We're Almost There!

Sam has been doing all the blogging lately, so I guess it's my turn.

Here are my 33 week pics.

Here are a few important dates to get caught up.

Thursday July 21^st I felt the baby’s hiccups for the first time. I was sitting at my desk at work and all of a sudden my belly started twitching at a normal rhythm. It was a strange sensation. I’m not sure if he’s actually had them before. I’ve heard people say they can tell when their baby had the hiccups and I thought they were crazy. Now I definitely know when my baby does. It can be almost as annoying as having them myself! I’m glad they don’t bother the baby though.

Thursday July 28^th we got 3D Ultrasound pics. Kami’s friend Katherine at Jordan Valley did these for us. She wasn’t sure she would get great pictures because I was so far along (33 weeks), but they turned out great. I love his little nose! It was also fun to see the movements on screen at the same time I felt them in my belly. This really is amazing! We also had her double check one thing. He is definitely still a boy!

This one is just a normal Ultrasound, but it was fun to see. Those bubbles in the top left are the umbilical cord.

Tuesday Aug 2^nd I felt my first Braxton Hicks contraction. This was a very strange feeling. At first I wasn’t sure if it was just the baby pushing really hard with his foot. Then it started happening more often and I realized what it actually was. I have been having Braxton Hicks contractions for a while now. It’s great to know that things are starting to happen.

Wednesday Aug 3^rd 34 week checkup. Baby is about 5 lbs. Things are still going great.

Tuesday Aug 16^th 36 week checkup. Everything is normal. The doctor said he would be very surprised if I had the baby this week.

I am now 37 weeks along! BH contractions are a lot more frequent. I have also been feeling a lot of pressure like he is dropping. Yay!

I’m still feeling pretty good. I do get tired pretty easily, but the end is in sight! Less than a month and my baby boy will be here!

Our Garden

Amy and I are always buying cucumbers and tomatoes from the grocery store, so we thought it would be a good idea to try to grow some of our own this year.  A friend of mine even gave us some extra plants she had so we didn't need to purchase any.  In addition to tomatoes and cucumbers, she gave us a zucchini, a squash, and a couple cherry tomato plants as well.  Here's what our little garden looked like when we planted it:

And this is what it looked like a few weeks ago:

It actually grew things!  I'm pretty amazed.  So far we have eaten a small but tasty cucumber and a bunch of delicious zucchinis. The tomatoes aren't quite ready, but a few of the small ones are starting to redden.  Here's a few pictures of our crops:

 An oddly shaped cucumber which has since straightened out

 Check out this mutant Siamese Squash that's growing!

We are totally farmers!!

Summer Internship 2011

Anyone who read my old blog last year will remember that I updated you on my summer internship on a weekly basis.  I had another internship this summer, but I felt like weekly updates weren't necessary.  Last year, I had a pretty horrible internship with all kinds of crazy adventures on the bus to Provo, terrible therapists to work with, and lots and lots of old people that all made for very interesting writing.  This year, my internship was 4 minutes from my house (it was closer than the bus stop I went to last year to catch a bus to Provo), I had great therapists to work with, and very cool patients.  It made for a much nicer internship experience, but sadly, much less blog material.

 This year I was at a place called Neruoworx.  They are an outpatient PT clinic who work mainly with spinal cord injury (SCI) patients, but they are also a non-profit organization, which gives them some freedom and some funding to work with patients as much as they need.  Most insurances would provide 15-20 outpatient PT visits per year, and that's just not enough to help a SCI patient rehabilitate.  At Neuroworx, patients were able to come in basically as often as they wanted and work for as long as they wanted.

One thing I hated about being in a hospital last year was that I would only see patients for 2-3 days before they were discharged.  This summer, I pretty much worked with the same patients for the entire 10 weeks I was there.  Dr. Hull, one of the co-founders, likes to say that progress for a SCI patient is "glacially slow", and that is true.  I can't really say that I saw many of those patients progress much in my 10 weeks.  It takes a very long time for them to make any progress.  But when you keep working with the same people for a long time, you come to really care about helping them become as functional as possible.  It worked with a lot of really great patients.

One thing I really liked was Aquatic therapy.  For patients who were very week, getting into the pool could help them move around much better than they could on land.  They had a specialized pool with a treadmill built into the bottom and cameras that showed patients what their legs were doing.  I spent a lot of time in the pool with patients this summer.

 

This is a video a patient put up on YouTube of his pool therapy.  I show up around the 3:20 mark!

KSL News came a few weeks ago and did a story on some patients and a method of treatment we use called Locomotor Training.  You can see me in the background working with a patient at about the 1:30 mark, and can tell a little better that it's actually me at the 2:00 mark.

Video Courtesy of KSL.com

This summer was a much better (though maybe slightly less interesting-to-write-about) experience than my last internship.  I'm glad I could go to a cool place like Neuroworx.  I learned a ton about working with neurological patients, and had a lot of good experiences there

Backpacking Trip 2011

I would have written this a long time ago, but my internship was keeping me way too busy. I'm in blog-catch-up mode now!

Every summer, my friends and I go on a backpacking trip. Normally we'd go in August when the weather is better, but because of the late-summer arrival of many babies, we had to go early this year (for some reason the pregnant wives didn't want us leaving them alone at 8-9 months pregnant. Weird, I know!). With all the snowfall this Winter Spring Summer, we had to travel pretty far to avoid having to sleep in snow caves or navigating through treacherous raging rivers of death. We finally found a place called Fish Creek Reservoir down in the Dixie National Forest.

Based on our guidebook, the hike sounded easy. It was only 3 miles, but it turned out to be very steep. We had some huge hills to climb and it took us a good 3 hours to get up to the lake.

The lake was pretty, but finding camping spots around it wasn't easy. It was surrounded by pretty dense forest. After some intense searching, we finally found a spot that turned out to be great.

Not only was there enough space for our tents and a perfect place for a fire pit (two of the logs were already there, but we added two more to surround it with seats), but the bugs seemed to stay away from that spot much more than any of the other spots we considered. Thanks, bugs!

The backpacking itself is always a good experience, but I was in it for the fishing. I had been itching to get out fishing all year! I finally have all of my own gear, and was stoked to use it for the first time.

(I lost a lure I had just bought, and braved the lake to get it back. It was freezing,

and after all that work I couldn't get to it anyway!)

The fishing wasn't so hot at first; we fished for a few hours and none of us had much luck. Towards dusk we hoped they'd be biting better, and we went over to a different spot on the lake. It still took a while, but eventually I reeled one in. I ended up catching three more that night, and three more the following morning. I had a lot more success than my friends (sorry guys!)

The hike out, being very downhill, only took about half the time as the hike in. All in all, I thought it was a very successful trip, although I might not feel the same way if I didn't have any success fishing. But it was definitely good to spend some time with the guys, and always fun to get away for a weekend.

I love Hawaiian Punch!

29 weeks

Last Saturday Sam and I went and picked up our crib and nursery furniture. I’m so excited to get the room all set up. We also stopped at Best Buy. We took advantage of the expectant mothers parking spot. I don’t actually need it. I can walk perfectly fine, but it was still fun to be able to park there!

Our baby boy’s favorite thing to do lately is put his foot in my ribs. So far it hasn’t been too bad. It’s a little uncomfortable at times, but luckily not painful yet.

I took the glucose test this past Wednesday July 6th. Everybody told me how horrible the drink would be so I was a little nervous. When I took a taste I was pleasantly surprised! It tasted like a Hawaii Punch. It was great!

I then went to the doctors. Everything seems to be going well. They told me I would receive a phone call on Friday if there were any concerns. I didn’t hear from them so, no news is good news in this case. I don’t have Gestational Diabetes. Awesome!

The 2nd Trimester Ends

Here I am at 25 weeks (about 6 months along).

The pregnancy seems to going very well. The 2^nd trimester really is the best. I felt almost completely normal, except for the fact that bending over to put on socks got more and more difficult each day. Other than that, I loved the 2^nd trimester. Why can’t it always be like this?

Our last checkup went well. I think the baby knew we were listening to his heartbeat. He really started to move and kick as soon as I lay down. My entire belly was jumping all over the place. I love that feeling. It almost feels like I have a really big twitch.

The other day while driving home from work, the baby was doing somersaults or something. I felt like I was on a rollercoaster or freefalling. I really got butterflies in my stomach. It was such a neat feeling.

On Sunday we celebrated Father’s Day with our Dads. I was so excited I could hardly wait to give Sam his Father’s Day gift. Now I can’t wait for our baby to wear it! He is going to be the cutest Braves fan ever!!!

Today I completed my 27^th week. So now I’ll be starting my 3^rd trimester. I can’t believe how fast things are going. The baby is getting quite big (at least in comparison to where he started). At our last checkup our doctor told us he was about 2½ pounds. I’m not sure how he can even tell without seeing an ultrasound, but I trust his opinion.

Half Way There!

There is definitely no question that I am pregnant now. In the past few weeks I’ve really started to get big. I am now permanently wearing maternity clothes.

20 weeks

Our baby boy has really started to kick lately. I’ve felt quite a bit of fluttering and movement in my belly for a while. At about 21 weeks is when I really started feeling actual kicks. Sam was even able to feel him kick last Monday. It is such an awesome feeling to know this baby is healthy and strong.

We had our 22 week checkup this week and everything is going great. The heartbeat is nice and strong.

Sam was a great husband and even got me a Mother’s Day gift. I wasn’t really expecting anything because I definitely don’t feel like a mother yet. He got me a wonderful card and a gift card to Motherhood so I could buy some new pants that fit! (He also went with me to get some today. Normally he doesn’t like to go shopping so he was very sweet!)