Baby book review

My goal to read something in August devolved into reading one of the baby books that's been recommended to me and I never quite got around to more recreational reading - a sad harbinger of things to come, I think. Hopefully I can still find time to read once I have a little baby taking up all my attention! (If you are a mother and know better, don't burst my illusions just yet. Just smile and let me discover it on my own.)

In any event, I read The Happiest Baby on the Block by Dr. Harvey Karp and I was/am very glad I finally got a chance to read it. The tips and tricks for calming newborns and all the theories behind them were very interesting and will be sanity-saving, I'm pretty positive. I've heard a lot about the different theories of having a new baby - putting her on a schedule, letting her cry it out, etc. - but this book seemed like a really nice middle ground with a solid scientific backing. Definitely recommended for new mothers (in my almost new mother opinion), and as a bonus, our copy came with a short DVD that I watched with Tim so we are both educated now. Maybe I'll have to do a follow-up post in a few months and report on if this works for us!

So long, sweet summer

Somehow we're already done with summer - it went so fast! I took a look at my summer to-do list and was mostly pleased and only a little disappointed at what we did/did not manage to do.

- Summerfest fireworks: Didn't go - the pregnant woman opted out of walking from the car and sitting on the ground.
- Timpanogos Storytelling Festival: We have our tickets and are going this Saturday!
- Game nights: The last one was yesterday and it was really fun to get to play so many of our games all summer!
- Visit the BYU Museum of Art: Hmm, maybe we'll still make this one happen...
- Picnic at Bridal Veil Falls: Ditto that.
- Outdoor movies at the Scera Shell: Again, the pregnant woman opted out of staying up super late.
- Miniature golf: Cost money and we're saving up for the baby.
- Trip to Capitol Reef: We went for our anniversary
- Timpanogos Caves: We didn't end up going because we realized me hiking was not realistic.
- Stadium of Fire fireworks: Check!
- Go to the library, find some new books, and read in the park: Check!
- Swimming/7 Peaks: 7Peaks was too expensive for us but we ended up swimming at our hotel for my birthday and it was divine.
- Antelope Island
- Make ice cream, popsicles, slushies, etc.: Check!
- Provo Farmer's Market
- Rooftop Concert Series: We only went to one but it was fun and we were very glad we got to go.
- Thanksgiving Point Gardens: Sadly not something we made it to.

In spite of all the things we didn't do, we had a really busy summer! Tim's class took up lots of time, plus we had birthdays and bbqs and family in town and lots to keep us on the go. It was a great summer, in spite of all the things we didn't get to do. I almost wish we had a few more weeks to enjoy, but then again, I'm a tad anxious to have this baby. Bring on the fall!

Goodbye old friend, aka Hello car trouble

We have not had good luck with cars this summer. After my car got a new alternator in July, we were seriously thinking about selling it, using the money to help pay for having a baby, and just sharing Tim's car (especially since mine is too small to fit a car seat in the back). We were debating back and forth when whaddya know, Tim's car up and died one morning on the way to one of my appointments. This time it was the clutch, and after pushing it to our mechanic (who was luckily only a few blocks away), we learned that it would cost about as much as they car is worth to fix, aka not worth fixing. 

Tim bought this car a few months before we got married - it was the first car he'd ever actually owned and it's been an amazing vehicle. We've made lots of trips to Torrey in it and several to California, once while pulling a trailer and once via San Francisco and the Pacific Coast Highway. It got amazing gas mileage and was pretty much awesome, in spite of the lack of power steering. It feels silly to admit, but we are kind of heartbroken to say goodbye to it, even aside from the very difficult situation it put us in.

Luckily, that part worked out really well. My dad was already planning on buying a new car so he did that this week and "sold" us his old one (basically just gave it to us). It might be the nicest car either of us has owned: power locks, power windows, power steering, cruise control, and 4-wheel drive for the winter. It does not have a working AC, however, which does make the current weather a bit hard to drive in, but it'll be perfect for the winter. And the car seat fits in the back so we're good to go! It is older than Tim's car but it should last us a little while at the very least - enough time to figure out what to do with my car or save up to buy a new one or whatever we need to do. Mostly, we have a vehicle that we can transport a tiny baby in, which is all we need for the next little while!

So goodbye, old Saturn friend. Hello, new Suzuki friend. And please let that be the end of our car trouble for the foreseeable future!

Birthday weekend

Last weekend was my birthday (26!) and both to celebrate that and to have one last "just us" vacation, Tim and I spent the weekend relaxing and doing only fun things. I picked most of the fun things (re: birthday) but it ended up being a completely wonderful weekend.

We kicked it off with dinner at Brick Oven and ice cream at our house with some friends, which was delicious and fun and I am sad I forgot to take any pictures, especially of the AMAZING balloon animal giraffe I got at Brick Oven for my birthday. It was by far the best balloon animal giraffe I've ever seen!

Saturday morning we slept in, then eventually packed up and headed first to IKEA, which is the happiest place on earth in my book. We browsed, ate lunch, and picked up a few things I'd been wanting. Then over to my other favorite place, H&M, where I scored three shirts for $12 because I had a gift card. And they all currently fit over my big belly! 

Then we headed up to Salt Lake and checked into our hotel and basically did nothing but relaxed and napped and enjoyed being in a cool, clean, quiet place. This photo about sums it up. 

The view from the window:

And the Hilton from the outside. Oh so swanky, no?

Over to Olive Garden for dinner (great food, not so great service) and then to Gourmandise for dessert (we also got some muffins for breakfast the next day). A very international day, huh? Then we got to watch some of the Olympics and THEN we went down to the pool. Uh-mazing. It was so nice to have all the weight lifted off my joints and just float for a little while. Tim was super nice and let me use him as a paddle board so I could really just float. Getting out was hard.

Here I am at almost 35 weeks in a new H&M shirt before we went to dinner:

 The results of Gourmandise: strawberry tart, bread pudding, and yummy muffins.

We slept in super late on Sunday, then headed over to my parents' house for a birthday lunch/dinner and presents. Then it was back to Salt Lake for the crowning event: Wicked!!! My mom got me tickets for Christmas and holy cow, they were amazing seats. Second row of the balcony, dead center. And the show was so good - Tim and I had both seen it before but not for awhile and never together, so we were super excited. The cast was amazing, the show wonderful, and we haven't stopped singing songs from it yet. It was the perfect way to end our weekend.

Happy 26th to me, and happy last vacation to us!

35 days

My weekly pregnancy/baby email told me today that I am 35 weeks with 35 days left to go until my due date. 35 days??? Where did the time go??? I might be slightly freaking out now...

Six weeks to go!

One of my favorite things about being pregnant has been watching my belly get a little bigger every week. Even when no one else could see my bump, I could see it and I loved it. I haven't been great about taking pictures but here is what I have:

18 weeks and pretending I have a bump (I could still wear my wedding rings then!)

21 weeks

26 weeks

And here we are at 34 weeks

I'm definitely in the uncomfortable stage of this whole pregnancy thing. My back doesn't hurt too much, but my hips have to adjust every time I get up or down - it definitely contributes to that whole waddling thing I try not to do. The heartburn has escalated, and breathing is sometimes rather difficult when the baby girl decides to stick her feet under my ribs. I get swollen hands/feet/legs most days (you'll notice a lack of wedding rings in any pictures) and I'm over-warm pretty much always. But for all that, I know I've had a really easy pregnancy and I don't even mind most of the uncomfortability...at least most of the time. I feel so large and I know I've got lots of growing still to go - only six (ish) weeks left!