Soccer Pro Before Birth

Baby never sits still. EVER. We saw this starting at 8 1/2 weeks on an ultrasound. The little bugger was that small and already squirming nonstop. That's actually why the OB told us we had less than a 1% chance of miscarriage in the rest of the first trimester.

When we got the next ultrasound at 13 weeks, she was doing flips, punching, kicking, everything possible.

Around 15 weeks, I started feeling her moving while I tried to sleep. Everyone says the baby kicking feels like "fluttering" in your stomach for at least the first few weeks -- till it gets bigger and can make more of an impact. I disagree. For the first 3 or so days, it was the fluttering. After that, it stopped. Maybe it's just because Baby keeps cornering herself in one side of my tummy (which looks kinda funny-- when she does it, which is about 1/2 of each day, I look about a month further in my pregnancy if you see me from my right side than from my left), but I've felt real kicking since about 15 1/2 weeks.

I can't begin to imagine what I'm in for in the remaining 23 weeks!

17 weeks

P.S. Congratulations to Darilyn & Jonathan Jeter on their new arrival! Best of luck to both of you!!! :)

Bits & Pieces

Work is killing me! The baby is slowly breaking my back, and I swear I'll need back support before I reach 5 months! One of my co-workers (older woman who's apparently losing her filter a little bit) found out yesterday that I'm pregnant, and her response made my day: "I thought you were. But then I thought 'Nah, she's just fat.'" At least I'm starting to sort of look pregnant to people!

In my spare time I'm crocheting a baby blanket. It's gender neutral because I started it before we found out we're having a girl. It's a ripple afghan, which is fortunately much easier than I thought it would be (I haven't crocheted since high school, so I require something easy). I just started the 4th ball of yarn and this is its current state:

I have to be careful every time I work on it because Phoebe thinks it's a new toy and will do anything to get some in her mouth and try to run with it.

Speaking of my puppy...She loves people-watching. The weirdo absolutely adores it. She'll growl once in a while, like if another dog walks past or the mailman walks up to our house, but usually she sits there quietly for the longest time. We open the front blinds so she can do her people-watching, and she's started climbing on the ottoman for it now. I finally caught it on camera this afternoon:

Silly puppy.

This dog absolutely makes my day :) She's a psycho and always puts a smile on my face.

Almost 15 Weeks

I still get really sick if I don't take my medicine (Promethazine) but I'm doing tons better! We went for an NT Scan a week ago and found out we're having a girl! They're going to confirm it in a few weeks, but the woman who did the scan was nearly positive. Little Evelyn Renae is due on May 11, 2012. We're so excited to meet our baby! She's healthy so far, development looks fine, heartbeat is great, and she wiggles like crazy! Here are pics from the scan at 13 weeks:

This is her favorite position -- facing down with her head in my back... 

Baby Profile

I HATE 4-D ultrasound pictures. I really do. Babies have no fat at this point so they're disgusting and lumpy. But I love seeing her tiny fingers. Growing a baby night and day is a blessing and a miracle!

Here's where we found out it's an Evelyn. The dark horizontal white line near  the pelvic area means girl!

I lost my waist by around 8 weeks and started showing pretty early on, at least for a first time mother! I'm not a fan of any of these pics, but they're all I have:

This was taken a couple weeks after we found out, this was around  the 4th week.

13 weeks, but I'd just eaten and my tummy always gets a bit bigger when I eat

14 weeks, I made sure I had my pic taken before I ate this time :)

Vertigo?

I did a hearing test this morning and apparently have nearly perfect hearing. The doctor said I have the hearing of a fifth grader, so I can't complain too much! It makes up for my husband losing his hearing already (due to ultra loud music all the time *ahem*).

I've been diagnosed with vertigo (dizziness caused by fluid in the inner ear -- while standing or sitting) and was sent to an ENT. He checked everything and asked me questions, and at the end he told me I don't fit into any certain category of vertigo, so he's not sure how to treat it. Now I'm going to have to do a "dizzy test," which obviously already sounds thrilling. And just for the heck of it, I'm going to have allergy testing done also. I have allergies of some kind year round, so I might as well see if I can avoid any of them.

I'm having a Nuchal Translucency (NT) Scan today, which should give a REALLY good guess on the gender of the baby!!

I got a seasonal job at Target that I'm starting in about a week. I need to get out of this house and get my mind on things other than how sick I'm feeling. Being here day after day gets really frustrating, and who am I to complain about a bit of extra money around the holidays? (Actually it'll probably go towards bills and student loans, but a girl can dream!) Hopefully the pregnancy swelling doesn't get too bad, otherwise a job where I'm constantly standing will be terrible!

People That I So Adore...

...Translating to the fact that when I go grocery shopping and come back to find a dent in my car -- and no one present -- I am NOT a happy camper.

 

It's True!

I'm 8 1/2 weeks along! We were going to wait to tell people until 12 weeks, but we just got home from an ultrasound and the doctor said that with how much wiggling the baby's already doing, the chance of miscarriage in the rest of the 1st trimester is less than 1%. With how nauseous I've been since Saturday (not even keeping down water!), it's hard to keep pretending like I'm just sick.

The due date is May 10, 2012. We found out after I'd only been pregnant for ONE WEEK (no "normal" at-home pregnancy tests should pick that up so soon!), so it's a major relief to finally be able to tell people after waiting for the past 7 weeks!!

How Phoebe Greets Her Daddy...Psycho Dog.

We finally got Phoebe jumping on camera so now we can teach her that's NOT what she does when she sees her Daddy...

Paraffin Dip...

I've gone to 2 sessions of physical therapy for my wrists now (I had a test done by a neurologist a couple months ago that showed it's tendinitis, not carpal tunnel-- No surgery for me!! :)). My therapist does a paraffin dip each time that is absolute heaven. It's the main thing I look forward to. The paraffin is basically a melted mineral wax that you repeatedly dip your hand into and let it dry between each dip. She ties a bag around each hand after I've dipped it enough times, and she wraps it with a towel to keep the heat in. I basically have wax drying around my hands for 10 or so minutes, and it's amazing.  It's mixed with lavender, which is a natural anti-inflammatory, and I can do anything for hours afterwards without my wrists hurting at all :) Then, when everything's done, it peels off. I can wear my wedding ring the whole time and nothing sticks to it.

So. Heavenly.

I've decided I want a personal paraffin dip in my home. That's my new goal. 

It'll happen... Somehow...

♥ Life is Wonderful ♥

Have you ever gone through life only focusing on the bad parts? Constantly thinking "When does it get better? Will the stress go away? Why can't things be easy for awhile?" and then have something simple but wonderful happen that reminds you how perfect life really is? That happened today, and I'm suddenly feeling so blessed and realizing how much I really should be counting my blessings. What an amazing thing to be reminded of! 

. . . I still would appreciate not being sick anymore though :) Allergies &

drainage (that allergy medicine has no effect on) are awful!

"I Must, I Must, I Must Increase My Bust"

There's a book I read when I was younger that I'll never forget -- especially for one specific reason...

Did anyone else ever read "Are You There, God? It's Me, Margaret" by Judy Blume? She does an exercise that's supposed to increase your boob size and says certain words that are supposed to go along with it.

"I must, I must, I must increase my bust."

Am I the only one who read that at a young age (10 yrs old, I think) and honestly tried the exercise she did in the book, thinking that it just might make me magically have boobs? And I can't lie, I did mutter those words under my breath while I did it. I had to say it quietly because I didn't want anyone to hear me in case it wasn't true. I didn't do it for long before I realized it wasn't working.

13 years later, I still have no boobs. Dang it. Judy Blume failed me as a child! Oh the false hopes of childhood...

School

Since Matt and I moved to Arizona while we were both still in school at BYU, I never finished my Bachelors. I can't finish online, because 2 of the required courses for my major aren't offered online. I decided that, instead of starting all over again (a lot of credits won't transfer from BYU, even though they should because it's a huge university, so I would have about 3 years left if I started at somewhere like ASU), I'd go to PVCC (Paradise Valley Community College) and simply get my Associates for now.

I met with someone at PVCC a couple months ago about transferring credits and what I would have remaining. How she told us, maybe 2 or 3 of the classes from BYU would count as classes I needed -- or would even simply be accepted... That was frustrating that 4 years of college was basically getting me nowhere, and in time, I decided I'd just work instead, and later on, I'd go back to school.

That plan...didn't work out too well. I haven't been able to find any "real" job that's been a decent fit so that I can still be at home when Matt is, allow the dogs to be out of their crates most of the day, and pick up my nephew most afternoons once school starts again.  I've been feeling depressed and out of place since we moved here, and school and work problems weren't making things any easier.

This past week, I got a letter from PVCC telling me that 54 credits transferred! Yes, several only counted as electives, but that's still WAY more than "2 or 3" - I've been so excited that I may be able to start school again!

Dog Pile!

The past few nights, before Matt and I go to bed, we've let the dogs join us on the bed and cuddle with them for a bit. Sometimes they're calm and just lay there, but other times, they decide it's their play time & start wrestling with each other. Last night I was lucky enough to get a couple of cute pictures.

Matt loves pretending to sleep so that Sam will cuddle and fall asleep next to him.
But just like any other dog, Sam's awake as soon as he hears the camera.

Phoebe's favorite activity: Giving baths.

Dangers of Swimming with Dogs

Well, we took Sam swimming for the first time last night. He loved it and kept fighting to get back in the pool every time we kicked him out. Thing is, he wants to be right next to you in the pool, and when he's near, he ends up getting excited and really swiping his paws while he swims. I was in the deep end of the pool when we discovered this... He was pushing down on me while he was swiping, and I ended up with this:

After that, I was scared to death every time he came near me in the pool. Matt attempted to keep Sam away from me starting then.

Oh, and did I mention I'm getting carpal tunnel in my left wrist as well? Why am I being tortured in such manners?? haha... It hurt SO bad to swim. My right wrist is waaaay more carpal tunnelly (let's pretend that's a word) than the left one though, so it could be worse :)

Does Life Ever Get Easy?

So what hasn't happened recently...

Matt got me into the habit of not liking to wear socks when I sleep, but during the day I always am wearing socks (I HATE dirty feet, even mine. They gross me out.) I woke up this morning and reached to the floor to pick up my socks... and there was a tick sitting on one! What in the world would it want my sock for? It has no blood in it... Weird bug. There was a huge tick on Phoebe when we first brought her home, and it laid a few eggs. They were still connected to Phoebe, so we killed them at that time. The vet removed a few more, and last week, we found one on her. Four instances of ticks, and it's getting really annoying -- We need to spray the house and the yard AND get Phoebe a tick bath now. And probably Sam too, since he'll get here before we've sprayed. It's going to be SUCH a pain!

I've been told that toothpaste works for acne. Does it really? It's supposed to dry it out, but not too much, and help get rid of the redness. I've used it twice now and felt... fresh and minty... when i took it off. haha. And it did get rid of the oiliness that was there before, but I don't know if it's really going to help more, because the redness hasn't gone away at all. I do give it some credit, because the show "The Doctors" even said to use toothpaste. I hope it really works!

Sunday is mine & Matt's one-year anniversary! It seems crazy to think that we've been married for a year, it really doesn't seem like it! We were married on 24 July 2010 in the disgusting Arizona heat in the Mesa Temple. It was the best day of my life. This picture, courtesy of Darilyn Jeter, is also where he proposed to me a few months earlier:

A wonderful thing I've had the chance to experience is...identity theft. I checked my credit report a couple days ago, but I didn't notice something until last night: I apparently have a Capital One credit card with a limit of $12,500. First, I've only had one credit card (ever), and second, I've only done anything with Visa. I've never even talked to anyone who works with Capital One. Whoever decided to do this IS making payments each month. Because of this, he/she has been able to keep this on the DL since they opened the account, which was 1 January 2009!!!

So to echo the title, does life ever get easy? Sometimes it seems busy and hard, but I don't realize how good I have it until it gets more stressful...

The Past Few Days...

We have a new dog entering our family on Friday! Sam belongs to Lauren Schill, one of my best friends from back home. He's a 2 year old golden retriever with SO much energy and SO much love. Lauren has nowhere to keep him right now, and until she lives somewhere that she can fully take care of him again, we're kind of going to be his foster family. The vet said this morning that he may be the best thing that could happen to Phoebe. For however long this is, she gets to have a big brother she can play with, and she won't be so bored with us. Matt and I both love Sam and are excited to have him stay with us. I have a feeling he's going to be a decent amount of money -- we even need to start off with buying him a huge crate. Good thing we have lots of leftover money from Disneyland!!

On a side note, Harry Potter was amazing -- mostly. There was a lot that didn't follow the story though. Not at all.  It was frustrating to watch those random parts that they added in. And the end? I think they could've put more than 20 minutes into trying to make the kids look like they were honestly 19 years older. Ginny was the only one, in my opinion, that looked decent. The boys had random wrinkles & they looked they were past their 40's, not still in their 30's. Hermione didn't change at all. I know they have a budget they can make those differences with.  That was a disappointing end to Harry Potter for me.

I had my IUD removed yesterday, so we can start trying to have a family! With all the health problems, I didn't think this day was ever going to come!  But as my OBGYN was removing it, he tells me to wait a month before we start trying -- that there's a tiny bit greater chance of having a miscarriage if you don't wait for a cycle. It was weird that no one had told me that before this moment. I asked my sis-in-law Leslie, who's currently pregnant and had an IUD, and she'd never heard of it. I next asked my sis-in-law Tracy, who's a nurse & gave birth less than a year ago -- also after having an IUD. She hadn't heard of it either. In the end, I decided I'm not worried. I looked it up online, and only a couple women even knew about it. A lot of women that had posted got pregnant within the first month or so & their pregnancies are going fine. Therefore, I see nothing major that's wrong with not waiting.

In line at Space Mountain

Disneyland!!!

I've finally experienced it. After riding Space Mountain a second time, I saw this in a nearby store:

Needless to say, Matt was thrilled :) I walked around the store for nearly 20 minutes while he was building it, and when I came back, he still wasn't even done! My husband is such a nerd.

4 of the nephews heard about it from him so they joined him and all made their own.

Matt & our nephews -- all very proud of their lightsabers...

We had a lot of fun & stayed in the park for about 13 hours, but it was SO nice to get back home and see our puppy! Matt's friend Austin house-sat & dog-sat for us while we were gone, and apparently his shoes were in her reach this morning... and by the time we got home, he had bought new shoes, since the old ones were destroyed!!! Our crazy teething puppy.

During our day at Disneyland, I somehow killed my knee (it still hurts just to walk!) and Matt got sick from the teacup ride. I feel like we're getting so old already! 

Carpal Tunnel

It's official -- I have carpal tunnel in my right hand. The wrist brace I have to wear is terrible -- and this is coming from the girl who once broke both wrists at the same time and had a cast on one wrist & a brace on the other for 6 weeks!  It has a metal plate on the top and bottom of the wrist, and it hurts pretty badly when I do something that would normally make my wrist bend, because now it's just hitting metal. This includes driving, typing on the computer, holding my phone, cooking, washing dishes, cleaning, petting Phoebe... And Phoebe wants to bite/chew on everything lately, & she's really into this brace, so I can't play with her so far. It's really kind of discouraging.

I was looking at music today, and I'd completely forgotten about a song I'd downloaded. I used to really like "Rolling in the Deep" by Adele when it first came out. Now it's just incredibly annoying and every time I'm in the car & it comes on the radio, I turn it off. BUT... several weeks ago I came across a version I really liked, it's actually Rolling in the Deep, Someone Like You, and Turning Tables in one. It's done by some of those odd people that honestly spend all their time trying to get famous from posting videos on youtube. I guess there's hope, now that it worked for Justin Bieber? Oh well, to each his own :)

I have to go to bed so I can get up and pack for Disneyland in the morning :) It's a Collins' family vacation (meaning basically EVERYONE) from Thursday to Saturday. I've never been before, so I'm really excited!

Doctors, Oh How I Love Them

Last week, I was trying to fall asleep when the fingers on my right hand suddenly went numb. I figured it wasn't anything. But now they've gone numb while sleeping, driving, sitting at the computer, and so much more. Yesterday, as I was sweeping my sis-in-law's house (that's my "job" right now. I haven't gotten to the temp agency yet, so this is my amazing source of income. haha), my fingers went totally numb again. It was too much, so I made a doctor appt finally. Now, starting when I woke up this morning around 4am, most of my hand (not JUST the fingers anymore) is numb, and it hurts, mostly in my wrist but also all the way to my elbow. Matt's even doing the dishes for me because it hurts to grasp things, and even more to twist my wrist at all. --Our dishwasher hates us, WE have to get every bit of food off before putting the dishes into the dishwasher or they don't get cleaned, so even with a dishwasher, I end up cleaning them by hand-- There's a weird sharp pain any time I even open doors, like to let Phoebe outside. I don't want to wait till Tuesday for my appointment, but that's the soonest appt they have!

Cute picture, huh? That's one of my more photogenic moments. I was in the ER in January because of a concussion from my ice skating class at BYU :)  After insurance, it was $100.91. I paid it but in the mail this week, I received *ta-dah!* a bill for $100.91. I look on the "online account" it tells me to pay on, and it says I owe them nothing -- so of course I got to have a nice conversation with them. Hooray for billing!

Next doctor, and most frustrating: Utah sleep specialist. My insurance completely covers sleep studies. Multiple people in my family have had them and they've always gone smoothly, without the confusion I'm involved in. I had my sleep study in February, and NOW I get a bill for $1559.00 -- no kidding! We're definitely talking to them...

Matt and I decided to go to Hawaii for our honeymoon in July 2010 and my big toe on my left foot was cracking (I must have smashed it against something??). I didn't want sand to get in and have my toe infected under the nail, so I had it removed, which should have been safer. It wasn't. It grew back completely ingrown and SO infected -- We only even got to go to the beach ONE time! Sad! I finally ended up going to a foot clinic. I had a bill sent to me that I received yesterday -- months later, and at my inlaw's house (I don't know how they even got their address!) for $310. My insurance paid $210, and then $50 as an insurance write off, so I still owe $50.00, according to them. The deductible was definitely met for the year, and I really shouldn't owe ANYthing...

Having doctors just makes life more complicated, so why do I even agree to go to the doctor any more?! I should quit doing dumb things and ending up at the doctor's office :)

Starting Over

I used this blog from April-September of 2009, but I decided to delete those posts and start this whole blog over.
I met my husband while we were at BYU. Matt and I have been married for almost a year now -- since July 24, 2010. We moved to Phoenix at the end of April, and we got a beautiful puppy 2 weeks ago.  Phoebe is a 5 month old black lab mix who's very stubborn and already has the attitude of a teenager. She's absolutely perfect.

Until I find a job, Phoebe keeps me company every day while Matt's at work. It's SOOO nice to have a living thing near me during the day again! Also, once we have a family, I'll have her there to keep from going insane from crying babies, etc :)

We bought a car in May, a 2003 Volvo S80:

I'll do more of this later -- I need to let Phoebe outside and then clean the house--yippee...