Spring has sprung

Spring has sprung and has brought us a few amazing things. The best thing by far is our baby girl. No, she has not arrived yet, but she will be here soon enough. The other thing that spring has brought to our house was a tax return. We decided this year to invest in our memories for the future. We bought a Nikon D3000 dSLR camera. For those of you who don't know camera talk, it's a low end model of a professional camera for taking higher quality pictures than a simple point and shoot. We're pretty amazed already at what we have done. Here is a sample.

Finally we have the lovely lady posing for some pictures at 37 weeks along. Just a few weeks left!

 And finally the father of the baby inside of her. Let's not forget about him. A few extra pounds of sympathy weight added as well (he actually might have gained more pounds than her during this whole experience).

We love our new camera and will enjoy taking lots of great pictures of our little baby girl once she arrives. Now we will finally have something to keep you all coming back again and again!

St. Patrick's Day

We celebrated our St. Patrick's Day by getting some doughnuts at a local bakery. They were Delicious!

Chris and I put on our green attire in celebration of the day. Check out those socks. They remind me of those awesome ones you get when you play soccer when you're little.

 A couple of friends and I got together for a traditional Irish meal of corned beef and cabbage. It turned out pretty good.

 Green Jello, roll with green butter, green grapes, corned beef, cabbage and grasshopper pie (not pictured).

We also had sprite with green ice cubes. We had fun. 

I brought some home so Chris could try it out too. The guys had to study this afternoon. Oh, the joys of grad school.

Also... 

I made it to 35 weeks. Here's hoping she'll stay in for awhile longer.

Hospital Trip

On Friday night I went to the hospital with a lot of kidney pain. I'd felt it a few months before then but this time it was much more intense. I was throwing up from the pain. While at home Chris was trying to get stuff ready for us to go. I was just thinking it would somehow be a quick ER trip so I told him that all I needed was shoes and my coat. He was surprised by that and started stuffing things like toothbrushes, underwear, clothes and such into a bag. I thought he was crazy. Needless to say I was glad we were prepared to stay a few days.
We drove out to the women's hospital ER because is was about midnight and the main doors would be closed. They wheeled me up to the high risk pregnancy wing to check in and get whatever it was that I needed. If you've spent time in the hospital you know it takes a long time for them to get you settled in and treating you. So I was laying there in pain, probably screaming at everyone, and throwing up from the pain. Chris says that I was being pretty wacky and saying crazy things.
In January I was admitted to the hospital with kidney stones. It was inconclusive whether or not I had or passed them then. The ultrasound they took of my kidney did not indicate stones and I didn't find anything in my urine. We decided that it was Hydronephrosis, water on the kidney. Caused my my uterus pressing against my ureter, blocking urine from leaving the kidney. 
After suffering much pain they gave me an IV with fluid and another PCA with Morphine. It seemed to take an eternity to start working. The pain started in my back at my kidney and came forward to my lower abdomen. I just laid there holding onto the bed and Chris' hand to get through the shooting pain gritting my teething and moaning the whole time. Chris gave me a priesthood blessing which I am so grateful for.
Early Saturday morning while straining my urine, I found something strange and had the doctor take a look at it. He told us it was nothing just mucus and blood from the struggle of the night before. I was still curious about it so I kept it in the strainer for further inspection. After a while I decided to pick it up to verify earlier comments. It was solid and turned out to be a kidney stone. The stone was about 1/2 centimeter in diameter and everyone seemed to think it was rather large for a kidney stone.

While at the hospital the "on call" doctor check to see how I was progressing. He told us that I was dilated to a 1 and 90% effaced. The docs were concerned so I was given a shot of steriods so that  if the little one came early her lungs would be developed. We ended up staying the night Saturday going through the day with virtually no more pain and leaving Sunday morning of the second dose of steroid.
We went to our doctor appointment on Thursday morning and our doc says that he would be happy if we made it to 36 weeks. That freaked me out because I am now 34 weeks along. I doubt she will come in the next two weeks but there is always that chance. It's a great thing that we were able to go to the hospital and get checked otherwise we might not have got the steroid shot in time.
Am I ready for what is about to take place?

Sunday Dessert and Pregnancy Pix

Tonight Chris and I wanted something delicious to eat for dessert. We decided on No Bake Cookies. They are simple, quick, cheap to make, and most important of all, we had all of the ingredients. We couldn't wait until they were cooled before taking a bite of them. They turned out great!!

Recipe

1/2 cup butter

1/2 cup milk

2 cups sugar

4 Tbsp cocoa

1/2 cup peanut butter

1 tsp vanilla 

3-3 1/2 cups of oats

Heat first four ingredients to a boil and add to last three ingredients. If you can, Let cool in globs on tin foil of wax paper. 

Scrumptious 

Pregnancy pics

 27 weeks along. 

I felt really good. I had a ton of energy and loved every second our little girl moves inside me. 

A few weeks before I went to my doctors office complaining about back and stomach pain. My doctor sent me straight over to the hospital with the thought that it was kidney stones. I spent two nights in the hospital. After a negative ultrasound it was thought that I had hydronephrosis, my uterus was squishing my ureter and had urine backing up into the kidney. I was sent home with some pain medication and orders to drink lots of water. Which is really hard for me for those who know me. I do not like drinking anything let alone water. My doc still thinks it was a little stone, but is inconclusive. 

30 weeks

Today I feel a lot bigger than even last night. I think she's just making the most of what room she has. I have started to feel pretty uncomfortable. I cant imagine what others are going through. I am grateful that I have somewhat of a long torso.