New Year's Eve

Well, since it's New Year's Eve, and since I'm going on my third week of bedrest, and since I have nothing better to do, I thought I'd update our blog. Last year we went down to Mill Ave. at ASU to see Third Eye Blind play and ring in the New Year with some friends; that was a lot of fun. This year we got take out from a local favorite restuarant and are going to do our best to stay up to see the ball drop at midnight. Hard to believe this time next year we'll have an almost one year old little boy to celebarte with us!

I've been in the hospital four times now since my blood pressure has decided not to cooperate with my pregnancy, and expect to go for a fifth trip this Wednesday after my doctor's appointment, since that's been the drill for my last four doctor appointments. In fact, last week (day after Christmas) I was admitted for an overnight stay.

As you can see, Adam got quite creative and moved the little couch bed over next to my hospital bed so he could sleep next to me. Bless his heart, the bed was so small and his legs were hanging off the end by a couple of feet, but he didn't complain and just made sure I was comfortable the whole time.

The doctor told me last week that it is possible they could induce my labor in a week and a half to two weeks (meaning in a few days from now)! I knew this baby was coming soon enough, but that soon?!?! I'll know more after my appointment and ultrasound this week, but hopefully all is well and I'll continue to stay on the bedrest to give Rocklin a little more time to grow and develop as much as possible.

I hope everyone out there has a fun time this New Year's Eve! We love all of you and thanks to everyone who has been keeping our little family in your thoughts and prayers. I'll try and post more as time moves along...soon enough we'll have baby pictures to share! (By the way, Santa brought us a nice camera for Christmas this year, so we'll have a lot more pictures to come).

Merry Christmas!!

I promise my next post will have pictures...but for now I wanted to write and wish everyone a big MERRY CHRISTMAS! This is the first time in my "adult" life that I did not send out Christmas cards. I feel kind of guilty, I really wanted to, but I just didn't get to it this year. I'll be sending out baby announcement cards when Rocklin makes his debut, so bare with me until then. Thanks to all my wonderful friends and family who sent us Christmas cards this year - everyone looks so good! It's always fun to read what everyone has been up to over the past year, and especially seeing pictures of everyone!

This year my family is spending Christmas with Adam and I here in Arizona. We are so excited!! Two of my brothers (Daniel and Kevin) drove down from Utah and arrived today, and my parents and twin brothers Aaron and Adam arrive tomorrow - driving in from Georgia! Bless their hearts, that's a heck of a drive from Georgia to Arizona! I'm blessed to have such a wonderful family! They'll be here all week, so I'm sure we'll be taking lots of pictures that I'll post soon enough.

On a separate note, I've been put on bed rest with my pregnancy. This past week I ended up in the hospital on three different occasions, all with super high blood pressure. My doctor says she's sure it's preeclampsia. It seems that the only thing that keeps my blood pressure down is the bed rest, especially laying on my side. This didn't seem too bad at first, but laying on your side all day and all night can get real old, real fast! My doctor says I'll defiantly be delivering early, although at this point I'm not too sure how early. My baby shower is coming up on January 12th, so I hope I can last until at least then! I'm 33 weeks pregnant now, and the baby's lungs are still developing, so hopefully they won't have to induce me prior to him being really strong and healthy. The doctor mentioned possibly having to give me steroids for the baby to help his lungs develop quickly, but the idea of that makes me so nervous. I'm sure what ever ends up happening the good Lord will be watching over both me and the baby. I just need to make sure I do my part and hang in there with the bed rest so I can keep the baby as close to full-term as possible!

Christmas Lights

Tonight Adam and I had the opportunity to attend the Christmas lights display at the Mesa, AZ Temple with some of Adam's friends from work. We had a great time with them looking at the lights and sharing more about the gospel. We watched the Luke 2 video again and also got to see nativity scenes from all over the world. It was really cool! I'd recommend it to anyone who has the chance to check it out.

9 weeks and counting...

Disclaimer: This is a long post. I guess I felt like I had a lot to say...and there aren't any fun pictures involved, sorry.

I'm officially 31 weeks pregnant now, only 9 more to go. Unless little Rocklin decides to make his appearance a little earlier than expected, which I guess is OK as long as he's healthy (although I'm not sure I'll ever be 100% "ready" for this whole birthing and labor experience, so maybe it's best he wait out the full 40 weeks). He's not allowed to come any later than planned, so I'm not even going to write that in as an option for him.

I don't want to bore everyone with all the miserable experiences that come along with being pregnant, however there are some I feel the need to share. Here they are:

I've started snoring, much to Adam's dismay. It's funny because I was SO worried that when we got married Adam was going to be a big snorer. I've had a bag of earplugs in my nightstand for the past year and a half that I've only had to use a few times. Sad for him, but the tables have turned! He wears earplugs every night now just so that he can sleep. I'm hoping this is just a pregnancy related thing and that I won't be known as the girl that snores from now on.

I cried the other day because I couldn't bend over. I was trying to shred some papers in our shredder, and I was sitting in the big office chair and I dropped some of the papers and in my attempt to bend over and pick them up, I realized I couldn't reach them because my belly was in the way and I started crying. To those of you non-pregnant people out there, I'm sure crying seems like a bit of an overreaction to such a stupid situation, however to those of you who have been or are pregnant, I'm sure you can feel my pain on this one. Stupid hormones.

I have cankles. That's right, cankles. I usually do OK until about 4 - 5 PM at which point my legs go from looking like normal every day legs to tree trunks. It's mostly my ankles and then extends to my feet. I thought for sure I'd be immune from this horrible pregnancy side-effect since all my life I've had pretty nice ankles, if I do say so myself. Not anymore. And it's not like they just swell up, they swell up to the point of feeling tight - it's hard to explain, but it's not pleasant (feeling or looking). I'm sure they look way worse to me than anyone else, and a lot of it probably has to do with the fact that I'm still working full-time at my job and not at home resting as much as I probably should be.

I've just been diagnosed with gestational diabetes. Yuck. As if trying to watch what I eat wasn't hard enough, now I REALLY have to be careful and also check my blood sugar like four times a day to make sure all is well. Hello bran muffins, apples and sugar-free jello and good-bye pretty much anything else I'd like to eat. To be honest, I'm not even sure what I can eat...I'm waiting to hear from the hospital as my doctor has referred me to a "diabetes teaching" class at the hospital. At this class I'm supposed to learn what to eat, how often to eat, etc. etc. I've also started walking on a regular basis at night, and so far Adam's been nice enough to go with me. I figure a little fresh air and time out of the house and out on our feet couldn't be bad for either one of us.

Along with the gestational diabetes, my doctor says that I'm going to have to go in for ultrasounds twice a week, once I hit 33 weeks. This seems a bit much to me, and maybe it won't be extended until I deliver, but I guess for now it will be good to keep a close eye on our little guy to make sure that he's doing good. And as of my last appointment, he's doing really well - weighing in at 3 lbs. 12 oz., and looking really healthy. I am praying he stays that way and no complications come up because of the diabetes. Oh, and at my last appointment I had an ultrasound and we were able to see his little feet (which are about 2 inches long) and his spine (straight as can be) and his femur bone and a few other fun things, but he was being VERY stubborn about showing us his face! He kept both his arms and hands up around his face. I guess he was just not in the mood for pictures that day. It's hard to be upset with him though, I mean how can you be frustrated with someone who has 2 inch feet?

One last thing ... yesterday in our ward's primary, we watched the video Luke 2. I guess I never really thought in detail about the sacrifices of Mary and Joseph, but especially Mary, in riding a donkey to Bethlehem to deliver the baby Jesus. The primary leader put it into perspective in that it would be like a pregnant woman today having to ride a donkey 9 months pregnant from where we live in Chandler, AZ to say Flagstaff, AZ (about a couple hours away) and then having to give birth without drugs in a stable on top of hay surrounded by animals. The video brought a tear to my eye as I feel like I understand a little more about the sacrifices made by Mary. How thankful I am for this little primary lesson and for the eye-opening experience it was for me watching this Christmas video.