"The one where the blonde girl signs up for stuffing"

We are still alive but barely hanging on! Life with a baby is BUSY!

So a couple sunday's ago the ward christmas party sign up sheet went around. Seeing as I have been married for almost 2 years I figured it was about time to start pitching in. The list included turkey, potatoes, dressing and dessert. I knew with a baby that I wouldn't have time to peel all those potatoes or make a huge dessert and I was for sure not going to attempt a turkey.....salad dressing seemed like an easy enough option. I thought there might be veggies and dip so I might have to mix up a big dill dip or something like that. I don't really know how I came to find out that dressing means stuffing during the Christmas season but I'm pretty sure my mom clued me in. She and a lot of other people she told thought it was hilarious!! So the day before the ward christmas party a lady drops off this HUGE thing of bread, onions, celery etc....."dressing" for 50 people!!! I started to sweat....how the heck am I going to do all this and keep my baby quiet while doing it. Plus, it isn't something that you can just make and put in the fridge till the party...it has to be made in time to still be warm for the party. Thursday afternoon around 2 pm I thought I would get a jump start on cutting the vegetables. I started with the celery..which had to be diced. I diced and diced and diced for an hour before I had what it called for. Then Scarlette was fussy so I went to feed her...I went back to the kitchen and started on the onions....by this time it was 3:30 and I still had a huge list of other things to do for the stuffing (keep in mind I have never made stuffing before so I didn't know how long it would take me). I started chopping up the onions and my eyes were literally pouring out tears....so I started chopping with my eyes closed...probably not a good call. I look around the room trying to find something I could use to stop the onions from bothering my eyes and I spotted Andrew's chemistry goggles sitting on the table. I plopped those on and went back to work (picture a make-upless, PJ wearing mess with chemistry goggles on). I called Andrew at 4 and told him that I need him to come home early or else I wouldn't get the stuffing in the oven on time ( lady told us to put it in for an hour and a half). When I called him I told him I was wearing his chemistry goggles and he burst out laughing. Fortunately, he came home 10 minutes later and offered to take the crying baby but I told him I would rather him chop the rest of the onions. Andrew, thinking I was such a wimp, began chopping the onions. I was watching him intently and the onions didn't seem to bother him (obviously I had been being a wimp). Then he turns to face me and his eyes are so red and pouring out tears...we both burst out laughing. He kept saying "holy hannah..I've never chopped onions like these ones before". Needless to say we got the stuffing in the oven and it came out right in time for the party. I know our stuffing was the worst one there but at least we have a hilarious story to tell our kids about the time that mom signed up for "dressing".

This post is written especially for Brittany.....Andrew and I are headed out to a work Christmas party right now but I will update on Scarlette and some other cute stories tomorrow I promise!!

2 months shots!!

So today we went to get our 2 month shots. Scarlette is technically 2 and a half months but I didn't call soon enough so this was the earliest they could get us in. Last night I was having a bit of anxiety because I didn't want Scarlette to look up into my eyes as the needles were going in and think I was a terrible person for putting her through the pain. She went to bed around 11:30 and slept till 5am and then nursed for 10 minutes and went back to bed till I woke her up at 7:30am. I, on the other hand, could not fall back asleep at 5am because I was so nervous to get her shots. We got to the clinic and the receptionist checked us in and within minutes are nurse came out and got us. She weighed and measured Scarlette who is 11 lbs 8 oz and 23 inches long. She is perfectly in the middle for all of her measurements (so 50th percentile) and the nurse said she looked really healthy. So we chatted a bit about side effects and then Andrew and I decided to get a flu shot in order to protect Scarlette from getting it. Andrew is enrolled at the college and so he is considered high risk....I kind of made him get the shot hahah but he didn't even feel it.....honestly the nurse stuck the needle in and said "your done" and he thought she was joking. Then came the hard part....so what did I do??? I made Andrew hold her for the shots. The nurse was a VERY good nurse and I felt very comfortable with her doing Scarlette's shots. She put the first needle into Scarlette's left leg and Scarlette didn't even flinch...I was standing in the corner with my eyes closed after she stuck the needle in because I didn't want to see her cry but I didn't hear a cry so I turned back around. The second needle went into the same leg and she felt that one so she cried for a couple seconds and then they flipped her around and put the last needle in her right leg and she cried a bit more. The nurse grabbed this bell and started shaking it and within seconds she was mesmerized. She didn't cry at all after she heard the bell. We put her clothes back on and waited in the waiting room for 15 minutes to make sure she wasn't allergic and she fell asleep almost instantly. It's been 2 hours and she is still just snoozing away...I will have to update tomorrow when I find out how the shots have affected her. Anyways, she did really great and I am so glad we got them done and over with till January.

Just and update on Scarlette. For the past couple weeks she has become so much more aware of her surroundings. She use to hate the swing but now her sea creatures are her best friends. For her afternoon nap I lay her down in our bed and she will whine for a bit but will usually fall right to sleep. I had a booster juice last week and she didn't get bloated or gassy so I have continued to eat something little everyday that has dairy in it. Her digestive tract seems to have developed a lot because she hasn't hardly been gassy at all and when she is gassy I just pump her legs and she lets out some farts and she is good. She has been sleeping a lot the past couple days so I am thinking she is growing and after hearing her weight this morning I'm pretty sure that confirms it! For night time sleep she usually has a bit of fight in her to go to bed but once she is asleep we do fairly well. She goes to bed around 10:30-11:00pm and then we wake up at 5am and have a diaper change/feed and that usually take about 15 minutes and then she is back to bed till around 9am. She is a super good baby.....but she is just starting to whine so I better go feed her!!

L.i.f.e.

As I sit here I have a secret or not so secret prayer in my heart that my husband will get on with the police. This will be our third attempt ( twice in Lethbridge and now once in Calgary) and I am really hoping the third time is the charm. Andrew has always wanted to be a police officer and although he has been doing really well in school this past semester I know that it isn't where his heart is. Andrew has worked so many dead end jobs with horrible hours and hard labour that I really pray he gets on with the police. He is meant to be a police officer. Andrew is so compassionate and he knows how to diffuse possible confrontations. He has a heart of gold and definitely the build of a good police officer...seems like we have been lacking those lately in Lethbridge. Anyways, Scarlette and I are going to try to be super quiet tonight as Andrew has a polygraph test tomorrow and then a psych test on Thursday ( we will be going to see the Calgary temple in the afternoon on Thursday!). Everyone pray that if it is the Lord's will for us to get on with the police we will!! Our little family would love to have a career and to start setting financial goals. We love our Andrew Pandrew!! Here's hoping he will have a good nights rest tonight and do well tomorrow!

Also, Scarlette is losing her hair and it is sad...that is all.

09.25.12

Can I just say....that I always have a hard time beginning a post haha. This week has been pretty uneventful. We spent some time at my parents house this weekend while Andrew was driving limo. My dad made the most delicious steak and due to being off dairy I basically demolished a huge piece as I feel like I am starving myself! For anyone who is lactose intolerant...I am sorry...I can't believe how much of the food that I eat has dairy in it. I am always craving a big glass of skim milk, sour cream, melted cheese and butter!! In place of those things I am drinking Silk Soy milk, no sour cream, no cheese and coconut butter.....they are dece...but they don't even compare to dairy!!

Scarlette and I got out so much last week and I am finally feeling almost 100% back to my old self. I took Scarlette to Wal-mart with me and we also stopped at Chapters to look through the books. We cleaned the house from top to bottom and finally got everything put back in its place since Scarlette arrived. Since being off dairy she has been such an angel baby! She will sit in her swing for half an hour while I get ready and she loves to stare at her turtle mobile and giggle at it. We recently bought a bouncer chair and honestly it was the best $30 I ever spent. As long as you are bouncing her she is happy as a clam...no more standing up and getting exhausted from bouncing her. She is sleeping so good as well. I usually pump a bottle a day and warm it up really warm right before bed and she will sleep from 11pm till about 4am and then she eats again/bum change and she is back in bed by 4:30am till 9am. However, she always has one night a week where she somehow does not want to follow that schedule and she stays up till 2:30am...those are our rough nights. 

Anyways, that is all we have to report for this blogpost. Scarlette is getting blessed on Sunday so I will have to put some memories up of that next week. Have a happy day! 

My Cute Babe

I just wanted to share a cute little story about my sweet girl that I don't want to forget. The other night, Scarlette and I were cuddling in bed while I waited for her to fall asleep ( I don't like falling asleep before she does). She kept looking up at me and sticking her hand into my nose. I thought she was doing it on accident but when I moved away she kept stretching her arm up to hit me in the nose again. She finally fell asleep with her hand pressed right up to my nose after a couple attempts of me trying to change positions and thwart her! I then realized that she likes the warmth of my breath on her hand haha. Every night since then we have fallen asleep with her hand pressed right up to my nose...it is SO cute....maybe just to her mother haha.

In other news, my baby is already 5 weeks old! She is starting to smile and make lots more noises! She is getting sooo big, no longer wearing anything newborn. She is already wearing 0-3 month clothes snugly (mostly because she is so long). We have another appt. with the doctor in a couple weeks and then her 2 month shots.....I'm really not looking forward to that. The last couple weeks have been GREAT! I have finally got use to all the things that I must get done before getting out of the house and I am getting faster at doing them.

Last Saturday my brother Brock got baptized and my brother Austin got to baptize him. Andrew and I have been enjoying having Scarlette in our lives and so there isn't much news to share about us....cus were always with her! Andrew started school a couple weeks ago and has been working his butt off! We really appreciate all his hard work and did I mention how great of a Dad he is?!?! He is always snatching Scar from me and running off to cuddle with her, he loves her soooo much. We went out walking on Saturday morning and then to Costco to get some groceries where he enjoyed showing her off! In other words....were pretty boring....hopefully I've got some good stories for my next post!

My personal challenge! ( For women's eyes only!)

So I haven't really blogged much since the baby came but it is honestly because I am sooo busy all the time! I am definitely realizing why they say that motherhood is the hardest but most rewarding job. The past 4 weeks have been a roller coaster of emotions....ask Andrew..haha. Due to my really great pregnancy and labor/delivery, I thought that I was just sailing through this motherhood thing......then came breastfeeding. I'm guessing most people who read my blog will probably be mothers now a days because some of my posts are definitely going to be considered TMI!!!

The first week of having Scarlette went wonderfully! I was on a crazy high from being a new mother and admiring my beautiful baby girl. We had a bunch of visitors so everyone got to see her and I was so happy to show her off. Then came the second week. The second week was A LOT harder for me. I think this was a combination of my milk coming in, my realization that I couldn't just get up and go whenever I wanted and the fact that I was breastfeeding 24/7. It was super awkward having visitors because I honestly walked around in my nursing bra all day. Anyways..this is where my struggles with breastfeeding come into play...don't judge. I have inverted nipples....yup...if you don't know what those are then look 'em up! One is borderline just flat so it hasn't really given me much problems but the other one is completely inverted and such a weird shape! Scarlette HATED breastfeeding on the one side because she was use to how easily she could draw out my nipple on the other side. Needless to say, weeks 3 and 4 have given me the most challenges. My defective nipple had a huge crack in it because Scarlette was having trouble latching correctly and I honestly feel like this nipple just sucks no matter if she was a pro at latching or not. Therefore, it was incredibly painful and I was soooo close to giving up on breastfeeding. I read up on single sided breastfeeding and I have resorted to doing a mixture of pumping 4 times a day on the defective side (to relieve the pressure and to start a milk storage) and feeding Scarlette on the right side. I know I will probably end up being lopsided but I hope this lessens the degree of lopsidedness. The past couple days Scarlette has begun to learn that she can drink all the milk she wants in 25 minutes as opposed to hours and hours of hanging out on there. I think this is due to her being awake more often and wanting to discover the world around her instead of always be on moms boob. SOOO... the reason why I wrote this semi-awkward post about my personal breastfeeding challenge...is to possibly help anyone else that may run into this problem and to make a list of breastfeeding must haves for new moms!

1. Lanolin or a prescription cream- This is definitely worth the $13 for a tiny tube of healing magic! Even if your baby is latching correctly, your soft luscious--never been sucked by a leech before--nipples will get sore due to the friction of baby sucking. I put this cream on in the morning after her feeding and at night before we go to bed. You can put it on after each feeding and it is not harmful to your baby.

2. Breast Shields--- I bought Medula* breast shields to draw out my inverted/flat nipples and they also provide an air vent to keep your nipples dry and to increase the speed of healing. These little gems have honestly SAVED me from giving up on breastfeeding. You'll notice in the first week or two that your constantly changing your breast pads because they are soaking wet (the body needs time to get use to how much milk your baby needs). So your nipples are constantly wet and this increases your cracking and slows down your healing time. Also, I kept them on at night for the first couple weeks but now that my breasts don't leak as much I have started taking them off at night and I stay dry throughout the night.

3. Breast Pads--- I don't know how it works for the general public but in 4 weeks I have gone through 5 boxes of Johnson & Johnson* breast pads (60pack). I bought one box thinking that it would last a while.....I was VERY wrong. I probably went through 20 per day during the first week....and then it has slowed down since my breasts started regulating my milk (about 10-12 per day now).

4. Breast Pump--- I bought the Medula* manual pump but found that with my inverted nipples I needed something stronger and more effective at drawing them out. This pump was cheapest at Superstore or Wal-mart but I definitely would have gone straight for the electric pump if I would have known the struggles I would have. The Medula* electric swing pump is what I bought to keep from giving up on breastfeeding and it was $200 at Wal-mart and Superstore. Even though it is really expensive, I am really glad I splurged on it. Also, as a new mom I had no idea how much milk that I should be pumping. The first time I used my electric pump I got about 50 ml and thought that I was drying up! BUT since the milk increases as baby needs more I discovered that my 3 week old should only be drinking around 50-100 ml per feeding. Baby is more effective at getting the milk she needs per feeding so I have to pump 2/3 times to get enough milk for one feeding.

5. Vitamin D drops-- I didn't read about these before giving birth but buy them beforehand and then you can conquer jaundice quicker if you start using them the first few days of your babies life. I didn't pick them up till she was about 4 days old and I had one ORANGE baby.

6. Cleanser- This is kind of just a tip...but get a cleanser that doesn't have a scent to it. Shower EVERY DAY and make sure you clean your breasts with something that won't irritate your baby or mask your personal smell. Also, after showering I found that if I lay down my boobs don't leak and I can let them air out for 10-15 minutes...it sure is a luxury I never thought I would appreciate HAHA. I read a book that says you can rub your own breast milk over the nipple at the end of a feeding to keep it clean.

ANYWAYS...I know this was a massive post but I wish I would have known someone who breastfed and had problems with inverted/flat nipples before I started breastfeeding. I am finally started to feel like I am seeing the light at the end of the tunnel and I am so glad that I held on.

Just a note on Scarlette's growth---She is 8 lbs 5 oz, 21 and 3/4 inches and is completely healthy! She sleeps 6-7 hours every night but is a complete princess during the day and loves being held and cuddled ALL the time. She still has all her dark hair and is starting to make cute Cooing noises more often. Were anxiously waiting for her first deliberate smile!!!

Labour and Delivery Story!!

Well, I'm just sitting in my bed looking over at my sweet little sleeping girl and thinking "I can't believe I have had her for a week already!!". I thought maybe I would take some time out of my morning to share my labour and delivery story since I have got asked about it a couple of times. So it starts out a couple weeks ago when I got my membranes stripped. After my membranes were stripped I started having some contractions but they never worsened in pain so I knew it was false labour. Every morning I would wake up around 5am with contractions and each day they would taper off and I would be left with no baby...slightly depressing. After a couple days of getting my hopes up, I decided my body was not meant to go into labour and that I would have to wait for my looming induction date. Sunday evening, Andrew and I went down to Indian Battle park and celebrated our friend Brandon's birthday. When I got home I was feeling a little nauseous and I knew that had been how my moms labor had started but I definitely just wrote it off because I didn't want to get my hopes up again. Around 3:30am I started getting contractions, even though they came earlier then normal I decided to go upstairs and begin my normal routine. By about 6 am they were getting a bit worse and about 6 minutes apart......so I had to decide whether to tell Andrew to phone in to work or not...I didn't want another false alarm!!! He decided that he would phone in and I decided that we should wait till about 8am before heading to the hospital. The contractions continued to get worse but they stayed about 5 minutes apart and they were VERY bearable. We got in the car around 8:30am and headed to safeway to get some snacks in case this was the real deal. By the time we got to the hospital it was 9am and no one in the E.R. believed I was in labour. The girl at the desk took FOREVER getting all our information together and I was wondering what the big hold up was! We got up to labour and delivery and apparently they were swamped that morning. They put us in a little draped area where they hooked me up to check my contractions and to see how baby was responding. I was still feeling GREAT and I was scared they might send me home because my contractions were 5 minutes apart. After 30 minutes of being on the machine our nurse came back and checked the results. Apparently my pain tolerance is higher then I expected because my contractions were 3 minutes apart and I was only feeling the strong ones PLUS I was already 5 cm dilated. We had to wait till about 11am to get into a labour and delivery room because they were so busy but once we were all set up I called my mom to tell her the news! At about 12:30 am the doctor came in and broke my water and it was the grossest feeling ever!!! It was like sitting in a huge pile of pee. He also told me that because there was so much fluid, Scarlette's head wasn't able to effectively put pressure on my cervix to start labor....explains why she was so dang late!! Side Story---my regular doctor went away for only 2 days and this little girl decided to come when he was gone!!! so I had the doctor on call...he was very good though. Anyways, I had no pain medication thus far and was feeling pretty optimistic about having a natural birth. After they broke my water they checked me and I was only 6cm. They let the amniotic fluid keep leaking out and Scarlette's heartbeat kept dipping when I would have a contraction so I got hooked back up to the machine for a while to monitor it. The nurse kept a close eye on her but decided that because of all the fetal movement going on, she was doing good enough that I could go in the shower. At about 2 pm they got me all naked and got the birthing ball out and I headed into the shower. Contractions were definitely getting worse but I was still able to breath through them and Andrew kept making my drink my ice water haha. We had been in the shower for about an hour and a half when I got this huge contraction that honestly made me feel like I was going to die!!! I thought that the next one might be a small one and I would be able to breath through it but it was also just as painful. I looked over at Andrew and said..." I think I want the epidural". I made this decision because I still thought I had about 3 cm to go and for first time moms they estimate 1 hour of labor for each cm...meaning 3 more hours of labor....NO WAY could I last with these contractions. Andrew promptly went and told the nurse and she came in super fast and helped me get off the ball and up on my feet. When I stood up I felt like my body was going to fall apart....the contraction felt like it was never going to end but it was actually just pain from all the pressure that baby was putting on my cervix. My pelvis felt like it was on fire!! Anyways, I started to shake uncontrollably and went into a little bit of shock with all the pain I was in. The anesthesiologist was already in the room when I got back to my bed and she explained what she was going to do. I was in so much pain that I don't really remember any of it. I didn't feel the I.V. go in, I didn't feel the freezing in my back and I definitely didn't feel the epidural. I laid back down in bed and the contractions were still so horrible but within 15 minutes they had tapered off and the nurse decided to check me. This is when she looks up at me surprised and says "your fully dilated!". So in 15 minutes I went from 6cm to 10cm and it was time to push. I asked the nurse if I could have a little rest before I pushed and she said that was ok as long as the baby was still doing alright. It was now 4:15 pm. By 4:25 the nurse was back in and told me the doctor was coming so she was going to teach me how to push. Andrew and her held my legs and I started to push....my first contraction I was pushing when the nurse told me that Scarlette had a head of dark hair. I honestly thought she were pulling my leg...I did not picture my little girl with dark hair! The doctor came in around 4:35 and we started really pushing...now you will have to ask Andrew about this part because I was just concentrating on pushing but he could explain better what was going on where the doctor was sitting hahaha. By 4:54 pm my baby girl was out and I was in no pain at all! Andrew did AWESOME and he helped me the whole time without getting sick. They put Scarlette on the warming table and I just couldn't believe she was my child. She had dark dark hair, dark skin and looked just like her daddy! We were instantly in love and it was so weird having her on the outside! Overall, my labour and delivery was awesome! I wouldn't have asked for it any other way. I was in enough pain that I feel like I experienced enough labour to appreciate our little girl and all it took to bring her into the world. I only had pain relief for the last hour and a half but the remaining 12 hours of labour I had done all on my own. The epidural did not hurt at all when they put it in and I will definitely be getting one again. It was nice that I went into labour and delivery with an open mind and I was willing to get the pain relief I needed to enjoy the pushing part of labour which also allowed me to enjoy the first couple moments with her even though I was getting stitched up.

Andrew and I love our little girl SO much. We feel extremely blessed to have her finally in our home and she brings the sweetest little spirit into our lives. I feel joy every day when I am able to feed her, cuddle her and kiss those sweet little chubby cheeks she inherited from her momma. We love Scarlette Mikenna Maclean!

9 days to go....

YEP! I am still around and kickin' it pregnancy style!

I really hope and pray this is my LAST blog post being pregnant. I was telling my mom today, the first 3 months seems to go by so fast and you start thinking....why do people complain so much...only 6 more months to go. Well, 9 months is WAY to long to be pregnant...haha I am DYING. The heat has been extremely bad....especially since we live in a brick building that absorbs the heat like nobody's business! I have been hitting the pool about once a week and trying to mooch of my mom's cool house as best as I can without feeling like I am abandoning Andrew in our sauna. The past week of being of work has been AWESOME! I thought that I would be completely bored but I simply have not run out of things to do. I have cleaned the whole house...the "deep clean"....scrubbing bathroom floors, cleaning kitchen nooks and crannies, organizing paperwork, setting up all our baby stuff and putting the car seat IN the car. The hospital bags have been packed for a couple weeks but I have added a couple things to them to help me get through labour and delivery. At prenatal classes, it was suggested to us to bring tennis balls, massage tools and magic bags....just to have a variety of pain relief/focus changers. The whole point of breathing exercises is to divert your attention away from the pain.....so why not put a modern twist to it and make Andrew massage me for hours on end??? that sounds like a WAY better focus changer. I got my hair done this morning and bought my Nikon D90 on Wednesday so I'm pretty much set for the baby to come.

My Uncle Ron has a concoction that involves castor oil, orange juice, almond butter, water...and some other special ingredients....it has worked on twelve out of the thirteen girls he has tried it on...pretty good success rate if I may say so myself. Anyways, before you freak out and tell me it is a horrible idea...keep in mind that I am an intelligent person and that I have done the research involved in trying something like this. Midwives have used castor oil for many years to help get labour going and most of the time it will only work if your body is ready to go into labour anyways. The biggest negative about using castor oil is that it can cause dehydration if not used correctly...so yes...I will be staying very hydrated the whole time. I'm going to try this concoction on Sunday night after church so that Andrew will be around and if something does go wrong he can take me straight to the hospital. When I do take the concoction I will be 39 weeks....very close to my due date...and lots of doctors will agree to strip membranes at this point if women are extremely frustrated being pregnant. I promise not to complain about my pregnancy because I have been blessed with a very good one.....but just so you know.....having a pinched nerve that only allows you to sit a certain way....in 32 degree weather....in a sauna house...is just about getting on my last nerve. If baby is ready...she will come....if she isn't...then she will not come.

So I've decided to just do a little sum up of my pregnancy in case anyone cares to read. (questions were found in the baby book I bought for Scarlette)

1. When Mom discovered she was expecting.....

When I first discovered I was expecting it was really surreal. Andrew and I thought it would take us a long time to get pregnant because I had been using birth control for a really long time for acne purposes. We got off birth control in the middle of September and thought we might get pregnant by January. My first period didn't come till October 24th so I went 38 days without a period when usually I would only go 28 days between cycles. Thinking that my body was just adjusting to being off birth control, I got caught up in exam week and went almost 50 days without a period after the 24th....I didn't have any signs of being pregnant so I didn't think I was. PLUS, Andrew was gone with work A LOT that month.....I know... TMI ....but I really think this little girl was meant to be HAHA. When Andrew finally got back from travelling with his work, we went out to dinner with Brooke and Dexter ( who were about 6 weeks farther along then us) and decided to go to the dollar store after to grab a pregnancy test JUST IN CASE. I remember Andrew running to the dollar store and when he got back in the car he said that the lady ringing him through was saying what a nice christmas gift that would be to find out we were expecting. When we got home I decided that it was a perfect time to see if we were pregnant or not....I honestly had been feeling crampy and bloated for that whole week ( my tell tale signs of an oncoming period) so I was NOT expecting...to be expecting haha. I stood in my undies while waiting for the test to come back with one line......so the one line appeared and I waited a minute longer just to make sure there was only one line....when I looked back down a couple seconds later I saw a second line......HOLY CRAP......there is a human being growing inside of me. I ran out of the bathroom and said "ANDREW...were having a baby!!" ..as I was saying the "baby" part, I burst into tears and had a crazy cry fest because I had never felt that kind of emotion before. I immediately asked Andrew to get the baby clothes down that were hidden in the closet and I held all the baby girl clothes that I had bought and couldn't imagine that our baby was a boy. We then grabbed the period calendar and figured out how far along we were and then searched on the internet how big she was......it was an amazing moment that I will never forget, my biggest dreams were coming true!

Who is the first people we shared the news with? To be honest... I told Sherri Hill very first because she works at the drugstore as a pharmacist and she knew we were trying. I wanted to make sure that I wasn't hurting my baby because I had been taking melatonin to help me sleep. Obviously, she told me to stop taking melatonin but that it shouldn't have affected the baby. Andrew and I waited till Christmas morning to tell our families and it was such a funny experience. This one year my parents told us that we were either getting a puppy or a baby for christmas and mom was FOR SURE not pregnant...so we were expecting a puppy...but we woke up christmas morning to a little yellow ducky blanket. So Andrew and I planted a tummy time toy for them to wake up to this christmas and Andrew told his parents at sacrament meeting that morning.

My due date: July 30th 2012

First heard heartbeat: At 12 weeks we were lucky enough to hear the heartbeat...and it was fast!

When mom began to "show" : I remember waking up one morning at about 17 weeks and I felt like I was showing...mom says that most people wouldn't have taken a second look....so the Lady Antebellum concert on March 12th would have been more accurate of when I actually started to show.

When Mom first felt me move: I remember this one Sunday that I was laying in bed....completely still....and I could feel the tiniest little movements...it was a really spiritual moment and I knew it was the baby. It was around 16 weeks...so it was early for a first timer.

When baby became really active: Scarlette became really active at about 20 weeks....she was like a crazy flip flopper, the kicking and fun stuff probably happened near 25 weeks and now it is really hard to feel a moment when she isn't moving, elbowing me, or hiccuping. (she has them right now!) It is especially neat when you start feeling specific body parts...that happened at around 29 weeks for me...right before I left for the Yukon.

Summary of 1st trimester- Didn't find out till I was about 8 weeks...thought I had no morning sickness but once I entered the 2nd trimester I realized that I did have a bit of nausea and had been lacking in energy. I threw up twice....once while intensely cleaning on an empty stomach and once from drinking way to much acidic orange juice in the morning. Very fast.

Summary of 2nd trimester-Started feeling the baby move, had tons of energy, felt great, found out the gender, finished University, was super busy....overall went by pretty fast....it felt like forever between 13 weeks and 20 weeks when we were waiting for our ultrasound.

Summary of 3rd trimester- Most of the third trimester has flown by, my back has had a pinched nerve for a lot of it so that has been super painful. It is hard to go to the movies or to friends houses because I have a hard time enjoying myself when I am in pain. These past couple weeks have been extremely hot and uncomfortable..I had one day with swollen ankles but that was it. Excited for it to be over in a couple days (knock on wood).

Total Weight Gain-- As of today....39 weeks....22lbs.....I am extremely happy with this. Most people say I am huge but I haven't gained all that much lol!!

Stretch marks----I have a couple on my inner and outer thighs...and JUST discovered a couple light ones on my lower belly....probably due to her dropping. They are VERY light but I almost made it to the end without ANY on my belly. I will admit..I have some on my bum...but none on my boobs.

Anyways, husband is getting mad because my computer is still on and it is late!!! If I missed anything please don't hesitate to ask..I'm pretty honest.

17 days.....

So I looked up at my cute little pregnancy tracker and it almost shocked me to read "17 days to go"! I am honestly so ready to have this baby!!! I believe that a healthy amount of fear resides in me but not like the fear I have been feeling in the past 8 months....I am now PRAYING to go into labour! I am over the fact that labour is going to hurt and I feel completely ready for the challenge. I guess it has been a couple weeks since I last posted so I will just go through a couple things that we have been up to in July. On Canada Day we spent time with Andrew's family and then met up with Brandon and Sydney to head to the fireworks. We got pretty good spots and were able to see all the fireworks and hear all the crazy drunk people threatening to beat each other up haha! On the holiday Monday, Andrew went out with the boys to dirtbike and my family and I went out to the lake to Sea doo. We had lots of fun and it was really nice to see Andrew finally having a REAL summer. I started back up to work the following day and only worked till Thursday because I planned a day trip to the Stampede with my mom and Brock. We honestly had such a blast at the Stampede! I am starting to regret not getting any pictures of any of these events but sometimes you just have so much fun that you forget to take pictures! We met up with my Grandma and Grandpa Lyons before going into the park and Brock was extremely excited to go in because he had never been before. Mom, Brock and I had to stop at the mall before we got to the Stampede grounds so we had already eaten lunch but we went into the BMO centre with my Grandma and Grandpa to find some lunch for them. We walked around and looked at all the different things they were selling. I got a delicious Hershey's chocolate milkshake and we stopped to watch the talent show for an hour while everyone ate lunch and snacked on treats. We then decided to face the crowds and go outside.......except everyone was pouring into the BMO centre because it was raining cats and dogs outside. I was scared that it was going to be like that all day and that we would have to go back to Chinook and spend our day inside. Good old Southern Alberta came through for us and within 20 minutes it was back to sunshine and heat! The rest of our day consisted of riding the west jet ride over the park, watching the superdogs show, seeing the illusionist and trampoline act, and don't forget about all the stops we made for TREATS. I couldn't ride rides this year....obviously....so I treated myself to a snow cone, mini doughnuts and a caramel apple :) mmm.

Last Saturday, Andrew and I went to PRENATAL CLASSES....yes! I made Andrew go to prenatal classes with me :) and they were actually so fun! I found our teacher very informative and very open to answering all of the strange questions that people were asking. Andrew even piped up and asked if babies smell when they are first born...hahah....apparently a lot of other fathers were wondering that as well. I would honestly recommend them to anyone who wants to feel very prepared for labour. I realize that the baby has got to come out somehow so it might seem strange that there is classes directed at labour and delivery but I found them awesome. I have read A LOT of books and internet sites during this pregnancy but it was nice to go up to the labour rooms, see all the different contraptions and get an overall better feeling of what we are going to face. Our class ended at 3:30 so we headed out to Waterton to have some fun together before baby gets here. We got dinner at Wieners of Waterton and walked around the park. We sat at Cameron falls and let the mist cool us off before we headed to get some of that famous Big Scoop ice-cream (AKA Nestle ice-cream). We went and visited my friend Megan at the lodge and then ran into my family on the picnic benches outside of Wieners of Waterton....they didn't even invite us!!! I swore we saw all of Lethbridge in Waterton....lol isn't that always how it goes!

This week I finished work yesterday and have been basking in my freedom! I really don't know what I am going to do for the next 2 weeks so I hope this baby girl comes early!! The only things I want to do before having her is finish our prenatal classes (this Saturday) and get my hair done sometime next week. So I'm thinking that next weekend would be perfect for her to come!!

OH YEAH! I forgot about my birthday!!! I turned 22 on Monday and had the most wonderful birthday! I slept in and then my brother Brock and I spent the whole day together! We went grocery shopping, bought Captain America and ate McDonald's in my bed while watching Captain America! I love that kid so much! He and I have such a blast together! We then went over to my parents house for pulled pork (my moms speciality) and enjoyed a delicious chocolate birthday cake :) my family is awesome! My parents gave me a large sum of money and I had already saved up my play money for the month and Andrew gave me money from his limo run a couple weekends ago....so I had enough to buy a Nikon 90D!! I am getting it on Monday and we got a screaming deal on it so I can pay for it with no stress! Happy Birthday to me! I am so dang spoiled!!!! I hope to learn how to use it before the baby comes so I can get lots of great shots of her!

Anyways.... onto the pregnancy!!! I am now 37 weeks and 4 days pregnant. I have officially gained 22 lbs in the past 8 and a half months and my fundal measurement is 37 cm, which is perfect for how far along I am. Scarlette's heart rate is down from 160 (which was the first time we heard her heartbeat) to 144 bpm! This is great news seeing as baby's heart rate needs to come down near the end of pregnancy. She has now been in head down position for the past 2 months and isn't going anywhere! I got checked this past week, for all those who don't know...it actually is more painful then what I thought and also a whole lot different then what I thought. I honestly thought when they measure how dilated you were it was an external measurement.....nope! definitely way on up there! Anyways...I am not dilated at all but apparently my cervix is very soft....I better get drinking that raspberry leaf tea! Other then that I have been feeling pretty good. The heat is really getting to me this week because it is hard for me to get comfortable and I already have an internal heater!

Anyways!! I'm off to cool down and enjoy the rest of my week!

June 25th 2012!

I have been so busy the past week that I have hardly had time to come on the computer, much less blog! I think my body is going into a weird "I gotta get everything done before baby mode" because I have had sooo much energy lately. Andrew and I are able to go on walk everyday and I could walk forever and ever and ever! I don't know if I said in my last blog that I have a pinched nerve, but I do. I thought it was just back pain but I was very wrong....so if you see me in the next couple weeks I will be sitting with a big pillow behind my back to relieve the pressure that baby Maclean is putting on my nerve! Walking feels AMAZING and when I get closer to being full term I am going to be walking crazy amounts each day....but for now I will stick to about 2.5 kilometers a day. I don't think I have too many crazy pregnancy stories....I have yet to wet myself and my belly growth has really seemed to slow. I feel like I got big really fast, kept growing rapidly and now I'm kind of at a stand still. On Sunday a few people came up and asked how many months I had left and I said 5 weeks and they were very surprised.....they thought I was quite small for 8 months....maybe they were just being nice ;) or it could be because she seemed to have "dropped" last week.

Scarlette kicked Ciara for the first time last week ( she has been very skeptical/jealous of a new baby in the family) and she just has not stopped talking about it since! She always puts her hand on my belly and watches the weird belly wave that Scarlette likes to perform, which has been pretty great! I was really scared she might think the baby was taking some attention away from her but I think our whole family could use a little piece of heaven right about now. I know I talk about the baby a lot, but I just feel so incredibly blessed to have been trusted enough by our Heavenly Father to be a mother. Andrew and I have been speculating on what she is going to look like, how big she is going to be and if she is going to look like a Scarlette in the past couple days because of how close we are getting!

A couple months ago, Scarlette was kicking around and I decided to figure out when her due date really was going to be. I thought who better to ask then Scarlette herself! So I told her that she should kick when I said her birthday. I kept saying random dates out loud until she kicked again. I probably named about 10 dates and she was very still...then I said July 24th and she gave a big kick! So in my mind, she is going to be born July 24th haha!

On friday night, Andrew and I decided to decorate Scarlette's room. We put up her letters, brought her dresser over, set up the change table, figured out how to work the diaper genie, put a little shelf up for her and bought all of our last minute baby items! Then Andrew went upstairs to watch T.V. and I decided to take all the clothes off the hangers and wash them.....LET ME TELL YOU...I almost had a big cry. I knew I bought a lot of clothes.....but I did not realize that I had bought enough clothes for triplet girls! I would buy an outfit here and there, then I would hang it up on a hanger in her closet. It took me 5 hours to take all the clothes off the hangers, cut all the various tags off/de-sticker, sort into whites, lights and darks and wash 3 loads of baby clothes. I really hope Andrew is right about us having a house full of girls because I have enough clothes to last all my babies. I also went out today and got pink drapes for her room because there were these really ugly blue ones and they only covered half the window....pretty sure that won't cut it for a newborn. Also, speaking of near cry experiences...Andrew wanted me to post this one. I try really really hard not to cry or else I will cry for like 2 hrs and go over all the things that I didn't cry about when they happened. So ...one night, Andrew and I were in the kitchen and I asked Andrew to take the garbage out because I had cleaned the whole house by myself while he had been out dirt biking all day. There was one last banana and I was REALLY craving a banana. I peeled the banana and for some reason it had been broken in half so the top half fell off.....no big deal..I just cleaned and washed the floors today. I go to pick it up and realize that Andrew had come upstairs in his gross muddy dirt biking clothes probably to tell me a story about how sick dirt biking was that day and there was dirt/ mud EVERYWHERE. So then.....(I admit this is my fault) I was so extremely mad that half my banana was ruined and the insane pregnant woman came out in me and I threw the other half of the banana at Andrew's head. Then I stormed into the bathroom and sat on the toilet....because I realized I had to pee in the midst of my banana ordeal.....and honestly had to contemplate whether or not the loss of my banana was worth the BIG CRY. Andrew is hysterically laughing in the kitchen because he thinks this whole thing is hilarious...he peaks his head into the bathroom and realizes that I am contemplating the worth of the banana. He says some smart comment about how I could have had half of the banana if I hadn't thrown it at his head and I said "Andrew....can't you tell I am contemplating having a break down over not getting to eat that banana I was really craving"...he continues to laugh even harder and then being the good husband he is, he offers to go out and get me some more bananas.....which I decline because they just wouldn't be the same as the banana that I dropped in his mud.

So this was an extremely long post....most of these stories are so I will remember them but I do hope that they will give someone else a little bit of enjoyment!

41 days!!!

Well, there is only 41 days left to go until baby arrives...at least that is what they tell me. Just a little update on baby, she is approximately 4 lbs 9 ounces according to the average and 18 inches long. She has been in head down position for the past 2 months but she recently "dropped" which means she is really getting ready to get outta there! I go back to the doctor next week and then I assume I will be having doctors appointments every week after that. We booked our pre-natal classes and I have applied for maternity leave. I plan on beginning to pack the hospital bag and wash the clothes in a couple weeks just so I don't set myself up to think she is coming right away when in reality it is still 6 weeks away.

Andrew just got back from the Yukon and were pretty sure he has a good chance of getting this job delivering dry-wall, so for the 1st summer in a long time he will be able to work a REGULAR job. He is so excited to be able to come home when it is still light out and hang out with our friends. I'm just finishing up working at Thriftway and MVO before I take a couple weeks off to chill before I'm sleep deprived!! Also, we have started the Vaz-Oxlade budget and were super excited to actually have a real budget. Since we have been married we have been REALLY well taken care of as far as money is concerned so with a regular job and me not working anymore, we are going to have to learn to budget...oh well! Today we got all our groceries for the week for $40!!

This weekend we got maternity pictures with Brittany Lowry which I am incredibly excited to see! We also had Brock's treasure hunt birthday party on Friday evening as well as my Grandpa's 65th birthday party on Saturday night! On Sunday, Andrew and I made dinner for my dad but I don't think he trusted Andrew with the steak so he made it himself and brought it over LOL!! I made home-made potato salad, cherry jello and Cesar salad. We were really stuffed afterwards. Anyways, sorry for taking forever to update it has been a little crazy the past couple weeks!!!

1 more week in the Yukon!

Well, this post probably won't be too long because our internet has been really slow the past couple days. It is my last week in the Yukon and we have been trying to get as much touristy stuff done as possible. This past week we drove all the way to Alaska to look at the beautiful scenery and to enjoy our Sunday afternoon. It was quite a nice day and we were able to stop a lot and get some nice pictures (see facebook). We even saw a black bear! It was one of the most beautiful black bears I have ever seen...not that I have seen many but it was pretty cool to see it up close without a ton of traffic behind you trying to get into Waterton. We took a couple mornings this week to go downtown and walk through all the little shops. I took some pictures which I will upload later this week that document what the store fronts look like. Whitehorse has definitely tried to keep their town looking like it did in gold rush times. Another morning we went to the Beringia Interpretive Centre which basically has a bunch of skeletons of animals that were around during the ice age. We took lots of cool pictures of a wholly mammoth and HUGE beaver. We also went to the transportation museum to look at all the old plains, trains and automobiles that were used in the gold rush. We definitely feel that we did all the touristy stuff that we could. There is a couple other small towns around the Yukon that we will have to choose between on Sunday so we can go a do some last minute site seeing. We also went to this famous fish and chips/salmon restaurant downtown yesterday and Andrew was drooling over his fish and chips....I, of course, was not open to try something new so I opted for a chicken wrap.

During Andrew's work hours I have been busying myself with painting these really cute letters for Scarlette's room. I painted them sparkly pink and red then let them sit for a couple days and then I sanded them to look aged. They turned out pretty cute but I probably wouldn't have used red after seeing the finished product. The letters are alternating in colors so it kind of brings out S-A-L-T-E and C-R-E-T hahah maybe I am just really picky. Anyways, I have also been watching some Gilmore Girls which were only 10 bucks at wal-mart and reading my last 2 books. I just finished Divergent and Insurgent.....oh my goodnesss....they may not get the best reviews online but I LOVE them. They are based on dystopian society which is the same idea as hunger games but the plot is different and I just couldn't put them down. I definitely recommend them as a good summer read. If anyone has read anything good lately I would be glad to know what it was! I haven't scrapbooked this week because we have been pretty busy but I hope to get a couple more pages done before I head home. I also picked up "what to expect when your expecting: the first year" which is super interesting. It goes through tons of stuff and you can just pick and choose what applies to you. The reason I am so excited about it was that I found it at Wal-mart and it was 40% off. I bought my "what to expect when your expecting: pregnancy" one at chapters for like $22 bucks so I was happy to save some money!

Wow....maybe this was a longer post then what I thought haha!! Scarlette is doing well, she is no longer kicking very much but I feel her moving ALL DAY. She even manages to get her little feet up under my rib cage which is always a fun place to put them! She also knows when Andrew comes home because his voice is so much lower then mine and she will usually punch him when he puts his head on my belly (it is a loving punch). Anyways, hope everyone is having a good week with their own life adventures :)

YUKON!!!

Well folks, I am in the YUKON! I can't believe that I am actually only a few short hours away from Alaska. If Andrew had his PR card and passport then we could go...but we can't :( I might just get him to drive me to the border so I can go across but that might be a pricey trip seeing as gas is $1.36 here! WAHH?? it was $1.12 when I left Lethbridge. Anyways, monday I got all packed up and ready to go. I cleaned the house and made sure to take out the garbage, packed my scrapbooking stuff, a couple books, some tv shows and my warm clothes. I knew I was going to miss Brock really bad so we had a sleepover on Monday night and I took him to school on Tuesday morning....let me just say...if Scarlette is my only girl I will be completely happy. It took me 15 minutes to feed, dress, brush teeth, do hair and pack up Brock to take to school. BOYS ARE THE BEST! So I took Brock to school and my Grandma and Grandpa picked me up at 10:30. Can I just say I have the best grandma and grandpa EVER. Honestly, they would do anything for me, they would drop whatever they are doing to help me out and I love them for it! We got to Calgary and picked up my Aunt Sheryl and then headed to Chinook mall for lunch. We did a couple errands and then my grandpa dropped my grandma and I off at the airport at around 3ish. My grandma REFUSED to let me carry my luggage through the airport even though it has wheels (haha) so she took me to baggage drop off and then we said our goodbyes. I got to my terminal and read my book while waiting to board. Can I just say I always get nervous before flying!! My first flight took my to Vancouver and then my next flight flew me all the way up to Whitehorse. The flights were alright but I doubt I will ever want to fly again pregnant. Even though it was a pressurized plane, I definitely felt a lot of pressure on my belly and it got very hard for some reason. I felt like I was a balloon ready to pop but I prayed a lot ( A LOT) and I knew I would be ok. I walked around between flights but I only had about half an hour before we boarded again so I don't think I had adequate time to stretch and get the blood moving. By the time I got to the Yukon I was pretty tired. Andrew came and got me at the airport and then took me to McDonald's for some dinner because he has no food. We then got to our hotel...which is literally right across the street from McDonald's and decided we would chill out. I chatted Andrew's ear off and then fell dead asleep haha. The next morning I was up at 7:30 because it was technically 8:30 my time. Andrew and I got ready and then looked out the window to see a winter wonderland LOL!! I laughed at myself because I have been saying all winter that I cheated it.....but it has a way of getting back at me. I took pictures but I don't have the right cord to download them right now. Andrew showed me around the Yukon and told me all the places that we are going to explore further when there isn't so much snow everywhere. Since then Andrew has drove me around Whitehorse but due to his schedule we haven't done much yet and he promised to teach me how to drive the car so I could get around during the days but he says he doesn't trust me. SO I have already read 2 books, watched the last season of OTH and had plenty of naps :) Tomorrow is Sunday so we will go to church and then maybe go do some sight seeing. Hope this post wasn't too long for anyone ;) I will take some pics of our hotel room and upload them to facebook perhaps.

Wednesday update!

MY LIFE---Well it looks like I'm heading up to the Yukon next week!!! I'm sooo excited! More so to see Andrew but it will be a fun little adventure to explore the Yukon. I am planning to pack my suitcase with my scrapbooking stuff, books and all the things I usually don't have time to do. On Monday I have a check up with the doctor and I will be 29 weeks!!! When I get back I will be 32 or 33 weeks ?? I'm not sure. Anyways the past week I have just been working at MVO and getting the house ready for the baby as I will be gone for the next month. It's not fair that Maggie gets to be in Florida during selling season and I am headed up to the Yukon lol!

MY PREGNANCY--- This week the baby has definitely been putting on weight, at approximately 2 lbs and 4 oz. I have been feeling the extra weight on my internal organs ( specifically my bowels ..sorry if that is too much information lol). I've noticed that when I get up I immediately have to pee, even if I JUST went. I have had no heartburn or indigestion that they speak about in the 3rd trimester. I have also been able to see the baby move CRAZY amounts recently. I will sit down and it will be like my belly is having a seizure because she is kicking up a storm...soon it will be too squishy for her to do this.....gwahahahhaah. My belly button is ALMOST level with my belly which is really quite creepy but as long as I don't see stretch marks I am extremely grateful. Overall I have feeling absolutely GREAT. I honestly have been so blessed in this pregnancy. I look back and feel that I have had an ideal pregnancy, obviously there is going to be some negatives but I have definitely had a great pregnancy compared to others. I'm really starting to get excited about getting to meet my little girl. My friend Brittany had her baby at 36 weeks so even though I'm not expecting a birth that early, I am aware that sometimes babies surprise us! I have approximately 8 to 11 weeks left :)

Church--I was called to primary chorister and this week I did a pretty bad job lol!! I was super prepared but I didn't feel like the kids were very receptive to me...maybe because it is primary singing time. If anyone has any good ideas for mother's day PLEASE COMMENT! I was thinking about singing songs about love and helpfulness??

Anyways have a great week everyone!!!

School is OVER!

I am so excited that school is over!! Of course my last set of exams had to follow suit of every other exam week I have ever had and land on the last days of exam week. I had one exam on Saturday night from 6pm till 8pm.....honestly who sets an exam at that time?? I kept checking the website to make sure I was reading it right...I even googled 1800-2000 because I swore it couldn't be 6 till 8. Then I had an exam yesterday at 2 till 4:30. What a nice feeling to walk out of the UofL and know that I had accomplished my goal! 4 years of school....is long....but short in some ways. I also ended up getting all my grades back today and it was A's all around! I am so blessed to have been able to keep it together during this semester while being pregnant and all. Even though the first little bit was rough I didn't really notice it was rough till I got into my second trimester and realized I was feeling A LOT better. One of the greatest blessings I feel from going to school is that my children will be able to have an educated mother. Some of the best skills I picked up from the UofL were not typically what I would have thought I would have walked away from University knowing. Firstly, I learned that you need to do your research!! Just because someone educated tells you something doesn't mean it is true, you need to go off and do your own research about it and find out if it actually is true. Secondly, I learned to work well with others....yeah we all know about those group projects and members who aren't pulling their weight. Well, life is like that!! So you have to learn how to positively motivate people to pull their weight, even if it means dividing the project into parts that everyone has strengths in (computer spreadsheets, speaking parts, research etc). Thirdly, you can get a University degree without being that smart. LOL I am honestly not that smart but I grew up with a bunch of girls that had parents who were really educated and pushed them to be the best they could be. My parents are very smart as well but sometimes I feel that they may lack confidence in themselves due to how people may look upon their career paths. University is not about being smart, it is about working hard! I worked my butt off to get the grades I did and I learned to work my butt off from my parents! I probably don't say this enough but my parents are so awesome!! Sometimes I look at people around me and think...wow....my parents really taught me how to be self sufficient and how to work hard for everything I have. Andrew and I are both very blessed but we definitely are not handed things like other people in the world. Whilst doing my taxes this year I realized that I have paid $40,000 in tuition fees in the past 4 years (keep in mind I switched majors and bought a lot of textbooks). I have a $5000 student loan and $4000 already saved up from that past couple months of working that is going towards that. WHEW!!! some people are in a lot more debt then that after they are done with University (my husband is also grateful he didn't have to bail me out of debt hehehe).

Anyways, I guess this post was just something that I can look back at and remember the way I was feeling after graduating. I am so grateful for Gordon B. Hinckley and the way he encouraged girls to get an education. I now have the ability to support our family if anything every happens to Andrew (I hope it never does). It also gives me the ability to go back to work after my youngest is in grade 1 so I can further increase my skills :) Well, time for bed! I gotta go to work in the morning ;)

Summer

Well I swore we would never to Vivint again and here we are a year later doing Vivint. Plus the biggest surprise of all is that I convinced Andrew to go lol. I figured he is so talented at it and it is such good money for a little family that doesn't really have anything tying us down that we might as well. This summer Andrew has headed up to the North West Territories.....yeah....that is a far ways. We have decided to just do two months to make some money and then he will come back and get a normal job while we await our little one to come. I have talked to my doctor and he says that I can even go visit him which is awesome!! I will probably go up half way through May and spend a couple weeks up there seeing the sights and spending time with Andrew. It will be a nice little adventure before the baby comes so we are pretty excited. I am a bit nervous that I will get lonely down here all alone because my love language is quality time but I'm sure the next few months will go fast and I will find some things to do in the mean time.

Today I took a final exam and got 100% so I got an A+ in the class and left feeling pretty good about myself. I have two more exams, one on Saturday and one on Monday....yeah I know....the very last exam!!!! I am just working at MVO and Thriftway for the time being and trying to bank enough hours to get maternity leave...does anyone know what you have to do to get maternity leave???

Baby is doing great, she is growing everyday! This past week I have been having a lot of back pain..I can only sit for about an hr before my back starts throbbing. I then have to get up, walk around, do some stretches in the office lol..it is quite the site to see. My ribs are also getting sore due to the fact my uterus is expanding. I have also realized that the heat of the summer is not going to be my friend. Today it was 30 degrees in Lethbridge and I was starting to feel the "I don't wanna be pregnant anymore feeling"....I'm only 26 weeks haha!

Anyways, that is all from the Maclean family! Hope I have a more exciting post next time :)

Sick Sick Sick

This week I got sick. I honestly thought I was invincible since beginning to take prenatal vitamins. I use to get sick 3 or 4 times a year but I haven't been sick since I began taking vitamins in September (almost 8 months!!). It was easter weekend though, so you how family get togethers always speed up the process of a sickness going around. I called my mom to tell her I was sick and ask her what I could take and surprise surprise, everyone except for Ciara and Austin are sick in my house. My mom told me I really couldn't take anything and I might just have to suffer through it. So my routine has consisted of hot water and lemon juice (only soothes for about 30 minutes before you need some more), tylenol every 4 hours, lots of water, polysporin on the nose, vicks on the chest and my fuzzy blanket. Andrew has been an absolute amazing husband. He got up about a million times yesterday to get me water, groceries, blankets, magic bag and he even rubs my back when I need him too. He is currently sleeping right now because I think I kept him up all night last night. Did I emphasize how much I HATE being sick. It is so hard for me to have a soar throat, especially since I can't take any meds.

Anyways, I have 3 more days of school and then 2 final exams and I am DONE SCHOOL! I am sooooooooo excited! Baby is doing great and she is moving like crazy this week. She moves throughout the day now and I usually just felt her at night time. I have even got to the point where I can lift up my shirt and see my belly shifting every which way. Last night after I had drank my lemon hot drink the baby was going crazy. Andrew got to feel her for like 10 minutes lol.

Hope everyone has a great week! And stay healthy!!

Quick Update

Well, not too much news this week. I'm apologizing in advance for people who find this blog boring now due to the fact that most of my posts are about the baby haha. I am kinda using this blog as a pregnancy journal because I never do too well when it comes to a pen and paper journal. This week Scarlet has been kicking up a storm and I can tell she is getting stronger each week. On saturday when Andrew went to the priesthood session I was doing homework and had the lights off when all of a sudden my macbook got bumped. I realized that Scarlet was kicking my macbook!! I think it was because the bright light from the screen was shining in her face or something. By the time Andrew got home she had stopped so he didn't get to see it but just a couple nights ago we were laying in bed and I told him to put his hand on my belly. I wanted it to be legit so I told him to keep it there and I wasn't going to tell him when she kicked. Sure enough she kicked and he said "I felt that!" and I knew it was a legitimate kick! Anyways he felt a couple kicks but then got freaked out hahah. Anyways next week I have to go for the infamous "orange pop" lab to test for gestational diabetes. I'm pretty sure that I just have low blood sugar but we will see.

As for school, I am absolutely swamped! This is the first time I have really sat down and done something recreational on the computer. I have had 2 huge groups projects and 1 huge position paper which have taken up all my spare time. After this week I have a couple more quizzes here and there and a bunch of presentations and then I am HOME FREE! Unfortunately I have 2 exams on the very LAST day of exam week but fortunately I only have 2 exams haha. After that it will be summer time for me! I figure I probably can't find a job for 2 months anyways so I am going to use my spare time learning to sew/DIY projects haha. I have never had enough time in the past 4 years to do any recreational things consistently so it will be a nice break before baby.

Anyways hope everyone is doing well :)

Lately/Abortion

So I haven't blogged in a week and thought it was about time to update the world/2 followers. School is really starting to pick up so don't be surprised if you don't hear from me as often until May. Baby Scarlet is doing great and kicking up a storm!( she is even kicking up a storm right now!) She has tons of new clothes as Grandma Hendry is dead set on spoiling her and it just so happens that all the clothes that I bought last summer were girl clothes lol! Everyone told me I was crazy for buying baby clothes early but they were cheap and I had a 50/50 shot right?? Anyways onto other news. Andrew and I moved last weekend and holy man do we have a lot of stuff... I didn't realize how much stuff we had until we had to box it all up. When we got it into our new place it all fit perfectly and it even seems like we don't have that much stuff. Regardless...I don't want to move again for a while! We got our cable set up and our wi-fy working as well. Which as some of you know was being stupid in the apartment.....the guy just turned it on and it worked here...I set it up right and everything...apparently I'm not an idiot at technology! Now were all settled into our new house and our new ward and I even got asked to sing in church in a couple weeks...Sister. Steed is in my ward so she caught me lol!

Another thing that has been going on lately....I have become super sensitive to abortion. I have always thought that abortion was wrong and I have always thought that people who were stupid enough to have unprotected sex should have to carry the baby to term and then put it up for adoption if they didn't want it. Btw I will note before I go any further that I do believe that there are circumstances were abortion is appropriate such as rape or the life of the mother being in danger. BUT since being able to feel my baby move and throughout the pregnancy being able to read up on how big my baby is getting every week and what she can do it has been hard knowing that babies as big as mine can be aborted. I have done some research and laws are different all over the world but I don't know how abortion can even be allowed?? These are living human beings....their hearts start beating at 5 weeks!!! There are even some countries that will abort a baby up till 9 months. It is called partial delivery abortion. I know that everyone is entitled to their own opinion and trust me I have read some ignorant comments on the subject such as the babies don't feel it or they are just a ball of cells...etc. but shouldn't that be true of the unborn baby?? Don't they get a say?? It just seems so hard to wrap my head around the fact that if you get pregnant you can just kill the baby...and people do this multiple times!! There are sooo many families out there looking to adopt a baby of their own. There are so many loving homes where women were not able to have their own children and are dying to be mothers. If you made a mistake and don't wish to have a baby don't you think it is the least you could do to sacrifice and carry the baby for 9 months??? I mean...I've been pregnant for 5 months already and it feels like I JUST got pregnant. Anyways....sorry for the rant...must be a 1st time pregnancy thing.

BABY GIRL!!!!!

SOOOO I think Carly Piper and I have switched babies lol. We have due dates that are within days of each other and her mother's intuition told her she was having a girl and I was FOR SURE that I was having a boy but ...we switched lol. I honestly cannot describe how happy I am right now! Every girl wishes to have a little girl of her own and now that I'm having one I don't ever have to worry about not getting my little girl again. I could have a house full of boys after my baby girl and be completely happy.

I went into the doctors on Thursday morning..a long wait from Monday morning. Dr.Koegler was checking the babies heartbeat and it was 161 so we always joke that its a girl because her heartbeat is going really fast. So he says " It's a girl!" and I was like "IT IS?!?!" and he was like " oh...I don't know I'm just joking....you haven't found out yet?!?!" and I was like "no I had a crappy ultrasound tech" so he rushes over to the computer and brings up the ultrasound results......and he turns the computer screen away from me!!! TORTURE! So he explains to me that the baby is a little small but everything is normal but my umbilical cord is a 2VC. So to anyone who doesn't know what that means (I didn't) most babies have a vein bringing nutrients and stuff in from mommy and then 2 arteries taking waste out from baby....but my cord only has 1 vein and 1 artery. It is supposidly only suppose to be a worry if the heart isn't developing correctly but ours is perfect! So then after he explains that in detail he lets me search the page till I find the predicted gender. I spot an "F" and I honestly was so dumbfounded I had to ask if "F" meant FEMALE.... PREGNANCY BRAIN MOMENT!! Anyways he said yes and I honestly COULD NOT BELIEVE IT. Anyways in a nutshell Andrew came home from work early ( he was secretly sooo happy to be getting a little girl ) and my mom and I went shopping like crazy. This child has a bazillion clothes already. I'm going to post some pics on facebook soon. Anyways we have just been soaking it all in and enjoying referring to "it" as a "she". Plus my belly realllllly popped this week. Being pregnant is sooo strange sometimes...I went to bed one size and woke up a totally different size. As they say in my pregnancy book...nearing the 5 months mark there is "no hiding the fact that you are pregnant".

Ultrasound

Well, I probably will never look forward to another ultrasound again lol. Don't get me wrong, seeing the baby was an amazing experience but lets just say the ultrasound tech really has a lot to do with the experience. Being a first timer, I didn't realize how much 3 cups of water really was. My friends know me as the girl who takes 3 hrs to drink half a can of pop so to drink 3 cups of water was a huge feat! It took me about 5 minutes and I felt like puking after haha. So I sat on the couch for about 20 minutes and then that little feeling of having to go pee began. I still had an HOUR to wait. So at around 11:45 I could no longer stand to be in the apartment with the toilet so close and inviting haha. We headed to Radiology and Associates where I honestly almost wet my pants lol. At 12:15 on the dot our ultrasound called us and we headed into the room. I told her this was my first baby so she should have known that I wouldn't know what was going on. Talk about not having ANY compassion. She didn't even explain what was going to be happening during the exam she just started going at it. So about 3 minutes into the exam I asked how the heartbeat was and she snapped back "it's regular". Then I asked her what she was measuring and she was like "I'm going to do my work first and then we will do the show and tell" (I wish I could tell this story with the tone she was using---always use a mean tone when you read what she says lol!!). I completely understand that she didn't want to be bombarded with questions the whole exam but lets be real...I'm a first timer and I am BOUND of have questions. Anyways to lighten the mood after she was being so rude I said "is the head big??" and she was like " I'm not allowed to comment on the health of the baby...the head is regular!" So after that I just shut-up because I didn't want to get snapped at anymore. Andrew and I quietly chatted back and forth about the things he thought he was seeing. He saw the heart beating and he saw our babies foot and basically all the good stuff lol. Well the show and tell was about 5 minutes long where she showed us the profile of our baby, its face, its legs, its arms and its spine. By this time I was annoyed because I am practically going to pee my pants and I want to see my dang baby for longer then 5 minutes!!! ( my sheet told me it was a 45minute exam and we had been in there for like 20 minutes) So I go on to say " is my baby a prude or do you know the gender?" ...she didn't really understand what I was asking and so she snapped back " I'm not allowed to disclose the gender of the baby". So I was like " yeah I understand that but do YOU know the gender" and she was like "yes of course". So then I was like "I know you can't tell me the gender but can you hover over that area and she was like "no." SOOOO then she threw a towel on me and said to wipe off and then she was like "here's your pictures and the bathroom is right outside this door..your free to leave". Most horrible ultrasound tech ever!!!! I honestly thought they would be a little bit more fun with the patient...after all it is the most exciting time of a girls life!

Anyways we have been moving small stuff this week and plan to be done moving by Saturday. Tomorrow is my appt. with Dr. Koegler so we will find out the gender tomorrow morning....FINALLY lol!!

Countdown in hours!!

Well the countdown is on for our ultrasound. We go at 12:15 tomorrow so Andrew and I are going to get up bright and early and possibly go for a walk and then try out IHop lol. We will then proceed to drink 3 cups of water and wait till my bladder is about to explode where we will then find out the gender of this baby. I swear if this baby is a prude then I will be sooooo ticked. I plan to buy an outfit for our baby right after we find out what it is so we can show everyone instead of tell them. I don't really have much time right now because I have some last minute homework to do but this week has been such an amazing week. I don't remember which day but we got some text messages from Breanne and Kevin telling us there was a spot opening up at their townhouse. We LOVE Breanne and Kevin's townhouse btw. It is large, it has full size appliances, it has parking spaces that are 5 feet from the door (no more hauling groceries up the elevator and taking 10 billion trips). It has hookups for a dishwasher, washing machine and dryer. It has tons of storage space EVERYWHERE...AND.....you are allowed to have kids. PLUS it is only $650 per month and we couldn't find anything less then $950 that wasn't on the North Side. This honestly could not have come at a better time for us. We were planning on staying in this little apartment till I had the baby and then we were going to find somewhere to stay till Andrew got on with the police.....which was stressing me out because who likes to move at 9 months pregnant?? Long Story short it is PERFECT for us and we have definitely seen the Lord's hand in our life A LOT lately. He is really guiding us and blessing us. Anyways homework time!! I will update tomorrow if the ultrasound tech tells us the gender of the baby!!

19 weeks and counting!!

So I have a couple little stories to tell from the past couple weeks. The first one was Andrew and I's wonderful date!!! So as you all know, Andrew has been going up North for the past 3 weeks. He came home for a day last weekend because they ran behind up there and the drilling guys weren't needed. We got up that morning not knowing what we should do and I came out of the shower and said lets go to calgary! So Andrew got ready real fast and we got on the road. Ofcourse we haven't had bad weather for almost all of the winter season and we go to Calgary on the one day it is snowing out haha. Andrew LOVES LOVES LOVES Bass Pro Shops so we go to the Cross Iron Mills mall. We get there and look around for a couple hours. We head down to see the cars at the far end of the mall and we stumble across an arcade. We go inside and it's like an OLD SCHOOL arcade. You know the ones that have tickets and prizes and everything!?!? Well we just HAD to play. We were hungry so we went to Boston Pizza which happened to be right next door and then played at the arcade. We honestly had SO much fun and we would recommend this to any couples who want to go on a super fun day date. We don't get to spend a lot of time together so when we have time we go all out haha. We were honestly running around and getting sweaty and laughing so hard. We felt like kids, we cashed in our tickets and got some crappy prizes haha but we definitely had a blast.

This week was pretty busy with work and school, and other work. It really keeps me busy haha. As I posted previously, my friend Britt had her baby so we had a surprise baby shower for her last night and it was SO fun! As I visited Brittany in the hospital it all kind of hit me that in a little over 20 weeks I would be there. I kinda started to feel faint because I realized that this pregnancy was for real. I know that sounds stupid but its true, I just started feeling some little kicks and my belly has popped out and so the hospital trip just topped it all off for me. I'm having a baby.Holy crap am I ready for this?!?

Church was good this morning, I love fast and testimony meeting ( we get some interesting testimonies in Chinook ward lol ). Andrew has been absent for a couple weeks now which has been hard but soon that will end! Andrew is going to leave drilling and find something where he can be home with me more often. After all it won't be just the two of us anymore soon enough. I had a nap this afternoon and watched runaway bride. My family came over later this evening and we had some of the leftover icecream cake and enjoyed funniest home videos together. I think they could tell I was lonely lol!!!!

In other news...ultrasound in 7 days!!! I am going to call Dr. Koegler early tuesday morning for him to confirm what our baby is...hope he isn't mad lol (I'm sure I'm not the first right?!?). Anyways, I hope everyone has a GREAT week this week :)

BABIES!!!

AHHH I am so freaking excited today because my friend Brittany had her baby! I think it is just becoming real to me that babies can come unexpectedly and in their own time. I really hope my baby is healthy but earlier then 40 weeks haha. After all I will be 9months pregnant in the scorching heat of JULY ( we didn't plan that out too well). Andrew is off up North again this week so I decided I might as well work while he is gone. Am I a crazy pregnant lady or what?? working 2 part time jobs and going to school full time??? Ah well! My family came back from Mexico today so I surprised Brock at lunch and took him to McDonald's because my mom said he missed me ( I secretly really missed him too). Now I am in the library doing some homework before class but I am just so ansy to get to the hospital and see the new Lowry baby!!!!!! Countdown: 13 and a half days till ultrasound :)

Almost 18 weeks!!

Well another week has flown by. This week was actually really different from most of my other weeks. Andrew left for work on Monday and my family left for Mexico on Sunday so I have been pretty lonely this week. Kylie texted me last week and asked if I wanted to help out at her dad's accounting office this week so I agreed because I was going to be bored stiff if I didn't. They start work at 8am and its a professional business so I assumed a shower was mandatory lol so that puts me at waking up at 630am. Usually I have been sleeping till 9am because my classes arn't till the afternoon and I didn't realize how accustomed I had got to my sleeping schedule. The first couple days were really hard, the work wasn't hard at all but waking up at 6:30 and staring at a screen for 8 hrs was really hard. I got headaches half way through the day and then when I got home I just wanted to pass out lol. On Wednesday I think I got over the hump of it and took a tylenol at lunch hour and since then I have been doing pretty well. I haven't done any of my homework yet so I will have to do that on Saturday. I don't really have any interesting news. I shared our happy news on facebook because people I know kept looking at me weird wondering why I was getting so fat hah. This week the baby is starting to move more but I feel it is more stretching then kicking right now. I'm getting hungrier everyday and my belly is growing. Sunday marks my 18th week mark and I then it will be a couple weeks after that that we get to have our first ultrasound :) We will find out if we are having a little Scarlette or Jaxon! Anyways I'm off to watch my show....

Fast Update!!

So today we had our 2nd prenatal appointment and at the first one we both forgot our phones so we didn't get to record the heartbeat. This time around I was not so foolish! I now have a cute little recording of our baby's heartbeat to listen to all the time. If you listen to the old wives tale then we are having a GIRL!!! This whole pregnancy we have thought this is a boy but I secretly want a girl so I asked my doctor what the heart rate was and he said 159 bpm! I am now 16 and half weeks so according to the internet the heartbeat should be between 120 bpm and 180 bpm. According to the old wives tale a boy will have a heart rate of 140 bpm or below and a girl with have 140 bpm or above. Obviously this has no correlation with the gender of the baby but I guess it is just wishful thinking :) Anyways I just wanted to let everyone know my cool news....apart from that I am completely healthy and no cancerous cells!

Lovely Surprises!

Well this week has been a hectic one! I have so many exams and assignments due before reading week that I have been up to my neck in homework. Last week Andrew and I house sat for my grandparents and we had an awesome time! Andrew was gone for the first couple nights but after that we just relished in the fact that we were living in an actual house. I took full advantage of the dishwasher and only washed one dish the whole week. We also had 3 different bathrooms to use and when your use to sharing one...it is pretty nice(most married girls/ girls with brothers know what I mean by this haha). We also had a T.V. in the room we were sleeping in so it was nice if we wanted to watch a show that we could just roll over and fall asleep where we were done. Andrew also enjoyed the fact that if I was watching a girlie show he could go downstairs and watch his storage wars lol. We also watched my grandparents dog which was nice. I got out walking everyday which I heard is correlated with having more intelligent babies...hahah exercise that is. We did realize that having a dog is a lot of work...they always want to come in and spend time with you, they stink a lot, they bark at 4am, they can't just sit still but always need attention....good thing were having a baby hey!!! I don't know if were quite ready for this new adventure but oh well....too late to change our minds....JUST KIDDING we are so excited. Speaking of the baby, we find out what it is in 27 days....would have been less if February wasn't a long month this year. We are also 5 days away from our first anniversary which is quite exciting! I knew that the first year would be the hardest but man alive was it the fastest hahaha I honestly do not feel like Andrew and I have been married a year already. We also dated for a ridiculous amount of time so we are going on 2 and a half years of being together which is crazy.

This weekend Andrew had to go away again for work so I have been over at my parents house quite a bit, I also got some new books that I have been reading :) this has kept me away from the T.V. Anyways on Sunday Andrew couldn't wait to surprise me any longer and I think he could tell I was missing him so he texted me where my Valentine's day present was. Before I tell you what it is I want to quickly tell you what we did on Friday night. Andrew got home late from work so we weren't able to make it out to his friends wedding so we decided to go The Vow instead. We had enough time to go out for dinner because the movie wasn't till 9:50...in celebration of Andrew being gone on Valentines day and our anniversary being on a Sunday we decided to go all out and try The Keg. Well the line there was 50 minutes and I'm pregnant...therefore hungry and grumpy so we call up moxies and their wait time is 20 minutes. Off we go to Moxies. While we waited a nice hostess boy offered us wine and we politely declined and I explained that we don't drink and I am pregnant...his response was something along the lines of "oh I'm sorry about that" or "oh thats too bad" hahah...actually we are really excited about it! Apparently he thought it was horrible news...I've never heard a reaction like that before...perhaps " congrats" would be in order. The wait was longer then expected, probably closer to 30 minutes so by the time we got the food we were chowing down...hardly speaking at all LOL. After dinner we wanted the bill fast so we could get in line for good seats at the movie...while we were paying I must have made a comment about being married because the server was like "you guys are married?!?!"(picture a baffled expression...obviously we must have looked like we just wanted to eat and get the date over with hahaahahah). We told her we were coming on our first anniversary and she was like..."wow you just look so young"....I decided at that moment I probably shouldn't tell her that I was almost four months pregnant as well HAHA we might get a response similar to the hostess boy(technically a host...but I like the name hostess boy better). We went to The Vow and it was AWESOME ...not really what I expected but definitely a must see for couples. When we got home I was being kinda hormonal and I got all the baby clothes out that we had bought prior to finding out that we were pregnant. Due to the fact we think it is a boy I started complaining that all we have is girl clothes ( like 14 outfits and a cute little jacket with shoes). I have one pair of overalls and a unisex sleeper.......this boy is going to be in his birthday suit a lot. SOOOOO

Back to me opening my Valentines day present. Andrew doesn't have a lot of time so how he found time to do this I have no idea. He wrote a beautiful card ( he always fills them all the way up in small writing...one of his best qualities is he never does anything without it being heartfelt). I obviously started crying because it was so thoughtful and beautiful and lets face it...Andrew is a little rough around the edges and I just LOVE his soft tender side( I also get a nice loving giggle out of his cute spelling mistakes "huspand" "dreemed"). My favorite funny line of the card was " lets face it, I know more about aliens then newborns". Then I opened the present and there was the CUTEST little boy church outfit..complete with a vest and tie....it was so darling and man....I don't even think diamonds could have beat that.

Anyways...that is all I have for you this week! I might post later about what we do for our anniversary and Andrew has an interview with the police on Thursday so keep your fingers crossed goes well...also my 2nd prenatal appt is thursday morning...maybe I will record the heartbeat this time.