Come on Baby!

I've officially reached that anxiously waiting period of pregnancy. Everyday I think, "Come on Baby! Let's make it today!" My due date is next Tuesday and I would love to be holding my baby before then, but alas, when baby is going to make her grand arrival is the big unknown right now. But I'm ready, I've done everything I wanted to do before she came and now I'm just hanging out. Well, okay, there's still stuff that can be done so I'm not just sitting around, but nothing that had to be done. Robert has worked from home the past two days and he has been keeping me busy with his go go go personality. In the past two days we've been to Costco, Best Buy (three times), the bank, the library, the post office, Target, the pool supply store and signed a contact to get all the windows replaced in the house. (And thanks to the stimulus tax credit and market competition in the end it will cost us $1,500 less from the tax credit and who knows how much less from contractors competing for our contract.)

In the last few weeks we've also visited some of Robert's relatives in Newport Beach who were in town for wedding, which we also went to last Thursday. At the wedding we picked up Robert's Mom and she stayed with us for the weekend and helped Robert out with the front lawn. The lawn used to look like this:then after the hard day work of Robert and his Home Depot friends it looked like this:and now after Robert and his mom worked on it all Saturday morning... it still pretty much looks the same, except the dirt is darker because we've been keeping it wet and it smells awful because it's covered in manure. BUT, hopefully it will soon start looking green once the seed they planted starts coming up.

I finally dropped on Monday. I was beginning to think baby was just going to wait until I went into labor to get snug down there. I'm not sure if I look any different, but I can definitely feel that baby is lower. I had my latest OB appointment on Monday and they said I was 1 cm dilated. I've also been having a lot of braxton hicks contractions. But the sad truth is that doesn't really mean anything. Baby can come tomorrow, or she can wait until next week. *Sigh* But she will probably be induced if she doesn't come by next weekend so there is some kind of deadline here. Well, back to waiting.

P.S. The reason I had two doctor's appointments the other week was because I had an ultrasound to check up on baby's size since I am small. They told us she was about 6 lbs 10 ounces, and referred us to see specialist the next week to check her internal organs. The specialist told us all she saw was very healthy 7 lb 8 ounce baby. Hmm, how big do you think she really is? Point is though, she's fine.

Happy Birthday Robert!

Today is Robert's birthday so I dedicate this post as an ode to Robert. I am so in love with him and it's hard sometimes not to just take for granted all his great qualities. Sentimental posts are not my strong point, so I'm just going to go through our day yesterday and express how grateful I am for some of the qualities he exhibited yesterday.

Robert is very supportive and caring. He has been to almost every one of my doctor's appointments. Yesterday morning we had our second appointment this week (more on that later) and despite being in the middle of busy season Robert still went. We were there for more than two hours, so it was nice to have Robert there cracking jokes and talking to me while we had to wait for an hour, be seen, and then wait again.

After the doctor's appointment we went out to lunch. Once again, it's was just nice to be with him. How can anyone not enjoy being around him? He's cheerful and smart and he makes me get that milkshake when I'm debating about it and not feel guilty for spending too much.

Robert is smart, thorough, and hardworking. We have been thinking of getting our 1950's windows replaced on our house, and I am so glad that I have Robert leading the way on this decision. Its a big decision to decide who we want to go with to replace our windows and which window to get, but I have full confidence in Robert to find us the best company to go with. He has been busy checking out the backgrounds of all the seven company's we have been thinking about and doing research on all the different kinds of windows. He has spent a lot of time on that, and still working and doing everything else he does. This is so typical Robert though. I feel like I can trust him to make good, informed decisions (not that I have no say, but he just lays the information right out for me, I don't have to do much)

Also, on how he is hard working, yesterday morning our front lawn was a huge tract of dead grass. As of yesterday afternoon it is a huge tract of dirt, and hopefully soon it will be seeded with new grass and we will have a nice front lawn. Robert racked up the entire lawn, with some help from new "friends" from the parking lot of Home Depot. I also think Robert is very brave to walk up to strangers at the hardware store like that. One reason why I could never get a long without Robert.

Robert is also very funny, sometimes when he doesn't realize it. After spending all afternoon outside digging up the old lawn, and most of the evening driving around looking at window installation jobs, he was exhausted when we finally sat down to watch "The Office". He fell asleep halfway through it, on the floor because I kicked him off the couch so I could lie down because my back was hurting (see how sweet he is). After I got him up to bed I was just looking at him sleep and he said from his sleep, "stop breathing on me." I responded that he was just so cute I just wanted to watch him sleep, to which he responded by rolling over so he was facing away from me and saying "take that. hmm." Okay, so maybe you had to be there for that one, but I thought it was pretty funny. Anyway, I'm so grateful to have Robert in my life for one more year and hopefully many more years to come. Happy Birthday Robert!

Jason Aldean

On St. Patricks Day, Robert, Matt H.(one of Robert's friends from work) and I went to a Jason Aldean* concert at the House of Blues in Hollywood. We didn't get any good photos, so my visuals are courtesy of Google. I loved that this concert was at the House of Blues because it is such a small venue. We were right up by the stage so we could actually see Jason Aldean. We could see his facial expressions and it kind of felt like he could see you since there aren't all that many people there (it's a packed room, but def. not like being in a concert at a stadium). And really, who wasn't looking at the pregnant lady? (I felt a little conspicuous) It was a fun way to celebrate St. Patricks day and my last week of work.

Yup, yesterday was my last day of work. My co-workers threw a surprise baby shower for me, which was very sweet of them. I totally should have figured it out but I was so focused on getting all my work wrapped up I didn't even notice what was going on until someone came and got me for an "emergency staff meeting," and it still took me a couple seconds to suspect anything. After work when I got on the bus lugging two bags of baby stuff I realized I had misplaced my keys somewhere, so I had to call Robert to come home ASAP so I wouldn't be stuck at the Park & Ride(he usually stays a couple hours longer than I do). Then my phone went dead so I had to just trust he was coming for me. And he did. He's so sweet to just pack up and leave in the middle of his work. My keys, btw, were sitting on the front seat of our car at the Park & Ride. Oops. At least the car was locked and there was a guard at the Park & Ride. It reminds me of my very first day of work when our car died twice and I had to get it jumped by someone in our apartment parking lot, and then by a coworker.

It hasn't quite sunk in yet that on Monday I won't have to get up early and make the commute into L.A. and I will finally have time to get things done. Bring on the deep cleaning nesting.

And finally, here's what Robert's looking like these days.

My stipulation for him growing out his beard was as long as he shaved it all before the baby comes, even if it means taking an extra 20 minutes for Robert to shave before we go to the hospital. Thankfully he's not going to wait that long. He's slowly getting it shaved.

*For those of you who have no idea who Jason Aldean is, he is a country singer and you can hear some of his songs on our blog playlist. Also note that it was Robert who just had to get tickets to this concert when he heard about it. Surprisingly, he and Matt are both really big country fans.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

From your friendly Wheat leprechaun.

Robert has been growing out his beard for a couple weeks and decided to shave it "leprechaun" style in honor of St. Patrick's Day. Happy St. Patricks Day!

Random Entertainment

One Month and Counting

Yesterday was one month before my due date! Looking back on the last month it went by so quickly, it amazes me that in that short amount of time in the future we will have our baby! Here are some progressive pictures of my pregnancy.18 weeks- I didn't even have a belly!28 weeks

Today- 36 weeks

On another note, this week we surpassed our record for most people to spend the night at our house. I think the previous record was five when Robert's brother and his wife and his dad were visiting us. This week we shot up to eight! My cousin Kamille and five of her friends came down from Cache Valley to do a little SoCal sightseeing and I invited them to stay at our house for the three days they were in the area. They were are all very nice and Robert and I enjoyed chatting with them until very late at night.

P.S. This is also our 200th post!

Dream Time

It’s dream time again! In a recent dream I was at one of my doctor’s visits and the doctor told me very sadly, “I’m sorry Melarie, but your baby has a vampire disease called quid pro quo and won’t be able to live for more than a day after she is born.” It was a very distressing revelation of course, although kind of funny now that I am awake and know it was all a dream. A vampire disease? Probably from reading Twilight and thinking of Bella’s pregnancy. Called quid pro quo? I have no idea where that one came from. In my dream it sounded like a perfectly logical name for a disease, but in waking naturally I know it’s Latin for “something for something,” and refers to giving and receiving something of equal value. (Yeah right, I had to look it up). I think dreams are a person’s way of sorting things out in their mind, so I do believe that dreams have meaning, but I don’t know where I was going with the quid pro quo thing. Hmm, that could get deep.

So in my dream I am very devastated. All my plans for watching my baby grow up and having this perfect little family with her are dashed. I’ll just get one day with her. At first I don’t know what to think, but after a few minutes I can recognize that I am devastated not to get a lifetime with her. My dream self thinks that I should be feeling like carrying this baby for another month is useless because she is just going to be dying anyways. But my dream self also realizes that’s not how I feel, that I still want to nurture her until it is time for her to be born. At least I will be able to meet her and spend a little time with her before she dies. And I will love her in spite of her vampireness. The doctor asks me if I was still going to name her Julia, and I tell her yes, of course, her name is Julia. I ask if there were any symptoms earlier of the disease, and the Dr. said yes, and showed me a paper with all the possible symptoms in pregnancy for the disease. The symptoms I had were highlighted, like back pain. They just hadn't put it all together until today. After that I start thinking of how I am going to tell Robert and then I woke from my dream, very relieved that it was just a dream.

So the dream got me thinking a little. I never expressed it in the dream, but probably the reason I was not completely hopeless after hearing the horrible news was because of the eternal perspective I have as a Latter-Day Saint. No, I wasn’t going to get a lifetime with her, but I was going to get an eternity with her. She wasn’t going to stop being my baby after she died. So that made it okay for me to want to nurture her as long as I could. Also, I love her already, so no matter what she looked like she would still be the same baby that I have been feeling inside of me for months and I would still love her.

Anyway, I'm about 35 weeks now and the time seems so short until we really do get to meet our baby. I have two more weeks of work, so hopefully the last little while without work will let me get some stuff done around the house and finish getting ready for baby. I'm really excited to stop working because by the end of the day my back is killing me from sitting at a desk (and on a bus) for so long and I am exhausted from not getting enough (deep) sleep.

It Won't Be Like This For Long

This song always gets to me when I hear it, I guess the pregnancy hormones help because I usually get all teary eyed too. You always hear be grateful for what you have in your life now, but I think I am just barely really understanding that. We've had a lot of changes recently (like the last few years recently) and I look back at each stage of life Robert and I were in and really appreciate the time that we spent in that stage. It does seem, though, like I was always eager for that stage to end and to move onto something else.

When we were single and dating we (of course) couldn't wait to get married. But we did have so much fun. And being married students felt like it would last forever, but those were good times too. I really didn't like living in apartments, but now that we have a house I sure do appreciate not having so much to clean or having to spend every weekend doing yard work or house maintenance.

So now that we will be entering this new stage of parenthood I am happy right now just to be pregnant and working and appreciate that time while I have it. I will never be pregnant for the first time again and I have loved (almost) every minute of it.(I think I just forget about the bad parts because the good parts are so great.) It's been so much fun to learn about pregnancy first hand as things progressed and to feel the baby moving and wonder what she will be like. Things will be a lot different when the baby is here and we have both looked forward to this change for a long time. But where we are now "won't be like this for long" and I want to enjoy every stage of our lives.

(BTW, I had no idea that Darius Rucker was black-that's cool, there aren't a lot of black country singers- or that he was the lead singer of Hootie and the Blowfish before going solo. To hear the radio version of the song you can scroll down to my song playlist.)

Books

I'm actually quite disappointed I don't have more. I guess I found some new inspiration for books to read while I'm on maternity leave (in just three weeks!)

X means I have read it.

X 1 Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen
X 2 The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien
X 3 Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte
X 4 Harry Potter series - JK Rowling
X 5 To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
X 6 The Bible
X 7 Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte
X 8 Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell
9 His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman
10 Great Expectations - Charles Dickens
X 11 Little Women - Louisa M Alcott
X 12 Tess of the D’Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy
13 Catch 22 - Joseph Heller
14 Complete Works of Shakespeare
X 15 Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier
X 16 The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien
17 Birdsong - Sebastian Faulks
18 Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger
19 The Time Traveller’s Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
20 Middlemarch - George Eliot
21 Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell
X 22 The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald
23 Bleak House - Charles Dickens
24 War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy
/ 25 The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy- half an X because I’m currently reading it
26 Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh
X 27 Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
X 28 Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck
X 29 Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll
30 The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame
31 Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy
32 David Copperfield - Charles Dickens
33 Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis
X 34 Emma - Jane Austen
35 Persuasion - Jane Austen
36 The Lost World - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
37 The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini
38 Captain Corelli’s Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres
39 Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden
40 Winnie the Pooh - AA Milne
41 Animal Farm - George Orwell
X 42 The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown
X 43 One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
44 A Prayer for Owen Meaney - John Irving
45 The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins
X 46 Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery
47 Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy
48 The Handmaid’s Tale - Margaret Atwood
X 49 Lord of the Flies - William Golding
X 50 Atonement - Ian McEwan
X 51 Life of Pi - Yann Martel
52 Dune - Frank Herbert
53 Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons
X 54 Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen
55 A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth
56 The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon
57 A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens
58 Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
59 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon
60 Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
X 61 Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck
62 Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov
63 The Secret History - Donna Tartt
64 The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold
X 65 Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas
66 On The Road - Jack Kerouac
67 Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy
68 Bridget Jones’s Diary - Helen Fielding
69 Midnight’s Children - Salman Rushdie
70 Moby Dick - Herman Melville
71 Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens
72 Dracula - Bram Stoker
X 73 The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett
74 Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson
75 Ulysses - James Joyce
76 The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath
77 Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome
78 Germinal - Emile Zola
79 Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray
80 Possession - AS Byatt
81 A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens
82 Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell
83 The Color Purple - Alice Walker
84 The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro
85 Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert
86 A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry
X 87 Charlotte’s Web - EB White
88 The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom
89 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
90 The Faraway Tree Collection - Enid Blyton
X 91 Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad
92 The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery
93 The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks
94 Watership Down - Richard Adams
95 A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole
96 A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute
97 The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas
X 98 The Witches - Roald Dahl
99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl
/ 100 Les Miserables - Victor Hugo- also currently reading