Our Holiday Season

I'm horrible about updating this blog. Absolutely horrible. But oh well. Here's a recap of our holiday season in all its glory:

Halloween:

Does Halloween count as a part of the holiday season? Some might say it's a holiday that celebrates satanic creatures and encourages children to bully treats out of their neighbors. But I kind of think its fun. The scary, bloody, gross stuff doesn't float my boat, but I'm always tickled to see little guys dressed up as princesses and super heroes. Plus it means I get to eat lots of pumpkin flavored treats, and that's never a bad thing.

We kept it simple this year as I was still recovering from Jay's birth and adjusting to my new sleep schedule. And by sleep schedule, I mean no-sleep schedule. I put on an orange sweater and we took a walk to Brick Oven pizza where we enjoyed a delicious large Hawaiin and some home brewed root beer. I'm usually not a soda person, but one does not turn down Brick Oven root beer. Not unless they're crazy. MMMmmmm. It was a fun, low key night, which is exactly what we needed.

38 week shot taken on Halloween haha

Thanksgiving:

I'm slightly obsessed with family traditions. Some of my fondest memories revolve around my family's holiday traditions so I decided to get one of our own going. Hence, the "gratitude" tree was born. For FHE one night, Carter and I talked about the importance of gratitude and then wrote things we are grateful for onto little leaves which we stuck on a paper tree trunk. It was really cute actually, I wish I had taken a picture. Jayden obviously didn't know what was going on, in fact I think he was asleep, but that's ok. He'll catch on eventually.

Carter and I originally planned to drive to Auburn the Tuesday before Thanksgiving, but with the help of a couple horrifically hard school weeks, I convinced him that taking our break a little early would be good. So instead we made our way the Friday before.

It was awesome being in Auburn. Our families decided to combine their Thanksgivings so we got the best of both worlds while we dined on Turkey. All of the grandparents, aunts, and uncles shamelessly doted on Jay and I got a good nap in. We played a lot of cards, watched movies, talked into the night, ate yummy food, went on some beautiful runs, wake boarded in Lake Rollins (wearing dry suits) and watched my dad, brothers and husband's studly finesse in the ward turkey bowl.

I loved the opportunity to ponder on the importance of gratitude. Truly, gratitude is the key component to a happy life. You can have all the riches this world can offer, but if you don't regularly count your blessings then you'll never be happy. Life's difficulties are much easier to wade through when we take time to thank the Lord for what we do have.

Grandmas blow drying jay's diaper rash. Talk about quality service! 

Christmas:

I LOVE Christmas!! When Carter and I set up our little tree, nativity stand, and lit our "evergreen scented" candle I couldn't shake the smile from my face. Christmas music was going constantly, and in the evening we took time to read different parts of the Christmas story. It was magical I tell you. I just felt full of good cheer and the desire to do good.

The Thursday of finals week, Carter took his last final and we sailed away to Auburn. It's always nice to be home. Throughout the weeks we played some football, ran, Christmas shopped, baked, attended friend's wedding receptions, played cards, visited, and introduced Jayden to the hot tub. He loved it by the way. That baby is a total water bug.

Growing up my family had a tradition of doing a little something for "baby Jesus" every day. At night when we'd gather before family prayer, my mom would ask what we each did, and then let us put a chocolate under the "Baby Jesus Tree" after we told her. Sometimes we forgot and would come up with something silly (in fact that happened more often then not) but the message stuck. Christmas is about service and love. Its about remembering the humble birth of our Savior and what His life meant. It's a time to try a little harder to be a little better to those around us. Carter and I want to instill that truth into our children and so this Christmas season we continued the tradition.

This lead to our deciding to make Christmas Eve a day of service. We found some sweet widows in our ward and put together some goodies (with the help of my mother in law) to take over. My family ended up coming too. All three were nice to see, but I especially loved visiting the second. She was so excited to have visitors and just beamed with excitement. It was really fun to talk with her about life and bask in her wisdom. I think we benefited more than she did.

Unfortunately, Jay and I got really sick and felt pretty under the weather the whole break. I felt bad for our families because Jayden was often cranky (understandably) and not very easy to snuggle with. But oh well. It was so nice to be with everyone. We were sad to leave, but excited to get back to a normal schedule.

Yep, the 2013 holidays were mighty good to us. Still, its nice to get back to the usual routine.

Jayden's Birth

From the moment my mom announced she was pregnant with my twin sisters I have been obsessed with birth stories. Some kids watched Nickelodeon, I watched "Bringing Home Baby". Birth is incredible and so exciting. Its sacredness has never been lost on me, and so as I approached my baby's birth it was all I could do to contain my excitement.

On Thursday October 10 I started having cramping. Nothing bad, just enough to get my attention. I thought it was weird, but as I was just under a month away from my due date I didn't worry. The next Monday I had a doctors appointment decided to ask him what he thought about my going to St. George for three days on Tuesday in light of my cramping. Now, my doctor is SUPER lax about pregnancy rules...i.e. he told me to go ahead and eat sushi, hot tub, and drink cold medicine all while wake boarding if I wanted, so I guessed that my concern would be shushed and soothed. Surprisingly though, he said that I should maybe rethink my plans. He wouldn't give me a definite yes or no, just that I needed to recognize that my having a baby on the Southern I-15 was a real possibility. Still, I was convinced that I shouldn't worry and put it from my mind.

The cramping got worse. That evening as I was preparing some dinners to put in the freezer I laughed with Carter over the possibility of our having the baby in the next few days...all while grimacing in pain over contractions that were coming every 11 minutes. We talked with family, and joked about my being in "real labor", not thinking it possible...contractions started coming every 10 minutes. Finally, after tossing and turning I got up at 2 am and decided to try and slow the pains down. Nothing worked, and they were coming every 7 minutes. At 6am as Carter was waking up, I told him that I didn't think I would be going to St. George.

I sent Carter off to school, saying I'd call him when I needed to, but thinking that I probably wouldn't for a long time. Wrong again. Two hours later I was on the ground rocking and breathing every 6 minutes. I cleaned the apartment in between contractions until finally at 10am the pain was so bad that my gag reflex was triggered with each cramp. I decided that whether or not this was the real thing, I wanted my husband there. I texted him and ten minutes later he found me on the family room floor trying to breathe. I was still too scared about going to the hospital--I didn't want to be sent home. But after a walk around the block (or rather a slow limp with Carter supporting me most of the way) I decided that I should probably go see what was going on.
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On the way there was a noticeable increase in the strength of my contractions, my fears about this not being the "real" thing started to go away, because if it wasn't, then I refused to go through real thing. We got to the hospital and the nicest, most angelic nurse helped me into a room to get checked out. They said that although I was only at 4.5 cm I could go ahead and stay. They then asked if I wanted an epidural to which I responded with a resounding YES! They got me settled into a room (right next to the "nutrition" room which Carter loved) and the doctor came in and broke my water. I was given my epidural and checked again. In just an hour and a half I had gone from 4.5 to 7cm. My nurses were shocked and knew they'd better keep an eye on me. By 2pm I was ready to start pushing, but because the doctor wasn't there they just had me rest and let Jayden descend on his own. At 4:10 the doctor came in and had me push. After 4 contractions worth of pushing my precious little boy made his way into the world. He weighed 5lbs, 15oz and was 18" long.

My nurses were amazed at how quickly my labor progressed; they told me I was the fastest new mom they'd ever had. I guess that's a good thing, I'm not really sure. I had such a great experience at the hospital; the medical team was so efficient and respectful of this special time for Carter and I. They came in, quietly did their thing, and left. Our room was so homey and huge! They had a bed for Carter and let him have whatever he wanted from the snack room. After watching "The Business of Being Born" I was kind of scared of hospitals, but honestly, my experience was fantastic.

Oh and speaking of fantastic, I LOVED my epidural. I know some people are really passionate about natural births, and that's AWESOME for them, but for me, the epidural made the experience so wonderful. I was able to truly enjoy my baby's birth because I wasn't delirious with pain. But again, that's just me :) I didn't have any negative affects from it and would highly recommend getting one. Its true that it took some time before I could get up and walk around (about 5 hours) but I don't know that I would've wanted to anyways. I was able to jog (slowly!) again 2 weeks after Jayden was born, so I wouldn't say that the epidural made my recovery harder.

Carter was such a support to me. While I felt the full strength of the contractions, he was by my side, supporting and loving me. He helped me as I pushed by encouraging me and letting me know how I was progressing. He even got to cut jaydens cord! I'm so glad he was there, husbands are just so great. 

Though she was happy to be there if I wanted her, my mom counseled me to just have Carter there as Jayden came so that we could have that special time be just for our family. I know a lot of people like to have their family there, and that's great, but I'm happy I took my mom's advice. There was a sweet, pure spirit as he was born and I'm happy that it was a sacred time for just us.

But luckily she showed up about 8 hours after he was born. And man oh man did she save my bacon! I often felt overwhelmed as doctors, nurses, and lactation consultants came and ran me over with information. I would try to pay attention to their instructions, but was too tired to really take it in. My mom was there to listen for me and let me know what info was really necessary. I struggled with breast feeding, and was so grateful for her wisdom. The only complaint I had with my hospital was their assigned lactation consultants. Though they meant well, it is NEVER good to dump two ocean loads of information on a brand new, tired momma. Especially when she's struggling to keep back tears because you've implied that her baby will starve due to a subpar "football" hold...(take that with a grain of salt, I was seriously out of it when the consultant visited).

But I digress...

Jayden is just so precious. My feelings of love for him are overwhelming. I am so grateful for his health and for the opportunity I have to be his momma. I don't take my time with him for granted :) 

Right after he was born

All cleaned up! 

First family picture

Swimming in his new born clothes

I love this baby boy! 

Fall Happenings

 Growing up, I was always a summer girl. But man alive, this year I sure welcomed the fall. Perhaps it was the beauty of the changing leaves, or the cooling temperature (which my pregnant body really loved) or maybe the fact that it meant my due date was approaching. Yeah, definitely that last one. But here's what we were up to besides waiting for the big day.

 Carter was being a rock star husband. This semester has been NUTS for him. He has 16.5 credits of 300+ level engineering classes (no easy classes in there! and yes he has all As...crazy man), serves as an ASCE officer for BYU, works as a temple ordinance worker, is first counselor in the elders quorum presidency, TAs for an engineering class, and has a family at home that likes his attention. The guy has been out of his mind busy. Over the work week, if I can snag him for some dinner and a half hour of chitchatting I'm a lucky girl. The poor guy will really appreciate this upcoming thanksgiving break. But despite how busy he is, he never complains. He always takes me out for a weekly date, texts me during the day to see how I am, and lets me talk his ear off while he falls asleep at night (which doesn't take long). I really appreciate all that he does for us. He's doing an awesome job with his schooling and has been able to have lunch with some cool engineers. He decided to go ahead and finish his masters right after he gets his BS. Originally he wanted to take some time to work before continuing on, but we decided it'd be easier to just get'r'done. So we'll be in Provo for an extra year or two.

 Before Jayden was born I was working on two online classes and frantically trying to get in 200 hours of an internship as an ultrasound tech. To graduate in my major, I need 200 hours of an internship, and although I still have two more semesters of school, I wanted to get it done before the baby came. If I could work normal work days this wouldn't have been hard, but the problem was that the bulk of the hours available to us were supposed to come from spending time in St. George at the Huntsmen Senior Games performing ultrasounds on athlete's carotid arteries. Before the games, we were just to spend an hour or two a day practicing. I stretched it 2-4 hours a day so I could get more clock time, but still only had 60 hours under my belt when the Games came along. This wasn't a problem though because I would earn 50 hours for each week of Games I attended (they went over the space of 2 weeks and if I went to both I could get 100 hours) and then the week after, my fellow interns and I had been invited to work at a fair in Spanish Fork, so that would've given me the remaining 40 hours. I had everything planned out and was going to finish...but Jayden had other ideas.

At general conference! We stayed at a cabin in Park City with some friends :) 

Picture I took on my walk over to get carter from the priesthood session. So gorgeous! 

In St George at the Huntsmen Senior Games ultra sounding athletes carotid arteries 

Third Trimester

My third trimester was awesome...ly hard. But also awesome. Here are some of the cool things, and some of the...well..funny, but not very fun things. 

I could feel my baby move a LOT! I really loved watching my belly dance as he did his own little kick box routine. I could begin to distinguish his little body parts and loved to try to wake him up when I wanted him to move some more. I felt like he always woke up when Carter would talk to him, especially when he played the guitar. Maybe it was just a coincidence, but I'd like to think that Jayden knew his daddy's voice. It was nice to be on the homestretch. I was anxious to see my little boy.

I started really gaining weight, which normally would not make me happy, but since it was for the baby I was kind of excited. However, the major increase in hunger and thirst was not exciting, just inconvenient. I went 6 months into pregnancy without gaining a lot (about 7-8 pounds by 6 months) but then it was like KA--BOOM! I ended up gaining 29 pounds, which means that in three months I gained like 21-22 lbs. Crazy! I was ALWAYS hungry and thirsty. Especially thirsty. I thought I was thirsty in the second trimester, but holy moly, nope. That wasn't thirst. I could never get enough liquid in me.

Then I was really hot, all the time. If there wasn't moving air, I'd get claustophobic and feel miserable. Poor Carter had to deal with two fans and a blasting AC at night because I could not handle the heat. He was really nice about it though, especially after I bought him ear muffs to wear around the house. Think Father of the Bride Part 2. I almost cried with joy when our hotel room in Las Vegas had an AC that would get the room to a breezy 60'. You can bet I had that puppy going constantly.

Obviously, with the heat comes the swelling. I finally gave up on wearing my normal wedding ring because I preferred to have blood circulating in my finger. I wore my back up big ring, but missed the real thing. When we went to Vegas for the weekend we'd walk around in 95-110' heat and Carter says he could feel a very noticeable difference in my hand size. I literally had sausage fingers. I wish I took a picture because it was kind of cool looking, but oh well. Next pregnancy. All of my shoes felt too small and I'm sure I had awesome cankles. Again, I wish I had taken a picture.

I think the biggest thing that I struggled with was the fatique and discomfort that comes with having an awkward sized body. I always felt SO tired and achy. Baths and hot tubs became my best friends. I couldn't really sleep at night because I was so uncomfortable and would then feel even more tired. The Harry Potter books saved my bacon because holy cow, its hard to not go insane when its 3am and your exhausted but cannot sleep. I would pretty much read all night until I finally crashed. But hey, having to read Harry Potter is never a bad thing! I love those books

34 weeks into my pregnancy I started having contractions. There was a lot of pressure in my lower tummy and I felt really off. We went to Labor and Delivery and turns out I had a kidney infection. I really hate crying wolf so it was a real struggle to admit that I needed to go to the doctor, but I'm so happy I did because had we waited, the kidney infection would've gotten real labor going and I would've ended up having my baby. The nurse in the hospital said that it was really smart to go when I did. I'm glad we caught it in time. They gave me a few IVs of antibiotics and sent me on my way. Man I'm grateful for modern medicine. That could've been bad!

But anyways...the third trimester was definitely better than the first, but I was still more than ready to be done with being pregnant. I couldn't wait to meet my boy!

At 33 weeks

While in Vegas

Right before a run (walk)...I think 30 weeks? Not sure

37 weeks, right before I had him.

Pics of Summer Fun

So...I'm dumb. I've tried to get this post perfect approximately 291 times. But I keep deleting the pictures I put up. And I can't format them the way I want. So I gave up for a few months and now I'm super behind in posting about life at the Livingston house. So sorry posterity, but I'll try to do a good recap.

Here are some of the summer pictures that I didn't delete:

At the Fourth of July Parade by our apartment. I had just woken up...obvioulsy

7 Peaks! We got cheap Pass of all Passes and have enjoyed playing at the waterpark

At the Goo Goo Doll and Matchbox Twenty Concert in Vegas...so fun!

We went on a couples camp out and these are the wives! Super fun!

Over summer we: 

*Camped with friends from the ward

*Hiked to the natural hot springs (I nearly died)

*Hiked Bridal Veil Falls (didn't know there was a trail leading up to it, so perhaps "climbed" Bridal Veil Falls is more appropriate)

*Watched the extended versions of Lord of the Rings and looked what we didn't understand...thus upping our nerdiness from a 7.7 to a solid 9 

*Watched my belly jump around as Jayden kicked me

*Hot tubbed and/or swam about every other day

*Almost died in the heat, oh wait that was me

*Slept on the floor of our front room because our bedroom didn't get air from the AC

*Had the AC and two fans going constantly, and still felt too hot (me again)

*Worked at the temple as ordinance workers

*Carter was called as first counselor in the EQP

*I was called as the secretary for the Relief Society...its been rough, I'm horrible at technology and keep messing things up, but my president is incredibly patient so they haven't fired me yet

*Went to LA to visit Gracie, Kevin, and Kyrie

*Went to Auburn to visit family

*Wakeboarded while in Auburn...a lot (not enough according to Carter)

*Got sun burnt at Seven Peaks

*Did silly Prenatal youtube work outs (that was Carter...) (kidding)

*Read Harry Potter again for the 1,238th time

*Worked as a soils technician intern (Carter)

*Worked in the Library for half the summer (me)

*Started an online certification program to become a group fitness instructor (me)

*watched my belly grow

*cooked thanksgiving dinner because I was craving it

It was a great summer! But we were happy to move on and begin fall semester. Especially since it meant Jayden's due date was fast approaching! 

Lake Fun and Baby Pictures

Happy almost 4th of July! We're here in Provo enjoying/enduring the +100' weather. Its crazy to think that just a few months ago it was consistently -0'. We regularly (sneak) go over to the local student housing apartments to use their pool; thus far we've been able blend in with the students who actually live there, but with my growing belly we've started to get a few raised eye brows. In our defense tho...throughout the entire time we lived there it was too cold to use the pool. So we're just making up for what we missed out on...right? ummm...

Last weekend we hung out with cousins who were on their way to Lake Powell. My uncle had just got a sweet new ski boat and took us for an early morning run on Utah Lake. I haven't skied since I was about 11 so I opted out but Carter had fun. Then last weekend we headed up to Blackfoot Idaho to see my Grandparents. We got to wake board on American Falls on Saturday afternoon behind a Malibu Wakesetter....needless to say, Carter was in heaven. The temperature was perfect and there wasn't a boat in sight. We had so much fun!

Seeing my grandparents was great. They really spoiled and loved on us. They are just such good people; a very inspiring and hard working couple. Every time I'm with them I want to be a better person. They've definitely left all 50+ of their grand kids a legacy to live up to (I've lost track of how many great grand kids we're up to, but when Carter joined the fam he was number 118).

My studly husband!

Yesterday, as I was puttering around the house, getting stuff done, I felt a lot of pain and pressure in my lower abdomen. I think my baby is in the midst of a growth spurt because these past couple weeks have been pretty uncomfortable---nothing awful, but just constant and annoying. I'll go walk for about 45 minutes and then have to waddle home because I feel so cramped up. Well, I decided to call the doctor, just to see if I should worry about it. He told me to come in for a couple tests, so I did but everything looked good. Just to make sure though, they bumped my ultrasound up to Wednesday. I was super excited---I hadn't planned on knowing the gender until July 18!

This morning we went in and got to watch our baby on the ultrasound. Its a BOY! I was right about him being a crazy active baby; he would NOT hold still for the camera. Except he didn't ever move his head---that was nuzzled very low inside me, which is why the doc thinks I've been feeling so much pressure. It's as if he's trying to poke his head out, but the rest of his body goes all over the place. Our poor ultrasound tech had to work extra hard to get images of him. He's a stubborn little guy! He was kicking really hard at the ultrasound wand as if he was trying to play. When we saw his little face my heart melted. He was sucking on his fingers and then sticking out his tongue and smiling. I can't believe there's a real person inside of me.

 To be honest, I'm nervous about raising a boy---I helped my mom a lot with my little sisters but I was too young to do anything but tease my little brothers. I guess it'll work out though. Carter's overjoyed and is already planning the baby's first wake board run. I'm happy Carter gets a little man cub to be buds with because he's definitely had to deal with a lot of estrogen lately...poor guy.

But anyways, I love my little boy and am so excited to meet him. We're just so blessed with how everything's worked out. I know a lot of people dream of having children and then really struggle, so I hope everyone knows that I don't take this responsibility lightly. Despite all my complaining (I apologize for my first preggo post, I'm a little embarrassed about all my whining) I know that the ability to have a child is a miraculous gift. I am just so grateful!

Second Trimester and Beautiful Vistas

“Anyone who imagines that bliss is normal is going to waste a lot of time running around shouting that he’s been robbed. The fact is that most putts don’t drop, most beef is tough, most children grow up to just be people, most successful marriages require a high degree of mutual toleration, most jobs are more often dull than otherwise. Life is like an old time rail journey…delays…sidetracks, smoke, dust, cinders and jolts, interspersed only occasionally by beautiful vistas and thrilling burst of speed. The trick is to thank the Lord for letting you have the ride.”

― Gordon B. Hinckley

A Beautiful Vista

This is my favorite quote of the week. My life is very very consistently wonderful---but not because its a big party where everything goes right. One of the lessons I'm beginning to learn is that life is great not because of a lack of problems, but because of the many lessons to be learned and the relationships to be had.

Speaking of really great things, I'm officially 20 weeks along and HALFWAY THERE!! I've been singing Bon Jovi's Livin' On a Prayer all day. My exhaustion levels have upgraded from barely twitching zombie to slightly-faster-than-normal sloth. I'm not back to usual but at least I can think about more than when I get to sleep again. This makes school, work, and keeping up with the house soooo much easier.

But the best news is...I LIKE FOOD AGAIN! Halllelllujahhhh!! I haven't been nauseous in over a week and actually enjoy cooking. I've especially enjoyed and wanted fresh foods---such a relief considering how before, looking at a salad could put me in fetal position (kidding...kind of). Maybe this is because my body was beginning to worry about my baby's chemical make up coming primarily from sour gummy worms and pot stickers. The only foods I really don't like are, surprisingly, desserts. This is the first time in my existence that I have not liked sweet things. I've always had to fight with my sweet tooth, and so while its nice to actually want the cucumber over a cookie, I kind of feel like a part of myself is missing. But lets be honest, it'll be back soon :)

As far as cravings go, besides my borderline disturbing love of California's Taco Tree nachos, I have found myself always wanting potatoes. Mashed, baked, whatever, I want them. And as mentioned in a previous post, I won't say no to red meat. Steak...mmmm...Oh and water is always good. Despite my drinking 1.5 oceans a day I STILL feel thirsty.

The only things not so fabulous are just those that come with normal pregnancy. Braxton's are super rude and can sneak up on me in really awkward situations (talking to someone, and suddenly my tummy hardens and squeezes, contorting my face into a constipated-esque grimace). I don't sleep well at night, between the leg cramps and bathroom breaks I'm up, at best, every two hours. Poor Carter has finally gotten used to it...except for when I scream at him at 2 am to come kill a nasty, huge spider by the toilet.

Then there's growing pains. I can tell that this baby is growing a lot because one week I looked fairly normal and the next I was definitely pregnant. And ever since, I've just grown and grown. The ligaments are stretching and my innards are moving! This has made exercise awkward. I don't run anymore because it hurts too bad. My joints ache and I cramp up constantly so I'm calling it quits, at least until this current growth spurt calms down a little. Luckily I've found gentler ways to work out, so I'm not insane yet, but I definitely miss my morning runs. Totally worth it though.

But of course none of this matters because I can consistently feel my baby moving! I love knowing that he/she's actually inside of me all safe, warm, and happily playing. I can't wait until Carter will be able to feel! This is all just so fun!

But anyways, that's enough pregnancy talk. I'm really grateful for this baby and can't wait to meet it. We find out the gender in a month so stay tuned!!