Eva's meningitis scare

The first night of your life was spent going back in between my postpartum room, and the nursery.  Your blood sugar was still a little bit off, and you had to be seen a lot for your IV flushings, and antibiotics.  I was able to get some much needed rest.

Random info: So while I was in the delivery room I had my phone on me the whole time...texting people etc.  Then after I got wheeled up into the postpartum room it was like I had seriously lost my mind.  I could not remember my passcode to unlock my dang phone!  It was ridiculous.  It was the same 4 digit number as my dang pin number to my debit card.  I could not for the life of me remember it.  So I wasn't able to text anyone from my phone for like 48 hours...or take pictures etc (or use my debit card).  haha. I kept waiting for it to come to me, but it didn't!  I had to completely back up and reset my whole phone. 

In the morning your dad and I dropped you off at the nursery so that we could go attend the lactation class.  It was so boring... and sitting on a hard metal chair was pretty miserable.  My tail bone was pretty sore!  

When we got back from the class your dad went to the nursery to get you.  Waiting for him was the pediatrician on call, Dr Carter.  He asked if he could follow your dad back to our room to talk with us.  Your dad walked in first and said that your doctor was going to be in in just a minute to go over some things.  It sounded really weird, but I wasn't too worried about it.  

Dr Carter walked in and made small chit chat for a minute about how our room smelled like essential oils...blah blah blah...I told him that we had been using a few. Then we sat down on the bench/bed thing and he pulled up a chair.  He started by saying "Well guys, Eva is really sick.  She has a blood infection.  I have some good news and some bad news. The bad news is that you will be here anywhere from 7-21 days receiving antibiotics, the good news is that I think we caught it in time".  I started freaking out.  We had no idea that there was any chance of infection.  At this time we still didn't even know that I had been positive for strep B (what a joke, right?).  He went on to explain that your infection was serious and that you could have meningitis.  I was bawling.  He explained what meningitis was...and how it could cause hearing loss, brain development issues etc. He said that he needed to do a spinal tap right away to see if the infection had traveled to the brain.  

At this time your dad was holding you.  Your dad was trying his best to be brave and to ask all of the right questions.  I was pretty much losing it...let's not forget that I had just had a baby and that my hormones were out of wack.  Dr Carter suggested that I hold you (to calm me down). I asked when he was going to do the spinal tap.  He said he wanted to take you right away.  We asked if we could go in there and be with you.  He explained the procedure and said that its not an easy thing for parents to see, so we needed to wait.  Your dad asked  the doctor if you being sick had anything to do with why you were so calm and relaxed, never crying or upset. He said that only really really sick babies are this calm, and that that is what worried him the most.  

All of this was so scary to us.  New parents, no idea what the heck we're doing and then we have to sign a paper saying its okay for the doctors to do a spinal tap and whatever else necessary to get you better.  We said our goodbyes to you and then he wheeled you away.  2 seconds later a lady came in to talk to us about your social security card.  It was obvious that we had been crying and upset and were still crying and upset...and she goes on and on about the social security card.  I stopped her in the middle of her speech and told her that we had just found out that our new baby was very sick and we didn't have time to talk about a social security card!  She felt so bad that she actually started crying herself. haha, kinda funny when I look back on it now.  She told me how sorry she was and that she would be praying for you.  

We called your grandparents to let them know what was going on.  I assume that they told the rest of the family.  We arranged a time when someone could come help give you a blessing.  Then your dad and I said a special prayer for you.  We had a feeling that everything was going to be okay.  

Shortly after the doctor wheeled you back in the room and told us that he got the spinal fluid.  I asked if you cried during the procedure and if you were okay.  He said that you actually didn't cry at all. That's exactly what a mom wants to hear...but your dad asked if that was bad.  The doctor explained that he had done a lot of spinal taps and that only really sick babies do not cry during this procedure, and that that was actually a bad sign.  blah.  Not what we wanted to hear.  However, he said that the labs would be back in a few hours to let us know the results but he suspected that you did not have meningitis because the fluid that he retrieved was clear (usually cloudiness indicates meningitis I guess).  

The next few hours were spent holding you extra tight.  All of your grandparents came.  Oh Oh, I forgot to tell you that your Uncle Spencer actually opened his mission call the night that you were born.  We skyped with the whole family while we sat in the hospital with you.  It was a very crazy day!  Anyway, uncle Spencer came to help give you your first Priesthood blessing.  I held you on my lap on the side of the bed, and uncle Spence knelt on the floor in front of you and did the anointing.  It was probably the sweetest most tender thing I have ever seen.  Then your dad gave you a beautiful blessing of healing.  

A little while later we got a call from the doctor saying that your spinal tap came back negative for meningitis.  We were so relieved.  The doctor had explained to us that your CRP levels (C-Reactive Protein's...things that fight off infection) were very very high.  I can't remember the numbers exactly but it was bad.  He said that your CRP levels would determine when we could go home.  He later told us that he almost put you in the NICU, and could have, but he wanted to wait 24 hours to see if you got a little better.  He also said that had it been at another hospital, a smaller one,  we definitely would've been placed in the NICU.  IMC is a fairly big hospital and their nursery is equipped to handle babies in your situation.  We were so grateful for that!  

Everyone at the hospital was so great (except for the huge fact that they left us completely in the dark with the whole Strep B infection thing).  That evening someone came in to talk to us about possibly being able to stay in the hospital after I was discharged, while you continued to get antibiotics.  We got to do a "hotel stay" at the hospital.  We were so lucky to be able to stay with you!

That pretty much sums up your 2nd day of life.  We didn't take very many pictures that day...we were a little busy freaking out.

Eva's Birth Story

I wish I would've written this 8 months ago, because I'm going to have a hard time remembering every little detail.  Sorry Eva.

So on Monday Feb 11 I had a doctors appointment in the morning.  My doctor had told me that at this appointment he would strip my membranes and get me going.  I was sooo ready to meet you, and to be done being pregnant.  The whole week before this was spent cleaning, and organizing, and decluttering, and cleaning, and some more cleaning.  I seriously was a mad woman.  I even vacuumed the ceilings.  I wanted you to come home to a ridiculously clean, almost sterile, home.  haha.  So, back to the doctors appointment, I got there, was checked in, peed in the cup, was weighed, and then... the doctor got called out for emergency surgery.  I. WAS. PISSED.  ugh.  AND they couldn't get me in later that day, nor could they the next day.  So I unhappily made another appointment for Wednesday Feb 13, the day before my due date.

 In the meantime, the next 48 hours were spent coming up with excuses to give my doctor in why he needed to induce me. He was leaving on the 15th for a vacation and I was set on having him deliver you.  On Wednesday morning dad and I headed to the doctor's office again.  I was weighed...and had gained THREE OR FOUR pounds more than I did 2 days prior.  This set me into a deep dark depression and I was already crying before the doctor even came in.  Your dad did his best to console me, but I think he was secretly shocked as well.

When my doctor came in I gave him a million reasons why he needed to induce me.  He gave me some lecture about how it wouldn't be good for you, and how he didn't want me to end up having a c-section. blah blah blah.  I didn't care. He checked me and said I wasn't even dilated, but like 40% effaced.  He pretty much said that he thought I would still be pregnant when he got back 10 days later from his vacation. I was so emotional!  He shot your dad some pretty funny looks.  I had to remind him to even strip my membranes, and when I did he tried to talk me out of it!  He said it probably wouldn't even do very much since I wasn't even dilated.  However, I talked him into it.  By this point the appointment was lasting forever and your dad had to get back to work.  On my way out I was a mess.  I was just mad at the world.  I totally expected the doctor to induce me before he left on vacation, and I thought I would've at least progressed a little bit from the last appointment.

As I was walking out of the office I ran into our good friends Cami & Chris, you know, Cici's parents.  Cami could tell I'd been crying and came to give me a hug. When she did it just made me cry even harder.  haha.  I was a freak. I never cry in front of people, but for some reason I just did not even care!

I knew everyone was going to be texting me and asking me how the appointment went and when I was going to have you.  I was just not in the mood to talk to anyone about it.  I told your dad to update his family, and then I called Nana and cried some more.  Chandra & I had made an appointment to get a pedicure, so after lunch we went to do that.  I had high hopes that the little pedicure lady would work her magic and use some reflexology to induce labor.  BUT NOPE.  I got the pedicurist (is that a real term?) from hell.  When I asked her if she would try it she asked how overdue I was.  I lied and said a week.  Then she told me that she wouldn't do it, that she didn't even like kids and that she didn't want to be responsible. UM. are you serious?  How could my day get any worse?  Chandra's little pedicure lady said that if I was her client then she would do it.  I told them to switch places, but they didn't.  Seriously the world was against me.

After the pedicure I went home, took a nap and waited for dad to get home. When he got home we YouTubed "reflexology to induce labor".  He was so sweet and totally made me believe it was going to work.  He took his job super seriously and spent 1 minute on each pressure point, rotating from one foot to the next.  After the first round I got up and started making cookies.  I had scheduled another doctors appointment for the next day and I decided that I would take my doctor some cookies to apologize for being the brattiest patient in the world.  When I was up walking around I started feeling a lot of pressure.  You had always been super low, but it felt so uncomfortable.  It would kind of just come and go.  After an hour dad did another round of the reflexology.  I got back up and started cleaning up the kitchen.  I totally was having full on contractions.  I was so worried that the contractions were just going to stop, so every contraction I would do squats, or bounce on the yoga ball to try to keep them going.  Apparently the combination of all of this was working.  By this time it was like 9pm.  Dad was getting ready for bed and we started timing my contractions on an app.  They were getting to be about 5 min apart.

this was the youtube video that we used

By this point dad insisted we go to the hospital.  I was so worried that I wouldn't be dilated and that they would send me away.  I did not want to be sent away!!!  So I got in the shower and told him I wanted to be nice and clean if we were going to go to the hospital.  When I got out of the shower I started putting my make up on in the bathroom, and I was only partially dressed.  Suddenly my water broke onto the bathroom tile.  Or, I thought it did.  There really wasn't much of anything, but it just kept dripping. I called dad in to see and he frantically started getting everything out to the car to leave for the hospital while I proceeded to finish putting on my makeup and curl my hair.  I was in denial.

I forgot that I actually took a picture of your dad doing the pressure point thing!

We got to the hospital a little after 10pm.  Dad dropped me off and I took a picture of the hospital as I was walking in.

 The contractions were painful, but not unbearable at this point.  By the time we got to the hospital they were every 3-4 min and lasting a good 30-50 seconds.  Once we got all checked in a nurse took me back to a really weird room.  It was all high-tech surgical-ish.  She got me all set up to the monitors and then checked me. I was only dilated to a ONE!  This is what I was worried about.  She said that if I really did break my water, that would be my ticket to stay.  She did some little "fern test" to check if my water did break.  These big lights came down from ceiling and she opened me up and performed her little test.  Apparently there was blood, and dad almost passed out.  It was pretty funny.  I kept making fun of him saying he wasn't going to be able to get through the labor!

holy crap, I was ginormous!  So puffy!

Luckily, the "fern test" proved that my water had indeed been broken.  By this point the contractions were pretty painful, and happening all of the time.  I got wheeled into my delivery room, and the nurse said I could get the epidural whenever I wanted.  So we paged the anesthesiologist and waited for him to come.  When he finally got there it all of a sudden hit me that I was going to have you.  I kind of started to panic.  I turned to dad and he was so sweet.  He talked me through the whole epidural, telling me how much he loved me... and it wasn't painful at all. I got my epidural around 1:30.  We called your grandparents and they all wanted to come right then.  We told them to wait, and that I was only a 1 so it was going to be a looonggg night.  

After the epidural kicked in I felt like a million bucks.  Dad laid down and fell asleep, I tried to sleep but I was having nurses come checking me every 5-10 minutes.  They were really good to make it seem like it was all normal.  They had us fooled until dad went out to get a drink and saw 8 nurses huddled around a computer.  Apparently, you were being naughty.  During a big contraction you would kind of pass out.  You were being pushed up against my cervix that wasn't dilated, and it was so much pressure that you would pass out and the monitors would go all crazy.  The nurses kept checking me and saying that it was the strangest thing they had ever seen, because you was so low and in the birth canal, they could feel the crown of your head, but I wasn't dilating.

Around 4 or 5 am they decided to start me on pitocin to see if that would get me dilating.  In the meantime the monitors kept going off and I kept moving around trying to get you comfortable.  I kept telling dad over and over again how people were crazy for not getting an epidural.  Best invention ever.  By 6 am Nana & Papa were there and we were ready to get you out.  By then I was dilated to about a 4.  So the pitocin was working!  At 7 there was a shift change.  I was given a new nurse, but then they switched her out once they found out that you were being naughty.  I got the most experienced nurse on the floor.  She was seriously amazing.  I wish she would've been the one to deliver you (because in the end your doctor didn't even end up being that great, and it doesn't really matter who delivers the baby).  Around this time my doctor stopped by to see how I was doing. He was pretty surprised to see me.  He really thought I would still be pregnant when he returned from his Caribbean cruise.  Don't worry, I also remembered to bring the cookies to the hospital, so he grabbed a few of those.  He told me that my nurse would call him when I was ready for him to come.

By 8am I was already dilated to an eight.  My epidural started wearing off so I had him come back and give me some more meds.  By then all of your grandparents and aunt Bre were all there. I told your uncles that they could just wait at work until you came.  When my nurse told me it was time to start pushing I asked just Nana and Grandma to stay in the room.  A student nurse asked if she could stay and sit in on my labor, and at that point I didn't even care! My nurse called my doctor and told him I was ready, but said that we would get things going before he got there.  She was seriously amazing.  She was super motivating and dad said she even made him feel pumped up and ready to have a baby!  She sounded like an aerobics instructor or something.  Once I started pushing I started shaking so bad.   The nurses kept telling me it was just the "epidural shakes".  Then I started feeling super feverish.  So dad got me ice chips and put them on my head.  Bad idea dad, felt gross.  Finally my mom came over and felt my head and told my nurse that she better check my temperature.  It was 104.  By this point I had already been pushing for about a half hour and we were just waiting for my doctor.

Lets not forget to talk about how dang tiring it is to push.  I have no idea how some ladies push for hours and hours.  It's freaking exhausting.  Not to mention you feel like your head is going to explode...and then your face is swollen for the next 5 days.  Your dad had been great through all of it though.  He didn't get light headed or squirmish at all.  At one time the nurse asked your dad if he wanted to count to ten during my next contraction while I pushed.  So he did...and I shook my head in dismay the whole time.  His counts were way too long.  He felt bad and said the nurse could do it from now on. hehe

I'm not really quite sure where everything fell apart, but something was wrong.  They started pumping me with antibiotics, as a precaution they said.  We didn't even ask why.  I wish I would've asked more questions.  They had called the nicu team and let them know that I had a fever, because if I had a fever it meant that you would also. By now it was close to 10 and my doctor still wasn't there!  It was so frustrating because I felt like I had to push.  My nurse asked if I wanted a mirror, and I said yes.  She had me push a few more times and watching in the mirror totally helped motivate me.

Finally my doctor got there.  I was so mad at him.  His office was seriously 4 minutes away.  When he walked in he later told me that he could sense the urgency in the room and could tell we were all pretty mad at him! I pushed one or two times with the doctor and green stuff came out. You decided to poop.  So, the nicu team came and a few more pushes and you were out!

It was pretty much the most amazing thing ever.  First your little head poked out, then a hand plopped down right onto your face.  It was so precious.  Then came the rest of your little body.  Your head was so squishy.  At one point I remember saying that your looked like a baby gorilla.  It was so crazy to watch your head almost like unwrinkle? I don't know how to describe it. 

Dad had finally worked up enough courage to want to cut the cord, but by this point everyone was too worried about you having a high fever so the doctor handed you right to the nicu team.  You cried just a little bit before the team took you away.  Of course dad was the cutest and was pretty emotional.  I was just so happy.  Luckily they were able to keep you just across the room.  Dad and the grandmas went over right away to you.  I shouted across the room asking if you had all of your fingers and toes.

Nana came back to be with me while the nurses and dad gave me updates of how you were doing.  It was so hard having you across the room and just being able to see you and not hold you.  Once they got your temperature under control, which felt like forever but was maybe 30 min, they brought you over to me and I was able to do skin-to-skin for a few minutes.  It didn't last long because the nurses were eager to get you to the nursery to do "assessments" and get you started on an antibiotic.  I WISH someone would have explained to us why you needed this.  We were new parents and didn't know what was normal and what wasn't.  So we really just all of this was protocol.  We were wrong!  We later found out that I was positive for strep B, and my water had been broken for quite a long time before you were delivered...which meant you were exposed to the bacteria for a long long time.  Had they had known this when I got to the hospital (why didn't they check me for it?) they would've pumped me with antibiotics right away so that you wouldn't get an infection.

Our beautiful baby girl.  6lbs  4 oz, 19.3", born at 10:23 am on Feb 14, 2013

By the time I finally got wheeled up into my postpartum room I felt like a zombie.  Dad was with you and Nana was with me.  2 seconds after I arrived in my new room a nurse was in there giving me tons of random info and handing me packets.  It was ridiculous.  At one point Nana said "are you almost done?  No? Can you tell that my daughter is exhausted and isn't taking in anything you are saying? can you please do this at another time?".  Good thing I had my mom there.

We had lots of family waiting in the waiting room to see you.  I guess everyone went up to the nursery window and dad held you up for everyone to see. 

 The nurses wanted to give you formula because your blood sugar was low.  We were very set on only breastfeeding, so dad told the nurses no.  They kept trying to talk him into it.  AGAIN, I wish someone would've explained to us why (we were later told that they wanted to get your blood sugar up by using formula so that they could hurry and get you started on antibiotics).  Dad convinced the nurses to let me try to breastfeed for little bit.  I attempted to nurse you for about 30 min.  It seemed to go pretty well!  I loved just having that time with you.  At this time dad had only really held you twice and for less than 20 seconds.  It was so great to have all of our family there to support us, but it also put too much pressure on us.  We felt rushed, like we had to hurry nursing so that everyone could come and see you before you had to go get antibiotics.  Looking back I wish we would've had everyone come later that night, or even the next day. 

After I nursed her dad wheeled you back to the nursery, with out anyone really getting to hold you. The NICU team was called to get an IV in you.  They attempted several times and finally were able to get one in your little hand.  They almost had to do it in your head, which I am so glad they didn't! After a few hours we were finally able to have our baby back, and got to finally show you off to everyone.

It was such a long crazy day!!!  We had lots of family come...probably too much that first day.  When the last person finally left that evening I just broke down and cried.  I was so exhausted.  I had slept maybe 3 hours in 48 hrs, and had given birth to a freaking baby.


Oh, let's talk about how you decided to come on your actual "due date".  Some people would tell me "oh you don't want to have a baby on Valentine's Day, they will hate it their whole lives".  I think that's dumb.  I love that you chose to come on Valentine's Day.  You also had perfect timing by coming just one week after I graduated from dental hygiene school.  I don't know how I would've survived if you came during school.  Your dad and I were never really that "into" Valentine's Day...and now it will always be remembered as most special day of our lives!  You are our forever Valentine.

That first night we had you in the nursery for a few hours, you had to get more antibiotics there anyway.  That first day we just couldn't get over how calm and beautiful you were.  We felt so blessed.  You were so perfect.  You would open your eyes and just look around, hardly cried at all that first day.

At this point all we knew was that you were receiving antibiotics as a "precaution".  There was so much going on that we didn't really think to ask any questions.  We felt just so lucky that you were healthy.  We didn't even get a chance to finally decide on a name until that evening when everyone left.  We went to the hospital with two names, Eva & Adriana.  We decided on Eva Mae.  We had no idea what we wanted your middle name to be, but because you were born on Valentines Day I wanted something to do with love.  I asked dad some Portuguese words for love, but nothing sounded good.  Then he said Mae...it is a family name, but the spelling means "mother" in Portuguese.  I loved it!

 Eva Mae Blymiller

More pictures from your first day.....

 Dr Roth

 You were so sweet.  Just holding your dad's finger and looking up at him. 

 one proud daddy

 Your hand was wrapped in a diaper...just to protect your IV (we got more creative as the days went by).

 First daddy diaper change

Our perfect girl! 

Graduation time!

I cannot believe that this day is finally here.  The day where I no longer have school!  It has been the craziest last few years, almost 3 years.  Something like 1004 days or something?  I'm not positive.  Something like 11 quarters/terms?  and 22 modules? Anyone counting? ... because I'm not positive.  Like 44 classes and 155 credits? and over 1000 clinical hours?  Yah, those are all pretty exact.  

 Could not have made it through school with out my BFF hygiene friend Chandra.  Seriously love her so much. & then there is crazy professor Strasser pictured behind her.  I have a sticky note with a smiley face that she gave to me in the first module of clinic.  It was seriously the best thing that happened to me all module in clinic...that's how awful clinic was in the beginning.  

 So much time spent in this clinic.  So much stress.  I am very proud to say that I never once shed a tear in school.  Out of school?  Yes! I don't judge any of the girls who did...I am just so surprised that it never managed to happen to me.  Clinic was crazy!

 On my last day of school Shawn brought me home a card with flowers and Reeses Eggs.  So nice of him.  I should be getting him a huge present for supporting me and dealing with me through hygiene school.  He has been amazing the whole time...EXCEPT for when he had to be my patient. Biggest freaking baby.  

 Top Row: Kenalee, Kim, Kenzie & Chelsea

Middle Row: Prof Hemsley, Bobi, Lisa, Chandra, Leslie, Brittney, Amy, Rachel, Amanda, Prof. Anderson, Strasser, Dr. Johns, Sheila & Dr. Hyatt

Bottom Row: Prof. Lopez, myself, Veronica

 Graduation night we had a fun dinner at The Gathering Place at Gardner Village (where we had our wedding dinner).  

We have all been through so much together.  We all became pretty close!  Lower right: Veronica and I were wearing the same maternity dress.  Gotta love Target!

 See that award in the upper right?  I was given the award of "most likely to use an unnecessary amount of disinfectant".  Now does that sound like me?  haha.  In the end I ended up buying my own disinfectant so that I could wipe down the tables before class.  

 Me & Cha-nay-nay

 Top: Chandra and I with one of our favorite instructors, Professor Strasser.  She was one of the only ones who was with us from the very beginning.  She taught us so much, and she made clinic fun whenever she was  my instructor for the day. 

Bottom: Sheila in tears over seeing her two favorite students leaving her.  She was the clinic manager...for some reason everyone is scared of her.  Chandra and I love her!  She cared about us and made sure we were always doing okay. 

 Taking the dental hygiene oath...

Setting off our lanterns.  Shawn & Mike were pretty sure that we were going to start a fire.  

It was a fun night!  

So happy that school is finally over, and could not be more excited for this next chapter in our life!

January- Baby shower month!

I told everyone that I really wanted to wait until I took my last board exam to do any baby showers.  It kind of made it crazy because they all came at once, but it was so much fun!

How far along? 34 weeks

Current weight: 129 + 24lbs

Maternity clothes? I'm still able to button my stretchy skinny jeans, and then I wear a lot of leggings still!

Stretch marks? nope

Sleep?  Not so much...

Name? We have 2 names that we love.  We really want to see her first.  It's funny because people don't believe us when we say that we haven't decided yet.  They think we just don't want to tell them!  When we do tell them the 2 names we like, people either say "oh they are both beautiful" or they give their input on which one they prefer and then tell us why they don't like the other.  It's really annoying.  

Miss anything? everything!  Jk, I've really had such a great pregnancy and feel so lucky.  

Movement? of course!

Food Cravings? Einsteins

Rings? on

Symptoms: I had my first real contractions. They hurt, but never got worse.  Kinda scary...Shawn and I kind of freaked out because we don't even have a car seat yet!

Looking forward to: First baby shower!

I took my last board exam on Jan 5th!  Such a crazy ridiculous test.  I had no clue if I passed or failed.  Results came at the end of the month in the mail. 

 Headbands and more headbands!

 How far along? 35 weeks

Current weight: 130!!! yikes! +25lbs

Maternity clothes? yes and no

Stretch marks? not any yet, fingers crossed 

Sleep?  Still wake up every night from like 2-5

Movement? Feeling very very uncomfortable!

Rings? On

Mood: So happy that boards are over with!  Just focusing on graduating now!  

Symptoms? I never thought this day would come, but my belly button is completely flat!

Looking forward to: having this baby!  & weekly appointments will be great. 

The first shower was my family shower + some friends. It was a crazy, loud, fun time. My mom hung up baby clothes of mine and then also cute baby pictures.  Everything was so cute and it was so much fun to see everyone.  I'm waiting for some pictures to be sent to me for a lot of the showers, I will post more later!

 From the family shower we got spoiled with a ton of clothes!!!

 Just some pictures that I found from looking at the picture album of my first year.  My cute uncle Johnny.  Crazy to think that he already knows my baby girl!

 Working hard on decor for the nursery!

 The next shower was the school friends!  Chandra worked so hard and it turned out so so cute!  

We did a 2 in 1 shower with Veronica who is due just 6 weeks behind me with a baby boy. 

 Cute cupcakes with my nursery colors...turquoise  & coral!

 Chandra. Chelsea. Lisa.

Chandra. Me. Veronica.

 How far along? 36weeks 

Current weight: 128 + 23lbs  Somehow managed to lose 2 lbs this week?

Maternity clothes? yes & no

Stretch marks? not yet

Sleep?  ugh, not very well at all!  Pinterest & instagram are my best friends in the middle of the night.  Doterra Deep Blue rub is also one of my best friends.  Love that stuff. 

Miss anything? Really missing being able to go to the gym and work up a good sweat!  I try to do yoga a few times a week...but its not the same. 

Movement? I think she is getting pretty squished!  Her movements aren't so much jabs and kicks anymore, they are more like rolls and slow movements. 

Food Cravings? Mini cadbury eggs season is here! wahooo

Rings? On

Mood?  I've been pretty emotional lately, more so than normal!

Looking forward to? Graduation.

Just a baby bump picture where baby girl is doing something to make my stomach lopsided. 

3rd shower was given by the soccer moms, Jill & Kioko.  It was so much fun!  Kioko made the best food, of course.  It's off season right now and I don't get to see any of the boys or parents so it was fun to catch up with them.  A lot of the boys came and hung out too, which was fun because Shawn was invited to stay too.  He was a bit skeptical at first, but ended up having a lot of fun!  It was also fun to see a few of the soccer moms from older teams that Shawn doesn't coach anymore.  Shawn's parents have always been so supportive of him and of us.  We were so spoiled!!! 

 Later that day, after the soccer mom shower we had Shawn's family shower.  Shawn had so much fun at the soccer mom shower that he decided to hang out at this one too(:  Mickie spent a month with the kids in california visiting Brandyn at work so she wasn't able to make it.  I know she wanted to!  Bre & Stacey did a great job with all of the food and decorations.  It was fun to see all of Shawn's family and family friends.  We got lots of fun "essential" items, seriously we got hooked up with all of the showers!  

 How far along? 37 weeks

Current weight: 130 +25 lbs

Sleep?  Not getting any better, but not getting any worse. 

Movement? yes and yes.  

Food Cravings? Not anything specific this week!

Showing yet? Well yes!

Rings? on

Symptoms? At my Doc's appointments he is always surprised at how low she is.  He has said a few times at how uncomfortable I must be...but I'm feeling pretty good!  By then end of a clinic day I "waddle" a lot  Her head is down and ready to go.  No dilation yet though!

 Just a sunday dinner with the brothers and husband.  It's so much fun to have Curtis and Spencer home from school.  Sunday dinners are SO MUCH more entertaining.  Lots of laughs.  My parents decided to go to Seattle for like 3 weeks...bad timing with the baby coming!!! Guess it was okay because she didn't decide to come early. 

So everyone had received their National Written Exam scores but me and Chandra...that's because we are procrastinators and took it in January when everyone else took it before Christmas.  We decided that we wanted to study over Christmas break...we don't have any kids so it wasn't that big of a deal to us.  Anyway, at the end of the month we finally got our results! This one came in the mail, just a little piece of paper saying PASS !  Wish we could know our score, oh well!  Feels so good to be all done with Boards!!!