Part 2

I decided to break the post down because I've had it lose all my pictures or all my text before so better safe than sorry!

So we got to Pocatello Wednesday night. It was a little late already so we didn't do anything except settle in for the night.

One inconvenient little fact was the minute I went on vacation I began having insomnia. I would be surprised if I slept more than 2 hours in a chunk Tuesday night. Wednesday night wasn't much better.

Thursday was the start of the reunion. I had to wait for Jaden to get out of summer school so we didn't make it to Aberdeen till about 1-2. It was good to see pretty much all of my cousins, aunts, uncles, and more. There was something like 70 people there and that can get a little dicey with bathrooms, but I think it worked out well. Stephanie and I ended up staying at my Aunt Irene's so we were at the mercy of someone telling us when things were happening to get over there. However, it was nice to a dedicated bed and bathroom in their cool basement. I also got to visit with my Aunt Irene and Uncle Larry who I also haven't seen in a LONG time and that was really nice.

I don't think a whole lot happened Thursday except we went out on the boat that night with Mark, Chad, Tara, Stephanie, and 4 kids I think. We got out there because the kids wanted to and then they wouldn't even get in! I was so proud of Chad and Tara when they threw them in or allowed their child to be thrown in. That's the way it was when we were kids! Paige handled that the best BTW. Stephanie got to witness a redneck shower at the boat and we got to see this beautiful sunset (at probably 10 PM. It's seriously like Alaska up there and stays light all night long).

Friday I know we had Kira's treasure hunt. I think she was a little worried about people participating but once they got the teams divided and drivers set the competitive side came out of EVERYONE. There were 7 teams I believe and however many you could shove in your car, trunk, etc. Kira had done an amazing job at having each team going for a different clue in a different order so it didn't do a lot of good to follow someone. My Uncle Larry said later that there were Wallaces' all over the place! It's true you'd look down main street and there were cars zipping all over the place. Needless to say, it was a lot of fun.

Cheating at its finest

Friday night was my mom's and Mark's family dinner. I helped with the garlic bread but heard that grandma needed to be relieved of baby duty so I got a few minutes with Boss. I'm not a big baby holder, etc. for other people's babies. I just respect their space and their mom's space to not be all over them. Thankfully my family isn't super touchy feely so I didn't have to deal with stomach touching which I am not ok with. Anyways, I didn't even force Stephanie to take Boss, but she did which meant that I stole a picture.

After dinner was my baby shower thrown by Tara, Jena, Corinne, and Patty. I felt a little guilty, like, you're coming to the reunion so bring a present you have to come to my shower. But it was super cute and I so appreciate them putting it together. There were a ton of presents and I was trying to open them quickly so everyone wasn't sitting there forever! I had so much family there and then friends too. John's mom, sister, stepsister, niece all came. Jamie and Mel, my college roomies were there. Sabrina my little sister, Grandma Connie, Aunt Irene, etc. It was a good turnout and we only duplicated one present!!! I honestly needed everything I got and am super grateful for it. My next project will be working on thank you cards and that may take me a while!!! I even played along and let them tie a ribbon around me. Thankfully I haven't seen any of those pictures. But assuming at least Tara and Jena will read this at some point; it was perfect and I can't tell you how much I enjoyed it!

Saturday for me was sort of another lazy day visiting and hanging out. I know there were some games/activities for the kids we watched and then some more time out on the water. Since I couldn't ski I at least wanted a boat ride. We were finally able to kick enough kids out to get Stephanie, my dad, and I in a boat. We went out and found Mark's boat (we were in Rudy's boat) and got to watch Alex try and drop a ski a few times. That was about it for our ride. We trailed them to catch her ski and then headed back after transferring people between boats.

Hanging out Saturday morning

New best friends

Alex getting ready to drop a ski

Chris ready to go out to the boatdock

Dallas at breakfast

Paige and Connor minute to win it

Lexie after the kids scavenger hunt

We went back to Pocatello Saturday night. Again we didn't do anything, just went home to mom's. Insomnia came back and I slept in 3 different places that night. Sunday went by way to fast. I was headed to John's mom's house to unload presents when my Grandma Connie and Grandpa Len showed up; so we visited with them for a bit and it was good to see them. Then we ran to drop off the presents and got back in time to head to Idaho Falls. We went to lunch at Olive Garden and then the airport. The flight home seemed really long and I was ready to be off the plane. As I get older I think I am becoming more of a home body as I was happy to be home with John and my puppies. But the reunion was so much fun and I really enjoyed seeing everyone. I think we could have had a week long reunion.

In baby news I'm to the point where I go in every 2 weeks. We've got our hospital tour scheduled. I have a few more things I'm supposed to be doing and haven't yet, but I'll get to it. The dr was still happy with my weight and measurements and again brought up my swollen feet. John and I have started going to the pool at his mom's community a few times a week. It's a nice pool and not too far away so it works. It does seem to help. I think I have most of what I need and little bit of stuff that I want before baby comes. Here's a few pictures of some of the loot.

Thank you Jena, Tara, Corinne, Patty, and mom!!!

Wow, just wow.

I love this. Absolutely love it.

John wanted a diaper genie so he was very excited when he opened this.

Basically, I'm just hanging out for the next 9 weeks or so. I tell myself to enjoy the nice parts of pregnancy as this will be my only time, but there is also a part of me that is ready to be done with it and have him here.

Reunion

It's been a few weeks but a lot has happened because we finally had the family reunion! So this post will have lots of pictures! Unfortunately I don't have a cute collage app like Jena to make my pictures all cute. I thought about doing them on my phone app and then putting them here....but I don't care that much :-)

To start with we left Tuesday afternoon. Stephanie decided to come with me so she was my official suitcase lifter-upper. It was a little difficult for me to pack because I had two helpers who didn't think I needed to pack clothes.... just them.

The plan was to fly to Idaho Falls and have John's mom pick us up and head to Island Park for the night. I haven't been up there in probably 8-10 years. I hadn't seen their new cabin and I forgot how much I like it up there. Of course, it had to be super hot up there when I was hoping it would be cooler!

Upstairs bedroom

Downstairs bathroom

Loft

Upstairs bathroom

Kitchen/dining/living room

master bathroom

The cabin

Kim and Lester's cabin. Had to go see it with the updates they've made.

We only had the day Wednesday and since I can't really hike or ride 4-wheelers right now we decided to drive into Yellowstone since we were so close. We didn't get an early start and we knew we'd be pushed for time but we had to make do with what we had. Before we headed to West we went over by Kim and Lester's so I could see the cabin without the front porch, etc. It looked really good. We also went by Johnny Sack cabin to see the fish and where John and I took our engagement pictures 13 years ago!!

Stephanie and I were going to climb out there and recreate it.... but decided that wasn't the best idea so we settled for a picture near the same place.

I was surprised by how busy the park was being a Wednesday and it was hot. We stopped and say some of the geysers and paint pots then headed to Old Faithful. We timed it about perfect to grab some lunch and then watch Old Faithful. Then we headed a different direction to look for animals. It was pretty uneventful on the animal front, but just before we left the park we did see 2 elk and a baby. Add that to the deer I spotted on our way up to IP the night before we were doing ok on the animal spotting.

The Tetons headed up to Island Park

Yellowstone

Elk

Old Faithful

After a full day in the park we headed back to grab our stuff and head to Pocatello. I wanted to go by Mesa Falls anyways, but because of road construction it made it more of an excuse to go that way home. So we stopped at Mesa Falls on our way down the hill.

I got that last photo as we were driving almost to Ashton. In person it was actually a bit more yellow on the crops but it still turned out pretty. We were almost to Pocatello when we saw one of the two animals we didn't see in Island Park. In the middle of the field there was a moose. He was just hanging out and it was sort of funny to just see him there.

28 weeks.... 7 months?

The living room of the cabin

bedroom 2

main bathroom

master bath

kitchen and dining room

master bedroom

front porch

The creek right outside the cabin

Piper. She showed us her tricks

Playing dominoes

We stopped at Saguaro lake on the way home

John posing when we went for for a walk around the resort

I've been working this out in my head. I am 28 weeks which divide that by 4 is 7 so 7 months. But I have 12 weeks left. I know my doctor went over this with me but it's sort of deceptive.

Anyways, I'm officially in my third trimester. I'm gearing up for a long 12 weeks as our Monsoon season has started and kicked the humidity up with the heat.

I passed my glucose test, my doctor says I'm measuring right on, and he said my weight gain till now is really good. I wasn't as happy with my weight the last 4 weeks but I also eat basically anything I want so I can't complain too much. I have yet to have any real cravings or weird stuff like dirt and stuff.

Baby seems to like my right side and get up into my ribs a bit over there. Sleeping isn't the easiest as I still haven't mastered the pillow between your legs thing and my hips start to hurt and my arms all go numb. I get the most pain when I sneeze in the car. It must be the position of the seat with the sneeze that will get the ligaments just right and it'll hurt for a few minutes afterwards. The only concern brought up was swelling and he's right my legs were really swollen. Hard to keep them up at a desk job but this weekend I've kept them up a lot along with some pool time which helped a TON. I'm interested to see how they do on the plane on Tuesday.

That's about it baby wise....

Let's see in other happenings.... there was a small shower with some friends from bunco and in the ward about a month ago. We did brunch and opened gifts. I don't think John and I did a whole lot for a couple of weekends.... then last weekend we went to Payson!

We went up Friday after work and got there about 730. We had a deluxe cabin and it's basically a 2 bedroom, 2 bath house with a full kitchen. It was a nice resort and nice cabin right by the creek. Saturday we went into town and wandered a few stores. There's not a whole lot to see in town but we got some delicious fudge and met Piper, the cutest little chihuahua ever! We spent the afternoon relaxing and playing dominoes outside. Sunday we headed home and stopped at Saguaro lake on the way home.

Since the 4th just passed ... Stephanie and I went to the Phoenix Art Museum Friday morning for the Hollywood costume exhibit. It was really cool. Then we went to the mall for quick stop. Then we went over to Stephanie and Bart's for some burgers, hanging out, and pool time. Saturday John and I didn't do much of anything until the afternoon where we went to Scottsdale to the nice theater to see Tammy with Stephanie and Bart and then to Lolo's for dinner. Sunday was a pretty lazy day as well. Ran some errands, etc. The power went out about 4:30 and since it doesn't take long for the house to get too hot for me we went out for dinner and some ice cream. Oh yeah, and Thursday night we had to make a run over to John's parents because the alarm went off. Our first Monsoon storm set it off.

This was my after yoga treat the other night

This was a few weeks ago when I couldn't sleep. My baby is a good cuddler at 5 AM.

This is coming up this week. Should be fun!

I think this was 27 weeks. I got a bunch of compliments that day so I took a picture. I promise it's just the color and angle.

We have mice. This was me trying to find the traps at the store.

24 Weeks

Ok, I'm not actually 24 weeks YET, but I will be on Thursday. I figure as the '6 month mark' I will try and put down some happenings.

I have to say the past about 3 weeks have gone by VERY slowly but on the flip side I feel like I've felt REALLY good. It's the first time I feel like I've felt really good since I found out. The anxiety has pretty much gone away because I can feel the baby and I've just felt pretty good overall.

That being said, I feel like that time is coming to an end. Besides now being consistently over 100 degrees everyday there are some days I feel fine. Some days I still wear normal clothes, wear my wedding ring, have energy, etc. Other days it's the opposite. I feel huge, my toes feel like they're going to pop, I'm exhausted, and so on.

Just in the last week or so this little booger has really started to move; or I've been able to feel him. It quite entertains me at work for several hours each day. Not too long ago I was able to get John to feel him as well. I sort of wondered if he really felt it or just said he did, but his reaction was pretty funny so he probably did feel it.

I was afraid for a bit about sleeping because I spent a weekend with some horrible insomnia. I don't know if I was just hot or uncomfortable or what, but (knock on wood) that seems to have stopped. Couple that with the continuing violent dreams I've had during pregnancy night time is a coin flip. Sorry to all the people I've killed in my dreams (except the ones who were beating my dogs; they deserved it). I am not sold on a body pillow or not. I tried a regular pillow and that doesn't last. I just toss and turn to much to drag a pillow around with me.

Oh and my last issue. I don't like pregnancy boobs. My boobs aren't even that big I don't think but I do not like them. Supposedly during the second trimester is when they're supposed to explode but maybe not?

Otherwise, I'm just taking it day by day and trying to get through the hotness. I'm excited for some of the fun stuff we have coming up like the cabin the end of the month, Idaho in July, Jersey Boys in August and who knows what else.

Stephanie and I in Toon Town

Huntington Beach. Yep that's my finger

Under the pier

John and I at dinner after Splash Mountain trying to dry off!

John

I decided to do another post because I was at the doctor with John today. He has been sick for the past week or so and we decided he should go to the doctor to make sure everything is ok. I hate that he hasn't felt well but the doctor says it's viral and we have to let it run its course. John said something while we were there though that got me thinking.

I've said this before during this pregnancy but now I'm going to put it in writing. I think it's harder a guy to grasp a pregnancy because they don't feel the changes or anything like that until later in the pregnancy. (I'm pretty sure when I'm feeling the baby now, but it's not something he can/has felt yet). Well there have been a few times in the past 22 weeks where things have happened and the worry and concern has been on the baby but everytime John's concern has been me. He worries about how I feel, if I'm ok, etc. Even today at his doctor he is worried about me getting sick. I can't say how much I appreciate his concern and how he's been so far in this adventure. I hope that I haven't been too bad throughout this whole thing.

Now just an update on the past few weeks. We found out we are having a boy and John and I are very happy about that; we'd hoped for a boy. My mom and dad came down for the weekend and the ultrasound. I hope they had a good time and we enjoyed having them here and being with us when we found out. I had an appointment with my doctor right after and he said everything is going well. I was right on my last post and my no weight gain was over. He had me at a 2 lb gain. Oh well, I'll take it and blame it on being in California 5 days before.

We did go to California the week before. I had a blast. We went to Harvey's in Chino Hills, the beach at Huntington Beach, Roscoe's, and Disneyland. I think I did okay at Disneyland. The only ride I went on that I felt I shouldn't have was the Matterhorn everything else I went on that I wasn't supposed to I felt fine about. I think there was only one time that I needed to sit down for a little bit aside from what we were already doing. If I had downloaded the pictures I would add some, but they are still on my phone.

That's about it! Just trying to figure out how to get through the next few months of heat! I am really excited since we've booked the 2 bedroom deluxe cabin up near Payson towards the end of June.

Musings

Jena said now that I'm pregnant I have to restart my blog. I don't know about that yet, but there are some things I wanted to write down before I forget them so why not....

Right now I'm 18 weeks and 5 days. In some ways I don't feel pregnant at all and in some ways I do a lot. I feel like my appetite has come back to a much more normal level. I still wake up every night to go to the bathroom. This has been since the very beginning; I'm sure it's only going to get worse. I am tired. A lot. Not quite as bad as the first trimester but many days I get home from work and I can barely keep my eyes open. Sleeping isn't the most fun thing because I like to sleep on my back and stomach; both of which I'm told not to do. Sleeping on my back makes my back hurt and on my stomach lasts for about 30 minutes before it hurts that way too. Oh, it's also about a million degrees here. It's been very warm very early for us which is not good for me. I tried several times to keep running but that just wasn't going to happen and may have been part of the reason at week 15 I ended up at the doctors and having an unplanned ultrasound; so I have stopped that. My last 'complaint' is either sitting too much at work or my chair. I'm not sure which is the problem but I get pretty uncomfortable from either my work chair or not moving around enough at work. I need to just get up and stand and stretch a little but I've had to double cover a lot and that keeps me busy where I forget.

All of these things are really little and I realize that. This has not been a 'difficult' pregnancy. I haven't enjoyed being pregnant though and here is why, I think. For 11 years there have been no false alarms, no miscarriages, no anything. I've been told by multiple doctors that I would have to pursue fertility treatments to get pregnant. On top of that for easily 10-12 years I have had girl issues ongoing, every time I went to the doctor, etc. I can say this now, that thankfully about 2 years or so ago my problems got worse which led me to a therapist trying to find out if this was more than a medical issue. Thank you to this therapist she wanted me to get a second opinion and referred me to the best doctor and staff ever, Dr. Brooks. He is the only doctor since I was 18 that listened. He talked me through a lot of frustrations and didn't give up and we went through a lot of different treatments to finally get me to a point where I could say I was okay. So having spent 10+ years feeling out of control and frustrated with my body I was finally to a point where I knew what was going on. I recognized when things were okay and when they weren't. Well..... throw in pregnancy and I am not in control of my body again and I don't know what is going on and I don't know if it's right or normal. Put that on top of being completely blown away to even be pregnant and not entirely believing it means that there is a lot of wondering and worrying about things. There is a need for a lot of reassurance that only seems to come once a month when my doctor listens to the heartbeat or at an ultrasound. So that is why I am not a fan of being pregnant.

Now supposedly I should be feeling 'flutters'. What the hell is a flutter? I've googled it, I've asked people, and everyone has a different answer. I think everyone just calls a flutter what they think a flutter is and no one really knows if it is or if it isn't. (See my above comment about wanting reassurance. This 'flutter' crap is not offering that because I don't know if I'm feeling a flutter or gas).

I'm debating how long I want this post to be... but since it's really just for me.... who cares. Going back to when I first found out. I didn't even take a test for about 3 weeks because it wasn't unusual for me to be late back in the pre-Dr. Brooks days.... but it was Friday February 7th that I decided if I wasn't going to make a dr. appointment I would at least take a test. What really pushed me over the edge was that morning we were at the gym, 5 AM, and I started crying on the treadmill. I mean I was listening to Chris Mann..... who is so amazing you could cry, but I don't normally cry in the morning for no reason. So Friday night John gets home from work and I show him the positive test. Thankfully I'd had about 2 hours before hand to get the crying, hyperventilating, freak out over with. Well there is nothing longer than a weekend when you can't get into a doctor, can't even make an appointment until Monday morning. The doctor I wanted to go to couldn't get me in for a week and a half so I found another doctor that could see me that day because John had gone into an "until it's official" stance. I wasn't impressed with the doctor's office and honestly she freaked me out when she said she only wanted me to gain 10-15 lbs during the pregnancy. Thankfully I was referred to another doctor who I have really liked and seems much more realistic and approachable. I am happy to say though, that up to 18 weeks I hadn't gained any weight. I think that's out the window now, but I was feeling pretty good about myself. I'm still wearing all my regular clothes, which I like as well, but I'm not sure how much longer that will last.

We have the appointment set for May 9th to find out gender. That will be fun. We've interviewed 4-5 daycares and I've called many more. I think we have a decent idea of what direction we're headed there. I've thoroughly researched my works maternity leave which is AWFUL. At least we know now so we can hopefully prepare for it financially. I've also decided there will be no pregnancy pictures of me. I will not be taking a mold of my stomach, I will not be having a photo shoot with me and a fat stomach...nope not going to happen. I have made the request to have a picture of the baby and my puppies when the time comes. That's all I want. I guess that's about it for now.