The Final Countdown!!

Well, so much for August, Ha! I must be getting ready to have a baby because I haven't posted for a while!  The most exciting thing that has happened since last month is that my platelet count has actually been improving!  As a frame of reference Normal Platelets range from 150-400.  At my very first appointment back in January I was at 148, and throughout the months dropped to as low as 94.  However, my last two appointments showed I was up to 109 and then 110 a week later.  Still not fabulous, but the Doc thinks if we're over 100 (depending on the anesthesiologist of course) we'll get the ok to get an epidural!  Please keep us in your thoughts and prayers just in case though ;)  At my most recent appointment (Aug 29^th) the doctor actually asked us if we wanted to induce labor on Labor Day!  After going home and thinking things through, we decided it would be better to wait it out another week, so we hope that’s the right decision for our family.  In our minds we’ve been aiming to go into labor after the due date (Sept 7th) to coordinate with our work schedules, yes this probably sounds selfish, but because I’ve had my mind set on not going into labor as long as I can, I wasn’t emotionally ready to have the baby as early as Labor day…. Which looking at it now seems funny because in reality the baby could come at any minute anyway.  Long story short, if I don’t go into labor before my due date, I’ll probably be induced Monday or Tuesday night next week!  

39 Weeks 

In other news the past couple weeks were all about getting as many things done on my "to-do list" as possible!  Some of the things I was able to accomplish were: Going to the Temple, going to lunch with the Southwick Sisters, going to my baby showers, washing and organizing gifts and clothes from said showers, packing my hospital bag, figuring out insurance, and updating this blog, haha!!  I'm actually feeling pretty prepared thanks to the friends and family who have helped me out!  Other than that life is great and John and I are excited to become parents!  Be excited for hospital stories and baby updates coming soon!!!  5 days till due date  CRAZY!! 

Sarah and John

Getting Organized

                            

                                                     Hospital Ready... I hope! 

     

32 and 1/2 week apt.

So my last appointment was in the middle of July and the doctor said everything is looking good!  John and I reminded her that I had gone to talk to the "Blood Specialist" so she left the room to go grab the results he had sent over.  As soon as she was gone, the first thing out of John's mouth was, "So...remember how she's pregnant, too?"  I thought he was kidding because I hadn't noticed anything, but sure enough when she came back, I realized she totally is!!!  I must be a little self absorbed or something, because I had no idea till that moment.  I thought about asking how far along she was, but I didn't want it to get awkward... maybe I will at my next apt.  Anyway when she got back she told me I probably have Gestational Thrombocytopenia aka platelets getting low during pregnancy.  I guess it happens in about 8% of pregnancies.  Again I asked if there was anything I can do about it and she said no, but then she stated "but if your platelet count is too low the day you go into labor, we won't be able to give you an epidural."  WHAT?!?!?!  That was something the specialist failed to mention.  The shock on my face was probably priceless and the most entertaining part of my doctors day.  She then went on to explain that my platelets have always been above the cutoff, so I shouldn't worry too much, but to plan on going natural just in case that's what ends up having to happen.... Great....  To look on the bright side, at least I know now that it could happen, so I'm more mentally prepared.  Plus I do know people who have done it before, so I'm sure I would survive "going natural".... but I really don't want to!!!!  Anyway Long story short please pray for my platelets to stay at a good level.  They'll be drawing my blood again in about two weeks to check my levels, so we'll hope they've gone up instead of down!!

In other news, I'm still working at America First.  However, I knew I wouldn't be able to make things work to return to a 40 hr position after maternity leave.  So... after weeks of dragging my feet, I finally applied to a 30 hr position at a branch that's a little closer to home.  I will be starting at the new branch on Aug. 5th!!!  I'm actually pretty nervous, because I've been at the same branch for just under 2 and 1/2 years, so it's pretty much all I know, but how different could a new branch be...?  Right?  Oh well it'll all work out hopefully...  At least I'll have experience under my belt, that's for sure.

As for John, he is doing well.  He still works at IMC in the heart and lung building.  He enjoys what he does and has even learned how to do Tele-Tech (watching the heart monitors and making sure the patients rhythms are normal) and HUC (Scanning/Ordering prescriptions and other paperwork for the doctors).  This gives him a little more variety in the work place.  I can't believe he's almost been there an entire year now!! (I think he started August 6th 2012).

Anyway sorry for the long, wordy post.  Hope you enjoyed it if you made it this far!!  I'll try to post again after my next appointment :)

The month of June

The month of June sure flew by quickly!  Things have been going well with my pregnancy, and I had 3 different doctor appointments during the last month.  The first was my glucose blood test to see if I had Gestational Diabetes.  That part of the test came back negative, but when they drew my blood, they did notice that both my Iron and Platelets were low.  So right now I'm taking Iron supplements everyday.  As for the platelets, I went and talked to a specialist at IMC, and the only thing the Doctor really had to say was "They're low, but now low enough to worry."  I also asked him if there's anything I can do about it, and he just scoffed and said "No."  So that's, that.  We also decided to do a Fetal Echo for the baby, just to make sure everything was ok with her heart.  All the results came back looking good and so we don't need to worry about that!!  Overall the pregnancy is going great.  I've notice my hands and ankles are starting to swell, but there's nothing really to complain about there.  The heat on the other hand has started taking its toll, but luckily I work in a nice Air Conditioned building, so I'm comfortable most of the time.  

26 Weeks

28 Weeks

30 Weeks

For work, I helped throw a summer social for the staff.  We just had a BBQ in one of my co-worker's back yards and played water balloon volleyball, regular volleyball, had a pinata, and socialized.  In June, I also had the opportunity to go to part of our wards youth conference.  The youth were challenged to read the Book of Mormon live in 3 days, so it was a neat experience for a lot of them.  I only went on the last day, but it was pretty great because we got to read about Jesus coming to the America's and all those other great chapters at the end of the Book of Mormon.  It was interesting because some of the chapters they took turns reading, other parts they acted out, and some of the more popular sections were assigned to designated readers.  It basically felt like a huge read-a-thon...well a spiritual read-a-thon, haha.   As for John, he's been trying to work more hours since he doesn't have school this summer! When he's not at work you can probably find him Bowling with his brothers, Kyle and Brian.  It's fun for him to be able to hang out with them when I'm not around, plus he sure loves to bowl and they get to bowl one free game a day because Kyle's still in High School.  John also got summoned for jury duty during the month of June!  It was kind of stressful just because every time he called in to get the schedule they would tell him to call back the next day around 7.  Finally he was able to go and only ended up having to stay for a couple hours because they didn't choose him to be on the jury.  So that was kind of nice that he got paid just to go to the court for a couple hours!  Other than that, life is good for us!!  I'm now at 30 weeks along, so we're excited to meet our daughter here in about two months!!!  Crazy :)

John and Sarah

Baby pics and St. George!

So.... again it's been a while.  I thought being pregnant would help me blog more, but that hasn't really happened, so rewind back to April :)

John and I both celebrated our birthdays at the beginning of the month, but we didn't really do anything exciting because we're trying to save $$ for the baby, also... we kind of over did it at Christmas, haha.  I didn't even blog about it because of how out of control it was...  Anyway.  For my appointment on April 9th the baby wasn't cooperating all that well to take a peak at the gender.  Luckily after a little while, the doctor was able to get it to roll over to a better position.  The doc told us the baby was most likely a GIRL!!!  She said she was 85% sure, but we would get a better look at the next appointment.      Two weeks later, on April 22nd, the Ultra Sound Tech confirmed that it was indeed a girl and that everything looked normal and healthy.  John asked the tech if the baby looked "Tall" at all, and she actually said that the Femur was measuring a week ahead, so there you go! She also told us "Good job making a healthy baby," I thought that was pretty funny for her to say.  Here are some of the pics from that appointment.  They're also on Facebook, so sorry, nothing too new :)

Before the ultrasound, people kept asking me what I thought the gender was going to be.  I told them I really didn't have any gut feelings, but if I had to guess it would be "boy."   However, on my way to the ultrasound I told John, "Now that I've said 'boy' to so many people, it'll probably end up being a girl."  So I guess I was right in the end, haha!!


During the Month of April, John's Little Brother got home from his mission in Mexico, so it was fun hanging out with the Southwick Clan!  After a couple of weeks, John and I had the opportunity to go to St. George with his Dad and two younger brothers.  It has been a while since we've had any sort of Vacation, so we were pretty stoked!!  While we were down south we swam, shopped, relaxed, played games, watched movies, ate good food, and hiked :)

Boys being silly
(They actually ran up this  hill and John was feeling his heart pumping, so he made the others do the same pose.)

These two went the rest of the way up

Gotta be Color coordinated ;)

I just love the Red Rock!!

We weren't able to get down the mountain before the rain came...  

Hate that my eyes are shut, but still a great pic!

We were pretty soaked by the time we got to the car.... John had fun styling his hair afterwards.  

Overall it was a fun getaway.  We're actually going back in July, so we're looking forward to more family fun!  I guess the only other exciting thing is that I just got called to Young Women!  I'm over the Miamaids, and so far it's been pretty fun.  This is the first time I've been back in YW since I graduated HS, so it's interesting to be on the "Leader Side" instead of being one of the girls.  I still feel pretty shy around them, which sounds silly now that I typed that, but I'm looking forward to spending the summer with the youth!  Peace out!

Big News!!

Well the word is finally out, We’re Pregnant!!!  Baby Southwick is due September 7, 2013.  Today I’m 18 weeks along and we will be finding out the gender this coming Tuesday.  We were supposed to find out on March 27^th, but John wasn’t going to be able to make it, so we pushed it back. 

So far the pregnancy has been pretty easy.  I was probably the most nauseas in January after eating dinner, but I never threw up or anything like that. 

We waited until week 12 to tell anyone we were pregnant and started with family using this little prop.

For John’s dad we actually bought some pickles and ice cream and displayed them on his kitchen counter, but it took him and his little brother Kyle about 10 minutes to even comment about them, haha.  It was pretty funny.

At work I gave these to people during a staff meeting, so that was kind of funny.

Our favorite was this video we posted.  John and I are big fans of the Office, so we really wanted to make this happen. 

Things I've learned about pregnancy that I couldn’t tell anyone about till now!!

-Sometimes you crave Pringles for weeks.  Then when you finally adhere to the craving, you eat half the can and make yourself sick.  Also, whenever you see another can of Pringles, even if you only make “split-second eye contact” with it, you’ll be nauseous for the next three hours.  

Aka Yesterday’s craving is Today’s (and the next 3 week’s) Aversion. 

-When your friends are complaining about birth control, you just nod and try and match their emotions, and then it suddenly hits you that you haven’t had a period in 2 months and you couldn’t be happier about it!

-When people start talking about how they gag when they brush their teeth, you’re trying not to gag while listening to them talk about it!

-You have sudden urges to tell random people that you’re pregnant because although you’re waiting on telling your close friends and family until after the risky weeks are over, you just want people to know already!

-You lie about being prego pretty much every day. 

-You have no control over “bed time.” As soon as you start getting tired there is a dark slippery slope to orneriness and irritability that you can’t get rid of till the next morning.  Also, almost coincidentally, sleeping in is not an option anymore.  You pretty much have to force your body to keep sleeping and you don’t get the satisfaction from it like you once did.  So much for catching up on ZZZzzzz’s!!

Things I’ve craved: Pringles, Doritos, Skittles, Café Rio, Cheeto’s, Rice Crispy Treats, Subway, Chocolate, Oreos, Girl scout cookies, Fries with Fry Sauce, and Cheeseburgers

Halloween & Thanksgiving!

John and I have always wanted to dress up as Lucy and Schroeder for Halloween, 

so we decided to make it a reality this year!

I found this totally awesome dress at DI and fell in love with the 80's vibe it had going on.  However, as beautiful as the masterpiece was, I knew adjustment needed to be made in order for it to 

look more like Lucy's.  

As for "Schroeder's" outfit, John found his shirt on-line and we found black shorts at the mall.  The most difficult item to find was definitely his socks.  We couldn't find good purple ones that matched his shirt, so we settled for a pair at Target.  I was able to borrow my niece's soccer socks, they worked out even better than I imagined!!  

 I'm still sad we didn't get a picture by a Grand Piano  :(  We were in a hurry on Halloween night, but luckily since we own most of the items we can fulfill that dream one day, haha.  I also should have had John take a picture of the back of my out fit.  The dress has an awesome bow secured with velcro, and my hair was pinned up with a matching ribbon :)  It was definitely a Halloween to be remembered.

We hosted Thanksgiving at my Parent's House this year!  It was pretty easy because all of the siblings just brought something to share and it turned out delicious.  

Luckily I didn't have to make the turkey,  my older sister came over early to work on that :)  

John and I made the Mashed Potatoes and a pie!

It was also my future brother-in-law's Birthday on Thanksgiving, so that's why there are random streamers in the background.  It was fun getting to know him and sharing the day with these two!  

They kicked my trash at Scrabble and Yahtzee. I better come up with a new game to play with them. 

Took this pic near the end of the meal.  Most of the Nieces and Nephews were outside playing so we sat around chatting and postponing clean-up ;) 

It wouldn't be a DuPaix Thanksgiving without celery and fake cheese!!

My brother Johnny LOVES eggnog!!  Last year on Christmas eve we did a taste test of various brands and flavors, so we decided to do it again this year!!  I think the Winder Dairy was one of my fav's  :)  

  We are getting ready for a busy Christmas season with Caroling Choir along with our normal jobs.  I didn't want to decorate the house a ton because we are so busy, but knew I had to at least put up a tree.  This one's my parent's tree. maybe next year John and I will finally buy one for us :)  

Last but not least I thought it would be fun to share that my Brother Danny just accepted the Head Football Coach position at West Jordan High School!  John and I were even more excited than some of my other siblings because that's where John went to school :)  We are excited to go to next years games and hope he can help turn the program around and get some wins for the Jaguars!   We're all rooting for him and his family!

6 Month Catch Up!

Obviously it's been a while, so here is a quick recap of the last 6 months!

March: We went to the Midnight showing of Hunger games.  I hadn't read the books when we watched the movie, but had heard the gist from my sisters.  Naturally, as soon as I watched it I wanted to read the books as fast as possible.

April:  John and My Birthday month!  For my birthday we went to Cafe Rio with my parents and with his sisters help, John made me Lemon Bars!  John gave me all of the Harry Potter Movies on Blue-Ray, the first Hunger Games book, and a new i-pod charger.  What a stud.

For John's Birthday I made him "the best cake ever."  I also gave him his favorite cookies, Leatherby's carmel, an iPod car radio converter, and a new tie.  For his dinner we went to Wingers with his cousin Vanessa (whose birthday is right between ours) and watched That Thing You Do.

In April we also went to a cabin with the Southwick's and celebrated Easter.  I'll be honest, I spent a lot of time reading the Hunger Games and John spent a lot of time playing pool.

May:  John and I went on a 7 day cruise to Mexico!!  We stopped in Cabo and Puerto Vallarta and had so much fun just relaxing.  Our favorite parts were probably the dinners, zip-lining, and the fact that half the boat was from Utah. We even saw one of John's old roommates D-Hawk (and we realized that he was on his Honeymoon at the time... awkward, haha)  The cruise left from Long Beach, CA so we were ok driving rather than flying.  We also spent some time in Riverside visiting John's Mission and also couldn't resist a day at Disney Land!

Tips for the next cruise include bring a watch and an extra pair of contacts.  We were so sad to come back to real life after our vacation was over, but were so ready to plan the next one!

June:  So at the end of May my parents left for their mission to the Philippines!!  They will be gone for 18 months and John and I have the blessing of taking care of their house while they're away!  June was when we really moved and settled into our place for the next little while.  There's really not much to say about it now that I'm typing it... but hey it was a big change for us!  Here are some of the family pictures we took before they left!

July:  We had a couple other family get togethers during this month.  First we went to Lagoon with the Southwick's.  John and I love lagoon and we had a blast!  Next we spent a couple night's in Park City with the DuPaix's.  We swam, went on the Alpine Slide, and played a lot of games! This is were John and I learned our new favorite game "Game in a Bowl."  It's basically catch phrase and gestures rolled into one.  It was fun spending lot of time with most of the family!  For Pioneer day we went Camping with John's Dad's side of the family.  It was fun getting to know John's cousins a little better.  Here are some pictures of the camping festivities.

Of course it's not camping without the Ping-Pong Table ;)

Pioneer Games

At the end of July, John's best friend Jeff got married in Texas.  He flew out with another friend and I stayed home and worked :(  He was supposed to take pictures since I wasn't there... but that didn't happen.  So instead here are some quotes from the mouth of John to sum up the trip:

• Car Rental Salesmen Talk for hours just to try and sell you stuff.
• Everything in Texas is actually too small
• "Texas is the Worst"
• You get what you pay for in a cheap Hotel
• There are more Sex shops than Restaurants

August:  Finally right?  Well for most of the Summer John has been working up at This Is The Place helping out mostly with the youth groups, treks, and baby animals.  However, he finally got a new CNA job through IHC at the Intermountain Medical Center in Murray!  He's working in the Cardiovascular Unit and has only been there about a week.  A lot of things still make him nervous, so when he becomes more comfortable and isn't "the new guy" I think he'll like it better.  Of course that's just how new jobs are.  At my job I just became a level 5 which means I'm a "Certified Teller."  Watch out world, here I come!  I'm still liking what I do and love the people I work with :)  Other than that, life is good and I really am going to try and keep up on my blog because as you can tell, this catching up thing ridiculous.  Happy Summer Everyone!!