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7/27/2014

For my sweetheart.


This sweet boy is the absolute love of my life. I guess to be married to someone sort of implies this, but the love I have for him seriously takes my breath away. The kindness and concern and tenderness he treats me with is the stuff of romance novels. He is selfless and hardworking and does everything he can to make me feel like his queen.
Over the past week I have endured about about 20 hours of labor, and still no sign of baby. These aren't Braxton hicks, these are 3 minutes apart, lasting a minute each, and going on for hours. Nothing alarming, especially for a first pregnancy, but still rather discouraging. However, I have treasured these hours. That may sound strange, but there are precious few hours Jared and I have left alone together, and during this time, my darling husband is right there with me, coaching me, soothing me, helping to relax me. He makes sure I drink and eat, he makes me walk or get on the exercise ball, he is right there in the trenches with me.
He has been this way my whole pregnancy, through morning sickness and dizziness and no appetite to an insatiable appetite. No sleep, achey body, crazy pregnancy brain, any woman who says men have no idea what it's like to be pregnant may be right, but women have no idea what it's like to support a pregnant wife. The patience Jared has exhibited should qualify him for a Nobel prize. It is no fun to come home to a whiney miserable spouse, yet he has not complained, not once. Instead he does everything in his power to make me comfortable.
He has happily attended over 18 hours of birthing/breastfeeding/baby care classes. He cares about how our baby is brought into the world, and is taking an active role, and it is so wonderful to go through this with him.
So here my dear love naps this Sunday afternoon, after yet another 6 hours of seeing me through every contraction until 3 am last night. My heart could absolutely burst. He has made the most incredible spouse the past 4 years, I cannot wait another second to see what a wonderful father he will be. I am truly blessed with this beautiful life.


7/10/2014

37 Weeks

well here we are, full term. 3 weeks to the due date, though you can never be too sure, so I have to expect to go two weeks late, but hope to go when I am due :)
I am feeling good, considering my midsection has expanded to the point where I feel like I'm going to bust open, and I look like I am having a full body reaction to a bee sting. My body is holding up well. Total weight gain is 34 pounds, which I feel pretty good about (though I still have a few weeks, and I get hungrier by the day...). My hips and back only ache a few times a day, and really nothing else hurts, except for when the not-so-little-anymore man decides to stretch his legs straight out as far as they will go. I'm fairly sure that in the history of child bearing, no baby has ever broken through his mother's abdomen, but it feels like my kid might accomplish that sometimes.
I'm sleeping alright, up about every 2 hours, and I CANNOT wait to sleep on my stomach and back again. Side sleeping is not for me.
Everyone says "just wait until he comes, enjoy your sleep now" but guess what, when he comes, I won't have to wake up at 6:00 am every morning and get up and act like a normal grown up and shower and go to work.
The biggest issue right now is the heat. I'm not kidding, Boise is the hottest place in the country. Don't believe me? Here's today's forecast of the whole United States.
We are hotter than Texas, Georgia and Missouri, and we tie with Arizona and Vegas. That forecast is even downplaying it. We have hit 103 every day this past week. The worst part is that the hottest part of the day comes right when I'm leaving work and getting into my car, which is essentially a crock pot, and by the time the A/C kicks in enough to make any kind of a difference, I pull into my driveway. Thankfully though our house is set to a crisp 69 degrees and is a beautiful oasis. (I'm just not looking forward to my power bill this month).
At my appointment this week, they estimated baby to be 6-6 1/2 pounds. He's all ready to go in the perfect position, but still has some dropping to do. In the words of my awesome midwife "You're not miserable enough yet". Which is ok, because even though I keep saying I'd love to go into labor any minute, I know that the longer he's in there, the better off he'll be, so he can keep jabbing and hiccupping, there's no safer place for him! I do keep dreaming about going into labor though, last night I had 4 completely different dreams just about labor. In my head I logically understand that this kid will have to come out eventually, but it still feels like it will never happen! I just can't wait to meet our little sweetheart.


7/08/2014

yay it's July!

I read a quote a couple of weeks ago regarding motherhood, it said, "The days are long but the years are short". Well if I had to adapt that quote to the last 2 months of pregnancy it would say "The hours, days, and weeks are pretty freaking long".
Despite the time moving unbelievably slow, we have been incredibly busy, and have been able to do some fun things!
On June 28th, we attended our 3rd Boise Music Festival with our friends Chase and Emmie. We heard Sky Blue from LMFAO, Fitz and the Tantrums, and Train. We weren't there very long, just long enough to get some carnival food and listen to some less than awesome music, but as always, the people-watching didn't disappoint, and the company was great!
We had a nice 3-day weekend for the fourth. We went to Emmie's sweet parents' house for a delicious BBQ and did a TON of fireworks. We didn't get any pictures though...I'm not loving being the subject of photographs at the moment. Then on the 5th, we went out shooting with our cousins Tara and Jason. Before we went we had to stop at the store for some ammo, and I had to grab some newborn diapers (I'm all about staying out of the heat as much as possible, so if we are at the store, I WILL buy baby things ;) )
The baby was NOT a fan of the guns, and I sat pretty far away to not hurt his little ears, but I couldn't resist shooting the targets with the .22, which didn't seem to bother him, it's quiet anyway :) We also spent the afternoon swimming, and headed to the Village in Meridian for a delicious dinner at Yard House and saw "The Edge of Tomorrow" with Tom Cruise, and it was actually a really good movie.
Here I was showing off how impressive it was that I got my tennis shoes on by myself. I may or may not have held my breath the whole time...
Last night was our last hypnobirthing class. I'll be glad to have my Monday nights back, but I'm sad for the class to end. It was a wonderful class and I will recommend it to everyone! I am taking a prenatal water aerobics class Monday and Wednesday nights through July though. It is so nice to get in the pool when it is 100+ degrees outside. Between those classes Mondays and Wednesdays, and Jared's lacrosse games on Tuesdays and Thursdays, we are pretty booked through the week, which helps make the mud-like time sludge by a little faster. I have my 36 week appointment this afternoon and will do a post in the next few days with that update!