The Baby Gender Reveal Party

Tyler and I were adamant that we were NOT going to find out the gender of this, our 3rd child.  We figured it would make the pregnancy finale more exciting, and keep us on our toes through the 9 months. 

Then I talked to Kate and she all but convinced me to do it.  Then I saw a million examples of super rowdy boys in 2 days and started to get nervous.

So within days we had completely flipped and decided to find out, found out via cake, and then find out before our 20 week appointment so Kate could be here for the fun!  When I told my Mom and then accused her of thinking me crazy she said "No, I'm just super practical, and you like to make a party out of everything!"  It's true, and the one person who understands (and shares) that is Kate.

Well it was fun!  It about killed me holding the envelope containing the secret for the 5 minutes we had it.  We passed it off to my cousin Alyson who then e-mailed the baker to make us our special cake!  It turned out PERFECT and soooo Delicious!  Just what I had pictured!

The time to cut the cake was set for 6:30 Monday night and we invited a couple close friends and family.  The tally started out with just Tyler and myself- each voting for one of our own.

I made cupcakes and frosting flavored with koolaid, which I think was a bad idea because it was SO sour it made my mouth water for an hour after I sampled it!

I was more nervous cutting that cake than I was our wedding cake!

The first cut revealed nothing, not a crumb.

I was SO nervous and excited!  It was such a fun moment and the entire room was full silent/ full of nervous laughter!

By the end of the second cut I could see the inside!

Thanks Kara for taking such great pictures of the whole thing!  It's so fun to go back and relive the moment, you can tell exactly what I'm feeling from the look on my face.  To bad Tyler was hiding in the shadows!

I think I knew all along.  I was pretty sure from the beginning, but then I started to second guess myself, and worry and wonder and fret.

Alex kept saying it was a girl, but she wanted a boy.  That night she was sporting a blue ribbon to show her vote until about 2 minutes before we cut the cake.  Then she suddenly changed it to pink!

Heidi was always VERY adamant that it was a girl.  And whenever anyone would suggest otherwise they would get a very angry Heidi yelling at them that it was a SISTER!

The rest of the night was a sugar coma haze of laughter and excitement and name ideas.

This was the official tally before the cut.  EVERYONE thought I was having a boy! I think that's what threw me off, if everyone else was so sure, and this pregnancy had been SO different, they they must be right?!

The best part of the party was that it marked the beginning of Fall Fun Week 2012.  These two plus Archie are in town until Monday and so far there has been nothing but junk food, late nights and too much fun!  Oh, and don't you love Kate's new bangs!!!

BYU Homecoming Parade

This year was arguably one of the best years of our parade tradition.  

The weather was just right, and as always I was able to score the perfect parade spot.  Right at the beginning, with a nice stretch in between us and every other parade going family.  This is essential when you have small children. First of all it ensures that your kids can see the floats coming and enjoy each entry for more than the 5 seconds they are in front of you.  Second of all the floats are prepped and ready to throw candy to you.  It's been a good 20 feet since they last threw candy and there is no one else but you for them to focus on.  Also if you are in a crowd the bigger kids run out in front of you and steal every piece of anything within 10 feet.  Alex and Heidi had a good 30 foot stretch to themselves and we came home loaded with taffy.  That's not why we love the parade though.

 Tyler wasn't feeling well, and we had no friends who could make it, so the girls and I went solo this year.  This meant I had my hands full (mostly with Heidi's sticky candy rejects, that made it into the mouth and then were not quality enough to be swallowed).  It also meant fewer pictures.  But we got to do whatever we (I) wanted, and it was actually a pretty stress free, super fun, girls morning out.

Alex is loving preschool still!  Last week was cowboy day and their teacher went ALL out!  Their horses had saddle bags full of gorp, each kid got a hat, neck kerchief and badge!  Alex loves Thursday's the best because her best friend and neighbor Lizzy walks home with us after school and the girls get to play until dinner time while the Mom's sit and chat.

September

Alex at Michael's birthday dutch oven dinner- doing her fire dance!

So life didn't just stop after week 14 of Pregnancy.  I got feeling well enough to actually do things, but was still sick and lazy enough not to take pictures or write about them at all.
   The last 4 weeks I have steadily improved on the nausea front.  I still feel a tiny bit sick in the evenings- especially when I have sugar or milk before bed.  I also got this awful taste in my mouth that is only now starting to dissipate.  No matter what I did or ate, I would always taste it.  Gum helped but then I would get an upset stomach from that.  My Eczema comes and goes and nothing seems to be really helping.  Even the magic holistic cream I got from the hippy store.  But I found out after answering truthfully how I was feeling this pregnancy, to a few genuinely interested friends, that I have nothing to complain about.  My body doesn't try to kill of my kids, I'm not stuck on bed-rest in the hospital for the entire 9 months, nore do I have the urge to puke constantly after the 4th month.  Pregnancy isn't fun.  But it's a LOT more fun for me that just about every other lady I've talked to!
   Tyler and I also changed our minds on the who 'discovering the gender early' issue.  I don't know why, but the idea of having a little boy kind of stressed me out.  Every little boy I know is such a crazy little loud whirlwind- and my girls play so nice and quietly together- It makes me anxious thinking about throwing a boy in the mix.  We will of course be happy with whatever we are having, and Tyler really wants his little guy- but we decided it might be more fun to find out now.  Especially since the whole concept is confusing for the girls and I don't think it helps that we are just always calling the baby 'it'.
    Whenever I ask them, Heidi is very adamant (to the point of anger) that the baby is a girl, and Alex always say's it's a girls as well.  But if I ask what they want- Alex says she wants a brother, but Heidi is still feisty about having another sister.  It will be interesting to see!
   Tyler got requests to come interview at P.A. schools in both Maine and Pennsylvania!  We are very excited for him to go and knock their socks off, but not about the expensive plane tickets it's taking to get him there.  I feel confident he will be accepted, so now I'm starting to worry about the logistics of moving our family across the country- about as far away as we could possibly go- and stay in the U.S.A!  It will be an adventure for sure!
   Last weekend my Mother and Brother came to visit.  We had so much fun with them and it was of course sad to see them go.  We spent an entire day at Cornbellies- this fantastic fall themed giant playground.  Unfortunately I didn't take my camera.  The girls loved little Bridger to death and took advantage of all the attention from Grandma and Aunts and Uncles.  It was a fun preview of what Christmas might look like this year!
 
   We also "put the garden to bed" this week.  A process that involved tearing up everything and tilling it into the ground.  The garden had really started to produce tomatoes, big wonderful red ones, when it froze.  It was heart breaking- we spent hours collecting tomatoes the day before and had to leave so many big green ones, and ripe ones we just couldn't get to.  As we pulled up the plants it about killed me to see all the waste and potential that was rotting in the dirt.  We had previously dug up the potatoes.    Even though the plants had died 1/2 way through the summer, there were still quite a few to dig up.  The kids did a pretty good job of collecting the spuds while the adults each had a shovel to dig.  It took a couple day's work to finish but was well worth the peace of mind and delicious potatoes!  I'm still sad we didn't plant pumpkins, but I'm not sad we are through with the garden this year

Pregnancy. Weeks 5-14

When I found out i was pregnant I decided to keep a better log about the whole thing than I had in the past.  I found myself wishing I had written down things like when the sickness started, and when it ended, what I craved etc.  So I would know!
    But I knew there was some risk in this undertaking.  If I'd had those past journal entries to look back on I may have been a bit more reluctant to start the process over again.
So here is my brief overview of the past 10 weeks.


week 5- morning sickness starts. Feel better when I'm distracted, laying around doesn't help and makes it worse. Sleeping well and through the night. Turns out vacation and morning sickness are a TERRIBLE mix.  Carbonation makes me feel better which I usually hate. I've had more soda in the last 5 days than the last 5 years of my life.

week 6- Started the unisom and B6 mix then drop Unisom after 4 days.  Didn't notice a huge difference without the Unisom other than it really does help me sleep.

Week 7 - Establish a pattern of feeling well in morning, goodish until afternoon and Ok/ yuck until bedtime.  Can't sleep through the night and sluggish during the day.  Also the week super smell started.  When I can eat I'm down to 1/2 my usual intake.  Feel good while riding bike (although smells are killer), laying around is helping more.
Went from super excited and day dreaming about names and gender to barely thinking about it and just trying to survive each day.  Think Susan suspects, must try to not act how I feel.  Tyler very helpful, can't stand kids climbing all over me.

week 8-  Feeling sick constantly now, but not nearly as severe as in the beginning.
-If I plug my nose while I'm vomiting, it keeps the nastiness out of my nasal canal.  Best discovery yet.
-Every time I eat anything I get a terrible sour taste in my mouth and need to brush immediately.  When I brush my teeth it makes me dry heave.  If I dry heave........ Catch 22.
-Thought for a day that potatoes were the miracle food. Had hashbrowns for dinner and midnight snack and felt better than ever that night/morning. Tried to eat potatoes for the next 2 days striaght. fluke.
-Starting to think 3 kids might be enough.
-Dropped B6 but started up on the prenatal more diligently.
-LOVE those little Totino's pizza's.

Week 9- Constant exhaustion might have finally hit. Get kids into bed at 7 and desire to immediately hit the sack myself.  HARD to fake non-pregnancy.
- Appitite might be returning. Ate 2 tuna sandwiches for lunch. Craving pickles.  Tomatoes growing like crazy at garden, want to puke just looking at them- great timing garden.

Week 10- SO TIRED ALL THE TIME.  Having a real hard time pulling off the "I'm perfectly ok and nothing has changed" ruse.
-My eyes are super dry and the skin around them is always red and itchy, the inside of my elbows itch like crazy, as well as patches down the arm.  Starting to wonder if it's pregnancy related afterall.  Haven't touched the garden in a week.
-Restarted the B6 Unisom trick and it worked a LOT better, took it for 2 days and then dropped the unisom again because it made me super groggy and tired all day and night.  So far without the Unisom I'm still getting the good results.  Tired, but not groggy.
- Maybe have reached the mood swing portion of pregnancy. Exhausted, stuck at home Kristen who is weepy and grouchy is starting to wear on everybody, especially poor husband.  Wondering if doing this 3rd kid thing right now was such a good idea after all.
-Able to eat sweets again for the first time in a month.  Also starting to look poochy- not from baby, but from lack of exercise and diet. Must work out if I'm going to keep this hidden much longer.

Week 11-  Went without Unisom for 3 days and was useless.  Started it up to favorable, but not fantastic results.  Really hoping it all magically goes away on Monday- week 12.
- Threw up a massive amount of Lasagna Thursday.  Cottage cheese makes my top 10 list of worst things to throw up.
- Considering telling the kids about the baby- just so they will stop standing on my stomach and pummeling me with their elbows.
- Went in for a nurse consult about my dry itchy skin.  She declared it eczema without a second glance or 2 questions and then prescribed me 2 useless medications.  One specifically said to keep away from eyes and the other said it could cause birth defects and only to use if the benefits outweigh the risks.  This was from the OBGYN- good thing I read labels and don't trust people.
-Considering telling everyone about the baby so people will stop looking at me like i'm lazy and broken.

Week 12- spilt the beans to Mom and plan on telling Tyler's parents and the kids tonight for FHE.         -Went to the OB and got my rash classified as something with a long name that I can't remember.  wighed in and peed in a cup and then gave them 5 little tubes of blood!  Never remember having to do that before. Also heard the heart beat! May be a baby, might be a bear, but there is something alive in there!
-Threw up meatballs and rice after a dinner where I foolishly didn't drink anywater. Worst. Vomit. Experience. Ever.  It beat out the chicken and rice dinner I lost when pregnant with Alex. And yes I still vividly remember it from 2007.

Week 13- Think I'm slowly getting better.  Not the magical "wake up one day and feel fantastic" that I've been hoping for, but feeling more like a human.  The kids are excited, and still don't really believe- Mommy's tummy isn't big enough.  The girls and I decided on "Smarty" for the unofficial pre-name of the baby so we don't have to just keep calling it baby. Smarty is 3 inches long now- and definitely a presence in my abdomen- especially when the kids jump on my stomach and I immediately and urgently have to pee.
-Decided I've thrown up more with this kid than we the other two combined.  When I think back to the sickness phase of those pregnancies I can remember one or two moments, laying on the couch, vomiting, or writhing in bed- but the whole rest of the picture is gone.  I think it's like labor-your body just has to forget so you will be willing to do it again.  Maybe I shouldn't have documented it so well this time.

Week 14- This was magic week.  I became human during the daylight hours, but as soon as the sun began to dip beneath the horizon the stomach ache would return and I would be a zombie in bed.  Ohhhh, but the joys of feeling well even for a bit!
-Over indulged in sugar today after a pretty physical day.  Discovered that it is still possible to throw up past 12 weeks.  Dear posterity, I wish I had figured out some cure all by now, but the only advice I can pass on at this point is - if you know you are going to throw up, make sure you have some fluids in that tummy.  The liquid helps it all come up fast, smooth and easy.
-Rash still present- gets worse with stress? hot water?  Tyler insists I call a Dermetologist. Where to even begin?
-Belly plenty visible.  When I tell people they either say "Oh I knew" or "Oh GOOD! I was worried something was terribly wrong with you!" Guess I'm a terrible faker/secret keeper.
-Belly button already starting to transform into it's nonexistent phase. Sigh, so sad.
-Laughing at Tyler and I for setting the goal of being in bed by 10pm a few months ago.  Crawl into bed the second the kids are asleep- average time? 7:30.