Mothers day, NCLEX, St. George, and Baby Prep!!

May was an exciting month starting out with Mother's day!  John got me some pretty earrings and made me breakfast :)  John also spent a lot of time putting in a new faucet for our kitchen sink (that had the worst water pressure imaginable) which subsequently fixed our dishwasher!!  Praise the lord.  You never know how grateful you are for a dishwasher until it breaks... I'm a lucky girl.  We also enjoyed having dinner with my mom and siblings and then talking to Kyle!!  It's so crazy to think that the next time we talk to him will be in person when he comes home in July!

John studied practically every day taking practice tests in order to pass his test to become a Registered Nurse.  He seriously worked so hard and took the official test near the end of the month.  He passed with only having the minimum amount of questions (75), however it was tough as 40% of his test questions were the "select all that apply" type.  We are both so happy that he passed and has started his new position as a nurse on the same floor he worked at before (ACVU at IMC). This will hopefully help him transition to being a nurse since not everything will be brand new to him! 

The bulk of May centered around a trip to St. George, we had a blast and were overdue for a vacation :)  We had some friends invite us down to celebrate their 30th birthday with them (they're twins).  We all pitched in to rent a house on VRBO and spent our time hiking in Zions and Snow Canyon, relaxing, swimming at Sand Hollow, shopping, playing games, and celebrating with them!  We were able to go a day early because sister's family was already down there and invited us to stay with them on their last night!  Deja loved going to the Children's Museum with her cousins.  Then, we actually stayed another day and a half, after the regularly scheduled trip, just because we could!!  (I wanted to do a baby-moon before June, so we pretty much counted the extension as such.)  It was an awesome trip and I was especially glad that the baby didn't decide to make an early entrance to the world ;)

                                   

Speaking of baby, less than a week till we get to meet this little guy!!  I had my last Dr. appointment and non-stress test yesterday.  It's weird to think that the next time I go in, I'll be leaving with a newborn. At the appointment I measured 39 weeks (couple days ahead), was dilated to 2 1/2, and was about 50-60% effaced!  Things with GD have been fine.  My numbers have almost always been within the proper range and our family exercises by going on walks.  Because of the GD, I haven't gained as much weight as my last pregnancy, which will be nice once it's time to lose it again, haha.  Other than that, I think we're pretty much ready to have the baby and we have been slowly checking off our final to-do list!  Hopefully the next post will be all about a smooth labor and delivery ;)

37 Weeks

Now that this post is forever long I feel the need to also talk about Deja ;)
-She no longer sleeps in a crib!
-Most of her ouchies are still healed by kisses
-She is very aware that there is a baby in my belly and will often hug, kiss, and say hi to the baby.
-She knows we're probably going to name him Calvin.  While we were in St. George, she was wearing a shirt with a mermaid on it and someone said "I like you shirt" and she said "Yeah it has a mermaid!" They replied by asking, "What's the mermaid's name?"  She promptly shouted "Calvin!!"
-She's still a Daniel Tiger fanatic!
-She's getting more into playing "pretend" which is pretty fun to watch.

35 Weeks & No Ice Cream...

On April 5th I was diagnosed with Gestational Diabetes :(  My mom had GD with me, so I wasn't overly surprised, jut a little depressed haha.  Luckily one of my best friends just had this with her last pregnancy and was able to give me lots of suggestions and helpful hints.  My biggest pet peeve so far is I feel like people are secretly judging me about my previous eating habits or lifestyle, but the first thing the nutritionist told me was "You didn't give yourself this condition, it's purely hormonal."  So now I just need everyone else to know that ;)  One thought that has kept me going is that lots of people have had it and gotten through it just fine, so I can do it too!  I'm just crossing my fingers that this doesn't lead to true Diabetes in the future.  However, it has been quite the eye opener for people who have diabetes and eat like this and do blood sugar tests all the time!

The diet I have to follow basically consists of Carb counting... between 170-210 a day.  Half of those carbs should contain protein, so that I get a 2:1 ratio.   I test my blood 4 times a day.  Once before breakfast, and then 2 hours after each meal (and I can't eat in the mean time).  My levels should fall between 60-120.  I have gone over a couple times, but feel like I'm doing pretty well.  My biggest trouble time is dinner, which makes sense, since it's usually the biggest meal of the day...  The hardest part about following the diet is when I'm having a "Hard Mom Day" with Deja, or am overly emotional and all I want to do is binge eat Cadbury eggs and cry on my bed.  Other than that it's not awful.  The biggest things I've been craving since I started are Ice Cream, Pie, Cookies, and Candy/Desserts in general.  After I deliver this baby the one thing I have had John promise that I get is a chocolate chip cookie dough shake from Ice Berg.   I didn't crave ice cream all that much earlier in the pregnancy, but now it always sounds good!  The other weird bonus thing that has happened since I started the diet is my heart burn went bye-bye, which is fabulous!!!  Maybe it's unrelated to the diet...or maybe I'll just have a bald baby :) 

Speaking of the baby, he's doing great!!  I get to do weekly non-stress tests, which although they are kind of annoying, have their benefits as well.  The biggest problem with them is I can't take Deja, so I always have to find a sitter.  Luckily John usually doesn't work when I have to do them, so it's worked out ok.  On the bright side I love having a short ultra sound once a week to see our little guy!  So far they have all been normal and he is quite the mover, so that's always comforting. One of the side effects of GD is having a Still Birth even this late in the game :(   The other major side effect is a big baby :)  This guy has measured big at almost every appointment!  At my 33 week apt I was actually 33 1/2 weeks along, and the doctor said I was measuring about 36 weeks!!  My poor body... I can do this!!!

Because of my condition, the doctor doesn't want me to go past my due date, so we decided to set an induction date for June 1st (as long as the baby is still doing well).  That gives us a month or less if he comes on his own ;)  With Deja, my water broke the day after her due date, so I'm thinking June 1st is going to be our day!      

April fun!

April is always a big deal at our house because it's both John and my Birthday's!!  Mine came first and was over Conference weekend.  We celebrated a little early by going to Leatherby's with some friends.  At Leatherby's we were actually celebrating how well Deja's been doing a the Potty Training Scene with some of her friends that are the same age!  She still has some leakage issues we're working on, but she hasn't had a #2 accident in over a month!

We also took Deja to her first movie at the theater to see Zootopia!  She was kind of all over the place.... I totally forgot to bring snacks as a distraction, and thought she would be more interested in the movie than she was, but I think she had a good time at least!  Haha, we'll have to try again in a couple months ;)

On my actual birthday we watched conference, ate lunch with the Southwick clan and dinner with the DuPaix Clan.  It was on a Sunday, so it was nice and relaxing ;)  John got me new Teva's and the illustrated version of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone!!  Next came John's birthday.  He had school during the day, but that evening we were able to go on a dinner date to Teppanyaki (Special thanks to Jenny and Bryce for watching Deja and giving us a coupon haha.)  For presents, I gave him a new t-shirt, an expansion pack to Ticket to Ride, the first season of Community and he wanted Banana Bread instead of cake for dessert ;)  My biggest regret of the month is the lack of pictures :(  I think I'm too used to my mom taking all the pictures on my own b-day!

The rest of the month was filled with dinner with some friends, a baptism for my nephew, work & school for John, and YW & starting the GD diet for me! At the end the month we enjoyed family dinner with the Southwick's and were excited for Aunt Carolyn to return home after being gone for about 3 months!! Deja loves having her back and we go upstairs to visit often!  As the cherry on top of a fabulous month John finished the semester with a 4.0 and getting his Nursing Degree!!! He has a nursing job lined up and just has to take the NCLEX before he's officially registered.  He worked so hard this year with working full time and doing school full time and I'm so proud of him!!!! Now we're ready for a break ;)

Kids

I said something to John the other day about our "Kids" and it kind of blew me away.  We will soon be parents of 2!!  So I should probably give a shout out about both while I'm on here.

I've been awful at documenting this pregnancy and I feel bad about that, so lets do some catching up!  I think part of the reason I've been so neglectful of saying too much is because we are trying to keep it a secret from John's little brother who is on a mission and gets home about a month after the baby is due.  We think it'll be funny because he's going to be so overwhelmed with remembering who all the nieces and nephews are already, that throwing a new one in the mix will just be the cherry on top of the entire reacquainting situation haha.

Anyway, back in January we found out that we are having a boy!!!  Everything looked great in the ultra sound which is always good news.  His femur's are also measuring a week early just like Dej'a did, so I thought that was fun :)  This pregnancy I have been a little more nauseous.  Luckily I only threw up twice during the first trimester, but have felt amazing ever since the second trimester started.  I have had to wear a compression sock for my left ankle, but I wasn't surprised about that, since it was the same with Deja.  Once my second trimester started, my cravings made a drastic change to wanting sugar all the time!!!!  Cookies, donuts, candy.  You name it, I want it...  That's how it still is right now, poor John has to deal with sweets being in the house all the time.

Both pictures were during week 28!

I'm currently 29 1/2 weeks and can't believe I'm almost down to 10 more. When the weather permits, I've been trying to take walks to get some exercise in and Deja helps me be pretty active too!  Speaking of active, this baby is a MOVER.  He is constantly kicking and punching my insides, especially at night time!  It makes me a little nervous about having a boy, because Deja has always been relatively mellow and easy going.  Hopefully when he gets out he'll be more relaxed, but if not, we'll learn ;)  At most of my appointments they've been telling me I'm measuring slightly ahead, so maybe this baby will come sooner than expected, but I really want a June Birthday for him!!

Crayons and a box! Who could ask for anything more?

Deja just passed her 2 and 1/2 year mark, which blows my mind.  I can't believe I'll have a 3 year old in 6 months.  Here are some fun facts that I want to remember about her being this age!

• I would like to say she has the potty thing down, but she still has her slip ups about once a week.  Thankfully they're almost always less than a teaspoon of #1 and she makes it to the potty to get the majority out ;)  I've been having a hard time knowing when to prompt, and when to not, to help her learn that she has to listen to her body!!!  I just hate seeing her fail, which I'm sure is common for most parents haha.

DQ free cone day

• We had a funny conversation the other day while she was on the potty that went something like this.
• *Deja Toots*
• Deja- "Whoa, that was loud!"
• Me- "That's ok, sometimes toots are loud, you're fine"
• Deja- "No, that was really loud!"
• Me- "Well are you ok?
• Deja- "It hurt my ears."
• Me- "Well hopefully they'll be ok..." I was trying so hard not to laugh!! 

Getting better at braiding!!

• She is still thouroughly obsessed with Daniel Tiger if you didn't catch that from the last story about things being too loud ;)  She also loves walking backwards like Miss Elaina!  I don't think this is a Daniel Tiger thing, but sometimes she'll experiment with closing her eyes and walking around the house by just touching things to find her way.  Whatever works ;)

• We talk about "Baby Calvin" (which will most likely be his name) who is growing in Momma's belly.  She loves saying hi to him and giving him hugs and kisses.  The other day she was playing with a stuffed animal and I asked her what the animal's name was and she said, "Uh....Calvin"  Hmm I wonder where she got that from ;)  

• Since we live in a basement apartment it's not uncommon for me to talk about things that are "Aunt Carolyn's"  like her upstairs, her backyard, some of her possessions, etc.  I think because of this, Deja has started referring to her stuff as "mine's" and opposed to "mine."  It's one of those things I should help her correct, but right now I just think it's cute/funny.  Also the fact that she still calls her sippy cup her pippy cup, haha.  

• The battle of wanting your kids to grow up and be independent and yet never grow up and stay exactly the way they are forever is real.  Deja has been Miss Independent for the past couple months.  Sometimes in order to get her to do certain things all I have to say is, "Can you do it?  Or does mom need to do it?"  and that's enough to get her to do whatever it is on her own!!

Trying on Mom's Maternity clothes ;)

• Another odd thing she had been doing lately is asking me if she can do things she already knows are inappropriate, or that the answer is obviously "no."  For example, "Can I hit you?"  I don't know if she just likes my reaction/explanation of "No, that would be so mean, and we need to be so nice to each other!" or she does it for my attention or it's her way of making conversation?  Who knows.  At least she asks and doesn't just do!!  Here are some things she has asked me this week, "Can I jump on you?" "Can I eat the apple seeds?" "Can I kick you?" "Can I climb on you?" "Can I stand on the toilet?" and my favorite, "Can I bite your arm?"....so oddly specific... and also mostly violent... strange girl.

• When she says good night to Dad she often feels the scruff on his face from not shaving that day, or the smoothness of his face from when he has shaved.  She calls his hair "dad's ouchies" probably because they poke her when she kisses him goodnight ;)  With John being crazy busy between school, work, and his capstone the last couple weeks, shaving became more and more scarce.  So one Sunday after shaving they were having a long conversation that he had shaved and his ouchies were gone.  It had been about a week since his last shave so when he was finished he picked her up and let her feel his face as they talked.  Anyway, later that day at church, specifically during the Sacrament, Deja was sitting on my lap, facing me, and oh so lovingly caressing my cheek, when she loudly asks me, "Momma, you shave?"  It took all I had to not lose it during the spiritual quietness of the meeting.  Once I had it under control, I explained to her that Momma doesn't have to shave, hahahaha.  Then later in the car on the way home, Deja was feeling her own cheeks and say, "I shave!!"  Too funny.  Kids are great!        

Birthday Party Easter Egg Hunt!!

Deja got worn out ;)
j/k really she just loves planking different places like this, and stairs

We love both our Kids!

5 Year Anniversary (February)

For our 5th year anniversary we decided to do a small getaway before John's semester got too crazy! We debated on the length and location, and whether or not to take Deja, and finally settled on going to Bear Lake for 2 nights where we stayed at the world-mark.  This is where we went for our honeymoon, so that was fun to reminisce around the desolate town :)  We decided to take Deja, 1-because of the length and 2-because she had only been potty training for about 3 weeks and I wanted to try and stay consistent with her.

The drive up was actually pretty intense because once we got to the canyon there was a major snow storm upon us.  Thankfully John was a trooper and got us there safely.  We were all glad we didn't die ;)  Getting through the canyon took about twice as long as anticipated, so we didn't get to Bear Lake till pretty late.  Once we got in a settled, we still had to make dinner, but luckily we worked quickly together and made some awesome burgers and homemade fries, yum!

The next morning we slept in and then ate Crepe's for breakfast!  Then it was off to the pool!!  (Indoor of course).  I left my camera in my room, so I was upset about that, but you can imagine some fun pictures ;)  Deja absolutely loved swimming and would have stayed at the pool all day (she loved the entire trip in general, but swimming won the #1 spot I'm sure).  We then went back and showered/got ready for the day before taking a drive around the lake.  I forgot to pack rice for our dinner meal, so on the way back from our drive we stopped at the local grocery store.  We thought about getting raspberry shakes, but all the shake places looked pretty shut down for the winter :(  We came home and made cashew chicken for dinner, and then we were all pretty exhausted, so we let Deja pick a movie to watch and we just relaxed on the couch and ate ice cream.  After the movie, we put Deja to bed and luckily got a second wind!!  We busted out some games and played while watching Dr. Who.   Our game of Settlers was so intense.  The final score was John 13 to Sarah 12 1/2!!!  It was a lot of fun to play such a close game.

The following morning we mostly just cleaned and ate breakfast.  John and Deja played a rousing game of Hide and Go Seek before we finally decided to check out.  We stopped in Logan to visit some family on our way back home.  First we saw Joseph and Katie with their two kids and had a fun time catching up with them.  Then we visited Becca and Gary and their son Ash and had fun showing Ash how Deja uses the potty, to help him get some inspiration ;)  Before leaving Logan we went to dinner at Center Street Grill.  I had been craving one of their sandwiches for a while and they're only located up there.  We also had to get some Blue Aggie Mint ice cream while we were so close to campus!!  Overall it was a fun filled trip and I can't believe it's been 5 years since we were sealed in the temple.  I'm grateful for John and all he does for our family.  He's a wonderful father and my best friend!

Deja Catch-up & Potty Training

Deja says some of the funniest things and I've already forgotten many of them, so I wanted to get these down while they're still fresh ;)

One night we were driving past the temple and John started singing "I Love To See The Temple" and Deja shouted, "Sing in the bedroom!!"  basically meaning, we don't sing that in the car, we sing it at night before bedtime, haha.

After leaving my sister Debbie's house Deja noticed that the door was painted blue and then said, "It's blue, like Jenny's door!"  It's amazing what this kid remembers!

John finished changing Deja's diaper one day and after standing her back up she proclaimed, "You did so well!!"  Haha, I wonder where she's heard that one?

Sometimes Deja will make up songs and sing and sing at the top of her lungs for 1 minute straight and then abruptly stop and ask, "Like my song?"  We always reply, "I love your song!"

I shared this on facebook, but Deja has made it a habit of "Blessing Star Wars" in her prayers.  She must have picked up on the phrase with all our talk when the movie came out, but we're not sure what she thinks it means....  As of now, I think it just means stars in general, but who knows haha.

She always asks "What's happening Mom (or Dad)?" to better understand why we are acting in certain ways during new situations.  Similarly she'll ask, "What's that?"  whenever she hears new noises or something unexpected.

Purse, jewelry, and "cellphone." She's good to go!

Reading a story to dolly

Wearing Dad's shoes and socks haha

     In other news, we are in the middle potty training Deja.  Today was day 5, and I would like to think the process is going well, but I don't really have anything to compare it too.  Some of the victories include that she has used the toilet at Grandma's and at a friends house successfully, and has only had accidents at home (which isn't super surprising since we haven't gone out much), on day 4 she didn't have any accidents at all, and I have only had to clean up an out of toilet #2 one time!
     We have mostly been rewarding with "potty prizes" because I don't want to do a ton of conditioning with treats/food if I can help it, although we have been rewarding successful #2's with m&m's, so we haven't avoided it completely. Here's to hoping we can both stick with it till she's officially got it!!