Fab February So Far

Hello all!

It has been a fabulous February so far! (Mind you, it's only been four days, but I am very excited for what is in store!)

Update on my health: UTI is gone (I think? I hope?) and I am still exhausted every night and a total basket case once I hit the wall of major prego fatigue, but I am starting to feel like the pregnant chick I was before the scare and infection (just a little more round, and more wary). Glucose test came back negative but there were deliberations to be made by two docs which was confusing because one said, "You need a dietician and metformin (the drug used to help with diabetes control, I did not need it, and was about to argue my case if I needed to with the doc) and the other wasn't thinking I had an issue. Finally, I heard from the doctor I thought we would go with because he fit our personality a little better (however, both docs are great guys, we are very lucky) and he said I was fine, to have a balanced diet and to just enjoy. Phew, I am glad to have a final word on the gestational diabetes front. I was definitely concerned because the pancreases in my family tend to get confused when presented with sugar.

This week in my pregnancy: I am officially 28 weeks pregnant and in my third and final trimester! Can I get a what what? I am so excited. I have a countdown chain for the due date, and we have 84 days to go. Finch is a little fireball of energy, I am constantly seeing him move around, and I am beginning to feel him higher and higher up in my torso so let the fun rib kicks begin! Highlight of my past week? A handful of wonderful strangers told me how cute I look and that I don't look big for how far along I am. Whether they were just being nice or really meant it, thank you to the cashiers at Deseret Industries, the ladies at the Pinewood Derby, the girls at BYU-Idaho, and the rest of the random strangers who have come up and told me how cute I look. I don't ever feel cute anymore because I can't see my feet and waddle slightly so your words of kindness and sweetness are music to my ears and really do mean so much to me. It's hard to feel beautiful when you burp or almost wet yourself when you sneeze. 

Finch is the size of an eggplant, a large bok choy, and iceberg lettuce (I have a lot of apps for pregnancy and each one has a different veggie to compare size to). He can now open and close his eyes, and recognizes noises. During the superbowl there was a commercial where Lawrence Fishburne sang "Nessun Dorma" from Puccini's La Boheme. It is one of my favorite songs, and I have it on my lullaby list for Finch and he always responds with little kicks of delight when I play it. When the commercial came on, I got a few kicks after a few seconds. I have a musical genius on my hands folks, and I am thrilled about it. 

Even though it takes a crane to get me out of bed at night to pee, and Ben is constantly helping me stand up and get up, I am so in love with my baby that it doesn't matter. Ben and I are totally smitten with this little boy, and it is getting exciting/weird/surreal/terrifying/wonderful to think that he will be here so shortly. 

25 weeks

26 weeks

27 weeks

28 weeks!

Victory of the week: Ben and I have been looking for a great deal on a stroller and carseat. I plan on babywearing a lot with Finch so we only need the carseat for the car to just stay in the car, but we weren't sure where to start. That's when we found while at Wal-Mart that they had the duo stroller and carseat sets and that they tend to be less. Then we found that they were clearing out their 2013 inventory and everything was on clearance. We wanted a Baby Trend set that was green and I was haunting the baby section for a few days hoping the marked down price of $135.00 would go down. Rexburg is a little more pricey than everywhere else because it is a college town, and we checked in Idaho Falls on a whim last weekend and found the same set we wanted for $67.50 and we had to take it. I think I scared a few women away by staring at the box like it was my favorite food and they were going to take it from me, I was mentally salivating like a crazy woman and had the eyes of a huntress ready to pounce on my prey (enough metaphors?). When a woman finally left it to go, I ran to it and refused to let go until Ben got a cart so we could get it. And now it is ours and it is beautiful in the nursery as we await our little bundle of joy.

Isn't it beautiful? And so worth the price!!!!

My sweet kitty is also being very sweet with this pregnancy. I think she is sensing that her time as an only child in the family is drawing to a close, because she is very very affectionate now and does everything she can to be close to me. Some of my sweetest moments of the day are when she comes to make sure I am safe when I pee at night, and then has me hold her for a few minutes before crawling back in bed. The other night she came and slept under the covers on my body pillow with her head poking out between Ben and I. Whenever I take my nightly bath she sits nearby and panics if my face is out of her view and Ben cannot take her out of the room from me without her panicking if she cannot see me. Sometimes I feel like she is mothering me far more than I mother her, and she is such a sweet blessing to our home. I know it will be a transition for her when Finch arrives, but I already can tell that she will make him just as much her baby and family as she has made Ben and I. It's almost been a year since we adopted her, and she is about as ingrained into my heart as an animal can be. When Ben is at work and school all day, she is my little shadow and buddy and I am grateful for the sweet company she provides. :)

Her little cubby in the closet

So, so far things are going really well with everything. Ben is such an incredible husband, I swear I married a perfect man, he is so sweet, so patient, and is always so good to help me when I am in need (which is literally all of the time). When I have a hard night, he holds me and lets me cry from my hormone issues, he helps me make the foods I want, and he always picks up what I can't bend over and reach anymore. He is a saint, and is already such a great daddy to Finch. He can feel Finch move so much more often and there are many nights I wake up and his hand is on my tummy, just so he can be closer to his son. I know that he is scared out of his wits with our son being here soon, but he just takes it as it comes and works that much harder to help me and to take care of us and our little family. Our new projects are enjoying our new calling as Wolf Pack Leaders for the Boy Scout troup in our ward and going to the American Sign Language Association at BYU-Idaho. Ben loves ASL, and I have always wanted to learn so we have been making it a project to find a way to learn more. The Lord answered our prayers and now we have a free resource to learn what we want. I am now learning the alphabet, and I have learned how to say: "My name is Liz Davies and I am pregnant with Baby Finch". I have to keep working on it because sometimes I mess up the "pregnant" part and just say "I am fat with Baby Finch" some days that feels more accurate though ;)

Another project that I have been working on is family history research. After a few instances of non coincidental promptings from the Spirit I decided to use my extra time (I have lots of extra time) to start searching out to see who is in need of temple work being done. After finding a few lines that have dead ends and not knowing how to start, I went to the Family Research Center at BYU-Idaho and learned how to use FamilySearch.org. Let me just say, it is a wonderful website and very easy to use. Within 15 minutes a sweet sister was helping me to find family, and on "accident" (there are no accidents when the Lord is involved) we found a lost family member. We found his family and connected him to my grandmother (mind you a lot of greats are before that grandmother) and found her siblings and mother. I talked to my dad about it and found out that line had been lost for a couple of hundred years and that even geneologists that my grandmother had employed couldn't find anything past a certain point, and here my family was, ready to be found and to be seen. It was a huge miracle and such a blessing. Then I got sick and had to wait to do more for them because I was on bedrest, but I found more family connected to them, and today I was able to link the families together so more work can be done. I have felt such joy and purpose in it and I never thought that the time I have had resting all of the time and not being sure of what to do with it could be used for such good, but I have felt so much love and presence from loved ones beyond the vale who have been cheering me on. Miracles do happen, and I feel so much more in tune with where I came from because of the people who have paved the way for me. I may not remember them very well now, but I know that they are always near and are so very real.

So there you have it, February is already proving to be a fantastic month (knock on wood ;) ), and I look forward to all the fun stuff that is in store for us as we continue.

Have a fantastic day, and God bless :)

Love,

Liz, Ben, Zola, and Baby Finch