Halloween

On Saturday we had a Halloween party at our house! It was so much fun and everyone's costumes were seriously hilarious! Here are some pics of the night, and here is a chance for you to see my ever growing belly. I swear it gets bigger everyday!!

Today is just another day for us.. Kenz is asleep for his next shift and I am giving candy to trick or treaters and doing homework :/ I am SO ready for the next season. Bring on Thanksgiving :)

Ramblings of an Emotional, Pregnant Person :)

Every four months at work we have these great big parent seminars. Parents come from all over the world (literally) to spend a few days with us and gain support from each other. Somehow this has become my show. I got thrown into planning it one time and since then it has kind of become my baby. I usually stress out the week before the seminar then when the parents get here, I am one happy girl. That was definitely the case this time. Last night I was a little flustered. I had all these parents showing up this morning, I had two assignments due in school, I was stressing about some bills, and I felt like my stomach was going to explode! Maybe I'm crazy, but when you guys were pregnant, were there times that you could just tell that your baby was stressed out too? Last night I could totally tell that Riken was taking on every bit of my stress, and I knew I needed to stop and breathe for a minute. After running around like a crazy person all day, I got in the tub and just sat on the couch and felt my baby moving around for a while. I decided that my assignments could be a day late for once and that everything else today would fall into place and I just called it a night. I spent quite some time just laying in bed, reflecting on a lot of things, and I woke up feeling pretty good. I was so happy to see some of the most wonderful people in the world today and, like it always does, it really put things into perspective for me. During the presentation my boss did today, he played the song Never Grow Up by Taylor Swift. If you haven't heard it, here is a link to listen to it. Tear jerker! As I sat surrounded by parents who aren't getting to watch their kids grow up, I was just overwhelmed with emotion. I was sitting next to the sweetest couple from Papua New Guinea, and as I watched her looking at a picture of her son and crying, I could just feel the love she had for her son. I haven't even held my baby yet, but I feel such a strong bond with him. Becoming a parent is such an emotional experience. I am beginning to understand the unconditional love you feel for your children. I am just one short month away from being full term, and all I can think about is meeting this person who is taking up so much of my heart already! Today I am just really thankful for so many things in my life. I'm lucky to have a job where I get to be inspired by these amazing parents. I learn so much from them about patience, love, and sacrifice. I am so glad that when the baby comes, I still get to be here and have the best of both worlds. I also better mention the two great guys I just left home doing the dishes. They clean my house, they let my dogs out to play when I can't get home in time, they make me dinner, and they put up with my extreme mood swings! I could not do all the things I am doing without the help and support of my hubby and my little brother, Zack. Life is so great, and I could not ask for more. And one more thing that made my day... One of the parents came up to me today and told me that when she asked her son who his favorite staff is, he said me! :) I love these kids! Okay, I'm done. Sorry for the emotional rant. I don't know what I will do when I can't blame it on pregnancy anymore ;)

Pumpkin Carving

Last night was such a fun night. We had some of our favorite friends over to watch the Yankees game and carve pumpkins. Ty, Kelton, and Jessica came over and Kasia, Kensey and baby Kaylix. Then of course, me, Kenz, and Zack were here. Kenzie's pumpkin is the Yankees one and mine says Riken with a baby skeleton on it :) The Yankees lost :( But we had a great night making our pumpkins, eating pizza, and spending time with friends. Everyone's pumpkins turned out so great! I love this time of year!

30 Weeks

Here is a little peek at my baby belly last week at 30 weeks! I am now just about 31 weeks, and I can't believe I am about five weeks away from being full term! Where has the year gone? 

Baby Shower

Last Sunday was such a special day for me and Kenz. Our families and friends came together and gave us the cutest baby shower ever! We got a ton of cute stuff, and we had so much fun visiting with some of our favorite people. I am so thankful for how many wonderful people we have who care about us. Everyone pitched in to make it such a great day. Riken's room is full of baby stuff and I can't stay out of there now! THANK YOU to everyone who took a little time out of your lives to be with us on Sunday. It was seriously such a great day. 

Rewarding Complications

Wow, I suck. I haven't blogged about my pregnancy since I was 23 weeks! The good news is that I do actually do the little weekly pregnancy things, I just don't type them up and blog them. So I will have them in my pregnancy scrapbook. But for the blog's sake.. Here is a little update! I am almost 30 weeks!! I seriously can't believe it. My baby shower is on Sunday, and I'm on the home stretch of this pregnancy. The third trimester has been okay. A lot of the symptoms from the first trimester are back.. I am getting pretty exhausted again, the sickness is getting worse like it was in the beginning. But there are good things too, like I feel my baby move SO MUCH. I can tell when an arm or leg is sticking out and I love feeling and watching him move all over. I can definitely see why people say they miss this part of pregnancy. It is so much fun when I am in a boring meeting or conference for work and my baby is doing somersaults in my belly! Free entertainment :) The other fun part about this part of pregnancy is getting baby stuff and getting his room ready! I could just sit in there and hold his stuff all day :)

I have had a lot of complications in the last few weeks. A few weeks ago I started feeling contractions so we went in and had an ultrasound and they thought my cervix looked like it was shortening already. Luckily, the contractions stopped and for now, it looks like he is not trying to come out yet. If I do too much or over exert myself, the contractions start again. So I have been taking it as easy as possible and it is the weirdest thing because for now, it seems like I can control it. As long as I take it easy, I don't have contractions. 

The next thing that happened was that he was measuring three weeks small. We were sent up to Utah Valley to see a specialist and get a different type of ultrasound and when we did that we found out that he is just small because I am small and there is nothing wrong with his development or his growth. That was a relief! The specialist also said that he will probably stay small the rest of the pregnancy and it would be crazy if he reached 7 lbs by the time I have him. As long as he is healthy, I am A OKAY with that. In the most recent ultrasounds we have had he looks SO CUTE. You can kind of see his little features, and I am in love. I am so tempted to spend the money to get the 3D ultrasound this month. I am so anxious to get a better look at that little face. 

The most recent problem I have run into is failing the one hour glucose test. I can't believe this happened. Now I have to do the three hour one, and I am so not looking forward to that. I had a breakdown yesterday because the last couple months I have felt like if it's not one thing wrong, it's another. Along with the physical challenges, the stress and emotional toll pregnancy takes on you is hard. You worry about every little thing and you just want to have your baby safe  and healthy in your arms. I don't think I will be able to take a deep breath again until he is here. Kenzie is going to kill me cuz I can be so snappy sometimes, but the stress is seriously hard to manage.

Anyway, this has been extremely long I know, but my feelings toward pregnancy are obviously mixed. I feel like I'm not good at this and I do miss being myself and feeling normal. However, I am definitely more grateful than anything else. I am thankful that my body is able to carry this baby and that I am going to be able to bring us a son. I am so thankful for the fact that he will be ours, with parts of me and parts of Kenzie. I need to take pictures of my current belly, cuz it is growing on a daily basis, but I will leave you with some from a few weeks ago..