Less than two weeks...

I am due in LESS than two weeks!  This feels so crazy to me because this pregnancy has gone so fast!  Or maybe I'm slightly in denial about the lack of sleep I have coming up here soon.  Probably a combination of both.  I am WAY more prepared this time around though, which is probably to be expected since I have a little better idea of what's coming my way.  I have all of our baby stuff out, cleaned, and ready, like the swing, floor play mat, baby tub, clothes, toys, swaddle blankets, crib, pack-n-play, monitor, rcoker, white noise machine, etc.  I have made several lists and crossed them all off and can't think of anything else I have to get ready besides packing hospital bags and doing last-minute cleaning right before she comes.  Oh, and picking out a middle name, which of all things has turned out to be a topic that we can't even begin to agree on. But if that's our only issue right now, I'll take it. :)

If I had it my way, baby girl would come on October 4th for a few reasons... 1) My mom is coming on the 1st, so it gives Lucy a couple of days to really warm up to my mom again, who will be helping to watch her while I'm in the hospital; 2) it's a Friday, which is the day my actual doctor is always the one doing deliveries at the hospital, and I love my doctor, and 3) it's the weekend so Ryan would have a few free days before needing to take any parental and vacation time off (which we are hoping to save most of for Christmas time).  But let's be honest, most babies have their own date in mind, so we will see what happens!

I think my greatest accomplishment this go-around was actually doing freezer meals.  I planned on doing them last pregnancy, but got lazy and really just thought it wouldn't be a big deal... and then for the first couple of months I cringed just thinking about making one meal and we wasted a lot of money on take-out.  So yeah, learned my lesson.  I spent last Thursday night planning out all of my meals and making a grocery list, got all the supplies Friday morning, and spent Lucy's nap time making them.  The best part about them is that they are all crock-pot meals.  Here's where my laziness (although I like to think awesomeness) shines through though- I let myself buy crock-pot liners so that I would have absolutely no clean-up after the meals are cooked!

$90 and 1.5 hours later... I have 20+ (the + refers to leftovers, which hopefully there will be plenty of) dinners ready and waiting to go from freezer to crock pot! 

Visit from Aunt Wanda

A few weeks ago my aunt came and visited.  We did the usual... shop, go out to eat (Panera, Olive Garden), relax at home, play with Lucy, etc.  It's always a fun time.  And of course she showed up with a ton of Malley's chocolate!

She had such a fun bath time with Aunt Wanda and cracked up the whole time!

We went to a children's consignment store here and the first thing we saw when we entered was this scooter, which Lucy refused to part with, so my aunt bought it for her. :)  Our neighbors have a scooter and she begs for it everyday, so I guess it was time she got her own.  And it's a princess one... bonus! It was a million degrees plus humidity outside the day we got it, so she practiced riding in the kitchen the first day.

Only one month away!!

Oh my goodness... I just looked at the date (Sep. 6th) and realized that I am due in exactly ONE month (Oct. 6th)!  I am still feeling okay, but I'm definitely very uncomfortable at this point, too.  And I'm back to feeling slightly nauseous if I don't eat constantly, although I am fine if I do (bad for the weight gain).  Lucy always measured very small but this time my doctor told me that I don't have a very small baby, and I don't have a huge one either, just a very average sized baby.  Perfect!  Considering I'm all about the pain-free epidural method, the bigger the better (well, ya know, to a certain extent...I don't want a 14 pounder or anything) so that she sleeps better (given our last and only experience, I'm very concerned about sleep). Also, I have a pinched nerve in my rib cage that started out as just being really itchy but the more the baby grows, the more painful it becomes!  But the doctor assured me that it would go away when I have the baby.

Well, we've got a crib set up (steal of a deal from Craigslist!), boxes of clothes brought out of storage, two names we're deciding between*, and the car seat ready to go. We're mostly set with baby stuff, minus just a few things, so I'm feeling pretty ready for baby girl to come!

*A couple of stories about the name.  We have had a list of names for a while and easily narrowed them down to a top-two many months ago.  One evening, Ryan and I were just talking about those names and joking around about how to choose and who gets to choose, etc.  Well, my top name (one of our top two) was not one of his top choices at first and so I was trying to think of different ways to inspire us to get a name.  Very jokingly, I told him to go read our new Ensign magazine that was sitting in front of us and the first girl name he read would be the name we would use.  And guess what name that was? My top choice! Haha. So random.

Another story- just this morning I was at the park talking to a random lady who was there with her granddaughter and she was asking me about our new baby and when I was due, etc.  She knew Lucy's name from me calling out to her, and when she found out I was having a girl she just flat out asked me if we were going to name her our top name (she used the actual name!)?!  Isn't that crazy?  I told her that it was one of our top two choices and she said that it just seemed to fit right with the name Lucy.  So, we will just have to wait and see if she is name number 1 or 2 when she arrives! :)

Last day

This morning was my LAST day of seminary teaching (yes it only lasted two weeks)!  Yay!  I say yay, but really there's a little bitter-sweet mixed in there.  I really really liked being with the youth each morning.  I have to admit that they totally surprised me... way less attitude (not that they were terrible, just saying) in the mornings than I had seen during the days/evenings, and surprisingly awake and participative compared to many Sunday lessons.  Some of those kids just thrived in the morning situation.  I think it helps that the kids who actually come (there were a handful that couldn't come because it was too early) have a great dynamic together.  One of my favorites was a kid from the Spanish branch- he was there every single morning, even after working until 10 or 11 pm every day, and so nice and I just found out that no one in his family, including himself, is active yet he comes to seminary every morning.  You never would have known!  I also loved doing scripture mastery games every morning because it is helping me re-memorize some of the important ones.

Anyway, like I said, it's bitter-sweet that I'm done.  But for my situation right now in life, mostly just sweet. :)

Game Day

Last Saturday was the beginning of college football games.  We decided to go downtown and join in all of the Ohio State tailgating and pre-game festivities.  Ryan went to one game last year, but I had never been and it just seemed like something fun to do.  So we went.  Thank goodness for the free shuttle from the parking lot to/from the stadium, or I think I may have had this baby at the stadium!  It was so hot outside!  I heard on the radio the next day that 160 people were treated for heat stroke at the game.  Yikes!  Anyway, we didn't have tickets to go to the game, but that was okay because we went home and were able to watch the first BYU game of the season.  There was a super long rain delay and BYU ended up losing, but it was still a fun day kicking off college football.

Just testing out our new BYU cornhole set before the game started!  I let Ryan win.  And Lucy was awesome because she would run and pick up all my bags and hand them to me while I sat in a chair in between.  This is why we have kids, right? ;)

 Outside the OSU stadium.  We were there 3 hours before the game started and the place was already packed!  Crazy.  Ryan works with a guy whose brother is the kicker on the team, so we met up with him and his wife for a few minutes as well.

 Some security guy let us walk down the tunnel to the main floor where the band was.  It was really nice of him but didn't last long since Lucy was scared to death of the band.  It was pretty loud though.

 Ryan's intense-watching-the-game face.  Lucy's trying to learn.  She's also never seen him much with glasses on (he mostly just uses them at work) so she was a little confused about that. ha!

Yes, again...

Sick with a bad cold last week.  I know where she got it from and I'm not happy.  When this girl gets sick, I really truly mean that it is at least one full week (or more) of not sleeping.  And by not sleeping, I don't mean up every hour or couple of hours to put her back down.  I mean that I don't shut my eyes for more than 20 minutes the entire night.  For this purpose, I am putting her in quarantine this winter and most definitely not sending her to nursery at church on Sunday's.  I should stop now.  I get angry just thinking about her being/getting sick.  It's been a 9 month battle.

Things we do in the morning

Get really happy and excited to see all of the trucks and construction stuff going on bright and early outside her window (surprised she can see through all of that hair in her face!).

Run into the baby's room and go through all of the clothes (these are mostly all clothes I still had in Lucy's closet that were brand new that we never got around to using because she grew out of the size too quickly).

Go through mom and dad's closet and try on all of our shoes and clothes... and speedos (from Ryan's mission in Brazil).

 Put on every bangle bracelet (all belonged to Great-Grandma Harlan), crank up some tunes, and dance around shaking them all.

Yep, pretty typical mornings for us!