My Daughter is a Model

The first time I saw my midwife, she told us about an opportunity to have a 3D/4D ultrasound free of cost. In fact, they would pay US! There’s a company here in Washington that makes imaging machines and needs models to test their equipment on. I finally got a phone call from them a few weeks ago and we went up to Redmond yesterday to see our baby.

It was an interesting experience, since the ultrasound technician was being trained and didn’t really know what she was doing. A second technician was there to help her and make sure they got some good shots. They definitely weren’t as interested in us, or the baby as a normal technician would be, but I felt like they did a really good job of making sure Ryan and I enjoyed the experience. They even put all the pictures and a few video clips on a disc for us. I have to admit, I always thought 3D ultrasounds were a little creepy, but this was probably a once in a lifetime experience, and heck, they PAID us! It was so fun to see our little baby in so much detail.

So tell me- who do you think she looks like?

I think she definitely has Ryan’s nose and the same full lips that Nathan does. She stayed asleep for the whole ultrasound (we should have done it in the middle of the night) and quite enjoyed burrowing her face in her placenta pillow. She also covered her face with her hands and arms a lot while she slept. Considering the last ultrasound, I think we may have a shy one on our hands.

By the way, I made them check, and she’s definitely, definitely a girl!

Doughnuts!

Since Ryan had Monday off, we decided we wanted to do something fun together as a family. It took a while to come up with something inexpensive, not too crowded,  indoors, and local, but we finally found the perfect thing! Doughnuts! We went to Legendary Doughnuts and it was well worth it.

The doughnuts were HUGE, the prices were great, and the atmosphere was really fun.

Ryan’s Bavarian Cream and my Blueberry Fritter. They were monstrous!

Nathan chose the “Leonardo Da Vinci” and see what I mean?! That thing is almost as big as his head. It took all day, but he managed to eat the whole thing.

Just look at the determination on his face!

I think we were all in a bit of a sugar coma the rest of the day, but this was a treat I’d love to enjoy again!

Two Trimesters Down

This week marks the start of my third trimester so I thought I’d give a little pregnancy update.

(28 weeks)

 

When I was pregnant with Nathan, I planned and prepared in a way that I am realizing I won’t be doing with this one. I just don’t have the time or energy. I have pulled out my Bradley book and Ryan and I are going to start working on the birthing techniques, but I’m trying not to stress myself out about it. For one thing, I’m going to have this baby at a birth center, not a hospital, and that makes me feel better.

I mean, who wouldn’t want to have a baby here?!

http://www.lakesidebirthcenter.com/about.php

It’s warm and inviting and there is literally a lake in the backyard. Also, the whole place smells like lavender. My midwife, Nancy, makes me feel calm and reassured and I know she loves what she does. Even though she isn’t a member of the church, I feel the spirit with her more than I did with my LDS OBGYN in Utah when Nathan was born.

I’m a little nervous about the fact that I haven’t hit the “uncomfortable” part of pregnancy yet because I’m already having a lot of pain in my hips and not getting much sleep. Now that the weather is getting warmer, Nathan and I have been taking walks, which helps a ton.

This baby kicks and wiggles a lot, but not as much as Nathan did. She’s also way higher than Nathan was so I’m interested to see if I can tell when she “drops”. Nathan was so low I really couldn’t tell.

I’m getting really excited to have a girl! I’ve been washing all her clothes and getting ready for her arrival. As for names, we have a few ideas, but we probably won’t tell you what they are. I honestly haven’t thought about it much. I remember making list after list to come up with Nathan’s name. I was constantly thinking about it. But, again, I just don’t have time to prepare that way. We want to meet her first anyway.

I think Nathan is going to be a great big brother. Don’t get me wrong, I expect this girl to get beat up on a bit, but I also know Nathan is sweet and tender and excited to meet her. We have all been given names from the Cars movies and he officially named the baby “Snot Rod”. He loves to tickle her and “roar” at her and talk to her.

She can’t get here soon enough, but I know I have a TON to do before I’m ready for a new baby again!

*I was going to blog about the ice storm we had here, and I still might, but I’m just not interested right now.

Dance Machine

I have so many more important things I could be blogging about, but I just don’t have the energy. Instead, here’s a new video of Nathan dancing.

It’s a little long, but well worth it.

Also, ignore my messy bedroom. I was in the middle of some major deep cleaning.

(Who am I kidding? It always looks this way!)

Untitled from Ryan Bartron on Vimeo.

Check it Out!

We’re famous! Infamous?!

http://blog.uglysofa.com/2012/01/second-bi-annual-ugly-sofa-contest.html

New Year’s Resolutions

I’ve been thinking about all the things I want to improve upon this year and the list is pretty long. There are so many things I feel like I could be doing better, so I better pick a few and stick to them, or I’ll just get overwhelmed and never do anything. I think I’ve narrowed it down to six. That’s manageable, right?

By the way, these aren’t goals for the next year as much as they are goals for the next 4 months. I figure I’ll re-evaluate my life this summer and make some new goals then.

1. Go on a date with Ryan at least once a month.

2. Go out by myself, or with friends, at least once a month.

2.a. Make friends so I don’t always have to go out by myself.

3. Wear jewelry every day. This sounds silly, but I’ve tried this before and it makes me feel so good about myself to have something pretty on every day, even if I’m home in sweats.

4. Read the Book of Mormon in it’s entirety.

5. Keep my home cleaner by cleaning the assigned zone each day.

6. Spend more quality time with Nathan. Play with him, read to him, talk to him about cars.

This is going to be a great year!

Welcome 2012

2011 was quite a year for us. We had some of our highest highs and our lowest lows as a family. I can’t say I’m sorry to see it go. It feels refreshing to put all the sorrow we experienced behind me and to start 2012 in a happy place.

We didn’t have any big plans for celebrating the new year, but ended up going down to Puyallup to spend the evening with Alex and Devan and their kids.

We had a great night eating appetizers (Alex and I EACH made enough food to feed us all) and celebrated Devan and Ryan’s birthday a little late with a giant chocolate Costco cake. They’re birthday buddies.

As always, the kids had fun while simultaneously driving each other crazy. Sharing is just so hard.

The kiddos munching and coloring at the table.

The Birthday Buddies. Ryan got to wear the cool birthday cake hat for a while.

 

Wow guys. So many candles I can hardly see you through all the smoke.

Me and Alex and a few kids that snuck in with us.

 

We had so much fun together and got home by 9:30 to celebrate some more. Nathan fell asleep in the car so Ryan and I started our celebration by putting the finishing touches on our talks for sacrament meeting the next morning. I would say it was awfully cruel of them to ask us to speak on New Year’s Day- the same day we changed from 1 o’clock to 9 o’clock church- but they did ask us a few months ago and we canceled the night before because I was super duper sick. Anyway, we didn’t get done with our talks until about 11. We turned on Harry Potter and somehow managed to stuff more food into our mouths. Unfortunately, we only got about 20 minutes into the movie before the fireworks outside woke up Nathan.  We rang in the new year sitting in his room, trying to get him to go back to sleep. By then, we were so tired, we gave up on doing any more celebrating and went to bed!