Bun in My Oven: Week 34

Who would have thought that after 33 comes 34? It's getting crazier and crazier around here. I feel like I'm finally feeling the affects of being pregnant. For instance, I cannot sleep. That alone is enough for me to be done being pregnant all together. I'm also not able to breath as well. The baby is so high and she is squishing my diaphragm. Finding a comfortable position to sleep and being able to breath is proving to be most difficult. I am finding that the couch is a better option these days, but who wants to sleep on the couch? I like sleeping with my baby daddy, even if that means being uncomfortable.

Yesterday was my doctors appointment. All is well. Baby Stevens is doing really well, and the nurses said that I was finally looking pregnant. Gee, thanks. I really do like my doctor and her nurses. They are fantastic. The cute little baby was kicking and hiding from us though. It took my doctor a while to get the heartbeat since she kept hiding from us. I'm not sure where she could really hide though. I'm really excited that she is going to be here in six weeks. It's close and yet so far. I know that Nick and I will stress about the small things until she is here, but it is so worth it. Today I am ready to enter into this next phase into life. I'm scared to death, but I'm really excited and happy.

This week my baby is 4 3/4 pounds and almost 18 inches long. Again, this is according to my readings. I forgot to ask the doctor the weight and length yesterday. Oops, pregnancy brain. Her fat layers are starting to fill out. Have I mentioned that my baby really likes country and rap/r & b music? It's hilarious. I'll be driving in the car and she'll be moving around a little more than usual when that type of music is playing. It's quite amusing.

Here she is at week 34:

(Please disregard the "G" lines)

Ward Baby Shower

Last night my friend Carly threw me a baby shower. It was so much fun. This girl is crazy crafty and creative. She is so amazingly talented and sweet. The baby shower started at 7:30pm and I didn't get home until 11:30pm. It was seriously a blast. Thanks again Carly. You're the best.

She had all this yummy food too. And yes, she made and decorated the cake. It was just something she whipped together that day. She made my favorite kind of cake, red velvet. Mmmm....

After we ate the delicious chili, cornbread, fruit, and vegetables we played some shower games. The first was to see who could "birth" their baby first. She put a tiny plastic baby in an ice cube tray and froze them. Sadly, I lost. Ruth, however, did not. She wanted to to display her child with pride.

The proud mama.

She really asked me to take this picture. Now she must endure any embarrassment this may cause her.

We played a "who knows Stacy the best" and a memory game. It was really interesting to see some of the answers people were coming up with last night. Apparently I look really young and innocent. Uh-huh..

The memory board. Which by the way, I did terrible. I blame it on the pregnancy. Everyone got multiple matches. Thus resulting with multiple candy bars with the corresponding match. For example, I found the pregnancy body match and received a Mounds candy bar. So appropriate. My personal favorite was the labor match. That match received a Push Pop.

The beautiful Carly posing as Vannah White.

Some of the guests with their prizes.

It really was so much fun. I haven't laughed that hard in a really long time. Thank you to everyone that came. Thanks for the great gifts and good memories.

Bun in My Oven: Week 33

Another week has come and gone. I'm becoming increasingly impatient and irritable. Poor Nick. He's handling it quite well. Just for the record, I do warn him ahead of time if I know that I'm going to be in a bad mood. The impatience is coming from the fact that I'm tired of this belly and I just want the baby to be here now. The irritability is from work. It seems the closer I'm getting to my due date, the more work is being piled on my desk. It doesn't help that our office is understaffed and a co-worker just put in her two week notice. Oh, and my maternity leave starts December 1st. Basically work has been lovely. Truly, other than that I can't complain. This little girl of mine is really trying not to be a pest. She does like to move and shake still. I feel like she is kicking at my lungs lately. Little stinker.

On a happier note, my little baby is getting huge. She's almost here! Seven more weeks. This week she weighs close to 4 pounds. That's huge, and she is suppose to be around 17 inches long. I still don't know that she is as long as the websites say she should be. That's okay. Little runt babies are cute too. Her skeleton is continuing to harden and she is still looking less and less like an alien.

We are so excited for this little baby to come. I still feel unprepared. I mean we have most of the basics, but is it really enough? It's been hard for me to decide on a breast pump to purchase as well. Can anyone out there give me advise on this? I'm really at a loss and to the point where I don't know if I want to nurse. It's all becoming very intimidating and stressful. My doctor is great, I really like her, but sometimes I wonder. For instance, she still hasn't told me about any birthing classes. Don't most doctors tell you where you can go for those things? My next appointment is on Tuesday and I'm keeping a list of everything that I'm going to ask her. I still haven't toured the hospital that I'll be delivering in either. I'm kind of at a loss right now. Seriously, if anyone could offer up some advise, it would be much appreciated.

Here's the belly this week. Yep, I'm getting huge. ;)

Lovin' Me Some Beach

I love the beach. It's always so peaceful and beautiful. This time was even more enjoyable than most. For one thing we were in Newport. Secondly, it wasn't crowded at all, and third the family was all there. I tried to take a bunch of pictures, but most didn't turn out so well. I wasn't too sure about going into the water too deep. I also did not want my camera to get wet. It was relaxing to be there. I love just walking in the sand and getting my feet wet. The water was a little cold, it is November after all, but it didn't take long to get used to the water temperature. As much as I love the beach and the ocean, Nick loves it more. I wish we could go more, but current schedules don't allow for it to happen often. I was really glad to see Nick finally relax and forget about work for a few hours.

Little Will wouldn't let go of his Uncle Nick anytime they were in or close to the water.

Elizabeth riding the waves in. She did a really good job on that surf board.

Phill teaching Nick all the tricks to surfing. Nick didn't do quite as well as Elizabeth.

Later that evening the big kids went starfish hunting. They came back with a whole bucket full. I had never touched or held a live starfish before. Therefore, it had to be documented.

Yes, I am holding the smallest starfish caught. Baby steps people.

As you can tell, Nick loves getting his picture taken. Loving the fake smile.

Jackson, Elizabeth, and I holding some more starfish.

Oh, Newport. I will be back soon.

Disneyland on Halloween

This portion of the trip was probably my favorite. Except for my Uncle Richard, who doesn't love Disneyland? Oh the Halloween decorations were marvelous. I especially loved how they decorated the Haunted Mansion ride. The Nightmare Before Christmas happens to be one of my favorite Disney movies. Sadly, I didn't ride the ride. No one wanted to go on it and I wasn't going to go by myself. Nick and I were just going to go by ourselves, but by then the Fast Passes were gone and the line was about an hour wait. Hopefully next time we will be able to ride.

Everyone had a good time riding all of the rides. I had a good time watching everyone ride the rides. Okay, so maybe I was a little bored at times, but Disneyland is one of the "Happiest Places on Earth." How could I not have a good time? I made Nick take a lot of pictures and we realized that for the year 2009 we didn't have any pictures together. I have taken countless photos of Nick this year, so we took advantage of the Disney staff and got as many pictures as we could.

We all went over to California Adventure and had our pictures taken with Minnie Mouse. She was cute and I'm pretty sure that she was in love with Phill. She wouldn't leave the poor guy alone, but I'm pretty sure Jess could take Minnie any day.

Later everyone went home to get in their costumes. Nick and I stayed behind to have a pseudo date night. We went to dinner, walked around, and went to some of the different stores to look at some future gifts for the kiddos. Everyone came back for the firework show and to ride some more rides. We all went on the Buzz Lightyear ride four or five times. On this ride you have a laser gun and you have to shoot at different things. It was so much, mostly because this was one of the few rides that I could actually ride. We also discovered how extremely competitive this family is. We had to keep riding this particular ride because we all wanted to have the high score. In the end Jess killed us all with some crazy score that none of us could get. The end of the night was approaching and it was time for them all to ride one last ride. Of course they ended the night with my beloved Space Mountain. Sigh... next year.

At the end of the night we all felt like this:

Elizabeth told us that she was just pretending to sleep though. Uh-huh.

Sea World 2009

Last week Nick's family came to San Diego for a visit. I was thrilled. I hadn't been to San Diego in a really long time and truly, I would live there. They all went to Universal Studios one day, but I didn't go since I had to work, so there aren't any pictures. Sorry. To be honest, I don't think that was the highlight of the trip for anybody. The next day we all went to Sea World. I've been there before, but it has been years since I'd been there. It was so much fun. It was really neat to be able to touch the sea creatures. Even little wussy me touched a bat ray. That was pretty much the extent of me interacting with the animals. The kids had a blast. They loved everything. I'm pretty sure our niece, Brook, is going to be a marine biologist or a veterinarian. We saw the Shamu show. It's not called that anymore, but I don't recall what it's called now. Everyone talked each other into sitting in the wet zone. I was hesitant at first, but ultimately I gave in. Wow. They were not kidding about the getting wet part. We were all soaked from head to toe. About half way through the show our niece Elizabeth was done getting wet and looked to me to save her. She and I left the wet zone and on our way up and man grabbed my arm and told me how brave I was to sit there while pregnant. I found this rather amusing. Sadly, I don't have any pictures of how wet we all got. My camera died early that morning, so I only have a few good pictures to share.

Isn't he the cutest? I know, I'm a little biased.

Mel, Jackson, Brook, Phill, and Jess watching the dolphins.

These are the bat rays. They were quite slimy and they were trying to get out of that little aquarium. It made me a little leery to touch them.

I Finally Gave In...

Over the weekend Nick and I went to San Diego to go hang out with the family. They all flew in from Utah, Washington, and Idaho. (I never realized how spread out the Stevens are these days). My brother-in-law, Eric, (who is an amazing chef-I already miss his cooking) asked me about my cravings. I told him that my biggest craving this whole pregnancy are glazed donuts. I refuse to give in. Nick continued to tell Eric about this amazing donut shop called Randy's. It's actually quite famous and located close to LAX. Eric stayed at our apartment on Monday and Tuesday since he was flying out Wednesday to go to Romania. Nick took Eric to the airport and came home with these famous Randy's donuts. I couldn't resist. I can't even remember the last time I had a donut. Sadly, I gave in. Now I want more.