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!)

It's a...

We just got back from our big ultrasound!  And we found out:

We are both very excited (especially me!)  All the measurements looked normal and healthy.  Things are looking great!  Here's the other pictures:

(Zoom-in of the head)

And now we need some name suggestions.  Comment away!

We're Having a Baby!

Here is the update on the pregnancy so far.

I’ll start from the beginning…

We decided it was time to start a family. We have a plan of how our life is going to go: Sam goes to school, graduates. We go on a cruise. Sam finds a job. We buy a house. We wanted to have a kid somewhere in there, and we decided it was time.

We were lucky enough that this pregnancy happened very easily. I thought it would take a couple months, but it happened instantly. I wanted to be very cautious for the next little while so nothing would happen to the baby if I happened to be pregnant, but Sam really didn’t think I was and told me not to worry about it. I kind of had a hunch that I was pregnant because my body just felt a little different. I was very cautious of getting too set on the idea because it just seemed way too easy.

Either way I still felt it was happening. So we waited for the time we could officially check. And on January 8^th my suspicions were confirmed. I still felt a little weary, because it came so easy for us. So we waited a couple days and checked again. We were right the first time. I called the doctor the next day and made my first prenatal appointment. Then started counting down the days until we would first see the baby.

Everything seemed to be going great. We were going to have a baby. I couldn’t be happier! Then my 6^th week came. I didn’t know smells could bother me this much. No matter what I did or ate, I felt nauseous. Sam was such a wonderful husband. He made multiple nightly trips to the store. First I tried some ginger ale and ginger snaps. Normally I would love to eat these treats, but they tasted disgusting now. We also tried remedies prescribed by the pharmacists. B6 vitamins, crackers, and Tums. Nothing seemed to help. I finally broke down and called the doctor. They prescribed an anti nausea medication. I tried a fourth of the amount prescribed and thought I would fall asleep that instant. I’m surprised I was able to drive home after work. That day was pretty much a blur.

All this was going on and I was trying to keep it from Sam’s parents and my co-workers. Blaine and Jeanne obviously knew something was up. I was finally able to control things and make it to work most of the time.

We finally decided to tell both our parents what was going on. We wanted to do something cute and fun, but it didn’t really work out that way. We told Sam’s parents and they were thrilled! We just confirmed their hunch. The next evening we stopped by my parent’s house. They had no idea this was coming. We sat down and broke the news. They were also thrilled! It’s been a long time since we’ve had a new baby on the Roe side.

It felt like the 6^th week through the 10^th week would never end.

Our first prenatal visit came on February 16^th . Our first ultrasound!

We got to see the baby for the very first time. That is a strange feeling. The little heart beating and the baby jumping around. It is such a crazy feeling knowing that is all going on inside me. Crazy!

We got the first image of our baby! At that point it’s hard to even distinguish what is what, but I think you can sort of see the little arms and legs.

We took the pic to my parents right after to show them. That was a fun visit. It was so exciting to show them and to know the actual due date. September 16, 2011.

Then we went home to show Sam’s parents.

We decided we wanted to do something fun to announce the exciting news to our siblings. We printed out a couple small images and framed them. One for each family. The next Sunday we placed the frame on the counter to see who would see it first. They didn’t see it for a while. I saw Hadley, our 11 year old niece, look at it for a second, but didn’t say anything. I’m sure she assumed it was an ultrasound of Kristin’s (Sam’s sister, who was also pregnant). Then as we were sitting at the table, she picked it up and read my name. Then she asked, “Who’s is this?” The news was out. Everybody was very excited. Later Sam sent a text to Scott Maw with the pic of the ultrasound and said “Hi Uncle Scott and Aunt Reagan!” That was an awesome evening.

The next Sunday we took the other frame to my family. We set it on a table. It took a bit for people to notice, but then my sister Stacie saw it. “She said how come nobody told me?” That was funny. That was us announcing it! Everyone was very excited, especially our nieces Katelyn and Sydney. I loved Katelyn’s reaction. She threw her fists in the air and yelled “YES!!” My favorite part of the evening was when we were leaving. Sydney hugged me and said “bye”. Then she wrapped her arms around my tummy and said “Bye Baby!”

When we got home we announced it to friends over text and facebook. News sure spreads quickly! It was great not having to keep that secret anymore.

Now to look forward to hearing the heartbeat for the first time. That came March 16^th. That was a really neat experience. I know that I’m not the only one, but I was worried that something may have happened to the baby. I really needed some reassuring that everything was still ok. Then we heard that little heartbeat. Relief!

The doctor even had us very sneakily go into the ultrasound room to have a peek. We got to see the baby again. It was much bigger this time. The doctor tried to determine the gender, but the baby didn’t want that to happen yet! The legs were crossed and it was hard to see much.

More exciting news is that the morning sickness is starting to ease up a bit. I’m still sick if I don’t keep my stomach full, but I’m significantly better! Now if I could just get some energy to get up in the morning I would feel great.

So now we wait. I am so excited to find out if we’re having a boy or girl! Maybe then we can start planning and shopping and start deciding on possible names.

The time is coming soon. We’ll officially find out on April 13^th. It can’t come fast enough!!!

RSL 2011 MLS Home Opener

First of all, welcome to our new blog! I am excited for this upgrade over my old blog where you used to read my ramblings. Now in addition to my ramblings you will get quality input from Amy too. A blog is nothing without readers, so we would very much like you to follow us (look for the "Followers" tool on the right-hand side of the page)

I have always wanted to be able to say that I got to see David Beckham play soccer in person. Also, I'm a moderately big (not rabid, but more than lukewarm) Real Salt Lake Fan. So with the LA Galaxy coming to town we decided this would be a perfect time to buy some good tickets and go see them both.


It was absolutely freezing, but the game was so much fun! RSL dominated in a 4-1 win. It was a sell-out crowd of over 20,000 fans who braved the elements and made for an incredible atmosphere.


A lot of people have a lot of opinions about David Beckham, but to me, the guy is a Legend. He has put soccer on the map for so many people. I'm excited to tell my kids that I got to see Beckham play!

(My camera's super zoom-in isn't the best quality, but there he is!)

The goal Galaxy scored was off one of Beckham's set-pieces (a perfectly placed free kick to Juan Pablo Angel). We didn't get to see a Beckham goal, but I guess that is the next best thing.

A few other pics:

(Javier Morales about to bury his PK in the back of the net)

(GOOOOOOOAAAAAAALLLLL!)