Update on My Crazy Life

So, I know I haven't updated at all. This is because I've been so busy with being a new mom. I got my new laptop from work three days ago and so I now have more freedom to use the Internet (and I don't have to worry about whether my husband is on the computer and what not. So nice!). Anyway, Alex is doing great. He's up to 8 lbs now. Unfortunately, for the last few weeks I had to pump my breast milk and feed him with a bottle because he wasn't pulling enough milk from me. Because of that, my milk supply went down slightly (only producing 1.5 oz per meal total instead of the 2.5 oz that he needed). So I had to supplement a little with formula while the pumping (and taking an herb, Fenugreek, which increases milk) helped to increase my supply so I could feed him with breast milk exclusively. Luckily, it only took about a week. In fact, last week, I was producing around 4–5 oz per pumping, which was enough that I didn't have to pump for nightly feedings—I could just feed him what was left over during the day.

Short Update

Well, things are still improving for Alex. We weighed him again this morning and hewas up another 2 oz. That's 5 oz in two days! He also had another test done for jaundice to see whether we should continue with the billibed. I got a call from the pediatrician's office this morning letting us know that we did not need to put him on the bed today. Yay! We'll have another test done in the morning to see if he's well enough to continue, or if we need to put him back on the bed. When I talked to the lactation specialist today to update her, she said that making sure he gets fed well will help him more than the lights, so the two combined is probably what helped him improve. I guess tomorrow we'll find out if he's better. Also tomorrow, my mother-in-law is coming into town to help out and to see Alex. I'm excited about that. Yay!

The Baby Is Here!

Well, last Thursday, I had a scare. I hadn't really felt the baby move for about 8 hours and I was worried, so I drank some juice, lay on my side, and waited to see if I got 6-10 movements. Well, I didn't. Scary! So I went to the hospital. They hooked me up to a baby monitor and I heard the wonderful sound of my baby's heartbeat. As they were monitoring me, however, they saw that I had high blood pressure (between 130-154/80-104), and so they had my obstetrician come take a look. After 7 hours of being in the hospital that day, my OB came in and announced that I was going to be induced the next day. The high blood pressure is bad for the both mother and baby, and with my due date only days away, there was no reason not to. Well, this was a shock to me because I figured since this was the first baby, I wouldn't have him for at least another week. I was worried I'd have to be induced because of him coming late; I did not expect to be induced before the due date!

One Week to Go!

Or at least there is only one week until my due date (less even. I'm due on Sunday). My hope is that I will not go into labor this week, but I will sometime next week. This is because starting yesterday, I am officially on maternity leave, and it would be really great to have that time to relax, clean some, get some errands done, and basically have a break before I have a baby that takes over my life! But once Sunday comes around, I want that baby out! If at all possible. I would really like to go into labor naturally and not have to be induced, but my doctor won't let it go past 41 weeks, so I should be induced by March 10 at the latest (I say the 10th and not the 9th because I'm not so sure he will induce me on Sunday. I figure he'll probably rather wait till Monday, but he hasn't said anything either way, so I'm not sure). My mother-in-law is coming on Thursday, March 6, and it would be nice to have the baby either by then or on that day so she can have as much time with him as possible. 

So at my appointment yesterday, the doctor this time checked my cervix (again, not comfortable at all!!). I'm still only 1 cm dilated, which is somewhat disappointing. But he seemed surprised or something by how the baby's head is right there. I got the impression he could feel the baby's head when he was checking. (I think the midwife could as well, but she wasn't this awed by it.) He said that was very good, but it probably made me feel like I had a bowling ball in between my legs, and reduced my bladder capacity to 50 cc (I don't know how small that is, but I'm guessing small). I have definitely noticed that my trips to the bathroom have increased. (And it was horrible while I was at work because the bathroom is so far away from my desk.)

The baby still likes to move around quite a bit. I keep feeling his feet move across my belly and push up against my ribs. I've still been lucky that his movements haven't waken me from sleeping. Maybe he's sleeping when I am (which would be a good sign for when he comes out). Even though he's dropped, I still feel like his body is pushing up against my rib area, making it uncomfortable sometimes to sit and nearly impossible to sit forward (with my elbows on my knees). And of course any sort of bending over is uncomfortable. My sister recommended getting a claw thing she has that you can use to pick things up with. I should have done that but didn't. I can't wait till I can bend over again!

There are so many things that I still need to do. I need to clean up the baby's room, get a crib (though we have a bassinet, so it's not essential that we need one right away), pack my bag for the hospital, wash some of the baby's clothes and blankets, and buy some items I still haven't gotten. Today I'm planning on making some flannel blankets. I'm excited. I got fabric and thread for them yesterday and should be way easy to make. Yay! I love not being at work. It's so nice to have a break! I have been so tired lately, though, and I know I should conserve my energy for the delivery, so I will try not to do too much. That's what my husband is for, right?

Baby Update

So yesterday I had another prenatal checkup (seems like I'm always having one. I'm up to once a week now). Everything looked fine in terms of blood pressure and the baby's heartbeat. Because I'm now 38 weeks along, I had the lovely pleasure of having my cervix checked by the midwife. It wasn't a very comfortable experience, but I found out that I'm 1 cm dilated, which she said was good because a lot of first-time moms don't dilate (I'm not sure if she meant this early or what). She said the baby has dropped and his head is right there next to the cervix. This is good; the baby is getting ready to be born! Even though I've dilated a little, I haven't felt any contractions (or at least not that I've recognized. I've had a lot of pressure on my pelvis and some pain, but since I've heard contractions are more of a cramping sensation, i don't think these were contractions). Anyway, I guess the point is, everything is going well and the baby is healthy from all indications. I should have my baby in the next couple of weeks. I'm so excited.

President Hinckley—He Will Be Missed

So last night I was watching TV when the local news broke through with news announcing that President Gordon B. Hinckley, the president and prophet of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, had passed away. This really wasn't too surprising because he was 97 years old, but it was still sad. When I realized what had happened, I started crying. I didn't realize it would hit me that hard. Even now as I write this, 12 hours later, I start to tear up when I think about it. Really, I know I should be happy for him, and I am. His wife passed a few years ago and after being married on this earth for about 70 years, it was obvious to everyone that he missed her deeply. I actually thought after she passed that he would soon follow her because of how much his heart obviously ached for her. So now they are together again and that is wonderful. And I am glad that he is free from pain and can be in a happier place.

Still, I will miss him very much. President Hinckley became the prophet when I was 14 years old. Previously there had been only three other prophets in my lifetime—President Kimball, President Benson, and President Hunter. Living in Washington, I never really connected with the previous prophets.  It was just a kindly old man who led the church. This was especially true with President Hunter, who was the prophet for only 9 months before his passing. On the other hand, I really connected with President Hinckley. When I was a teenager, we had a regional conference in Tacoma, Washington and President Hinckley came to speak. It was the first time I'd ever been in the presence of a prophet. I was very excited and could really feel the Spirit there. 

Then when I graduated high school, I went to BYU. During my time there, I was able to be in his presence, as well as many of the Apostles, many times. One time I even had the opportunity to shake his hand. That experience will always stay with me. He was walking in with his wife, Marjorie, and he shook the hands of those he could reach. It was in the Marriott Center, where BYU plays basketball as well as other events, and so the seats went upward from the floor. Once he had shook the hands of those he could reach, he stepped back and said, "No, no. You're going to get a hernia." Everyone wanted to shake his hand so badly that they were straining to reach. I was lucky enough that I was able to shake his hand.

With President Hinckley, you never doubted that he loved you and everyone else in the whole world. It doesn't seem possible to, but somehow he did it. It was amazing. And he had the best humor; it was funny, never crude, humble, self-deprecating (but never in a way that diminished who he was as a child of God and a prophet), and lightened any situation. He had so much energy for someone in his 90s and really drove the Church to do more and be more, and inspired each of the members to be better people. You could tell that he really relished life. Even though he missed his wife, he never longed to be gone from this life either. He made the most of each moment and found joy in each day. He was truly inspirational. 

Because of all this, I truly felt connected to President Hinckley and I love him very much. I will miss him, but I'm happy for him as well. I know I can't be selfish and expect him to stay on earth forever. He deserves to rest and be with his family on the other side of the veil. And I'm sure that our next President will be just as wonderful, just as loving, and I will love him too. But for now, I miss President Hinckley, and I am sad I will never be in his presence again (at least not while on this earth). Rest in peace, President Gordon B. Hinckley.

Yes, yes, yes!!!!!

I am like SO HAPPY! Today I had a meeting with my manager to talk about going on maternity leave and about how my responsibilities will be dealt with while I'm gone. I was really nervous about this meeting because I wanted to broach the topic of my working from home at least part time once I come back, mostly so I can continue to breastfeed and so I won't have to pump as much. I wasn't sure what my manager would think or what he would say, but I knew it would be better to talk about it sooner than later. I had gone over how the conversation might go about a million times in my head and most of the time I got flustered trying to figure out what to say and how because it meant so much to me to be able to work from home. (And I prayed at least three times today for God to help me to know what to say and that if it was a good thing for me to work from home, that I would be able to.)

One thing that really worried me was that to work from home, my company requires you to have a company-issued laptop, which you can use to connect to the company's network. I do not have a laptop for my job and I figured that my manager would not see it as a necessary expense for my job and would, therefore, not want to pay for one. So I had figured out a way for me to do some of my work from home that would not require me getting on to the network, and I prepared a speech on how I could do that for part of the day and then come in to work to do the rest of my work.

So basically, I was really nervous going into it because I didn't have any idea what the result would be. So I went into his office and we started just chatting about the baby and how wonderful having kids is. Then we talked about what responsibilities I have that would need to be covered while I was gone. Some things could be put off while I was gone, but there were some that could not. We talked about who in the department could do them and divied them up accordingly. Then, when it looked like the meeting was over and he had another meeting to go to, I said, "So you have another meeting right now, right?" and he said, "Yeah, why?" And I said, "Well, I wanted to talk to you about what is going to happen when I come back to work after the maternity leave is over." He asked, "You mean like with your schedule?" And I said, "Pretty much. You see, my husband is going to be home all day with the baby taking care of him, but there's one thing he can't do and that's breastfeed. I was wondering if it would be possible for me to work at least some of the time from home." Surprisingly, he answered, "Yeah, I can work with you on that. We'll need to get you a laptop that you can use to work on at home, but a lot of your responsibilities don't require you to be here in the office, so that should be just fine." I was just like, "Really? I was so worried about that." And he responded, "No, it's no problem really. We can work it all out." And I saw him write in his notebook, where he writes down things he needs to do, a note about getting me a laptop to use at home.

Well, as you can imagine, relief just swept over me. I was SO HAPPY! I couldn't believe that it went so well, and that he immediately volunteered to get me a laptop and I didn't even have to fight for it or justify why I needed it or show him how I could do some of my job at home without needing to get on the network. I had worried about all that for nothing, really. I really could feel that Heavenly Father was there guiding the whole situation. It made me feel very loved and it made me feel good that He wants me to work from home just as much as I do. When Aaron and I decided to get pregnant, we really didn't know how it would all work out, and we knew there would be sacrifices. But I have tried to have faith that it WOULD work out and that Heavenly Father would be there to help things to work out. This truly is a testament to me that He is watching out for me, He does care, He does know my situation, and He is willing and ready to bless me if I have faith in him. I feel very lucky and grateful for that. Yay!