had to figure out who killed the mayor of the town. I was Sher Ratton, a singer/bad business woman. Carson was Tiny Torrelli, a mafia leader.

I actually ended up being the murderer! I didn't know I had it in me...Carson seemed to have me pegged though :)

I had never participated in a murder mystery but have always wanted to! Thanks Leslie for putting it on! We had a BLAST!