Landon's Newborns

So the way it worked out, we had my friend here in Kirksville come take newborn pictures of Landon about 11 days after I did my maternity shoot! Pretty funny. She just came to my house and we used the natural light of our windows to take the pictures. Holy cow, she did such a good job and I am so in love with his pictures! He was such a good little boy and slept basically the whole time, even when we were dressing and undressing him the whole time. He used to HATE being naked, so some of these pictures are kind of a big deal. :) So here they are for your enjoyment!

Oh man, looking through these again kills me! My little man is growing up too fast! And his hair is gone! I forgot how much he used to have… Poor kid ripped most of it out (I assume because his head was itchy when he got cradle cap) and now he looks like an old man! Oh well… He is still the cutest stinking thing ever!

Landon Thomas Wright - 4.19.2014 - The Birth Story

Well… Landon is now 14 weeks old, and here I am finally documenting his birth story. :) Luckily for me, it is something that is pretty much engrained in my head that would take a very long time to forget. Even though I THINK I would never forget it, I probably shouldn't test that and I will get everything written down. Buckle up, because I am long-winded!

Ok, so where to begin… Let's go back to 36 weeks pregnant, shall we? By this time in my pregnancy I was seeing the doctor weekly. Sidenote: I'm not sure if I ever talked about my doctor before, but he was awesome and I loved him! He was very laid back and relaxed, but he also displayed confidence that helped you know he would be able to step in and take care of business, if needed. Anyway, I went in to the doctor at this particular appointment and was told that the doctor was delivering a baby, but the nurse practitioner would see me. The NP told me that they were going to take the measurements and if the baby was still measuring fairly significantly ahead then they would send me to the hospital and schedule a "dating ultrasound". Lo and behold, they took the measurements and I was measuring at 39 weeks, so I scheduled an ultrasound for the next day. They also let me know that I was dilated to 1/2 cm, so that was good! I know it's pretty insignificant, but I was glad to not be completely closed. :)

The next day, I went in for the ultrasound. It was pretty uneventful, which is a good thing, but when you're pregnant, it's always fun to see your little guy/girl in there! I did have the tech confirm that he was, indeed, a boy, and he was, so that was good. Everything else went fine as far as I could tell. All the tech did/could tell me was that at my anatomy scan (18 weeks) he was measuring 2 weeks early, and she was dating him even earlier than that. Ok, so you would think this would have set off the alarms in my head... you are 36 weeks, the 2 weeks from the previous ultrasound would put you at 38 weeks, and this tech measuring you even earlier... Hmmm... nope! I just said "well, he's going to be a big boy!" and went on my merry way!

Fast forward to the following week. I am 37 weeks pregnant in for my regular doctor's appointment. I walked in excited to see if I had progressed at all. The nurse practitioner came in and starting spouting something out about checking to see how dilated I was and then possibly starting labor induction... THAT NIGHT. That was the first I had heard of anything like this! The last thing my doctor and I had talked about was starting a "cytotec induction" on May 2nd... 5 Days before my due date, not 3 weeks! Needless to say, when she took my blood pressure that appointment, it was much higher than the norm. So fast forward a little bit... I'm dilated to a 1, and they start telling me about how my "dating ultrasound" discovered that I had high amniotic fluid levels (polyhydramnios), something I had never heard of before. Dr. Boling said that it wasn't crucial to get the baby out right away, but we needed to start toying with the idea a little more seriously. When we had talked about induction at my earlier appointments, I talked about not wanting to be super aggressive with my induction methods and I wanted to take the little guy when he was ready, if at all possible. So we decided to go ahead with one dose of cytotec that night and then we would come again in the morning to re-evaluate.

This is the last pregnancy picture I have of myself.. 37 weeks! Holy cow,  I was huge! haha

WOW! A lot changed with just that one doctor's appointment and I was kind of freaking out. My doctor told me to go ahead and take care of everything I needed to, get some dinner, and head to Labor & Delivery whenever I wanted to. So I actually ended up going back to work and tying up as many loose ends as I could not knowing exactly when I would be having this baby. That night, we went in to L&D and got the first round of cytotec. They put me on the monitors, gave me the cytotec, monitored me for 2 hours, and then sent me home. It was pretty uneventful! The next morning, Matthew had a test so I went into work for another hour before heading to L&D for another round of cyotec. Same story there, we just went in, got the cytotec, got monitored, and headed home.

**Side story: Friday morning, it was kind of funny because we went into L&D and one of the nurses was like "So, we're told today is the day!!". I feel bad for the woman because Matthew and I both just kind of stared at her and said "It is?" They put me in an actual L&D room and everything instead of a postpartum room like the night before. She came into the room a few minutes later and said "Ok, so I just talked to Dr. Boling, I guess today isn't necessarily the day, but it could be! Pretty funny, I just blankly stared at her.**

So we had the option of going back to L&D for another round that night, but we opted not to and to just see where things go. I was having contractions at this point, but they weren't painful. It was actually kind of cool to watch my stomach tighten and hold it there for a couple of seconds and then relax. The human body seriously is incredible. I was amazed throughout this entire experience by how much my body just did! I didn't know what the heck I was doing, but I just followed what my body was doing and it all worked out. Anyway, Matthew and I went and took maternity pictures this night (pictures are in the post prior to this one) and then we walked around Walmart for a little while and grabbed some "just in case I actually do go into labor" items like a nursing bra and a zip-up robe to wear in the hospital. I'm sure there were some other items too, but those were the main ones I remember.

Saturday morning, I was supposed to be in Nauvoo for a primary workshop, but we thought I should probably stay a little closer to home. We went to L&D Saturday morning for yet another round of cytotec. We had talked to my doctor beforehand and decided that after this round we would take a break for the weekend (and Easter) and then come back again on Monday or Tuesday. Well.. I went in Saturday morning, got checked and I was at a 2-3! I was excited to see that my contractions and the cytotec were doing exactly what they were supposed to and I was progressing! So I was thinking the cytotec would induce labor within the next few days... Awesome! Well... in comes my doctor to drop yet another bomb on me! "You are progressing, awesome! I have no problem with breaking your water and getting this baby here today." Umm... what?? I was not ready for that. Ultimately, he left the decision up to me and said we could do another round of cytotec if I really wanted to, but he thought my body would do great and progress just the way it should if we put me on pitocin and broke my water.

My doctor and the nurses left Matthew and I in the room to talk it out. Once we got to talking, I was really scared. I didn't want to force anything especially when it was still 2.5 weeks early. After talking for a little while and saying a little prayer (Matthew had already given me a blessing as well), we realized that my main reservation was just being scared of labor itself. Haha I am such a chicken! I was SO scared to start all of that not knowing what was coming, how bad it was going to hurt, how I was going to handle it, etc. I think the worst part was just the unknown. It an be scary! I really did feel at peace with my body and I had confidence that it would do what it was supposed to, and most of all I trusted my doctor. Matthew ended up talking to Dr. Boling and asked what he would do if it were his wife and Dr. Boling said he would induce labor. He explained that with polyhydramnios (my high fluid levels thing) the risk of cord prolapse increases pretty significantly, so it was pretty important to try to have a controlled break with medical professionals present, if at all possible. If the cord prolapses, that is an immediate C-section and it can be pretty scary, so I totally understood his point there. We felt at peace with that decision, so we went ahead and moved forward with the induction. We joked around that my Grandma Waite (my German grandma) was holding on to our little guy because she wanted him to be born on April 20th (Hitler's birthday). I told the nurses if I was going to be induced he better be there before midnight because I was not having a baby on Hitler's birthday! I think they thought I was crazy for even knowing when Hitler's birthday was and even crazier for having a problem with an Easter baby. (Easter was on April 20th this year).

I got moved to the L&D room, hooked up to the monitors, and then hooked up to my IV. They started the pitocin and then we waited! I thought I would labor on the pit for awhile and progress a little further before breaking my water (aka: "the point of no return"), but nope! My doctor was in my room breaking my water just about 5 minutes later! I was way nervous the whole time he was breaking my water because of the risk of cord prolapse, but Landon's head was right there and dropped right down where it was supposed to. That was such a relief and a huge blessing. In all honesty, I expected there to be a lot more water, especially since I had high fluid levels, but there wasn't all that much (yet). The only part of Labor I had planned out was the fact that I wanted to epidural PLACED before I actually needed it. That way, when I was in pain and asked for it, I didn't have to wait for them to place it (and try to sit still while they were doing it), all they would have to do was feed the medicine through. So Dr. Boling was followed by the anesthesiologists coming to place my epidural. In hindsight, I am SO glad I did it this way. It was perfect for me. So the epidural was placed and then we were just basically left alone to labor and wait!

I could feel the contractions at this point. They weren't super painful, but I could feel them more than I had been before. They upped my pitocin every once in awhile. At some point, I was in some pain and just really uncomfortable and the nurse said the anesthesiologist was on the floor, so she would check me and if I was at a 4 (what I said I wanted to be at before getting the epidural) then she would have them give it to me while they were up there. So she checked and I was still at a 2-3! Freak! I was really disheartened because I had been in labor for several hours and I had made no progress. She did tell me I was almost completely effaced though, so she thought I would start dilating soon.

I still knew something needed to change because what I was doing wasn't working and I wasn't comfortable or able to focus. I couldn't get up and walk around because of pit, but I remembered that when I sat on the edge of the bed for the epidural, the contractions were much more manageable. So the nurse grabbed me a chair and I sat on that. Holy cow! Night and day difference! I could manage the contractions so much better and really focus on my breathing. Unfortunately for Matthew (and probably all men during labor) there was really nothing he could do for me. He just sat on the bed and held my hand. But FORTUNATELY for Matthew, the NBA Playoffs were on and I couldn't have cared less if he watched them. Haha So at this point my contractions were closer together and I was having a hard time relaxing enough in between contractions, so Dr. Boling gave me a little bit of pain medicine to help me relax in between contractions. That was really nice too and something I wasn't aware could be done! I loved it because they put it directly into my IV, so it took effect really fast. It helped so much to where I was able to focus and breath through the contractions, but I was able to relax so much faster in between them to recover a little more before the next contraction. After getting the pain medicine, I just focused on my breathing and that really helped with contractions. I would breath as deep as I could and then I told myself if I could just breath deeply in and out 7 times then the contraction would be over and I could relax again. The little short-term goals really helped me focus on the short-term and not worry about what was coming or how long it had been. I think it helped time pass a little quicker too.

Eventually I was still having a hard time relaxing and I couldn't breath as deeply or focus as well so I said "Matt, please go get the nurse, I don't even care, I want my epidural!" (He said my voice was so sad and he felt really bad at this point. Haha) So he went to grab her and then came back and I went to the bathroom. I sat back in the bed and she came and checked me and said I was at a 6-7! Halle-freakin-lujah! Sitting in the chair worked! :) But seriously, it totally did! I don't know if it was the position or gravity helping me out or the pain medicine helping me relax and not fight the contractions as much as I had been or what, but something worked, and that's all that matters! :) So the nurse went and called the anesthesiologist and came back and said she would "mosey on up" to feed the medicine through. Umm... No. No "moseying"! Get your butt up here! Haha Luckily, she didn't take too long though. So she started to feed some medicine in and then another nurse came in to check me. The nurses had just changed shifts, so she came to check me and when she did she said "Ok, I'm going to go make sure Dr. Boling is on his way". So she went out quickly and then came back in and said luckily he had just arrived because I was at a 9+! :) Holy cow, I'm glad I got the epidural placed before because I went from a 6-10 way too quickly to get one placed. So they said "Ok, we'll just wait for your epidural to kick in and then we'll push!" YAY! It was awesome. So the epidural worked its magic, I didn't feel pain, but for the most part I could feel when to push. So I got focused and did some "practice pushes" with the nurses. There were a couple of times where his heart rate dropped, so they put me on oxygen in between pushing and then he was just fine.

So I don't know what "practice pushes" are, but I assure you, pushing is pushing. So eventually Landon was crowning and the nurse went to grab Dr. Boling. I honestly didn't even see him come in, though, my mind was elsewhere. I pushed and pushed and my eyes were closed and then at some point everyone in the room said "Lauren, open your eyes!" So I opened my eyes and Landon was right there! He looked a lot more blueish/gray than I thought he should and I saw the back of his head and the cord up on the back of his neck. It kind of freaked me out because I thought the cord was wrapped around his neck, but it wasn't, it was just on the back of his neck. One more push and the rest of his body came out! Once he was out I was like, "Oh, THERE'S the rest of the fluid they were talking about. Haha when they broke my water, apparently his head had plugged the hole because there was a ton of fluid that came out with him, they said he basically surfed out! I remember hearing him cry and seeing dark, DARK hair! And lots of it! The nurses hurried and wiped him down just a little bit and put him directly on me. I remember him crying and crying while they were wiping him and then as soon as he was on my chest he calmed down immediately. It was such a surreal moment, I can't even explain it. I just couldn't believe that was my son and he was finally here. He was SO beautiful!! I really was convinced that Matthew and I were going to have an ugly baby, but he was so perfect! He was so calm whenever he was laying on my chest, it was as if it was exactly where he belonged and he knew it. The connection, for me, was instantaneous. Matthew and I just sat there and stared at him until the nurses needed to take him over to his warm bed for routine tests and weight/height measurements.

So from start to end, my labor went from about 11:30 AM to 7:41 PM, I pushed for about 40 minutes, but it didn't even feel that long! Pushing was pretty freaking exhausting (even with an epidural! Go natural?? No thank you!), but you are so focused that it goes by pretty fast. I'm sure if you're pushing for hours it doesn't go by all that fast though. Landon weighed 8 lbs. 2 oz. (thank goodness we didn't go to me estimated due date!) and was 21" long. Truly the perfect size. We actually thought he would be longer because his torso was so long! His head-rump was 14"! I guess he's just got short little legs! Who knows where he gets that from though! Overall, I couldn't have asked for a better labor and delivery experience. I think I freaked myself out SO much about it that once it was all said and done I was like "Well that wasn't THAT bad". I guess that's the key! Expect something so awful and terrible that you're just pleasantly surprised! :)

Overall recovery went really well. I had some stitches, but they didn't bother me too much. Breastfeeding was kind of stressful and hard and frustrating for the first few weeks, but we figured it out. I did get mastitis after about a week and that sucked, but once I got my antibiotics it was night and day difference! I had so much help and was so grateful my mom was able to come out and be with us for the first week and a half. Since I went early, she had to get a last minute flight out (Thanks to my sister-in-law and her buddy passes!), but she was there the night before we got released from the hospital. We had great friends bring meals and visit and definitely just made us feel loved! I am so grateful we got such a happy and beautiful baby. Matthew and I are so lucky to have Landon in our lives. We love him more than we could ever put into words. Matt is such a good daddy. He has done amazing with the adjustment to having a child while in medical school. He still made time for Landon and I even in the midst of finals and all other busy times. He has done great!

Look at that handsome daddy!! :) 

Don't mind my crazy hair… I was just in labor! Haha

So... there you have it! Landon's birth story! If all of my pregnancies and deliveries go as well as this one, I should probably have 10 kids! :) We'll see how mischievous he turns out to be, though. He is, afterall, his daddy's son! Anyway, I have lots more updating to do, hopefully I can get this blog caught up ASAP! Until next time!

Such a beautiful, perfect baby boy!

Life Before Baby - Going Back

I realized I didn't blog nearly enough during my pregnancy. I don't really have a good excuse why I didn't, but it is what it is, I guess! In all honesty, though, it's probably a good thing I didn't blog. I was VERY fortunate during my entire pregnancy. I had a very uneventful pregnancy. I felt really good the whole time (obviously there was the nausea at the beginning and heartburn throughout, but it wasn't anything I couldn't handle or anything dangerous for me or the baby.) I always felt like I was one of those annoying women who was always so happy during pregnancy and who had it "too easy". Have you ever seen the movie "What to Expect when you're Expecting"? Matt always said I was like the woman on there who sneezed and her baby came out. I don't know names or anything, but we always make jokes about that. I don't really know what to say though… Pregnancy was really good to me. I was very, VERY blessed and I am fully aware of that. :)

The weeks leading up to baby were pretty uneventful. I was able to fly out to Utah to have a family baby shower, and that was so much fun! My sister, Angie, was in town from Colorado, so we took that opportunity to fly me out to have a baby shower. It turned out SO cute and my sisters (and sisters-in-law) did such a cute job with it. The theme was "Little Man" and all of the decorations and everything were so cute! I know there are pictures on my mom's camera, but I haven't gotten my hands on those yet, unfortunately. It was such a fun weekend in Utah though! We shoved everything we possibly could into those few days. I flew in Friday afternoon, went to dinner with my friends on Friday night, Baby shower Saturday morning, General Women's Conference Saturday night, Ryker's baby blessing Sunday morning in Smithfield, Grandpa and Grandma Stanley's Saturday night, and then I went to a funeral Monday morning before flying back to Missouri. Even though a weekend was much too short, I am still so glad I was able to fly out to Utah to see some family. I love all of my family (both mine and Matthew's) SO much, and I am grateful every time we get the chance to spend some time with them. I am grateful to my sisters and mom for throwing me such a fun shower and grateful to everyone who came! It was such a fun weekend.

The hardest part about playing catch-up blogging is that I don't give as many details on everything as I otherwise would. It makes me sad sometimes, but I just need to do the best I can. I wish I would have documented more during my pregnancy, but I will just have to remember what I can. I was so fortunate to have such good friends willing to throw me baby showers. I had one from my friends in Utah around Christmas, my family shower, a friend shower here in Kirksville, and then my coworkers even threw me a surprise shower! Matthew and I have been so blessed and felt really lucky and loved around that time.

I am also blessed to have a good friend here in Kirksville who is a photographer and takes wonderful pictures! I wanted to get the pictures done sooner when I was still "cute pregnant" and not huge, but it just didn't work out with our schedules. So… we actually ended up taking maternity shots the DAY BEFORE I delivered. We had no idea I would be delivering the next day, but it was pretty funny the way it all worked out. We love how the pictures turned out though! They will definitely be a fun memory to have. 

I was a pretty big pregnant lady, but I was so fortunate that I felt good my whole pregnancy. Even with how big I got and the weight I gained (and even despite some… shall we say… "less than thoughtful or compassionate" comments by others), I still had very high spirits throughout the whole pregnancy. I think the "secret" (at least for me) was the knowledge that I was doing everything I could to remain healthy (working out regularly, trying to eat well, etc.) but also to always remember what exactly my body was doing! It's such a miracle to be able to be pregnant and create another life inside of your body and no number on the scale is going to change that for me. I am very blessed in a world full of infertility to be able to create life, and that is why I tried to always remember that and not complain about some discomforts of pregnancy, because some women would kill for those aches, pains, and nausea. Don't get me wrong, I didn't have much to complain about compared to most pregnant women, so not complaining wasn't a huge task for me, but that thinking helped me when those moments did come up.

Ok, that is my pathetic "before baby" catch-up… My next post will hopefully be the birth story of our little guy. That is a definite must-do when you have a baby, but then I will start to try to document his life a little better and keep things up-to-date for family. (Famous last words!) Until next time!

Still Alive and Getting Ready for Baby!

It's been awhile, friends! I figured I should drop by this neglected blog of mine and let everyone know we are still alive and doing well! I wish I could say life is crazy and that's why it's been so long since I've blogged but… I have just read a lot of books lately instead of blogging. If I blogged more frequently, it wouldn't take as long but, alas… Here I am… And here is my update broken down to the three people living under this roof.

BABY

Well first of all, there's this...

 I hadn't written on here since announcing we were pregnant so... Yeah! We found out it's a boy!! I couldn't be more excited! I honestly didn't care what it was, I would have been excited regardless, but I am still excited to start off with a boy! We don't have a name picked out yet, but I have a list of my favorites that Matthew has to choose from. :) Everything at the ultrasound, thankfully, looked perfect as far as I could tell! He was smacking his lips at one point and it was super cute. Then the tech was showing me his little legs and she was like "oh, there's his foot!" We had the perfect shot of one of his little feet and then all of a sudden it moves and goes "pow!" and kicked the Doppler. It was actually pretty funny. Without fail, he has kicked the Doppler (whether it be just a heartbeat one or an actual ultrasound) every single time one has been on my belly. There were even times before I could feel him moving that my doctor would be trying to find the heartbeat and he would say "well… he's kicking the doppler, so we know he's in there!" I don't know why he hates it so much, but it's pretty entertaining.

We had a "gender reveal party" when we found out what it was, which was a lot of fun! I have some really amazing friends here who were so willing to help and made it so much fun for us! So during the ultrasound, the tech just showed us general shots of the baby. We got to see him move around, saw his adorable profile, his heart/spine/brain, legs, arms, everything except… what makes him a him. :) So then she looked at what the gender was and wrote it down on an index card and put it in an envelope. Then we drove the envelope over to my good friend Lisa's house and her and our other friend Chelsea made delicious cake balls for us! We invited a bunch of friends over that night to find out the gender with us, which was a lot of fun as well. When I told Lisa I wanted to do a gender reveal party, she was the mastermind of the whole cake ball idea, which I LOVED! The inside of the cake ball was the gender of the baby (obviously) and the outside she did both pink and blue chocolate. So when everyone got there and we were ready, everyone chose the color of what they thought it was and then we bit into it and it revealed what the gender really was! I chose a pink one (even though I thought it was a boy) and Matthew chose a blue one. It was a lot of fun, and I was happy with how it turned out. I wish I had more pictures, but we did get a video that I will try to upload sometime soon. :) 

Movement has been really good so far and is starting to get more frequent and strong. Well… I consider  it "really good", but let's face it, I have no idea what I'm talking about. I've never done this before! He doesn't keep me up at night yet, which is so great. He is the most active right after I get to work and then typically right after dinner-ish. Matthew has felt him kick lots. That was nice because he was starting to call me crazy and didn't believe that he was actually kicking me. There are times where I will make him put his hand on my belly and the little monkey will kick hard or something and Matthew will just say "wow!" and I say "SEE!?!" Haha so now he knows that the kid really is getting stronger and he really does move around a lot! But anyway... our adorable little boy is healthy as far as I can tell and is doing great! He has been really kind to his mama and hasn't made me worry much at all, which is good! 

MOM

Ok, now we'll talk about me! :) I really am doing SO great! Second trimester was so good to me and I am seriously blessed. I just barely started the third trimester, so we will see how it treats me! I get heartburn every once in awhile, but it's nothing too bad AND I can just pop some Tums in and it goes away! I don't feel huge yet, which is good, but I have moments of "holy crap, I'm huge!" or "where the heck did this belly come from!?", but overall I think I'm doing pretty ok. I know third trimester will bring a lot of changes physically, but I have tried to mentally prepare myself for that, so hopefully it works! So physically I am doing fabulous. I am still working out regularly which has helped me keep my spirits up about the weight gain and physical changes. Physical changes are documented below...

Look! We're all ready for baby! We have all we need. :) Who needs diapers or any of that stuff anyway!?

25 weeks

27 weeks

Now let's talk about mentally..... Haha :) Ok, so I really am doing great, but MAN! Preparing for your first child is perhaps the scariest/most overwhelming thing ever! There are so many times that I fall short of expectations I have for myself and I just sit there and wonder if I am really the right person to be bringing a wonderful little baby into this world! It's things like "I can't even keep the house clean NOW, how am I supposed to do it when I have a baby/toddler making messes all the time!?" or "I hate doing laundry NOW, and there's only two of us!" or "I can't even get to church on time NOW, how am I supposed to get me AND a child ready and even have a prayer of making it to church on time!?". I know that having a baby is a life-changing event and people say you can't even remember life without them once they're here but... I can't picture my life WITH a baby right now! I don't think I can fully comprehend how much this little guy is going to change me, but I am so excited to meet him and learn together and hopefully he will just help change me and make me a better person.

But do you know what has really been eating at me lately? I am absolutely terrified that in about 3 months, there will be a little boy here who is completely dependent on Matthew and I to survive. If we want our son to learn correct principles, WE are solely responsible to teach him those things. The world is becoming a very different place even from the one I was raised in, and that terrifies me. I always ask Matthew questions that I should definitely know the answers to (whether it be gospel related or otherwise) and I just tell myself there is no way I am going to be able to teach a little boy everything he needs to know. It doesn't help that I am in primary now and sometimes the kids ask me questions that stump me and make me feel like a dummy! But… *cheesy moment* it is those times that remind me why I married Matthew. He is so smart and so articulate and is definitely quicker on his feet than I could ever be! When our son comes up with some random "where did that come from??" question, I know I am going to be so grateful for the man I married. I am already practicing the answer… "Go ask your dad". :) So yeah… my husband is pretty great and I think he is going to be the best daddy in the whole world! And… I am thankful every single day that I won't be a single parent. I don't know how people do this alone, because I need my husband in my life!  

DADDY

Speaking of that daddy, how is HE doing? Well… it might be better to ask him, but I'd say he's doing pretty great! Medical School is obviously tough (to say the least), but he has done a great job at balancing life and school (aka giving me attention even during the busy times) and he is doing really well in all of his classes! That guy is seriously a rockstar. I don't know how he does it. It overwhelms me just thinking about it, but he works so hard and has done so well! He has a crazy couple of weeks coming up that will definitely test him (literally… haha), but he just takes everything a day at a time and gets through it! He is patient with me when the house gets dirty or when we have dinner at 9 o clock at night and he adjusts my back for me about every day. He has been so helpful even through his busy times, and I am so grateful for that. He is excited about and ready for baby to come too, but we both realize that the little guy needs to cook a little longer! The next few months are going to be crazy! By the time this baby comes, Matthew will be getting ready for finals (two weeks after the due date), and then he will probably be off to do his thing with the military for two weeks and who knows what else! It's a crazy life, but I definitely wouldn't change it for anything. 

Well, I think that's about it for now! Sadly, I don't update enough, so I never wrote about Christmas in Utah, the baby shower my Utah friends threw for me (so nice of them!), or all of the other random events that have happened... So maybe a random post about everything will happen sometime, but I won't say that it will because… It probably won't. :) Hopefully I post again before the baby comes, but.. who am I kidding? I always think I'll be better at this than I am. Here's to always trying! :)