Ready

The nursery is done.

Her little clothes look so cute hanging in such a big space.

Our hospital bags are packed.

Christmas is bought, wrapped, and under the tree.

The bassinet is ready in my room. Stocked with diapers, wipes, and blankets.

We even found some time to take a few belly shots at 39.5 weeks. Yikes!

...................................................................................

She, apparently, is as stubborn as her parents. When, oh when, will she come?!?!

We're ready, baby girl. Are you?

Nervous

I want to write these feelings down so I don't forget them.

I finally admitted to Jon last night that I'm getting anxious and nervous about this whole labor and delivery process. We have decided to have a natural birth (please don't bother telling me I'm crazy. I've already heard it. I have my reasons and believe they are legit.) and I can't help but wonder about my ability to control or manage the pain. Jon has full faith in me, which really helps, and I know I'll be relying on him a lot, which is how I want it.

I can't believe that in no more than 2 weeks (induction date has been set for the 16th) we will have a newborn baby in our house. Permanently. {Insert nervous squeal here.} While I am very much excited about this, I woke up panicked this morning feeling a little trapped at the permanence of it all. We'll forever be parents now. No longer just a couple, but a family. And then I thought about all the extra laundry, cleaning, dishes, and lack of sleep coming my way and I wondered what we had gotten ourselves into! Feeling a bit trapped, as I said.

I really really want to be able to wear my cute clothes again! I know, totally vain. I miss my Buckle jeans, heels, sweaters, and jewelry. I'm sick of wearing the same maternity outfit every time I go out. Now I'm starting to avoid going out because it takes too much effort to get dressed up and put my makeup on. Right now I prefer my comfy yoga pants, no bra, and one of Jon's nice big t-shirts. Those just don't work out in public like I'd hoped. :)

I don't have any good maternity shots of me and my belly, and it makes me sad. I find it unacceptable that as a photographer I have nothing to show for it! I had the best intentions, but it just never happened. And I'm very very sad about it. But the problem is that now my face is extra extra large and my belly is odd-shaped and has a nice dark line that I don't really want to show off. So if we never get pregnant again, I know I'm going to regret not having maternity pictures, but I'm not willing to swallow my pride and allow myself to be photographed like this.

I'm a little nervous about being home all day with a child. I'm already contemplating finding a part-time job counseling with LDS Family Services. I think mostly I'm worried about losing my identity to this child. Jon and I have already decided that it's best for me to stay home with her, but I'm struggling right now with feeling like I'm not contributing financially and I know with the extra cost of baby, it's going to be even more pronounced. Of course Jon does such a great job providing for us and I have no doubt that will continue, I just feel a little bit guilty about spending everything he works so hard for! :) And how do we plan for how much extra this little body will cost us?

Showered with love

November was a crazy month for us. We finally got the nursery all painted, crib and dressers put together, and accessorized. We have a few more things to add, then I'll post some pictures. Currently, the room is over flowing with all of the amazing gifts we've been showered with this month. 5 showers in a 2 week period made for lots of driving and wonderful food, friends, and family! Here's a recap of each, starting with the last and ending with the first. Why not?

Ward Shower - 11.23.10 - During the "Blizzard of 2010" these sweet sisters braved the snow and were so great to come enjoy some kid-free time, yummy treats, and to share with me their favorite books. It was so fun to start building up baby girl's little library. I'm so excited to read to her!

Storey Family Shower - 11.20.10 - My aunts did such a great job with the food. Mmm. Bread bowls and soup, chocolate covered raspberries, and Shirley Temples! Jess was nice enough to let my mom borrow the decorations from her shower earlier in the week so everything looked so cute and girly.

PLS Shower - 11.19.10 - Jon's employees put on a luncheon for us. It was so great to have Jon there for at least one shower and get to open some presents. We were impressed with the craftiness of his employees and the handmade gifts we received.

Friends/Law family shower - 11.18.10 - This cake by Amber was the real star here. Jess had her house decorated so cute and the Laws did an awesome job with the food! I was so excited to get my stroller/car seat system. Helped reduce my anxiety and I started to feel a little more prepared to welcome this baby home!

Gibbs Family Shower - 11.13.10 - Yummy breads, muffins, and fruit started this all out right. I was so excited when my grandma gave me my blanket - I wasn't sure if she would have it done in time with some of her health scares lately. Lots of cute clothes, bath time gifts, and a fun surprise from my sisters to help me with recovery.

I also had a shower in October with my wonderful friends from high school. I'm still waiting on pictures from Erin, and will share them when I get the. I had so much fun catching up with the girls, getting their motherly advice, and hearing the name creations they came up with!

I really don't know how to express how grateful Jon and I are for all of the love and generosity that we've been shown this month, especially toward our little girl. We are so excited to welcome her into our home and can't wait to share her with you all! I'm hoping she chooses to make her appearance this week - next week at the latest! (Please pray that I don't go over. I'm so ready to have her here and out of me!)

Win It

Even though I never win these things...

This Mama Rocks is hosting a Holiday Giveaway. One of the items is a free pair of Sanuk shoes. I was introduced to these little bits of Heaven while working at Buckle. They are by far the most comfortable shoes I own and I would love another pair! Check them out...

www.sanuk.com

Month in Rewind

This post is all jumbled and out of date, but it's basically a recap/rewind of October.

Jon and the boys participated in the Telos Turkey Tri this past weekend. It was the first triathlon that Shane, Brady, and Trent had ever done and they all rocked it! I think they all had a good time and it was fun to be there to support them.

Cute little Bryn is obsessed with Buzz Light Year. Her birthday party was awesome! Jon is such a good sport and agreed to dress up as Buzz to deliver her cake to the party. She cried at first, but then eventually warmed up and wouldn't leave his side! That same night Shane flew in from Europe so we headed to the airport to give him the best welcome home party he'd ever had! Who wouldn't want Buzz, Woody, and the German Yoddler as a welcoming party?!?!

Jon received the Patriot Award from the Utah National Guard for employing a member of the armed services. His employee, Joey (left) nominated him and Jon was honored to receive the reward. Not only great for him, but also great recognition for PLS.

We finally painted our bedroom. I love how the colors turned out and now need to get all the accessories and decor up!
We hosted a fun costume party for halloween this year. We decorated our garage and had a fire pit for roasting s'mores and our BBQ going with hot dogs on the grill. Jon had a great time scaring the trick or treaters, especially the older teens. I was a treasure troll this year. Jon had no idea what a treasure troll was, so when I asked him if I looked okay, he told me I should paint my face and make it look more dirty like a real troll! ha ha.

We headed to Vegas in the middle of Oct for Jon to run the Ragnar Vegas relay. The team did an awesome job and it was fun to get down to the warmth as it rained up here! Before coming home on Sunday, we stopped at the Shark Reef at Mandalay Bay and Jon made me climb up on this railing to take a picture with this statue. It's hard to tell, but our bellies are about the same size!

October was a fun but crazy busy month, and November is shaping up to be the same!

Happy Thanksgiving month!

Hey Mama!

My mom not-so-subtly reminded me yesterday that it's time for a new post. I've known this for the last 2 weeks now. I even have a few posts swimming around in my head, just haven't gotten them down yet. I told her there was a good reason - it seems the only thoughts swimming around in the mush-that-used-to-be-my-brain are complaints about pregnancy right now.

And that doesn't seem fair.

Because really I'm grateful.

I've waited 6 years for this, so I really can't complain. And in the back of my mind are always my friends I know pine and hunger for this. So as I morph what would be a complaining post into something better, I keep thinking about things I've learned over the last 7 months. In addition to the things I never expected, here are some things I learned to never say to another pregnant woman:

• "Wow! You're huge!" Yup. Yep, I am. I feel it every second of every day too. And no, I don't love it. In fact, me and the mirror are verging on becoming best frenemies right now. Thanks for the reminder.
• "Slow down there..." My cousin Devin said this to me while I was eating a scrumptious dessert at a family picnic for the 24th of July. I didn't think I was scarfing it down, but ever since then I have been so self-conscious about eating in front of people!
• "You're nursery isn't done yet?!?!" or "You don't have a name yet?!?! I had mine as soon as I found out what we were having!" Congrats to you. I'm seriously impressed. However, I don't roll that way, nor do I think it's all that important. So while you are inredulously blown away at my laid-back-ness, I am blown away by your Type-A-ness. The world needs us both to keep going round and round. :)

I have a feeling this list will probably keep growing and morphing into "Things I learned from labor" or "Things to never say to a new mom", etc. I guess it's time to just let go of what people think or say and realize I'm doing my best and that's okay. Plus, I hear you need pretty thick skin to be a mom, so I guess it's time to put it on.

And for my own record, here are some things I want to remember about being 34 weeks and in my last trimester:

• It's not so much fun anymore when she moves around. It used to be cute. Now it hurts.
• I thought I was having a heart attack yesterday because the heartburn got so bad! Not joking. I was crying on the floor trying to decide whether to call Jon or not when the thought came to mind, "you need to calm yourself down. Use your relaxation techniques you've learned for labor and relax. This will be nothing compared to labor!" I was pretty proud of myself for how quickly I was able to calm down and manage my pain.
• My driver's license should probably be revoked while pregnant. I'm a pretty assertive driver as it is, but mix that with zero patience for stupid drivers and lots of stupid drivers on the road and you get a not so happy Alyson. I don't know why the anger hormones are the ones that seem to surface most during driving, but I'm glad it's not all the time!
• This baby girl is going to have an agenda all her own, I can tell. She has already lodged herself head down into my pelvic bone, which has caused it to start separating (this happened at 30 weeks!!!) and the cartilage is now rubbing painfully against the bone bringing all sorts of fun sensations {read:pain} down there. She likes to remind me that she knows what she's doing and will come when she's ready!
• The upside of the pain down there is that, for now, she's low enough that she's not kicking any ribs out of place yet. I'll keep my fingers crossed that that continues.
• My chin looks like a pepperoni pizza right now. I don't think it's fair that not only do I have 3 chins right now, but I have red and purple spots drawing attention to it.
• I'm out of clothes to wear now that the weather is cold. I feel like I wear the same thing every day. But I'm so close now that I don't want to buy anything. So I usually end up raiding Jon's side of the closet to see if he has anything I can wear that won't act like a tourniquet on my belly. I have a feeling it might be jeans and his hoodies from here on out.

34 weeks feels so good when you're weightless in a pool!

31 weeks, pumpkins, and a goodbye

I am loving this wonderful fall weather! It's perfect for my overheated baking machine of a body right now! The other night we went to the pumpkin patch with Mike and Nikki and the kids. It was lots of fun and Jon was insistent on getting some comparison pictures of my belly and the pumpkins. And we found these really awesome red pumpkins that look so great on my entryway steps. I'll post pics of all my decor later...

Also, today I found out that the vet came to the farm today to do some 'snipping' with the 2 male horses and to, sadly, put my favorite horse Cody down. We've had Cody for as long as I can remember and he's been such a great horse. He's the one that took off with Christy on his back as she tried to re-enact a Reba moment. He's the horse Jon first rode to prove he could hack it in this family. He's the one that hauled my dad up and down mountains on pack trips, ran around countless arenas with the Weber County Sheriff's Mounted Posse, and ran the original Pony Express Trail. He was a kind and gentle horse, but I'm glad he won't have to suffer through another harsh winter. RIP Cody.

Halloween fun

Personalize funny videos and birthday eCards at JibJab!

Last Halloween was spent with these cute little ones in NZ. How I miss them!

History

I remember the conversation we had on FB chat. Well, not word for word, but I'm pretty sure it went something like this:

Me: "Hey! How's it going?"

Kami: "Good. I'm pregnant!"

Me: "What?!?! No way! Seriously? That's crazy! How fun! Congrats."

Kami: "Thanks. Total surprise."

Me: "I'm totally surprised. :)"

And on and on we went. Who would've guessed that one month later, roles would be reversed and I'd be saying the same thing?

Kami and I were inseparable growing up. {Except the time she had a sleepover at her house with some of our other friends. I don't remember if I wasn't invited, or couldn't go, but either way, it was my house that was targeted for the evening's late night toilet papering adventure. Somehow my mom knew it was them and made them come back in the morning and clean it up. Then we all had pancakes together. It was awkward for me. I think I wasn't invited. Sad.} Other than that, we were best friends and always together. And now here we are, approaching 30, and expecting our first offspring a month apart. She lucked out with a boy. I'm still nervous about having a girl. Maybe I'm nervous because I think of all the crap Kami and I did together and pray my girl is a little smarter than I was! :) Sheri was my second mom and I looked up to her so much. She still teases me to this day about sneaking around her house and stealing candy. Yup. Guilty.

It was so great to see them at Grandpa Carl's 92nd birthday celebration. Can't wait to meet her little guy in Nov. and warn him to stay far far away from our little girl. Ha ha! kidding. :)

And because it was the first Sunday of the month, we took a drive up to beautiful Stoddard for our monthly family meeting at my Grandma and Grandpa Gibbs' house. I thought it would be fun to take a few pictures for my family members who live out of state and those who couldn't make it. (I know how much I missed it when we lived in NZ!) We kicked off the fall season with yummy soups and salads and breadsticks (food always comes first!!!) and then all settled in for each family's monthly report...

The pics aren't that great. I only had my point and shoot and the battery died on me!