You know you're in your 3rd trimester when...

You wear your slippers to town because they are easier to get on than your winter boots

You can barely wipe yourself after using the bathroom!!

You get frustrated that you have to pee SOOOO badly, but then only a trickle comes out! And then you have to attempt to wipe after each little trickle?!

You quit shaving your legs & you could care less

You ask your husband for a pedicure gift certificate for Christmas

You take your shoes off for the rest of the day (at work) just becuase getting in trouble by the boss would be better than trying to tie your shoe for a second time that day.

You have moments of pure panic thinking that little one will actually be here in a few weeks

You start planning out rediculous ways to coax little one to come early - this is usually followed by the moment of panic I mentioned above

You ask your 7 year old to tie your shoes

You've mastered the art of cleaning a room by picking things up with your feet to avoid bending over

You have dropped something on the floor and yell for help!

It takes you almost 5 minutes to move to your side to get comfortable and then seconds later your uncomfortable and want to move again!

You don't know you have the same pairs of shoes on!

You can't put socks on!

Everytime you say "Oh" and breath a little different your husband looks at you and asks if you are ok or if you need to go to the hospital

Rolling over in bed has become a carefully orchestrated 4-step process

The new way you use to get yourself up off the floor leaves everyone in the room laughing

You laugh, cough, or sneeze you seem to pee a little

Everyone starts asking you if you've had "that baby" yet

You drop food on your belly and can't see it!

You have to move the seat back to avoid your belly hitting the steering wheel while you drive and then if you drive a stick you have to move your seat forward again so you can reach to shift over your big belly. It's an endless/vicious cycle!

Your new fav shoes are slip ons

You find yourself, more often than not, leaving stuff that fell on the floor there because it's just too trying to attempt to pick it up.

You curse yourself for putting your purse on the floor in the car because it's sooooooo far to bend down and get it

You have to lean back while sitting on the toilet because if you dont you cant breathe

You're belly is bigger than your husband's belly

Your socks are literally strangling your fat feet

You get heartburn from water

You have a hard time getting off of the couch...like a turtle trying to flip back over when it's on it's shell

You can no longer see the little cup you have to pee into at the doctor's office and end up going all over your hand

Everytime you go near the kitchen sink, the bottom of your belly gets wet because it touches the counter.

Everytime you brush you teeth you have to change you shirt because of the wet spot on your chest from leaning over to rinse

People take a couple steps back just to look at you

The simple act of putting on socks or rubbing lotion on your belly leaves you completely out of breath and sweating

You want to strangle the next person who asks how you're feeling

You sit down at the table to eat supper and when you go to get up your belly hits the edge of the table and you get stuck! Or you go out to eat and sit in a booth and you have to wedge yourself in.

You and your husband go to hug or kiss and you can't reach because your bellies are hitting one another and keeping you apart

You get a back ache from bending over just that little bit to wash the dishes in the sink.

You need your husband's help getting your pants on in the morning, not the mention underwear, socks, and shoes.

You no longer cuddle with your husband because he gets in the way of the pillow placements.

You burn your belly on the stove while cooking

Novemeber Blessings

Recently, I have reached my one year mark with the company that I work for. I didn't expect anything great to happen other then getting back my vacation/sick time since I have long since used mine up. And I have been very grateful to still have my job even though I had my hours cut to part-time. But when I had my review my boss told me that he didn't think that I was making what I was worth and he wanted to give me a raise. Not only a cost of living raise but an additional raise. He said that he wished he could let me work full-time and would love it if I could but considering the economy he couldn't. But he wanted to pay me more of what I was worth and also give me a little extra to off-set the loss of hours. So over all, I got a 7% raise! We were so excited. That is by far the biggest raise I have ever had. And now that we have a little one to take care of it will definatly help. What an amazing blessing! I am so grateful for a Heavenly Father that truely watches over us and knows just when to send blessings.

Over Thanksgiving Rick had to work Wed-Sat so we didn't get to go home for the holiday and at the last minute our plans with our friends fell through. So Rick worked from 9am-9pm those days and I stayed home and relaxed and tried to catch up on some stuff for Christmas. We are going to celebrate our Turkey Day tomorrow night with a date night. But the good thing about Rick having to work Thanksgiving and the day after Thanksgiving is, he gets Holiday pay for both days. Which is another blessing with Christmas coming up and Madi's arrival soon.

We also went to the doctor today for a check-up and and ultrasound and found out that Madi is right where she needs to be as far as size and weight goes. The doctor said that everything looks beautiful! And even with four weeks left to go, I am already starting to dialate just over 1 cm and I am already 70% effaced. The doctor also said that considering I am already dialating, I will most likely have her sooner rather then later. Which is a blessing because if we have her before the end of the year we won't have to pay as much out of pocket because of all the other medical expenses we have already had this year so we will have already met our max out-of-pocket. Which is another huge blessing!

Thank the Lord for those everyday "Tender Mercies" he sends you. There are more then you think, you just have to take the time to notice them. Happy Thanksgiving!

Enjoying Fall

This week Rick and I both had Tuesday off so we decided to go for a drive. We drove down to Fredricksburg which is about an hour away. We went to a spot that Rick likes to go fishing at to get away from the city and enjoy the fall colors and weather. We stopped at the Rappahannock River to take a few pictures.


Rick was scouting around in the water for some minnos to catch but found something even cooler. This is a baby hatchling turtle the size of his thumb nail. It is so tiny! And of course it was added to our collection of pets after a ride home in a water bottle.

And for those of you who are dying to see pictures of my baby belly, here you go. I have decided that I hate having my picture taken when I'm pregnant. I look like a balloon! I know that it is mostly baby but just looking at the massive bumb in my middle is a little sickening. You know how women are, always trying to be little in that area. But none the less, here you go. This is at about 33 weeks of pregnancy.

Enough is Enough!!!

Even though we have been greatly blessed the past year it has also been the most challenging year of both of our lives. After we got over the swine flu a few weeks ago, Rick and I both started to develop pneumonia because the congestion from the flu had settled into the lower part of our lungs. We both were having a hard time breathing and couldn't seem to get over it. So we were both put on antibiotics and a type of steroid. (They gave us different stuff since I am pregnant) So long story short...the medication they gave Rick was bad news. He developed one of the rare but serious side effects and started passing blood clots. After one night of him feeling so awful that he couldn't sit upright I took him into the doctor's office to see what was wrong. The doctor told us that we needed to go to the ER right away and get it checked out because there was a serious problem. So we spent the next 24 hours in the hospital while they ran tests to determine what the problem was. It ended up being the medicine he was on for the lung congestion. It was ripping apart the inside of his intestines and causing them to bleed. So after that was determined and fixed they let him rest for a while and then sent him home with new medicine to help heal his insides. So we better not see any negative results from this stuff too!

As you can imagine, I was stressed out. Because at first all the tests were coming back normal showing there wasn't a problem and the doctors weren't keeping us very up to date and taking forever. And they wouldn't give him any pain meds in the mean time so he was bearly able to move. (I had to wheel him into the hospital in a wheelchair because of the pain). And then they told me I had to go home! He was going into a lock down observation unit all night until they could schedule another test and I wasn't allowed to stay. I was so upset. So after all this and after Rick got home I started having contractions like crazy! And they were pretty intense ones too. We were so worried that my body was over stressed the baby was going to come. So Rick sat me down and gave me a drink of water to try and get them to stop. Luckly after about an hour or so they stopped and we were able to relax.

To add the icing on the cake...we were walking out of the hospital to the car and when we got there we had noticed that someone had sideswiped our new Escape! We haven't even had that car for 6 months. I wanted to cry! But lucky for us, there was a camera facing the parking spot we were in. We called Hospital security and the city police and filed a report of a hit and run, which is cinsidered a felony in Virginia. Now we are just waiting to hear back from them after they go through all the footage. Hopefully we can catch the bad guy and get our Escape looking like new again.

I feel like the past few months all I have is bad news. But really, even with all this crazy stuff going on, life is good and we have been greatly blessed. At the end of the day we just have to remember these blessings:

• Rick was able to go back to his day shift so we get to see each other more often.
• I have started up a mini-business sewing purses for people to earn extra money and that has taken off like crazy.
• All the bills are paid and the fridge is full
• We are in good health as of today
• We will have a baby girl in 7 weeks
• We know that Heavenly Father loves us and won't put us through anything we can't handle and our family is always there as our constant support!

The Time is Fast Approaching!!!!

I can't believe it! Only 9 more weeks and our little bundle of joy will be here! Which also means that only 9 more weeks and Christmas will be here! AHHH!!! Can't Christmas wait until Jan this year? That would make life so much easier. But I have a favor to ask all moms (and possibly dads) out there and anyone else that has info to share. Rick and I are trying to get together a list of "must haves" for the first 2-4 weeks after we bring Madi home from the hospital so we don't have to run to the store every few days. For example, diapers and wipes is pretty high on the list. But, since we haven't done this before we aren't getting very many things written down. Pretty much diapers and wipes are all we have and birp rags. So, if you care to share anything that would be helpful please email me at pinkprincess47@gmail.com. We are getting down to the wire and our baby shopping has yet to be done. And if you have any ideas on how to do things on a budget and that would help save us money that would be wonderful! Thanks in advance!

Never a Dull Moment

I am sure that all of you are a little nervous if not terrified of getting the swine flu. Which is completely understandable considering all the hype about it. And with me being pregnant and Rick working in Emergency Services we are equally as stress about contracting the virus as well. As with all things in our ever "exciting" life, even with all the hand washing and avoiding sick people as much as possible etc, etc, etc....this past week we contracted the dreaded H1N1 virus. All I can say is I am so glad that Rick's parents were here over the weekend to visit. Of course not realizing what they were getting into and us not know what was about to happen during their visit. But they were a huge blessing to us. I was the first to get it (thanks to a very generous and discussting co-worker who doesn't know the meaning of cleanliness) after which I promptly passed it to Rick and his mom before I even knew what was wrong. It wasn't until Monday at the doctor's appointment that I had already scheduled two weeks ago for the baby bumb check-up did we realize what I had was definately the swine flu. Thank goodness for modern medicine and Priesthood blessings is all I can say! We seriously felt like we were dying. I have never felt so crummy in my entire life from being sick. I hope that now we both have immunities to it and don't get it again. But, alas, that would go completely contrary to our luck so far. But at least this time we will know how to kick it in the bud if it does come knocking again.

Hopefully all of you can steer clear of it and stay healthy this winter. It's nasty stuff! Good luck!

Cars, Bellies, Fish and Guns

This weekend for Labor Day we went up to visit Rick's parents. We haven't gone up there since June so it was nice to get away from the city for a while. While we were up there we were able to do so much. We went fishing at a sportman's club that we are both members of and we did pretty good. Nothing worth a good fish story but the catching was still fun and we both managed to get sunburned even though we were in the shade the entire time.

On Sunday we were able to stay home and relax for a while. Rick and I took several mini walks through the woods and Rick's dad snapped a few pictures of my baby belly. And yes, I know I don't look it but I am now 5 1/2 months along. I think the reason I am so small is because I wasn't able to gain any wieght the first 4 months because of being so sick and in the hospital. And then I had to compensate for the weight I lost from being sick. So I had a lot of time to make up and a lot of weight to gain back after loosing so much in the beginning. But things are going well now and Madi is very healthy and that is the important part.

While we were relaxing on Sunday Rick's dad also took a picture of our new Escape. We had to buy this back in June becuase my poor white car is on it's last leg. We wanted to sell it eventually but didn't know that we would have to this soon. At least we are selling it before it dies that way we can get something out of it. But after buying the Escape, I don't know how I did without having a bigger vehicle. It is so nice and so much fun. And it's a stick so I had "fun" learning how to drive it. But after a month of refusing to drive it I finally learned and now it is sort of fun to drive a stick. And I am so glad that it isn't a mini-van! (No offense to those mini-van moms but I couldn't do it) On Monday we headed out to the shooting range to do a little target practice. We haven't been able to shoot pretty much sice we moved away from Utah. There are no places to go and just shoot around here other then a shooting range, which costs $30/person/time. So not worth it! So we go up to the sportsmans club every chance we get to take out some stress. It is so much fun! Maybe someday we will have a lot of land in the mountains and we can make our own shooting range and go whenever we want. (Wishful thinking, I know)