Dear Irelyn: Month Five

Dear Irelyn, 

You just turned five months old yesterday and I am already getting your five month post up! Shocking, I know! :] This is just such a fun age and I want to remember all of it! 

This month you have started to learn lots of new things. You had a couple of grumpy weeks and Mimo {Grandma Olmstead} said that she remembers her babies would get grumpy just before they learned something new. That turned out to be just the case of you! You were grumpy just before you learned how to grab your toes and then you were grumpy just before you learned how to sit up! You are not totally sitting up on your own yet but you can go for quite a while before you fall over. I just make sure you are always surrounded by pillows so you don't bonk your head. You decided to try this whole sitting up thing yesterday {on your five month birthday!} and then today you pretty much have it down for up to about twenty minutes at a time. We are all super impressed with your skills! You have rolled over a few times from your stomach to your back and just once from your back to your stomach {and I didn't even see it happening!!} but you are not all that interested in rolling over and you really aren't a fan of tummy time. We're not too concerned about it though since your big sister didn't roll over regularly until after she learned how to crawl! It has been so fun watching you learn these new things and you are definitely a happier baby once you add these tricks to your book! 

This month you went to the doctor for the first time. Haha. I didn't take Holland until she was three months old and then we barely got you in before your fifth month! Clearly, we're really good at going to the doctor. Hopefully from here on out we'll keep you on track though! You did great with the doctor and with getting shots. You fell asleep within about two minutes of nursing afterwards and even slept while I transferred you to your carseat for the drive home. It was shocking and such a relief! At the doctor we found out you weight 17 lbs. 3 oz. {85th percentile} and 24.5 inches {24th percentile}. I think you are going to be like Holland and just go down in the weight percentile from here on out though. We will see though! We sure are enjoying your chunkiness!!

Some other notables: 

-You have started doing this cooing/screaming sound and it is the funniest, cutest thing ever. It cracks your dad and I up every single time! 

-You still blow little spit bubbles all the time. 

-You are super good at holding onto your toys so you can chew on them. 

-You've decided you have no need for a binky anymore. Mostly I'm sure this is a nice thing {no weaning you from it later on} but I do miss it sometimes! 

-I figured out that I had been wearing our Ergo carrier wrong {I needed to move the back strap up} and ever since then you {and I} are so much more comfortable and happy in the Ergo. I have started using it a lot more and we are big fans! I used it at church yesterday and you even fell asleep in it {only for a few minutes though because then sacrament meeting got out and it was loud--sad!}!

-I have started putting you down for naps without nursing and the first couple of times you weren't a fan but you've been doing great the past few days! I am attempting to get you on a little bit of a better schedule and since we started doing naps without nursing you have started sleeping longer in the night. I'm not sure if they're related but they happened around the same time. It works for me! 

You are such a sweet, beautiful little girl and we love glimpsing more of your personality as you learn to do new things. We are so happy to have you in our family! 

Love, 

Mom, Dad, & Holland

Falling over

Sitting skills! 

The cutest chunky profile. 

Gorgeous blue eyes. 

More sitting and some spitting of course!

Goodness I just love this little girl of mine! I am the luckiest!

Holland's Birth Story {Part Two}

Miss Holland's birth story was pretty long. I spent a few hours over the past couple of days getting it all written out to go into her baby book. I wrote it in letter form to Holland and that's how I am going to post it on here as well. It just makes things a bit easier on me. Anyway, since it is written to Holland there are some things you might need to know to make sense of who people are and such. "Dad", "your dad", "Daddy", etc. refer to Race, "Mimo" is the name my mother has chosen instead of Grandma, "Grandpa" refers to my dad, and "Aunt Helena" is my sister Helena. I hope it's not too confusing!

I want to post this on my blog and share my experience with others but I would appreciate it if people were kind in their comments. I know that people are often very opinionated about things surrounding birth and I love to hear people's opinions as long as they are not rude. So thank you in advance for being kind!

I mentioned above that this is a pretty long story so I am going to split it up into a couple of different parts. Here is part two! {Read part one here!}

Continuing on...

Tuesday, August 14th I woke up at 3:47 am to my first real contraction. Dad was still awake playing video games and I explained to him that this felt like a real contraction. I then sent him to bed so he could get some sleep before we headed into the hospital. I walked around the house while breathing through contractions and measured them on an app on my phone. They were anywhere from two to seven minutes apart {averaging about three minutes apart} and they were lasting anywhere from thirty seconds to just over one minute. I put everything we had packed for the hospital lined up by the door and I gathered up some final things. I wrote you a quick note in your journal to tell you how excited I was to finally meet you. I then woke up my parents to let them know that things were finally starting! I continued to focus on breathing through my contractions and I continued to time them on my phone. Just before 8 am we got things loaded up in the car to head to the hospital. Your dad also gave me a beautiful blessing just before we headed out. 

We got to the hospital just after 8 and got signed in. We headed up to Triage where I changed into a hospital gown and was put on the monitors. You were doing great through the contractions and I was dilated to 3 cm and 90% effaced. This was progress from the last time I had been checked {the Friday of the non-stress test} and I was only dilated to 1.5 cm and 70% effaced. I was admitted to the hospital and had my first round of antibiotics for Group B Strep. After finishing up the antibiotics and getting off the monitors I was able to walk around while they got my room ready. I walked the halls stopping to hold onto the handrails and focus on my breathing when contractions came. Once they got my room ready we headed in there and it was nice to have some space to ourselves. As the day progressed my contractions got closer together and they were lasting longer. Mimo and Dad helped me through the contractions by putting pressure on my lower back, tickling my feet and legs, holding my hands, and helping me change positions. I tried lying on my side, sitting on the laboring ball, showering, using the laboring tub, and a few other things to help manage the pain. I felt like I was handling the contractions well but nothing seemed to be happening.

Your dad and I in Triage

My IV for Group B Strep
The printout from the monitor

Around 5:30pm I finally broke down and asked the nurses to check me to see if I had progressed at all. They checked and I was now 3.5 cm dilated and 100% effaced. I was so discouraged. There was barely any change and I was to the point where I was having almost no break between contractions and they were much longer. But, I continued on. I kept switching from the bed to the shower to the tub to the laboring ball and continued to manage the pain. I don’t feel like I ever reached a ten on the pain scale but I was physically and mentally exhausted. After four more hours of this we asked them to check me again because the contractions were even more intense. This time there was good news! I was 7.5 cm dilated! This helped boost up my spirits and I was able to continue on.

Breathing through contractions and timing them on my phone with Dad by my side.

Dad reading and putting pressure on my back while Mimo tickled my feet and legs.

  

One of my wonderful nurses {Jamie} checking up on you.
{She actually came back the next day to check up on us and came to the c-section with us even though I was no longer one of her patients!}

Mimo kept track of my contractions throughout the day.

During the next few hours of contractions Dad and Grandpa gave me a blessing while I was in the laboring tub. I do not remember much of what was said but I am so grateful for the priesthood and the comfort it brings. I am also grateful I was able to have two worthy priesthood holders with me through my entire labor. After approximately four more hours of intense contractions {since the last time I had been checked} I asked to be checked and again, there was disappointment. I was still at 7.5 cm dilated. {The nurse did say you were at a +1 station which means your head was starting to move down but later they said you were back at a 0 station so I don’t know if there were just different interpretations or if you really did move back up.} Mentally this is about where I broke. Things were not progressing and I was exhausted. I had not slept in hours and I had not eaten anything in quite a while either. {I did sneak in half of a PB&J sandwich while I was in labor earlier in the day even though you’re not supposed to eat at the hospital.} At this point I asked to try some kind of a pain killer that would help me sleep so I could reboot. They gave me an opioid that {we are pretty sure} is called fentanyl. I don’t remember it helping much but it may have given me a little bit of a mental break through a couple of contractions. I don’t remember being able to sleep at all though which is what I really felt I needed.

At some point after the fentanyl I remember using the bathroom and seeing meconium in the toilet. I knew that this was possibly a sign of you being in distress so we let the nurses know. I think they monitored you a little bit more but you still seemed to be doing fine through the contractions.

Around 2:30am I just couldn’t handle it anymore. I was so ready to meet you and I could not see when that would happen. There seemed to be no end in sight. I was physically and mentally finished. All I wanted at this point were two things: to sleep and to have you in my arms. I finally asked for an epidural. This was the hardest thing for me to ask for. You can ask your dad. I did not want to say the words. I just kept saying that I was so tired and that I couldn’t do it anymore. It was so hard to ask for because I did not want to feel like I was a failure in my desire to have a natural childbirth. Your daddy and Mimo made sure that I knew I was not a failure. I got the epidural around 3am. Getting the epidural was no fun. I didn’t feel any pain {from the epidural}, but bending over a pillow with a huge belly while you are having contractions is not enjoyable. Dad stayed with me and held my hand while they gave me the epidural. The anesthesiologist finished quickly and afterwards I was able to relax for the first time in hours. {Almost 24 hours exactly since my first contraction.} The nurse made sure to do all that she could to keep labor going despite the epidural {which can sometimes slow things down}. She had me put a peanut ball between my legs to help you move down and she had me put an icepack on my back in hopes that you would turn your dear sweet face around since you were sunny side up {or posterior--which was also the cause of extra intense back labor}.  Once I was all situated I slept for the next two and a half to three hours.

Around 6:15am I was checked again and I had progressed to 9.5 cm dilated. Three hours later at 9:15am I was checked and I was FINALLY 10cm dilated and was told that you were at a 0 station. At 9:22am I began to push. I pushed for the next two and a half{ish} hours but I wasn’t able to feel much and I was having a hard time pushing correctly. At some point they turned the epidural off in hopes that I would start feeling things again and be able to push more effectively. I also tried a couple of different pushing techniques but nothing was really happening. 

Your dad and I just before pushing.

Around 11:30am my CNM, Tiffany {the one I trusted more out of the two I had} came in and had me push a couple of times and then explained to me that I probably needed to think about having a c-section. She explained that your position {posterior}, the presence of meconium, and a few other things were cause for concern and reasons that I might want to consider having a c-section. It was not an emergency yet but at some point it could turn into an emergency. As she explained this I was not nearly as upset as I thought I would be. I think at this point I knew that things were just not going to go the way I had desired and I was just so ready to meet you, my sweet {stubborn!} little girl. We had the nurse and Tiffany leave the room so we could talk about what we wanted to do. Tiffany had told us that we could try some different pushing techniques and other things before resorting to the c-section as she really knew that this was NOT what I wanted. After talking we decided to just go with the c-section as I was not feeling like things were going to change and progress. This decision was much easier to make than I had thought it would be and I started getting excited knowing that I was finally going to meet you! We let the nurse and Tiffany back into the room and let them know our decision. Tiffany then called Dr. Kells to have him come to the hospital to do the surgery. She let me know that he was the best one to do the surgery as he does all that he can to make sure women can go back to vaginal births after their c-sections. It was encouraging to hear all of this. At this point I had not even thought about the possibility of never being able to have a baby naturally if things went badly so it was nice to hear that I had an extra cautious doctor. The anesthesiologist came in and gave me a different medicine in my epidural to prepare me for the c-section and then Dr. Kells came in and talked to me. He let me know that I could try pushing some more if I wanted and he said he could try the forceps but there would probably be a lot of tearing. Dr. Kells also knew that a natural childbirth is what I had desired and he did not want to take that away from me so he wanted to make sure that a c-section was a decision I was okay with and was not feeling forced into. I really did feel okay about the decision. I know that there were other things I could have tried but your dad and I were so ready to meet you, our sweet little Holland girl.

Just before heading into the c-section with our wonderful nurse Angie. 

{The epidural made me feel really cold. That's why I'm completely covered up.}

At 12:01pm they rolled me out of my room and into the operating room. You were born at 12:16pm. Being behind a curtain when I heard your first cries was not the way I had imagined things happening but it was still the most wonderful experience of my life. My baby girl was finally here! They brought you around the curtain and showed you to Dad and I. Let me tell you little lady, you had the LONGEST conehead I have ever seen! But don’t worry, we were still so in love with and happy to meet you! Oh, and your conehead did go away! After they initially showed you to us they took you a little ways away to clean you up a bit more and they had Daddy cut your cord. They brought you back over and we got our first family picture together. You were just perfect! You and Daddy then left for you to get your first bath and have you weighed and show you off to Mimo, Grandpa, Aunt Helena, Uncle Knowlton, Aunt Jasmine, and cousin Edmond {Egg} who were waiting at the nursery. I stayed in the operating room where they quickly and carefully stitched and glued me back up. It was only 20-30 minutes before I was wheeled into the recovery area and you and Daddy met me there where I was able to nurse you for the first time. You latched right on and I was overjoyed to have my baby girl in my arms! I got to hold you close and admire your beautiful, perfect little body. And that’s what I’ve been doing every day since then!

Our very first meeting.

Our first family picture!

I want you to know that I am so grateful to your dad, Mimo, Grandpa and your Aunt Helena. They stayed with me through all of this {although Aunt Helena did go home to get some sleep at some point} and helped keep me motivated. Your wonderful daddy helped me through my contractions all day and night, he let me know that I could do this, he supported me when I decided to get an epidural and made sure I knew I was not a failure. He stayed with me while I got the epidural, held my legs while I pushed, and was with me when I had the c-section. He was by my side the entire time we were at the hospital. Mimo helped me get through every single contraction, she constantly tickled my legs and feet and was by my side the entire time. She also held my legs while I pushed and coached me through the entire laboring experience.  Grandpa was there the whole time and helped us communicate with the doctors and nurses as well as helped us be calm and think of what to do before making decisions. Aunt Helena was a constant support and also helped hold my legs while pushing. They all let me know while I was going through this that I was not a failure and they continue to remind me that I am not a failure when I have days that I feel otherwise. I am so grateful for my “laboring team” and I could not have done any of this without them.

Finally, I want to end this by saying that I am learning to be grateful for every single part of my experience. I do not regret laboring for 24 hours before having an epidural, I do not regret having an epidural, and I do not regret ending up with a c-section. It is so hard to be grateful for this experience because it is not at all what I wanted or imagined. In fact, it is pretty much exactly what I did not want. There have been days where I have mourned the loss of the birthing experience I desired but as I said before, I do not regret the decisions I made and I am so incredibly happy to be a mother to you, my sweet, beautiful, little girl. I pray that as the years go on I will learn more and more from the experiences I had in bringing you into the world and I pray that I will recognize the reasons things happened the way  they did. I hope that I can have more empathy and understanding when I come across others who have similar experiences and I hope that this experience can help you and other future daughters or daughters-in-law that I have as you all bring children into the world.

August 15th, 2012, 12:16pm was the most wonderful moment of my life and I look forward to many more wonderful moments with you as my daughter. I love you Holland girl.

Love always,
Mom

Holland's Birth Story {Part One}

Miss Holland's birth story is pretty long. I spent a few hours over the past couple of days getting it all written out to go into her baby book. I wrote it in letter form to Holland and that's how I am going to post it on here as well. It just makes things a bit easier on me. Anyway, since it is written to Holland there are some things you might need to know to make sense of who people are and such. "Dad", "your dad", "Daddy", etc. refer to Race, "Mimo" is the name my mother has chosen instead of Grandma, "Grandpa" refers to my dad, and "Aunt Helena" is my sister Helena. I hope it's not too confusing!

I want to post this on my blog and share my experience with others but I would appreciate it if people were kind in their comments. I know that people are often very opinionated about things surrounding birth and I love to hear people's opinions as long as they are not rude. So thank you in advance for being kind!

I mentioned above that this is a pretty long story so I am going to split it up into a couple of different parts. Here is part one! 

August 25th, 2012

Dear Holland,

It’s been ten days since you {FINALLY} made your arrival into our family. Your Dad and I are absolutely enamored by you. I want to write your birth story out before I forget all the details so that is what I am going to {try} to do today. It is a long story so it will take some time to get it all written out. Growing up I always loved to read the story of my birth and to recount the tale to anyone who would listen. I hope that you also enjoy knowing what it was like for your mother to bring you into the world. And I hope that someday my experiences will be able to help you through things that you experience as a mother.

Well, here goes! I want to preface this story by telling you what my birth plan was. I wanted to have an all natural childbirth experience. I planned by reading Hypnobirthing, I went to Heavenly Father in prayer to ask for this experience, I wrote down my wants and desires for your birth in the journal I’ve been writing in for you, and I told my Certified Nurse Midwives {CNMs} and Doctor what my desires were. I felt prepared mentally, physically, emotionally, and spiritually to bring you into this world with as little medical intervention as possible. I felt prepared on your due date, August 1st and then each day after but you were not ready to come just yet. 

Two days after your due date, Friday, August 3rd, your dad and I went in for a non-stress test to make sure that you were still healthy and thriving in your little water world. I felt that you were fine but you were not very wiggly during the non-stress test {because it was in the morning--your nap time} so our CNM recommended that we go into the hospital for another non-stress test and a biophysical profile ultrasound. Mimo told me that they would probably try to make me stay in the hospital and be induced but I did not think they would do something so ridiculous since I was sure you were fine. Your dad had things going on for the day so Mimo and I went to the hospital. We were there for a long time but everything was looking fine. You wiggled lots for us and the ultrasound looked great! I was all ready to go home when they hooked me up to the monitors again. When we asked the nurses why they told us they were just waiting on my doctor’s approval to send me home. A couple of minutes later the nurse came back and asked me if I was opposed to being induced. I could not believe my ears! They were really going to try to keep me there! I told them that I was opposed to being induced and we asked if we could leave against medical advice. We were then told that if we did leave against medical advice our insurance would not pay for the visit to the hospital that day {we later found out this is a myth}. I was upset and crying and we did not know what to do. We called your dad and he immediately came to the hospital to be with me. We also requested that the nurses contact my CNM and/or doctor so that we could speak to them and try to figure out why we were being kept at the hospital. I talked to my midwife and just felt like she was trying to scare me into having you that day. As ready as I was to meet you, being induced was not a part of the plan I had in mind. I had wanted my body to start things when the time was right. And, I trusted that my body would start things when it was the right time. Finally we got Dr. Kells to come into the hospital and look at the records of the non-stress test. He talked to us some and then gave us the OK to go home. We were just told to make sure you were wiggling a good amount each day and that had never been a problem so I wasn’t concerned. We were incredibly grateful to be able to go home. 

The next week and a half was very hard. Every day I was so ready to meet you and yet my body, and you, were just not saying it was time. So I waited. Your dad took me on dates, Mimo had gifts for me to open every day, and I made lots of bows and hair things for you to pass the time. I walked with Mimo and Aunt Gelsey to school every day in hopes that things would get started. I started a list on my phone of all the suggestions people gave me on how to get labor started {That list is a whole story for another time}, I tried these suggestions, nothing seemed to work. 

Date with Daddy at The Melting Pot

The gifts from Mimo.

Just some of the many suggestions to induce labor.

Sunday, August 12th Sister Pittam, from the ward, came over and taught Mimo how to do reflexology on my feet to get things started. It was basically one AMAZING foot massage for a LONG time that put me to sleep. It was WONDERFUL! I don’t know if that is what got things started but Monday, August 13th around 5:15 am my water broke! I was having a funny dream where Aunt Jackie and Uncle EB lived in the master bedroom at our house {where your dad and I are living now} and Mimo, Aunt Helena and I were working on something in their room when we saw a scorpion. Mimo told me to call 911 because apparently we had previously had a bad experience with scorpions so she wanted the fire department to come and get rid of it. I was on the phone with the dispatcher who was telling me that I had to look and see if the scorpion had two prongs on its back. I was trying to carefully approach the scorpion to look for the prongs when it jumped at me and bit me once on the hand and twice just above the knee. I went crying to my mom to tell her I had been bit when I all of a sudden started peeing and couldn’t stop. So I sat on a little tin antique children’s training potty that Aunt Jackie had decorated the room with and just let myself pee while I waited for my mom. I was pregnant in the dream but for some reason I was not convinced that the constant, uncontrollable peeing was my water breaking. Just after this all happened I woke up to a soaking wet bed. I excitedly woke your dad up to tell him that things were finally starting--ALL ON THEIR OWN! I headed to the bathroom to clean up and then went downstairs to tell my parents. We were all so excited but I had yet to feel any contractions. Mimo, Dad and I decided to go on a walk to try and get the contractions to kick in. We walked to Walgreens and back and viewed a beautiful sunrise. Your dad and I were giddy the whole walk. After getting home I decided to walk around in the pool for awhile, also in hopes that things would get started. I was feeling some very light contractions but not enough to feel like things were really starting. Mostly I could just touch my stomach and feel it hardening. We decided to wait somewhere between 24 and 48 hours to go in after talking to my aunt who is a midwife and researching about the risk of infection after your water breaks. This was the time period I felt comfortable with. We walked around the mall that day and continued to try to kickstart things. I went to bed a bit disappointed but still trusted that my body would kick in and get things going when it was supposed to.

The beautiful sunrise on the day my water broke.

To be continued...Part Two

Dressing 'Le Bump' {#4} Plus a Story About the Little Miss

So recently someone said that they think I'm going to run out of cute outfits to dress up my bump. I really hope that doesn't happen anytime soon because I'm loving dressing my little lady up! We'll see how well that works when I'm further along though! So far I can still wear all my jeans {some unbuttoned some still buttoned} and most of my bigger shirts. So we'll see how much longer I can make all of that last!

Breakdown: 

Shirt- Shade Maternity $8

Cardigan- Old Navy $5

Belt- Charlotte Russe $2

Leggings- Target $10?

I got this shirt on SUPER clearance from Shade and it's a bit big right now so I pulled it down and made it into almost a dress. Haha. It is SUPER comfy though and that's all that's important, right? I also got a peach colored shirt and some black pants that I'm going to skinny up before I wear them but they are SO comfortable and they were a good deal! Yay for cheap and comfy maternity clothes! 

Okay, are you ready for the story about the Little Miss? 

I already posted this on Facebook but I figured my blog friends needed the fun, extended version. 

So last night around 3 in the morning I got up to go to the bathroom {I go to the bathroom about three times every night}. After going to the bathroom I headed back to bed and was lying on my side with my arm around my belly. All of a sudden Little Goose started squirming like crazy. Kicking and wiggling around like she was trying to get comfortable. She did this for about ten minutes and then I decided to see if she would respond to me pressing my hand up against where she was kicking. She did! So we played around with that for about ten minutes when I decided to see if she would respond to a flashlight on my belly. I put the light up against my belly and she hit it EIGHT times in a row! It was awesome! Then I moved it around some more and she would try to follow the light and hit it. It was SO cool! She has done most of these things before but last night we really just hung out doing all of this for a good thirty to forty-five minutes and it was so much fun. She is such a wiggle worm all the time but this was the most responsive she's ever been. I love to feel her move and I can't wait to meet her in about fifteen more weeks! 

Anyway, that's the story for the day! It was tons of fun! Now I'm going to enjoy the rest of my Saturday reading on our porch and hanging out with Race and Little Goose! Happy Weekend everyone! What are YOU up to? 

Dressing 'Le Bump' {#2}

This is from a week ago but I was so excited that my bump was showing from the front in the bottom picture! I still have to accentuate it a little bit but this is exciting stuff ladies! Haha. I am having so much fun watching my baby grow! Tomorrow I will be twenty weeks {HALFWAY!!} and Little Goose will be the size of a small cantaloupe! What?! That's crazy to me but oh so cool!  

Now on to some pregnancy style!

'Le Breakdown': 

Headband: Made by my sister-in-law Nikki

Shirt: Hand-me-down dress from my sister-in-law Jasmine {turned into a shirt by my sister Helena--I was not happy at her for cutting this dress but it worked well for this outfit! Haha.}

Jeans: Old Navy skinnies {$4.50!!} I used the hair tie trick for the first time with these jeans. It kinda worked but I had to do extra loops because it made the jeans a little bit TOO big.

Also, this was one of my first attempts at color blocking! How'd I do?! 

Moving Day!

Yesterday was moving day and I wrote up a whole post about it but it disappeared. Race and I changed apartments in our town because we we're going to get kicked out of our on campus apartment after graduation. I know graduation isn't for a couple more months but we wanted to move before then so that I would be able to help a little bit more. And an added bonus of moving now was that we got a really good deal on our new, much more spacious apartment! Anyway, now on to how the move went!

Race's parents came and helped us move everything. Which really meant Race and his dad worked their butts off all day while I worked on unpacking, helped as much as I could before I was too tired {which was not very much helping at all} and Race's mom SUPER cleaned our old apartment so that we can pass the "cleaning inspection" with flying colors! Race's parents also helped us furnish our new place with a beautiful carpet, table and chairs, lots of food, and so much more! We were so grateful to have them up here to help us with this move. We were also grateful to our ward members and neighbors who saw us moving and offered to help. It is so nice to be surrounded by such good people. I hope we have some cool neighbors at our new apartment!

The rest of the week will be spent unpacking, organizing, working {just a little bit since it's Spring Break}, finding out the gender of our baby {Thursday!!} and celebrating Race's birthday with some family coming to town {Saturday}! It should make for a fun, busy Spring Break!

Well, I am going to make this post quick. {I just felt Little Goose move! For some reason I have to tell someone every time I feel LG move but right now I'm working and there is no one else here.} I'll leave you with a couple pictures of our new place and some baby bump pics!

Our new living room with hardwood floors!!

New kitchen with a full size stove/oven and a dishwasher!

Bedroom!

{Not pictured: Washer/Dryer, Dishwasher, Second Bedroom for LG, Walk-in Closets in both bedrooms, Balcony with storage!!}

Bump picture! {19 weeks 5 days} 

How my bump looks to me {plus some hardwood flooring and mismatched socks}

Have a great day everyone! :] And come back tomorrow  for another edition of Dressing 'Le Bump'!! 

Dressing 'Le Bump'

Like I said in my last post, I really have been enjoying dressing my growing bump. :] For the most part I have not bought maternity clothes. I got some maternity jeans on sale at Target that I have yet to wear and some shorts at Savers that I also have not worn yet. Before I was pregnant I bought a couple of maternity shirts that I liked just as shirts so I have worn those but that's it! I'm sure I will need more maternity clothes at some point but for now I'm enjoying leggings and skirts/dresses a lot and most of my jeans still fit so far! Thank goodness! Anyway, here's the breakdown of one of my favorite comfy maternity outfits as of late!

Breakdown: 

Shirt/Dress thing: Target Maternity {one of the shirts I bought forever ago} $5

Sweater: Old Navy $6

Leggings: Target $8

Shoes: Target $7

Headband: Made by my sister-in-law Jackie!

Necklace: F21 $1.50

Bracelets: Made by my sister-in-law Nikki!

This outfit is so comfy and cute so I've worn it a few times. I try and change it up some but it's pretty much the same thing. I guess more comfy maternity shirts like this one would be great! I'm just cheap so I'll only be buying them if they're on sale. So keep a lookout for me! 

P.S. If anyone has some awesome tips for where to buy maternity clothes and stuff I'm all ears! 

I hope you all are having a wonderful Saturday! 

Spring Break!

First off I want to thank everyone for the birthday wishes on my last post! You are all so sweet! :] I had a wonderful birthday spent visiting my family with Race. It was just what I needed. Relaxing and perfect! Now it's almost a month later! Eek!

At 5pm today Spring Break will officially start! Woot! Woot! Unfortunately we aren't doing anything too exciting for Spring  Break this year. We will be spending the majority of the break moving! We are just moving from one apartment to another in Flagstaff but it is still not enjoyable. I have spent the past couple of weeks packing  up our house but it is still not quite finished. Luckily Race's parents are coming up to help us make the move and I won't be expected to do too much heavy lifting because of Little Goose. {Thank you Baby!} I can't wait to have a new, bigger apartment to decorate! I've been Pinteresting it up like crazy to get ideas! Our new apartment also has a washer and dryer and a dishwasher. All things we haven't had in our two apartments so far! We will be living the high life! Ooh! And we have a porch that I want to  hang our hammock up on to read in on sunny spring days! I LOVE hammocks! Anyway, we're excited even though moving is killing our spring break. But, we have some other exciting things coming up/going on so read on!

• It's been about three weeks since I last threw up! 
• I got my bangs cut! Cutting my bangs helps me from getting bored with my hair and chopping it all off. I am on a hair growing out streak right now! I haven't super chopped it since before my wedding! Just trims! I'm not sure if you all know how big of a deal that is for me but it is huge! I'm taking advantage of pregnancy hormones and trying to grow it even longer! {Anyway, thank you to my sister-in-law Jasmine for cutting my bangs--they are my favorite length right now! Also, see pictures below to see my bangs!}
• February 27th was the first day I felt Little Goose move and it is the coolest thing ever! I love the little reassurance that Little Goose is inside and growing healthy and strong! 
• March 15th we have our ultrasound to find out Little Goose's gender! I am SO excited and I can't wait to share the news with everyone!
• For my 16 week baby bump pictures I used this cute little chalkboard to write a little bit about Baby and take some pictures. It was a lot of fun!

• I'll be halfway on March 14th! {I'll be taking more pictures with the chalkboard!}
• I'm having a blast figuring out how to dress my little bump! I'm sure that'll change when it's bigger and none of my clothes fit. But for now here are some pictures of my baby bump outfits:

• AND finally, just two more months til Race and I are college graduates!! I can't wait!

What are you up to for Spring Break if you have it this next week?! If not, what are your plans for the weekend? I hope you are all doing wonderfully and hopefully this month I'll be a better blogger! If I get around to making our apartment look good and decorating Little Goose's room I will definitely be posting pictures! I'm excited to have a room to decorate and put baby stuff in! And once we know the gender I'll be even more excited! Anyway, have a WONDERFUL weekend and I'll be back!

Last Semester!

Race and I are officially into our last semester of our undergraduate careers! It is super exciting to be so close to being done but it is so hard to stay motivated. Just a few more months though...we can do it! I got lucky and only have two classes on campus and then two online. It makes life a bit more relaxed although still plenty busy.

We are also both working on campus and took on more hours than we had last semester but so far it's gone smoothly. I can't wait to be done in May and to figure out where we will be headed from here! We hope to be able to stay in Flagstaff for a while or at the very least until the baby comes but there is just no way of knowing what will happen. Yay for new life adventures!

Work and school are about all our lives consist of these days and that is fine with us. I'm not sure we could take on much more than that! We are excited to spend my birthday weekend in the valley with my family and hopefully do something fun. We'll see!

Before I head out for the day I thought I'd share a couple belly photos. These were taken a week ago (so at 14 weeks along). I think I'm going to start taking more legit baby bump pictures at 16 weeks along. We'll see how that goes. I want to do something cute but I haven't settled on one of the many ideas found on Pinterest. I guess you will all have to wait and see!

P.S. I'm still not super showing to anyone but me but I can tell that my stomach feels and looks a little different than it did before so I had to take a couple of pictures!