The joys of pregnancy

I just wanted to point out that I have a new found love for the following foods, probably thanks to pregnancy:

1. Bacon, lettuce and tomato sandwiches on white bread
2. Reduced fat oreos with cold milk
3. Christmas wreath pastry(an Ernhofer family tradition in which we partook yesterday)
4. Spaghetti
5. Tuna fish sandwiches with pickles
6. Sundried tomato salad dressing
7. 9 layer dip
8. Fresca
9. Ice water
10. Sharp cheddar cheese

I am grateful for food.

Everything is turning into baby

On Saturday, Gordon and I went to a baby birthing class! It was very informative (especially for Gordon). It also convinced me to try to have my baby au naturale. Epidurals have a lot of side effects and that makes me nervous, so hopefully, I can handle the pain. My mom did it, my sister did it, so I can too. My mom said its easy as long as I practice and prepare. We learned all about breathing and relaxation techniques. AND, my new favorite thing: counter pressure. My back has been hurting and when Gordon presses on my back it feels great. We also got a tour of the hospital which made me really excited to deliver. The maternity wing has been newly renovated and its so pretty and huge! The nurse giving the tour showed us the monitors that will be on my belly and asked for a volunteer to show everyone how they work. No one did at first, so I raised my hand. I lifted my shirt and sat on the bed in the room and the nurse was like "wow....no stretch marks!" and Gordon under his breath was like "thats right...:)". I guess he was proud. But yeah, the class made us very excited for the upcoming life changing events.

Since my belly is so huge, I have trouble keeping my shirts clean and Gordon finds this humerous. Yesterday, I counted 9 stains on my shirt...all from dinner. Spaghetti sauce and grape juice. Gordon took a picture. Enjoy.

I also attempted to make a homemade lemon merangue pie, however it didn't set. (Thanks a lot Alton Brown) I followed the recipe but it still didn't work. Oh well. We ate half of it.




We got our car seat and stroller in the mail last week after ordering it online! We love love love it! As you can see, we had a fun time putting them both together. It works great!

31 weeks!

So, not much has happened since the last post, except for some severe back pain. I helped someone move from a wheelchair to a chair at work and I think it messed up my lower back. I've been taking tylenol to help and yesterday Gordon got me icy hot. I put it on and then realized I probably should have checked with the doctor first. Online, there are a lot of message boards that say its ok, but I'll probably call tomorrow just to double check. Today at church was pretty brutal- sitting for 3 hours is never a good thing, plus I forgot my usual granola bar and crackers. Silly me.

This coming week, Gordon will be working hard studying and finishing projects for school cause the last day of the semester is the 12th. (I wish that was my last day, too) He's been getting good grades up to this point, so hopefully they won't change/maybe get bumped up a little. He's also been thinking of different masters programs he'd want to take and then started thinking law school. At this point, who knows what the future will hold, but law school seems pretty ambitious. I told him that he should do it, but the thought of 3 more years of (harder) school kind of gave him a headache. We'll keep you all posted about future plans.

Christmas is coming! Surprisingly, Rexburg has not received any snow. Last year at this time, it had snowed over a foot by Halloween. (Thank you global warming) We're holding out on switching our all season tires to the studded ones...I don't know how long it'll last, but hopefully another week. We'll see. Coming up on the 13th, we'll be attending our baby class. I'm pretty excited, but Gordon was invited to go shooting that day, so its almost like i'm dragging him to it. I said that he didn't have to go and I'd find another labor coach and then he insisted on coming. I may have guilted him into it, but he'll thank me later.

9 weeks 3 days to go...

So, I have gotten through the first two trimesters fine and dandy and am cruising through the third. I was extremely tired in the first, really energetic and great in the second and now back to tired (as you can probably tell by the photo...). My body needs to make up its mind.
About the gestational diabetes: all test results came back normal, so still no problems. Hooray. I was happy to hear that I didn't have diabetes, however I was feeling really grouchy and light headed the morning I had to fast. Each hour I returned to get blood drawn, the nurse would ask how I was feeling. I had the same response every time: "hungry, tired, dizzy, light headed". The nurse then said "yup, sounds about right". This exact conversation happened three times that morning, although the second time she said I could have a little water to 'hold me over' (like water holds anyone over....please, lady). I don't think Gordon liked me very much that morning because I was so grouchy. Luckily, for his sake, that didn't last long. At 11 am I had scrambled eggs, toast, and 2-6 pieces of pumpkin pie (Its unclear to me how much I had--I ate a lot of it....but am surprisingly not ashamed).
Today, I had this really weird feeling after dinner and realized it was a craving! I haven't really had any cravings until now. Lucky for Gordon it was chocolate! He was happy to oblige and bought me a big bag of peanut M&M's and caramel hershey kisses. So good! I ate so many I felt sick afterwards, but it was worth it.
Since this blog has sort of become all about me and the baby, I decided to post some photos of Gordon because he's an important part of our little family, too.

I made no-bake cookies and typically, I scoop them out small. Gordon wanted a big one, so that cookie he's eating is like 14 regular sized cookies in one.

We went out to eat for lunch at wingers and Gordon was hungry- I guess he gets hungry like pregnant women do.