Professional Pregnancy Pictures

Cory and I modelled for a photographer, Dan Hanson, who gave us copy rights to print pictures for Adaline's memory book. We had a really good time and the best part is our model fee was the free copies of the edits we liked....pretty good deal!

He is also going to take newborn pictures of Adaline for free as well, because he will use the pictures for his website. Cory, Mom, and I will get to help with Adaline's new born pictures and will be able to get some great shots with her, as well.

You have been wondering how big I am well at the very bottom you will see pictures I posted of my belly that Dan took. He wanted belly shots and so there are way more pictures of my belly but my favorites are the ones we took at the very last of the photo shoot with my belly covered. Take a look and tell me what you think.

36 Weeks Pregnant - Smile for the Pictures!

Adaline and I have made it 36 weeks. The final four weeks will be filled with last minute to dos. Adaline is around 6 lbs and about 20 inches long according to the website. It will be interesting to see when she is born how close she is to the typical pregnancy. I am measuring in at 36 cm, right on schedule and Cory and I are seeing the doctor each week until delivery. We got the great news that I am dilated all of ½ centimeter. Wow only 4 weeks and 9 ½ centimeters to go J but we are happy to hear that all is well with the baby and me.

Cory and I have a long list of to dos before the baby is born. We have the hospital bag to pack, the car chair to fix into the Explorer, the house to finish, and some final preparations for D-day. We are going to a Pediatric consult on Wednesday with someone we hope is going to be a great doctor for Adaline. Dr. Haskett has worked with Dr. Wise before and said that he is a good doctor. We also got Dr. Wise recommended to us from our birth class instructor.  Cory and I want to be very involved with all the treatments, vaccines, and standard procedures that Adaline will need to go through in the next few years and Dr. Wise is one who works with the parents on making the right choices for them.

Cory will be looking for a job in his field of study starting in April and since we don’t know how long it will take him to find a job we are going to renew our contract at our current place for another year. The nice thing with our location and home is the price is so reasonable that I don’t think Cory and I will find it hard to sell our contract if he does get a job very quickly and we need to move. With the baby just coming, staying settle for first month or two of her being born will allow me time to heal and then get the house ready to move if we need to pack everything up.

Adaline has started to slow down in movement. That is normal for this time in pregnancy because she is getting a little crunched for space and so I feel her rolling back and forth a little bit. She also seems to get the hiccups every couple of days. It is funny to feel that rhythmic thump, thump, thump. I hope they don’t hurt her too much. Cory is really good at feeling her movement. There have been a few times I have worried about her because I have not felt her move all day but once I lay down and Cory puts his hand on my tummy, he is able to feel her movement. Probably because he is not as anxious as I am.

I will be modeling for a photographer on Sunday who wanted a pregnant model for photos for his website. I saw the offer on Craigslist and talked with Cory about it. Once I contacted the photographer I asked if he would be comfortable with taking some picture of Cory and I and he stated he would be happy too. My model fee will be copies and rights to print the best shots. It’s really kind of nice because we are going to be able to get some really great pre-delivery shots of the two of us and also of me that we can post for everyone to see but also to put in Adaline’s memory book.  The best thing is that it won’t cost us anything but the printing costs of the photos at Wal-mart.  

35 Weeks Pregnant - Happy 30th Birthday, Mommy!

Adaline is continuing to gain weight as the weeks pass in preparation for her delivery date. I have grown about 1 cm in my belly which is exactly on schedule for being 35 weeks pregnant. Sleep is becoming more precious because I am struggling sometimes to find a comfortable position to get into. Tossing and turning is not helping Cory, either, he checks on me throughout the night and so both of us are a little tired but that is the name of game in becoming new parents J.

This past week was my birthday. I turned 30 years old and had a wonderful birthday. Cory bought me a beautiful watch and also surprised me with night in Salt Lake at the Little America Hotel. We ordered room services for dinner with a voucher he received with the purchase of the room and we just enjoyed ourselves for the evening in Salt Lake. Then Sunday we had ice cream cake with Cory’s family to celebrate my birthday.

Cory also surprised me with a beautiful ring to wear while pregnant. I have been unable to wear my wedding rings because my fingers are a little swollen. It is a simple band with little rubies and small cubic zirconium that he got from Amazon but is really is quite beautiful and I love it. I am able to wear it because it is a size larger than my wedding ring.

Getting closer to the delivery date and not fully knowing what to expect there is a little bit of anxiety but there is great excitement too. Cory and I talk last night in bed about becoming new parents. Our biggest hope is that we will teach Adaline who she really is, how important she is to us, that she is a daughter of God, and how important she is to the work of spreading the gospel throughout the world. There was a talk at this last General Conference Session that was given by Sister Elaine S. Dalton, titled “Love Her Mother”. It was funny at the time because we did not know then we were having a little girl yet but as Cory and I sat there and listened to this inspired talk, Cory said to me after that this was the talk he was to hear this General Conference. He had a premonition that we were going to have a little girl and that Heavenly Father was explaining the best way to increase Adaline’s understanding of her place in the world by how Cory treats me. We want her to desire a temple marriage and a gospel centered home. As Cory and I spoke last night we remember this talk and Cory expressed again that Adaline will come to know her value because of how he treats me. We hope that she will see our example and will never accept anything less than a man who will love and cherish her as the daughter of God she is. I think all parents want for their children to be happy. Those of us with testimonies of the Gospel of Jesus Christ know the true path to happiness and we desire nothing less for our children. Hearing the words of prophets, apostles, and servants of the Lord who give us specific instructions on how to help rear our children in the ways of the Lord is incredibly comforting. Cory and I don’t have to figure this thing out on our own. We have the ability to hear and read these great words of counsel. We also have incredible family members who have and are still raising their children in the gospel path. They are able to give us great advise, guidance, and ideas to work with each child, individual, on helping them develop and strengthen their testimony of the gospel.

As Cory and I reflect of over this last year of marriage, as we have grown to together and have strived to have a gospel centered home, we seen areas that we can improve and also strengthens that we might not have noticed before. These reflections will hopefully make us better parents because we are trying to  do the Lord’s will in our lives and keep the gospel and the message of the gospel as a constant center in home. Bridgette has this beautiful plaque in her home that says “Christ is the center of our home”. I really like that. That is something that I want to have in a prominent place in our home. I want our children to see that message and pictures of the Savior and temple in every room of our house. I want them to remember the Lord each day and I know these things will help me remember the Lord every day, too.

34 Weeks Pregnant - It's the final count down!

Adaline could be a whopping 20 inches by now and five beautiful lbs. Need a visual? Hold a five-pound bag of flour in your arms and that about how much she weighs. If you get three flour size bags and stack them on top of each other is how tall she probably is. She will mostly have long fingernails that will have be manicured for the first time just after she is born, beauty tips at 1 day old J

Adaline and I have been trying to find comfortable sleeping positions for night time. We tend to toss and turn throughout the night so bedtime at 9:30 is pretty typical. Waking up at 7:30 is sometime very difficult because I just want to stay in bed and get a little more sleep.

I am measuring at 32 ½ cm a little smaller than my last measurement at the doctors but pretty much right on track for her delivery date. I keep waiting for the stories to come true where I see her foot and it is distinctive as she pushes on my belly, but when she moves I can feel it and Cory can see it but it not alienish like many of the stories I have heard from other people.

I think I have lots of water inside my belly for her to move around in and that is why I don’t see hands and feet.  There are moments that I think I feel her back pressing out of my belly and I gently run my fingers over her, up and down. She tends to not move while I do this. I wonder how much she can feel of the pressure of my fingers as I drag them up and down her back.

She still loves to move around after I drink chocolate milk. I think she will come out chocolate covered with how much chocolate milk I have drunk over the last 6 months of the pregnancy. Cory loved chocolate milk as a baby and I think Adaline has picked up her chocolate milk gene from him.

Cory and I have been trying to get the house ready for herto come. We spent all day Saturday this last weekend rearranging our bedroom for Adaline’s bassinet-playpen to fit next to our bed. With how we re-arranged everything we actually have more room now in our bedroom than ever before. We also re-arranged the living room so as to open up more space for her playpen to go when I am cooking and working on projects in the living room. We are still working on the “War Room”. We call it the “War Room” because our year supply is located in there along with everything we don’t want to deal with at the moment. Kind of looks like World War III happened in there. We are slowly working on it, going through a few boxes each week but we are going to make a more concentrated effort because we have taken care of our bedroom and living room now, so the War Room is all that is left.

They say that mommy starts to feel the nesting syndrome about now and I must admit I love going through things and having so much space when I get rid of junk that I have dragged around with me for the last 12 years. With our bedroom so organized and open I can’t wait for the War Room to look the same. When we finished the living room it made our house feel so much bigger.

I am looking forward to my mom, Grandma Kathy, coming to help Cory and I with the birth and post delivery. She is going to get here to Utah hopefully a few days before I go into labor so we can work on some fun sewing projects. If you go to the mall, the things I want to make cost around $20.00 to $50.00 for each of the items and I want about 5, that’s a lot of money. With the patterns I printed off line for free, we are going to be able to make each of the items I want and I will probably only have to spend about $15.00 total for fabric and thread, now that is savings.

33 Weeks Pregnant - Let the count down to D Day begin!

Adaline should be weighing in around 4 to 4 ½ lbs and she could grow a full inch alone this week, crazy! She is now getting more into the normal baby sleep patterns. Her eyes are closed when she is asleep and they are open when she is awake. She can probably see light during the day and the darkness at night even through my skin. I think this is true because she is more quiet at night than she has been.

She is developing her immune system now and will continue to receive antibodies assistance from me as I breast feed her.

I have been slowing down in the last couple of days as there has been a noticeable growth in my belly….basically it sticks out more. I also notice that I waddle a lot more. They say this is because my joints are loosening up in preparation for delivery…only 7 weeks away. I have also noticed that I am getting more tired, could be from lack of sleep.  It can sometimes be hard to turn over in bed because f the basketball I have to rearrange J but my fatigue is not too bad. I am just trying my best to balance work life and home life.

We hired a new girl to take over my position and I have been very busy this week training her. I am excited and nervous to end my working career outside the home. I know I am going to love being a mother and getting the chance to stay home with Adaline and our other children will be such a blessing but for 12 plus years I have been paying my way and contributing to my income it will be strange not to bring a paycheck. I am sure there will be a few bumps getting adjusted but I have tried to arrange projects to work on that will keep me busy during the times that Adaline sleeps. 

I have been working for years on a family history project that should be able to finally see some real defining. I am also working on book about dating. We’ll see if I am able to make good head way with each of these projects as a new mommy.

32 Weeks Pregnant

Today I am 32 weeks pregnant….wow! Time has flown. Adaline is set to come very soon and I, in many ways, feel completely unprepared. Her room is not done, parts of the house I wanted organized are not finished, I am still working on her baby blanket, and there about a million things I still need to buy to be ready for the big day. Even with all of that, I can’t wait to see her, finally. She has been swimming around in my belly for 32 weeks now and I have felt her for the last 12 and I know that I am going to love being her mom.

According the website “What to Expect When you are Expecting”, Adaline should be about 19 inches long and round 4 lbs. She is curled-up because she is probably starting to get a little cramped inside my belly. She should be getting ready to settle into the head-down position in preparation for childbirth. She is also getting into her sleep cycles, 20 to 40 minutes long, multiple times during the day.

Adaline’s activity at night has settle down some, she is not as active, but I think her favorite position is when I lay down because almost every time I put my feet up she is moving around inside my belly.

We are now going to the doctor every two weeks, I had an appointment last week and Dr. Haskett measured my belly to be 33 cm even though I only gain 1 lbs since my last appointment my belly has grown quite a few cm. I am interested to see what the new measurement will be next Friday. We will have one more two week appointment in mid February and then after that Cory and I will be seeing Dr. Haskett each week for the remainder of the pregnancy.

Grandma Kathy is planning on coming to Utah on March 14 or 15 if I have not gone into labor yet. With Adaline due on the 17^th of March mom should be here in plenty of time to provide Cory and I with extra support and knowledge leading up to the delivery. We are so grateful that she is willing to come stay with us for a couple weeks to help with Adaline. If I happen to go into labor early and mom can’t make it, I know that Cory is going to be an excellent coach. He has been watching Youtube videos on childbirth, some I think have surprised him, but he says he is not really worried about the labor and delivery.

We started our birthing class this week and are learning helpful tools to get Cory and I prepped for natural child birth. I do not want to use any drugs for the labor and delivery other than maybe Tylenol and I am hoping the methods we are learning in our birthing class will help us to accomplish this goal. Brio Birthing is the class we are taking and 83% of students are able to have a natural childbirth without the need for medication. We are hoping we fall into the 83% instead of the 17% J but we will have to see. You always have to be open to all options and Cory and I are not going to be closed minded on any of the options that we will have.

31 Weeks Pregnant

Adaline is around 18 inches long and weighin in around 3 lbs. She is growing and so am I. I did not gain any weight between my last doctor's appointment and this appointment but my tummy grew. I am measuring around 33 cm and so am a little bigger than typical 31 weeks pregnant. Dr. Hasket said he will keep an eye on that but things are looking great right now.

Adaline is continuing her late night romps through mommy's stomach but I love each moment because I know she is doing well. Anytime I don't feel her for a while I get nervous but usually I feel her pretty soon after I say a prayer asking Heavenly Father to protect and then she moves!

These moments are so incredible. I am so grateful to a loving Heavenly Father who has give me the opportunity to become a mother.