D-Day: What News From Gondor?

My dad keeps asking me "What news from Gondor?" but what he's really asking is "Any sign of baby?" At least he's creative about it, right? haha

Today I check into the hospital. I'm excited, I'm nervous, I'm tired, but I'm ready. I cannot wait to meet my son and hold him in my arms. Tyson cannot wait to be a daddy and have me return to a state of semi-normality. To pass the time last night, Tyson and I had Cafe Rio tostadas for dinner and watched "Ocean's Eleven" and "Star Trek". Would you believe I picked both of those movies? Tyson told me I could pick any movie I wanted and those are the two I picked. I asked him if that was okay and he told me it was. He got lucky. I was going for distraction but I could've picked "Return to Me" or "Pride and Prejudice" and then he would've been sorry.

Today is also the first day of our new church meeting time. Instead of 2:30pm we now meet at 8:30am. Cruel, cruel world. Tyson and I decided I should try to sleep as much as possible so church wasn't going to happen this morning. But since I'm up, alert, and anxious, church will be good for me. I love going to church and this will help set the mood for the craziness we're about to embark in. I don't think my hospital has wireless internet so I don't know if I'll be able to post an update once we're there. Y'all may just have to wait for me to give birth and come home. I know...that seems unbearable...but I am confident you'll be just fine.

Lullaby Baby Boy

Recently I have started singing lullabies to my baby while I'm in the shower. I know that sounds sort of weird but it helps me not feel so upset that my baby boy is still in my tummy and not in my arms. The two I sing most frequently are "Baby Mine" from Dumbo and "Moonshine Lullaby" from Annie Get Your Gun. Now, "Moonshine Lullaby" is, in fact, about moonshine and I do not condone such activities but it's an awesome song with a beautiful melody. I decided that my baby will care more about me singing to him and rocking him rather than the fact that I'm singing about illegal homemade alcohol. "Baby Mine" is a very tender song and it is so tender that it frequently makes me cry. In the shower. It's sort of pathetic. I just sort of rock side-to-side and sing and imagine holding my baby soon and the words just really get to me. Honestly, this song has always touched a spot in my heart and for years I refused to listen to it. Why I suddenly decided that singing it to my unborn son in the shower was a good idea, I'll never know.
I thought I would post a little video of the songs so y'all could enjoy them as well.

Last Day

Today is sort of a surreal day for me. By this time tomorrow I should be in the hospital getting set up to have a baby. Today is my last day as a no-child person. I feel like I should be doing something exciting before having this baby but I really don't know what I could do. I guess I should probably clean the fish tank. And put my clean clothes away so my room is clean. Finishing up the dishes isn't a bad idea either but somehow I feel like it isn't enough. 
The anticipation is driving me crazy. It's driving Tyson crazy too. Can you tell? Well, at least one of us gets to sleep. One out of two ain't bad.
I want to get out of the house and do stuff but there's nothing left to do! When my family was in town we saw every movie we could. We even saw Captain America twice, which, I have decided, was not a good idea as I dreamed about Old Man Stark that night. Weird.
Anyways, I'm feeling incredibly weird today and wishing it could be Monday already and wishing my baby boy were here and wishing my dishes would do themselves magically and wishing my family didn't live so dang far away and wishing I knew what would help calm my nerves.
And that's a lot of wishing.

Happy Birthday Jane!

 Today is Jane's 18th birthday! Happy Birthday, Jane! For her special day, we all got together and ate lunch, ate cake, and played Killer Bunnies. Yesterday I asked Jane what she wanted to eat for lunch and she said Mac & Cheese. So that's what we made her. FIVE BOXES of Mac & Cheese. We didn't eat nearly all of it so Tyson put the extras in a Ziploc and we sent it home with her. I have no idea if she'll actually eat it, but at least it won't be sitting in my fridge.
Jane invited a friend from home, Stacy, and her new roommate, Bella, from Washington. Do you think she gets teased about Twilight? I didn't ask. Nelson came too! It's so nice having both of my siblings here in town. I like it.
Tyson made Jane a yellow cake and I frosted it with chocolate frosting, per her request. I love sprinkles so I added some and then I found some green sparkly gel and wrote "Happy Birthday Jane!" on her cake, although you couldn't really read it since there were many, many sprinkles. The cake was moist and delicious. YUM. We even sang to her and had her blow out 18 candles. My dad told me to pinch her...you know..."A pinch to grow an inch" but I forgot. Guess she'll always be one inch shorter than her older sister...MUAHAHAHAHA!!
I'm glad that we got to do this for Jane. It's fun having siblings around to feed and play games with. You know, if my baby comes on Sunday my family will have birthdays on the 25th, 27th, and 29th. How coincidental is that? Or maybe my baby will be really stubborn and he won't come until September 1 and he'll be the only one with a September birthday. He won't make it that long. Sorry, baby.
Anyways, so here is my birthday post to Jane and pictures to go along with it.
Happy Birthday, Jane! I love you very much!

Stacy, Jane, and Bella

Baby Bump: 30 to 40 weeks

I thought I would post two pictures: baby bump at 30 weeks and baby bump at 40 weeks. I am anxiously engaged in waiting for our baby to make his appearance. In the meantime I am enjoying watching movies, working on setting up the baby book, and trying to keep the house clean. Tyson is busy reading a book so he can finish it before the baby comes and school starts. Two of our favorite people are back in town and we are so happy to have them around again.

Graduation and Maternity Pics

My dear friend Jodi dabbles in photography. I ran into her at the Creamery a few weeks ago and she offered to do some graduation and maternity pictures for me. I love looking at her photography blog and I think she is fantastic. Here is the first graduation pic she has sent me. There's plenty more to come and I cannot wait to see them!

Baby Update

This morning I had my 40 week appointment and nothing has changed from last week. My doctor couldn't even strip my membranes, I'm that not-dilated. He told me that I still could start labor at any moment even though I haven't been having any contractions. He called my hospital and set up a time for me to go in on Sunday evening. If I haven't had the baby by then, I'll go in and they'll start me on Cervidil, a pill inserted into the cervix to help soften it up. My doctor wants to try this first to see if I will then start having contractions on my own. If the pill does nothing then the hospital will start me on Pitocin Monday morning. Monday is the first day of school for Tyson and that sucks majorly. Yay for attending a family-friendly school, huh?
So even though I am in loads of pain and am not sleeping and feel as nauseated as I did earlier in my pregnancy, I have to wait until Sunday. Can it please be Sunday so I don't lose my mind? Plus my mom is flying home tomorrow morning and I am NOT happy about that at all. I will continue to think happy thoughts but please don't expect me to be a ray of sunshine for the next few days.

Am I Done Yet?

Tomorrow is my due date. Huzzah. Actually, my due date means nothing. NOTHING.


DISCLAIMER: This post is full of the rantings of an extremely pregnant woman. If you do not wish to know the details of dilation, effacement, or exactly why I do not sleep at night, please do not continue reading. If you are already a mother, these things probably don't faze you at all so please, keep reading as I could use all the advice and/or consolation I can get. Cheers.


I have been having zero contractions and I don't feel any premonition of labor. Do you have any idea how irritating that is? I had been telling myself that this baby would come early so that I would be unable to walk at my graduation which was on August 12. Well, it's now the August 21 and I am still pregnant. 
The only good thing about still being pregnant this week is that my friend Jodi offered to take maternity/graduation pictures of me. We did the photo shoot Tuesday evening and it was so much fun. Kind of silly, though, to have a pregnant girl taking photos of another pregnant girl. My mom was taking pics on her camera and got this great one of Jodi laying on her stomach taking a picture of me laying on my back. We look fairly ridiculous but it's totally awesome. I can't wait to see how the pictures turned out!
I had my 39 week appointment on Thursday and the doctor checked to see if I was any more dilated or effaced from last week. At my 38 week appointment, I was 1/2 cm dilated and not effaced at all. This week I was 1 cm dilated and 80% effaced. 80%!! I asked my doctor what that meant and she said that my cervix is very thin so WHEN contractions start and become fairly regular, I need to get to the hospital 'cause this baby is gonna come fairly quickly. Awesome. Do you know what else that means? That means that my contractions are going to be evil since that is what makes a cervix dilate. Contractions. So unless my contractions have been happening incognito (HA), labor is going to be fast and furious. Which I guess is good? I don't know. I would rather have the option of having an epidural than being forced into a natural birth. We'll see, I guess. Nothing seems to be happening though.
I have spent a few hours at the Provo Rec Center pool this week walking laps. It feels so great to be in the water and not feel all the weight on the baby. Getting out of the pool is a cruel trick of nature and I hate it.
Also, the past two nights I have been sleeping worse than I ever have. Most nights I fall asleep quickly and then have to get up once or twice to use the restroom. Fairly common pregnancy stuff, right? Well the past two nights I have been unable to sleep, woken up to either almost puking or intense heartburn, and I have to use the restroom four or five times. Friday night I was also dealing with restless leg syndrome and that was pretty terrible. Needless to say I am sufficiently ready for this baby to get here.
My family has been in town from California since my graduation. We all had been hoping I would have the baby sometime this past week before my parents and youngest sister had to leave. Well, my dad and little sister are presently driving home to California since she is having her wisdom teeth out and my dad has to go back to work. My mom is staying here until Thursday but then she has to go home and take care of my sister while my dad goes back to work. I am really upset by the idea that my mom could be on a plane when I go into labor.
I asked my doctor about inductions and she said that the hospital won't allow it until I am 41 weeks pregnant. That would be August 29. If any of you know anything about BYU, you will know that August 29 is the first day of Fall semester. While I am no longer a student, Tyson still is. Also, his mom is a middle school teacher and she starts teaching again that week so she wouldn't be free to come down either. The nice thing about BYU is that most of the professors are really forgiving when it comes to things like babies. Mormons like babies. I want to have this baby like...oh, I don't know, TODAY so that things can be calmed down a bit before Tyson has to go back to school. That would suck horribly if I made it that far. Luckily, my mom promised me that whenever I have my baby she will be back here as soon as possible and that my dad and sister will come visit over Labor Day weekend. Labor Day. They loved that. It's like a joke!
I am thrilled that my brother and other sister are both students at universities here in town so that at least they'll be here whenever the baby comes.
Okay, this post has been exceedingly long and probably TMI for most of you who read it and I apologize for that. Everyone pray that I go into labor today and have this baby!!

Job Update

I am officially on maternity leave seeing as how my due date is Monday. I thought I would give an update on my new job. 
I LOVE IT!
The best part of my job is getting to see all my old professors. They are marvelous people and they make me feel so wonderful. Example: Tuesday I was sitting at my computer working on a poster for the mandatory orientation meeting in September when my first editing professor walked by the department office. He smiled politely and kept walking. Then, realizing I was not the old secretary, he doubled back and with the biggest smile said, "Oh! It is you! I read the memo and knew it had to be you!" Honestly, I didn't think this professor had liked me all that much when I took his class, but I guess he did and does like me! Our department secretary told him that I would be going on maternity leave and there would be a girl filling in for me while I was gone. She also told him about my application being lost and how she tried to hire a few other people but it never worked out. He said, "Well, it's all worth it to have Denise." How sweet is that?!
I can't tell you have wonderful these people make me feel. The department secretary gave me a call one evening just to check up on me and see if I was having my baby. She is so lovely and patient with me. This last week has been torture and she was very understanding and concerned about my health. It is wonderful to feel like my co-workers want me around and that the faculty are glad to have me there. It's a bonus that I get to see Professor Oaks and chat with him. He came in earlier this week and we all ended up talking about dating rules and how dating has changed from when he was a teen. It was super fun, just like being back in one of his classes.
I am sad to be on maternity leave with no baby to show for it, but I cannot wait to get back to work and know that I'll be returning to an enjoyable job with fabulous people.

Student Job #3 (Sort of)

I have worked for BYU Continuing Education (Job 1) for two-and-a-half years. Yup. Long time. In April I started working as a student editor for the Humanities Publication Center at BYU (Job 2). As most of you know, I am graduating from BYU on Friday. HALLELUJAH! However, this means that I will lose Job 1 and Job 2 since I won't be a student anymore. BUMMER. 
For the past few months I have been searching everywhere for a job that I could do with a newborn at home and a husband in school full-time and working part-time. Let me tell you, it wasn't easy. I applied just about everywhere I could think of including Costco, Home Depot, and putting labels on bottles for a local health store. Yeah. I applied for that, too. I applied for some full-time and some part-time jobs. I was hoping to NOT get a full-time job because I really would like to be home with my baby. Crazy, right? Well, BYU had a few jobs that I applied for but I wanted one in particular. I applied for a part-time secretary position in the Linguistics and English Language Department which just happens to be the department I am graduating from. I love my major dearly. I mean, seriously. We have the BEST faculty and am just not quite ready to say "Peace out!" to all those amazing people. So I applied for the job, took the Office Skills tests, and waited to hear from someone.
A week went by and I hadn't heard anything. I took a chance and emailed the department secretary just to make sure they had seen my application. She said she wanted to interview me but that she couldn't find my application. Huh? Luckily she set up an interview with me anyway and contacted the employment office to find out what the heck was going on. I met with her yesterday morning and I was pretty nervous. I really wanted that job. We chatted for a bit and she says "Well, I want to hire you right now." Okay! 
Only problem is that I am currently employed as a student (Jobs 1 and 2) and I can't get out of those until the 20th because I have to work Education Week. Turns out, you can't have a staff and student job at the same time. So, what to do? I got hired as a student (Job 3) until my other jobs end and then I'll be switched to staff. I even get to have an A Lot sticker for parking! Woo! She knows I'm pregnant (at 37 1/2 weeks it's hard to miss) and knows I'll need time off and she said that was totally fine. She had my job a long time ago right when she had her first baby and she tried to go back to work after 3 weeks. She said it was a mistake and that I should take as much time as my baby needs. Awesome! I'm hoping that will only be 4 weeks but we'll see, I guess. I start on Monday doing training and I am thrilled to have this opportunity.
She told me that she had tried hiring a few other people but they all had found other jobs. I know that I'm not a perfect person but I try to do my very best everyday. As my friend reminded me last night, the Lord blesses those who are obedient. My mom says that the Lord is looking out for Tyson and me since we are having a baby and trying to be obedient to His commandments. I am grateful for this new job and for the chance I have to help out my family and still be home with my baby for most of the day.

37 weeks. Ta-da.

Today is Wednesday which makes me 37 weeks and 3 days pregnant. Ta-da. You may note the lack of enthusiasm which accompanies that "ta-da" and trust me, it's for dang good reason. Mostly because Utah is hot and I feel like an oven and one can only walk around wearing so little clothing. I have taken to wearing skirts and t-shirts since they seem to keep me cooler.


Here I am at 37 weeks exactly. I think I don't even look like me anymore. I look at my face and say to myself, "Self, who is that round-faced girl in the mirror?" And I say back, "I have no idea self. Her chin and jaw have disappeared."

And here I am at 37 weeks and 3 days. 

I had a doctor's appointment today but they didn't check me since I haven't had any contractions at all. I'm actually shocked that I haven't had this baby already. I was convinced he would come early and then I wouldn't be able to walk at my graduation. He must be really cozy in there 'cause he's not coming in the next week. Or at least that's what my doctor says.

My next appointment is next Thursday morning, a few hours before Convocation. I don't know who will be speaking but I should probably go since it'll probably be an apostle. I hope they check me next week because I don't want to go into labor next Friday, the day I am supposed to actually walk for graduation. Maybe this baby is just gonna sit tight until the very end of the month when school starts back up for Tyson. That'd be just swell.

Only new news is that my blood pressure keeps going up. Nothing to be worried about yet. Today's pressure was 131/89 and last week was something/83. My doctor said that if it goes above something/90, then we have to run tests and they'll probably make me go to the hospital overnight and maybe put me on bedrest. I think it's just too dang hot and my blood is starting to boil, in a non-metaphorical sense. Other good news: no Group B Strep. This means I will not be on antibiotics during labor.

I am still job hunting and Tyson is still working hard before school starts. He's taking some intense classes so I've been trying to get him into a Humanities 202 class with the same professor I had in the Spring. My professor was marvelous and we wouldn't have to buy new books. Finally, today, after weeks of checking the registration site at least 10 times a day, a spot opened up and I got Tyson into that class. HUZZAH!! We are still working on his Writing class and some of the exercise classes he wants but I was mostly worried about that Humanities class. Done and done.

Oh, all our wedding thank-yous are officially done as are the baby shower thank-yous. Bam!

Christmas in August

It has been quite a while since I posted last. Sorry. Tyson and I have been very busy with family reunions, missionary farewells, baby showers, and getting ready for the baby. Yesterday marked the beginning of my 37th week so Baby Remy is officially full-term. Tyson and I also had our first official FHE yesterday. Official because we sang a song and had a prayer and a spiritual thought. It was intense. Our activity was to set up our new budgeting system: the envelope system.
I had heard about this from one of my friends but Tyson is the one who decided we should give it a try. Basically, you pull out a bunch of money from the bank and the beginning of the month. You then divide it into envelopes labeled different things like Groceries, Tithing, or Fuel. Your goal for the month is to not spend more than what is in the envelope. We are going to try and make this work and I will report on its success (or failure) sometime in the future.
We have a jar in our room where we keep all our spare change. This is a great thing to do because after a few months you can count all your coins like Scrooge and feel a bit richer. Yesterday we counted up our change monies and we had $70 plus a bit. That is a lot of change!

We decided that we would use this money to start saving for our Christmas gift to each other: 2012 Season Passes to the Hale Center Theater in Orem. YAY! I didn't even have to twist Tyson's arm about this. The 2012 season is going to be awesome. Seriously. Here are the shows: The 39 Steps, Xanadu, The Secret Garden, Crazy for You, Arsenic and Old Lace, and a Rodgers and Hammerstein production that can't tell us until January 2012 but using my amazing detective skills I've decided it must be South Pacific. AWESOME SHOWS. I am particularly excited about The 39 Steps and Crazy for You.
Anyway, season passes are $95/person plus a $3 processing fee. After setting aside all that change and then adding in our saved up fun money we had all the money we needed to get our passes! Tyson really wants to show up at the theater with $70 in change and make them count it but I think we'll make a stop at the bank and pick up some coin rolls instead. I am very proud of the pair of us. We love going to the theater and these passes will be a great date night pretty much once a month for the next year. We wouldn't have done it if we didn't want to see all the shows. I am so grateful for a husband who plans ahead and looks out for our theatrical future :)
Another bonus of paying off our Christmas gifts now is that we have still budgeted ourselves fun money every month. What does that mean? We don't have to worry about saving it for Christmas! I can save up mine and get a bike trailer, or a gym membership, or new shoes, or maybe we'll just end up spending it all on diapers for Baby Remy. Either way, we're feeling pretty dang savvy right about now. Maybe I'll get Tyson a Euro scarf to wear to the theater :) Just kidding!