4/21/11
Spring
Not only does spring come with horrible allergies for me, it is beautiful. I wanted to show you my view from the front porch.
4/19/11
Geeklet's Baby Blanket From Grandma
With any quilt that my mom makes it starts with cutting things apart. I was able to cut out the pekoes. It has turned into my specialty with this kind of baby blanket.
My mom cut out the larger pieces of the blanket. The stripes are for the back and the animals are for the front.
After cutting out all of the pekoes, I ironed them into the triangles...
While my Mom sewed them on.
Then it was off to the quilting machine.
I had to take a nap while my Mom finished the quilting. She put the finished blanket on me and then took a picture. It was really fun to put it together. I am so spoiled. Geeklet is already spoiled.
4/17/11
Antelope Island
This is what greeted us as we walked to the visitor's center where I was in dire need to pee.
These 2 were just to the right of the previous one.
View from the visitor's center. Can I just say I love my camera's panorama function.
"I'm trying to be like Jesus"
"I'm following in his way" I thought these were some awesome pictures.
A panorama made from Buffalo point looking out to the south west.
We asked someone to take a picture of us. It was fun.
We are cute. On the beach of the Great Salt Lake
We were so close to the birds. It does have 2 legs.
So clear and beautiful! This is looking towards Layton
It was SO bright. We tried to take the picture...totally didn't work.
2.7 million year old rocks. BEAUTIFUL!! Endrit was kind of mad that I had to take this picture
Rachel The explorer.
There was an awesome lizard that I almost stepped on as I was going back down the rocks
The buffalo were so awesome to see. This was about 3 yards from our car. It was like going to Yellowstone.
We had a lot of fun. I am so excited to go to Yellowstone later this week!
4/14/11
a poll
I decided that I want to have a poll to see what the readers of this blog think that I am going to have. A boy or a girl. I am not going to tell you what I think that I am going to have. I have a 50% chance of being right is all. But, I think that it might be interesting to see what people think.
4/12/11
Teaching teens is parent prep
I had an ah-ha moment today when my visiting teacher came over with her 3 year old little boy. I always knew that teaching was going to be preparation for parenting. It says this in my patriarchal blessing. Today's ah-ha moment came when I picked up on one parent's cue phrase for thanking the child for listening to them. Her phrase was "good listening". In my teaching classes we have been taught to never just say "stop", or "thank you". We as teachers need to use those cue phrases in specific situations such as "good listening". I don't know why, but I had never connected this with parenting. I always thought please and thank you were the great standard. But, it isn't specific. The child doesn't know EXACTLY what they are doing wrong or right in situations.
As the visiting teaching continued, the 3 year old was wandering around the front room, doing what any 3 year old does, and I could see Mom was horrified he was wandering. I wasn't thinking of it 2 seconds. I brought the boy into the conversation. I asked questions and really let him feel at home. It ended with my visiting teacher saying, "Wow, you are good with kids."
I guess I am. I have been an aunt long enough. I love my nieces and nephews. I miss my nieces and nephews. I didn't tell my visiting teacher that I am expecting. We are not ready to announce it to everyone around us. But, it was a nice little tip of the hat that even random people say I am good with kids. Now I need to get better with babies. I know that is a weakness of mine...and a fear. Still researching development stages to know what is appropriate at some ages. Am I a scientist or what?
As the visiting teaching continued, the 3 year old was wandering around the front room, doing what any 3 year old does, and I could see Mom was horrified he was wandering. I wasn't thinking of it 2 seconds. I brought the boy into the conversation. I asked questions and really let him feel at home. It ended with my visiting teacher saying, "Wow, you are good with kids."
I guess I am. I have been an aunt long enough. I love my nieces and nephews. I miss my nieces and nephews. I didn't tell my visiting teacher that I am expecting. We are not ready to announce it to everyone around us. But, it was a nice little tip of the hat that even random people say I am good with kids. Now I need to get better with babies. I know that is a weakness of mine...and a fear. Still researching development stages to know what is appropriate at some ages. Am I a scientist or what?
4/3/11
The Journey to Getting Pregnant (and staying that way)
I know that a lot of people just decide to try and get pregnant. There are a lot of others that try for years and never get pregnant. Some need medical assistance. Some just need some charting help to find out when ovulation occurs. There are a million different reasons why some people don't have any issues and some have issue upon issue to deal with.
I count myself somewhere in the middle. We had no problem getting pregnant at all. Every cycle we tried, I got pregnant. It was the staying pregnant part that I struggled with. It all started 3 years ago when we decided I needed to get off all birth control and use Natural Family Planning. During our learning curve, we ended up pregnant. It was blatantly apparent that I indeed was pregnant. 2 days later we lost that baby. Missing the baby as well as thinking it was a hidden blessing we learned Natural Family Planning much better and used it fully and correctly the next 2 years.
In 2010 we knew that it was time for us to start our family. We set a date for October to start officially trying.
In July, we had our second loss. We weren't necessarily trying. But, I didn't have a perspective job so we weren't too careful. We lost that one a week later. Since we had already gotten excited about it, we were very saddened by the loss. We decided to officially start trying in August; a month before our expected start date.
August came around. We thought that if we were officially trying the quality and quantity of necessary things would be better upping our chances of conception of a healthy baby. Again, we found out I was pregnant and lost the baby 2 days later. I had lost our 3rd child. It really devastated me.
September we took a break...kind of. We tried but with me working and getting used to the schedule we definitely didn't time anything right and I knew there was a very slim chance of conception. It was honestly a blessing.
In October we again got pregnant. We were very happy, until I lost that baby too. 4 babies come and gone. 3 babies lost in a row. I was broken and I didn't know what to do. We didn't have money to seek any professional help. I went to my message board and got advice from a wonderful woman; take a baby aspirin. I called my midwife and asked if that was recommended and it was a resounding YES!
When November came around, I started feeling old and broken. Turning 25 was hard without a baby. We got pregnant that cycle. I was in the middle of that cycle when I started taking the baby aspirin. I was hopeful, but at the same time knew that I should have started it much earlier. We lost that baby too. 5 babies. I can't even explain how much it hurt. I was DONE. I didn't want to try anymore. Adoption was our option again. I did a lot of research, while still taking the baby aspirin.
We did everything in December to NOT get pregnant. I couldn't go through loss again. Not so soon anyways. We went to the temple and the spirit bore witness to both of us that we needed to start trying again after this cycle. It was really hard for me. I wanted to, but was terrified. (A little TMI) When my period started It was majorly different than before. It was SO much less painful. I didn't have the large clotting that I was used to. My hopes again got high and decided to take the leap of faith and follow the promptings of the spirit.
The new year came with new hope. I was taking the baby aspirin everyday. I had been taking it for a month. This January/February cycle was different. I got all of the pregnancy symptoms. Before I ever took the test, I knew I was pregnant. I was so sick one day I called for a sub and took a test. Another line. I was pregnant again.
Then the terror started. I automatically called the OB that I was referred to. He was pretty good. He wanted me to come in for a blood test. I went in for it and it came back positive. I was now considered a high risk pregnancy and he put me on several medications to prevent early pregnancy loss and scheduled an appointment for 6 weeks...the longest I had ever kept a baby.
I got an ultrasound at that appointment. There was a beautiful fetal pole. I was still pregnant! He scheduled a more advanced ultrasound for 1 week later. 7 weeks 1 day. When I went in, Endrit wasn't able to go with me. Knowing that I needed support I called my good friend Summer to go to the ultrasound with me. We both heard the most wonderful sound in the world...a heartbeat. 133 beats per minute never sounded better.
He scheduled me for my second appointment at 10 weeks. Symptoms got worse and worse. I knew I was staying pregnant. I was miserable, but doing the best I could. I was on Zofran. I only lost 7 pounds between my appointments. He didn't like that I didn't call to tell him that I was so sick. He changed my meds and it was a life saver. I didn't feel like I was going to die 24/7.
I went to my appointment at 10 weeks with Endrit. I had another little ultrasound. Geeklet was definitely there moving around and the little heart was fluttering. That was when I decided to announce for sure on April 1st. I sit here at 11 weeks and happier than a lot of people could comprehend.
We couldn't be more excited to start our family in October. I just wanted to share our full journey so that there might be a little more understanding as to what Endrit and I have gone through in the past few months.
I count myself somewhere in the middle. We had no problem getting pregnant at all. Every cycle we tried, I got pregnant. It was the staying pregnant part that I struggled with. It all started 3 years ago when we decided I needed to get off all birth control and use Natural Family Planning. During our learning curve, we ended up pregnant. It was blatantly apparent that I indeed was pregnant. 2 days later we lost that baby. Missing the baby as well as thinking it was a hidden blessing we learned Natural Family Planning much better and used it fully and correctly the next 2 years.
In 2010 we knew that it was time for us to start our family. We set a date for October to start officially trying.
In July, we had our second loss. We weren't necessarily trying. But, I didn't have a perspective job so we weren't too careful. We lost that one a week later. Since we had already gotten excited about it, we were very saddened by the loss. We decided to officially start trying in August; a month before our expected start date.
August came around. We thought that if we were officially trying the quality and quantity of necessary things would be better upping our chances of conception of a healthy baby. Again, we found out I was pregnant and lost the baby 2 days later. I had lost our 3rd child. It really devastated me.
September we took a break...kind of. We tried but with me working and getting used to the schedule we definitely didn't time anything right and I knew there was a very slim chance of conception. It was honestly a blessing.
In October we again got pregnant. We were very happy, until I lost that baby too. 4 babies come and gone. 3 babies lost in a row. I was broken and I didn't know what to do. We didn't have money to seek any professional help. I went to my message board and got advice from a wonderful woman; take a baby aspirin. I called my midwife and asked if that was recommended and it was a resounding YES!
When November came around, I started feeling old and broken. Turning 25 was hard without a baby. We got pregnant that cycle. I was in the middle of that cycle when I started taking the baby aspirin. I was hopeful, but at the same time knew that I should have started it much earlier. We lost that baby too. 5 babies. I can't even explain how much it hurt. I was DONE. I didn't want to try anymore. Adoption was our option again. I did a lot of research, while still taking the baby aspirin.
We did everything in December to NOT get pregnant. I couldn't go through loss again. Not so soon anyways. We went to the temple and the spirit bore witness to both of us that we needed to start trying again after this cycle. It was really hard for me. I wanted to, but was terrified. (A little TMI) When my period started It was majorly different than before. It was SO much less painful. I didn't have the large clotting that I was used to. My hopes again got high and decided to take the leap of faith and follow the promptings of the spirit.
The new year came with new hope. I was taking the baby aspirin everyday. I had been taking it for a month. This January/February cycle was different. I got all of the pregnancy symptoms. Before I ever took the test, I knew I was pregnant. I was so sick one day I called for a sub and took a test. Another line. I was pregnant again.
Then the terror started. I automatically called the OB that I was referred to. He was pretty good. He wanted me to come in for a blood test. I went in for it and it came back positive. I was now considered a high risk pregnancy and he put me on several medications to prevent early pregnancy loss and scheduled an appointment for 6 weeks...the longest I had ever kept a baby.
I got an ultrasound at that appointment. There was a beautiful fetal pole. I was still pregnant! He scheduled a more advanced ultrasound for 1 week later. 7 weeks 1 day. When I went in, Endrit wasn't able to go with me. Knowing that I needed support I called my good friend Summer to go to the ultrasound with me. We both heard the most wonderful sound in the world...a heartbeat. 133 beats per minute never sounded better.
He scheduled me for my second appointment at 10 weeks. Symptoms got worse and worse. I knew I was staying pregnant. I was miserable, but doing the best I could. I was on Zofran. I only lost 7 pounds between my appointments. He didn't like that I didn't call to tell him that I was so sick. He changed my meds and it was a life saver. I didn't feel like I was going to die 24/7.
I went to my appointment at 10 weeks with Endrit. I had another little ultrasound. Geeklet was definitely there moving around and the little heart was fluttering. That was when I decided to announce for sure on April 1st. I sit here at 11 weeks and happier than a lot of people could comprehend.
We couldn't be more excited to start our family in October. I just wanted to share our full journey so that there might be a little more understanding as to what Endrit and I have gone through in the past few months.
4/1/11
This is NOT an April fools joke!
Yes, My Facebook announcement today was 100% true. That is my ultrasound picture from a few weeks ago. That IS Endrit and I's little baby. We are super excited about everything! I am at work so I can't post the pictures that I have on my computer at home. Our due date is October 23, 2011. We are very excited about the future of this year.
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