a little bit creepy.

I went to the doctor five times this week.

We monitored the nugget every day [except Monday, since it was a holiday] and then yesterday I had a regular OB appointment and we also had an ultrasound with the pediatric cardiologist.

It was a lot of fun, let me tell you.  Just ask my mom and John, who each came to a monitoring appointment with me and had to just sit there while the baby did nothing.  She's such a little stinker when she knows we want her to be awake and moving around.  They have to use something I've started calling "the baby taser" to wake her up.

But really, it WAS fun at the ultrasound when the nurse took some 3D pictures of our nugget!!  We think she's pretty cute, don't you?  Well, if you can get past the creepy, melted-wax look...

reasons I can't sleep.

1 - I'm pregnant. And this little nugget is a party animal as soon as the lights are out. I've said it before, and I'll say it again: she is going to have 5pm curfew until she's 30!!

2 - I have "allergies". What I really have is a cold, but no one will believe me. And let's face it, I can't take any of the hard stuff, so there's no point in even fighting them.

3 - The A/C went out on our side of the house. It went out Saturday, but we had a big party to get ready for, and then I was too exhausted to care that night. Sunday wasn't so bad either. But last night was brutal. It might have had something to do with the temp being 82 outside until almost midnight... so we slept on the couch. These new couches are nice. They recline pretty far back, and they don't smell like the dog or Tyler (yet). But it's still a couch. And waking up seventeen times a night is bad enough when you can still try and roll over. The most I could do on the couch last night was lean a little in the other direction. Oh, yeah, Chief John Strongbow doesn't help the situation, either. I'm pretty sure he moves...

4 - This probably goes with #2, but I'm SOOO thirsty all the time. Especially when I wake up in the middle of the night. And getting out of a completely reclined couch is not the easiest activity for me and my belly at two-thirty in the morning.

There is one silver lining from all this, though. Since we were in the living room, and John's alarm went off at 5:20, I was awake enough to realize that my mom wasn't up for seminary yet. I know she's excited for summer break, but there's still a week left!! Anyway, I woke up the momma, sent her on her way, and now I'm apparently awake for good. I sure hope Paizley's ready for a nap after kindergarten today...

monitoring.

Spending an hour twice a week listening to the nugget's heartbeat is going to be pretty awesome. For me. Baby Nugget wasn't the biggest fan today.

The first twenty minutes she was asleep. I was totally fine with that. When she's asleep I don't have tiny little hands and feet kicking and punching me from all angles. Unfortunately, the doctors don't like to see a motionless baby.

So they hooked me back up and used a weird little buzzer-probe to wake her up. Homegirl was NOT happy with that. She was up like a rocket and moving all over the place! I wish I could bring home the strips of paper with all the lines that track her movements to show you. It's pretty crazy.

best baby shower EVER.

Oh, man. I can't even begin to describe what a wonderful day Saturday was. I feel so much love and support from all my friends and family!! It was an incredible party. Ladybugs were EVERYWHERE!! (literally - one of the girls spilled their bug jar open in the kitchen... oops!)

Teri did a magnificent job with all the decorations and planning and treats. She is just THE BEST!! We are so blessed to have her in our lives :)

Obviously I love and appreciate everyone who pitched in and made the shower such an amazing day. It's overwhelming to think of all the people who already love my little girl and wanted to make sure John and I are prepared for her arrival. She is so blessed!

I woke up Saturday morning with my little cousins Matilda and Paizley to get started decorating! But first we had to paint our nails to look like ladybugs. (It's all in the details!!) After that it's all kind of a blur. I know at one point I took a shower and got ready, and before I knew it we were partying!!

I'll let these pictures do the rest of the talking for me...

my belly, me, Momma H, Teri, and Michelle

CAKE!!  adorable and so delicious.

ready for baby nugget  :)

ladybug outfits!

ladybug beach balls!

ladybug cakepops!

ladybug decorations!

ladybug pencils in a ladybug mug!

ladybug cookies!

And let's not forget all my wonderful family and friends who came to celebrate Baby Nugget!!

We knew there would be a bunch of little girlies at the party, and while pumping them full of sugar sounds like a good idea, it also means that you need to plan something for them to burn off all that excess energy.  So my mom went and bought a bunch of LIVE ladybugs to let loose in the backyard for the kids to catch!  She and Teri bought out all the little bug jars at every Target they went to and it was such a cute idea!!  The girlies loved it - and as a bonus my parent's garden has a bazillion ladybugs roaming around!

so, apparently...

contractions at 31 weeks are a bad thing.

Who would have thought?

I went in this morning for some routine fetal monitoring. The nurse said she was going to have me hooked-up for twenty minutes. It was a looooong twenty minutes - let me tell you. An hour and a half, and one dose of contraction-stopping meds, later they took off the monitors and finished my appointment.

After the first 20 minutes the nurse noticed that I was having some small contractions. I couldn't feel anything. The crazy Nugget was bouncing around like a ninja, so I was a little distracted from feeling anything else. And contractions are still a little bit of a mystery to me, anyway. But she took the printout of Nugget's movements/heart rate/contractions to the doctor to check out. Then they gave me some medicine that stops contractions and turned the monitor back on to see if it worked. Then the monitor ran out of paper. Then they refilled it and started again. The contractions slowed down a little bit, but didn't really stop. So they unhooked me (finally) and sent me to another room for my regular appointment and to run a test to check if I might be at risk for pre- term labor.

It's kind of a bummer, because now we're all a little extra stressed about the baby, but we would much rather know what might happen than have it be a surprise.

I decided that I was right when I told my mom and John that Baby Nugget it trying to claw her way to freedom. We just really wish she would calm down and stay put for another two months like she's supposed to!

I'm realizing that I should just suck it up and prepare myself for all the stress that our little Drama Queen is going to cause .

forgetful.

I remembered what I forgot to include in that last post!!

Last week I had some maternity pictures taken by my friend Alisha!! She did SUCH a great job!

You can check out the sneak-peek on her blog here:

http://alishamariephotography.blogspot.com/2013/05/sydney-34s.html?m=1

wild child.

Baby Nugget is crazy.  Remember how she refused to stay still at our last ultrasound and made it increasingly difficult for the doctors to get a good look at her heart?  You know, that one little glitch in her anatomy that's kind of a big deal.  Well, the appointment yesterday didn't go any better.  Girl was psycho!!  She would NOT stop moving.  Every single image we have of her is blurry.  And she was hiding her face pretty good again, too.  But we did get a glimpse of her chubby chubby cheeks!

Did I mention she has HAIR!?!

Look closely... that's her arm, her big, squishy cheek, and her eye and forehead!

I think next time I'll take some Tylenol PM to calm her down and maybe get a good [and clear!] picture of her face!  Or heart... whichever the doctor's think is more important.  [I'm kidding.  I won't take any meds just as a science experiment to calm down my crazy baby.]

We also learned that the nugget is a BIG FAN of car rides.  Well, mostly.  We took a trip up to Salt Lake last weekend to look for an apartment and she did pretty well for being so cramped-up in my belly the whole time.  Don't get me wrong, I was plenty uncomfortable by the end of the 6-hour drive, but car rides are apparently going to be our go-to sleep-inducing tactic.  Although, she was up and running as soon as we put the car in park.  Every. Single. Time.

While we were in Utah we did find a pretty great apartment.  It's farther from the Trax line than we would have liked, but it has 2 bedrooms and a full-size washer and dryer.  So we're sold.  Now we just have to send in the applications and John's right arm as a deposit.  Moving is so much fun!  :/

We got back from Utah on Saturday night, and then had the opportunity to speak in a Sacrament meeting.  Our stake stretches pretty far, and there's a branch about an hour away in a small town called Sandy Valley.  Since it's small, the other wards "from town" take turns sending in speakers on the second Sunday of the month.  It gives members a chance to meet the branch, and it gives the branch a break from hearing the same speakers too often.  Right after that, we rushed straight back to Vegas to hear our lovely friend Elsa [I mean SISTER DEAN] speak for her mission farewell.  [I know, I know. They don't really call them that anymore, but it's still what it is!]  We are so proud of Elsa and her decision to serve a mission!  She's going to be great!!

And finally, as it was Mother's Day, we had a special night planned with my family.  We went to see The Great Gatsby with my mom, Yiaya, and my dad and brothers.  It was so good!  But I love Leo, so I'm a little biased.  After the movie we had I <3 Burgers and came home for some strawberry shortcake dessert!!  It was so fun and simple.  And my nice brothers brought my mom flowers, which are making the kitchen smell fabulous!!

I'm pretty sure that's all the news we've got so far...  Oh, except that I'd like to document that John lost his cell phone, two days after we bought him a new case and invisible shield. 

Now I'm done.

Velcro.

You know how everyone says pregnancy is great for hair and nails and (sometimes) skin??!

They're all full of bologna!!!

Nails? No change.

Skin? No change.

And my hair? My hair has morphed into VELCRO! Seriously. It's like a perma-rats-nest up there. It tangles in milliseconds. And gets staticky for no reason. And I'm pretty sure it's shrinking, not growing like normal hair. And did I mention that it's turned into velcro?!