Nickelcade

This month for Dinner Club, Brittany and Markham set up a party at Nickelcade.  I had never been there but it was exactly like I expected it to be, including the people I thought would be there.  In any case, it was a really fun and different idea!

We had these March Madness brackets set up for some of the different games.  

Skeeball and basketball were my 2 favorite games. 

Blake vs. Jessica.  Brittany vs. Markham. 

Then it was Blake vs. Neil (after Neil won me of course).

Me, Nikki, and Aaron playing skeeball.  You had to be careful which machines you chose because half of them wouldn't keep your score or they'd only give you 2 balls or weird things like that.  Hey, it's Nickelcade. 

Brittany won the whole basketball tournament!

Scott and Markham on Dance Dance Revolution. 

These 2 were SO into their Guitar Hero match.  Meanwhile, Jessica was next to them playing the most hilarious game where you try to poke ducks and fish (pretend ones obviously).

30 Weeks

 How Far Along:  30 Weeks

Size of Baby: She measured at 29 weeks this appointment. Doctor says it’s nothing to worry about (I wasn’t). Size of a butternut squash and weighs about 3 lbs.

Maternity Clothes: Believe it or not, the pair of black pants I ordered didn’t work out either (that was seriously the 5^th or 6^th pair I’d ordered)!  That’s ok though because at this point, it’s warm enough for shorts and capris.  I’ve moved on.

Gender: Girl

Name: I should just delete this category (and the gender one) She’s going to stay a girl and she’s not going to have a name until she’s born.  Unless you ask Barrett, he still thinks we should call her Juicy Juicy Boxy.

Movement: Especially when I’m in bed trying to fall asleep.  I don’t mind at all!

Sleep: I finally started sleeping with extra pillows everywhere and have been sleeping so much better- even on my side!

Exercise/Activity Level: I don’t feel like I can do a whole lot, but I still try- not too hard though.  I really think I’m taking it quite easy.

Weight: 145.4 I don't know why I'm so much bigger this time- I swear I'm exercising more and probably even eating better.

What I Miss: Being able to bend over.  ESPECIALLY bending over without feeling like I’m going to puke everything up!

Cravings: Reese’s peanut butter eggs.  I haven’t bought any though, I’m holding out til Easter!!

Symptoms: My hair is getting noticeably thicker.  It’s a treat!  Here’s a long story for ya.  I had decently thick hair before I had Bear, it got even better when I was pregnant with him. Then after I had him when all the good “pregnancy hair” starts falling out, well, that never stopped.  I’m not exaggerating.  For 3 years, every time I ran my fingers through my hair, handfuls would come out and it just got thinner and thinner L  It was awful! Even my maids in Toronto commented on how much hair was all over the house! I finally got my hormone levels tested last summer and had basically no estrogen (it was 58 when it should’ve been between 156-350).  But that was also right when we were about to start trying to get pregnant, so I couldn’t do anything about it anyways as far as medication goes. Hoping that doesn’t all happen again, but it probably will dang it.

Weird Things: I have this hilariously hearty laugh!  Even though I feel like Santa Claus, I actually love this laugh. 

Worries: Oh jeez.  I’ve been really worried about raising a girl.  I don’t mean like, worrying that she’ll be super dramatic and hormonal, but worrying about how mean girls are to each other (and since I was so mean, she’ll probably get some of those bad genes), and worrying about her safety and her self-image and scary stuff like that.  I’m terrified!

Best Moment of the Week(s): It was so good to be able to see her face at this appointment.  She’s also moved head down now.  She’s been transverse for several appointments.  I know she can still move and change positions, but I’m glad she’s giving head down a try.

Appointments This Week: This week’s appointment went well.  It was still with my most recent dr at Circle of Life.  I really liked her quite a bit more this week, but I think I’m going to see another guy that works at the hospital where I’ll be delivering.  That doesn’t matter too much in most deliveries, but since I think I’m going to attempt a VBAC (vaginal birth after cesarean), a doctor has to be within 5 minutes of me during labor and that may work out well with his office being in the building.

What I’m Looking Forward To: Seeing what she really looks like.  Barrett didn’t really look anything like his ultrasound pictures- which is to be expected I think.

Something I've Learned/Realized: Now that I’m 30 weeks, I actually don’t feel like this is going to last forever!  I’m feeling pretty good and like June will be here kind of quick! She just better not come early though because Neil has a couple business trips happening in April and May!  Plus, I want her to grow as much as possible.

Pictures:

30 Weeks

She still has one foot up by her face, but this is the first time in a month or two that we've been able to see her face at all!

My Best Boy

Wow, I need to post more often!  This is just a bunch of pictures taken from the last few weeks.

He was so excited when he got this many stickers at Smith's.  And even better was we finally got a car cart- those things are hard to come by!

He played so cute with this baby the other day.  He's going to be the best brother :)

He got a couple seeds from his sunbeam teacher a few weeks ago so we planted them and have been watering them each day.  I hope something will grow!

He takes a lot of pictures of himself and things around him.

He built this awesome tower one day with LaLa.

Too tall!

We went to Taste of India one night for dinner.  As soon as we were seated, the waitress brought him an iPad to play on.  I think he'd like to go back to that restaurant every night!  And he actually does eat the food quite well too.

He was given this piggy bank when he was born (or probably at a baby shower before he was born).  We found it looking through some stuff in our storage shed so he finally has a place to put his money.

We went to free cone day at the DQ. YUM.

This is one of Bear and Neil's favorite things- laying together playing games or watching light sabers on Daddy's phone.

We woke up one morning and Taylor and Bowie were over!  Bear was so excited.  Bowie was too although you can't tell in these pictures.  She loves coming to our house and didn't want to leave, Taylor had to carry her out to the car at the end of the day!

Barrett just wanted to cuddle her and be by her all the time. A month or two ago he asked why he didn't have his own dog.

This isn't a great picture, but it was so funny!  I came upstairs one morning and didn't see Barrett anywhere, my mom said to look for him (he likes to hide). He was just sitting in this box eating his cereal waiting for someone to come find him.

He's gotten a couple of little neighborhood friends recently that will come over and ask if he can play.    It's super cute and I love for him to have friends but as a self proclaimed helicopter parent, it makes me nervous for him to just be out playing unsupervised.  Most the time either me or Neil will go out with him, but this time I just watched from the window.  Baby steps!

Play Dates

Barrett loves when he gets to play with friends!  On Saturday, we met with Missy + kids and Kelsey + kids at the Castle Park to play.  It was way hotter than I expected it to be so I felt pretty bad that I dressed Barrett in long sleeves and pants!  

This is the only picture I got of all the kids, just resting and having a snack that the super moms thought to bring (Obviously that wasn't me!) Colton, Brinley, Bear, Rylee, Tyce, and Kelsey's nephew Cohen.

Monday it was rainy so Kelsey and I took the kids over to Boondocks to let them play.

Rylee is a year older than Barrett.

They played the little bowling game and it went quick enough to keep their attention for the most part.

When Bear saw that Tyce was doing pretty well throwing the ball, he decided he needed to do that too.

We let them run around and play on some of the arcades before we left.  I think they would've stayed a lot longer if we weren't all starving to death!

Cristi's Wedding

My friend Cristi got married last week to a cute guy named Dallas.  I didn't get any pictures of them together, but they're really cute and so happy together.  Jeanette and I got to the reception at the same time and wanted to get a picture with the gorgeous bride.  Jeanette's pregnant too (I know, you can't even tell!)  She's due like 3 weeks after me.

Then Missy came, so we went through the line again to get another picture with all of us.

Something I think is funny is Cristi's maiden name is Johnson and her new last name is Christensen and that's the opposite of me!  We traded last names!

St. Patrick's Day

I don't dislike St. Patrick's Day, I think it's fine, but I feel like doing more than just wearing green to avoid being pinched and maybe eating some green food is overkill.  It seems like it's turning into a major holiday for some reason and I'm just not onboard with all the leprechaun catching and whatever.  Call me Scrooge if you will.  Maybe that'll all change when Barrett is older, who knows.  But for this year, all we did was wear green and eat some green food and we were thrilled.  

We had our normal breakfast, which included Lucky Charms, although it almost always does.

Bear and I made some mint chocolate chip cookies.  You can see he has a little bit of batter on his face in this picture.  

For lunch I had my avocado smashwich, which I have everyday anyways, so that wasn't too festive.  But for dinner, I made spinach pancakes, gave Bear some pickles (he loves pickles!), gave him his green juice, and he had a green sippy cup for his milk.  That was the extent of our holiday but it was perfect for us!

Speaking of making cookies... For Valentine's Day, I had planned to make these cute and delicious peanut butter cookies, but there were SO many treats that weekend that I didn't want to add more.   A month later, I finally got around to wanting to make these Valentine's cookies.

3rd Trimester!

How Far Along:  28 Weeks

Size of Baby: The size of a head of cauliflower (I’m just writing what my app says, that seems like an odd shaped comparison)  Doc says she weighs 2 lbs 6 oz if I remember correctly.  The last 3 or 4 appointments, she’s been measuring about 3 days behind.  So instead of being 28 weeks and 3 days on ultrasound day, she’d measure at 28 weeks.  Not a big deal, but it’s been consistent and I thought interesting.

Maternity Clothes: Definitely yes.  I’ve been on the search for some black skinny jeans my whole pregnancy and I’ve ordered probably 5 or 6 different pairs but none have worked out.  I just ordered another pair the other day and if they don’t work out, I’m just giving up on that.

Gender: They haven’t been able to get a good look the last couple of appointments, but today I had her check again and yes, she’s still a girl.

Name: I have a list of names I like and Neil has some that he likes too but none of them crossover at this point.  That’s okay.  I’m not worried this time!  If you ask Bear what her name should be, he's been answering with Juicy Juicy Boxy for the last few weeks.

Movement: She is a wiggler!  I like to use Will Ferrell’s line from Wedding Crashers, “What does she do all day!? I never know what she’s doing in there!”   

Sleep: Oh my gosh- I slept SO good when we were on vacation in Indian Wells (Palm Springs)!  I’ve mostly slept really crappy since we got back, but the last few nights have actually been a lot better.

Exercise/Activity Level: Even though I only have about 3 things to wear to the gym, I’m still going almost every day. I can still do body pump, step, combat, and occasional gfit workouts.  I was getting a calf cramp in my leg during step on Monday and I’m really hoping that wasn’t the start of those each night!  I’ve been lucky so far and haven’t had any night cramps, those are the worst!

Weight: 144. Yep, that’s for real. 

What I Miss: Having energy. I’m so tired!

Cravings: Dove Promises.  I bought 2 bags of them when it was Valentine’s Day- I ate one bag and saved the other to make cookies for Neil but there’s still a few left that I’m definitely hoarding.  I also had a major craving for Sprite the other night.

Symptoms: Luckily, most symptoms seem to come and go for me. I’ve been getting some heartburn/acid reflux (are those the same things?).  I was having a super itchy belly for a while even though I bought a couple new types of oil to use on it.  I’ve started being hot more often.  The most annoying thing lately is my constantly stuffy/runny nose; I think I blow my nose about every 5 minutes.  The last couple weeks I’ve gotten some Braxton Hicks contractions.  I’ve been getting really bad round ligament pains off and on (at least that’s what I assume it is), it’s always on the right side too.

Weird Things: I don’t know if this is a pregnancy thing or what, but there’s something very weird and painful happening with my right collarbone.  It kills any time I move my arm/shoulder or put pressure on it in any way.  It just started hurting one afternoon when I picked up Barrett, it’ll get better for a day or so and then start bugging again.

Worries: I’ve been worrying about my abs.  They used to be the best part of my body and then after Barrett they were spread about an inch apart and never went back together L  I’m worried they’re going to get even more spread apart.  I know there’s nothing I can do about it, so no point in worrying, but I do anyways.

Best Moment of the Week(s): Our anniversary getaway!  Seriously the best moment of my year so far I think!  All that sleep and sun and awesome food J

Appointments This Week: Went in today and baby is growing great.  Today was my 2^nd appointment with Dr. Houpe, haven’t yet decided if I’m going to stick with her or try one more guy…

What I’m Looking Forward To: I’ve recently found out that a ton of my friends are also pregnant.  It’s so fun to get to go through all this with other people.  I don't see most of these other pregnant girls too often, but it’s still fun.  Georgy was pregnant, she had Lara back in December, so even though we were only pregnant together for about 3 months, it’s great that our girls will be so close in age (although 8,000 miles apart). Courtney had her baby boy in February.  Jeanette is due just a few weeks after me. Kelsey is due in September.  A girl in my ward, Ina, is due with a girl a few days before me.  Heather White and Brittany Hyde from our dinner club friends are both due in May I think.  Annie Williams, a friend I used to teach with at Legacy is having a girl in September. Brittany Larsen and my cousin Chelsea are both due in September as well. There’s a huge groups of girls at the gym who are all due in September- Annie, Shelley, Heather, and some that I don’t know as well.

Something I've Learned/Realized: I thought of a really good way to describe how I’m feeling most of the time.  Ya know how when you’re getting sick, your whole body just aches and you’re super tired and just feel kind of awful?  That’s pregnancy in a nutshell.  You feel like you’re on the verge of getting the flu for 9 months.

Pictures:

This is super funny to me because I'm wearing the same shirt.  I can't be bothered to take another picture this week in a different shirt.  The 2nd picture was taken St. Patrick's Day so I had to wear something green.

26 weeks

28 weeks