Thursday, June 30, 2011
Favorite Baby Names
I've heard a few different stories of where my name came from. My Grandma Haslem swears on her life that she named me. Mom will deny this forever. She says that Grandma had nothing to do with my name (I believe her. Grandma thinks she named all the grandkids....) and Dad says he named me after an ex-girlfriend. This is partially true. He really liked the name and so they threw it in the bowl of choices.
However it came about, I love my name. For my generation, it is quite an uncommon name. I've never met anyone my age named Carolyn, or even Caroline (yes...there is a difference. I'll put a sound byte in if anyone is confused). The only Carolyn's that I've met throughout the years have all been about 50+ in age. On the flip side, it is not an abstract name either. I think most people are familiar with the name Carolyn and not a lot of people have trouble remembering it or saying it. It really is a fabulous name:)
So on to naming our baby! I really want to do this right. I want a name that is easy to say and remember, but not something that everyone and their dog is already called. So here is a list of our top choices (I've listed them in a random order so you don't know which are our favorites!):
1. Steele
2. Ryker
3. Briggs
4. Stratton
5. Trayson
I've mulled these choices over about a million times in my head. It is so stressful to pick a baby's name! I'm thinking we will give him 'Ryan' as his middle name, so I keep saying each one with the middle and last name added on to see if it sounds good. I just don't know!
A friend of mine told me to go to a restaraunt and instead of giving them your name, give them the possible baby name you would like to try out that evening. Then you can get an idea of how it sounds when someone else calls it out. I want to try this, but I just don't go out to eat enough! Ha ha!
What do you guys think? Do you have any favorites out of the five?
Monday, June 27, 2011
Things I Will Never Do Nor Say Again.....
Here are a few that I've experienced:
1. Touching the "Baby Bump"
This is so uncomfortable! I heard a good thing to say to people that try to touch your stomach.
"I'm sorry. I've just come in contact with radioactive materials, so you probably shouldn't touch me."
I'm okay with close friends and relatives, but I don't appreciate coworkers, acquaintances from church, or absolute strangers just rubbing me down. Unless I'm paying them for a professional massage, I don't want that barrier to be crossed.
2. "Your tummy is SOOOO big!"
Heard this little winner just this morning from a student at our school. The perpetrator was an adult woman with children of her own.
She should know better.
I don't care if my stomach should be on a list at the Intergalactic Planet Registry. If you can't lie about how stinking little and cute I am and how you can't believe that I am already that far along, DON'T SAY ANYTHING! Now is not the time to make a woman feel horrible about herself and her expanding waistline.
3. "That is nothing.....back when I was pregnant....."
Okay Brian Regan, I understand that your 8 wisdom tooth tale is much better than mine, but I still want to tell you about it!
I get the fact that some women have difficult pregnancies and that makes them feel superior to everyone else, but that doesn't mean the rest of us aren't struggling! I will never discredit the difficulties that each woman goes through to have babies. Besides, whether someone is on bed rest for 8 months or she just gets a little indigestion after a couple meals, they all should get a little sympathy. That is all anyone is looking for anyway.
4. "Oh! You're waddling like a little duck!"
"Thanks! You tromp around like an elephant."
I heard this one at church on Sunday. And no, I did not actually say that reply. That would have been hurtful.
Actually, I'd gone on a ridiculously difficult hike the day before (I had no business trying to take on that mountain.....) and I was very stiff and sore. So yes, I was waddling, but it wasn't pregnancy related like she thought. Frankly, I don't care. Don't tell me I'm walking like a duck.
5. (My favorite) "Are You Pregnant?"
The first person that asked me this had stared at my stomach for a good 15 seconds before voicing her question. I was only about 3-4 months along, looking like I might have just eaten a large lunch, and I was very irritated.
So I told her no.
And then I just watched her flounder.
This might have bordered on cruel, but I still have a difficult time dredging up any remorse.
And that just about wraps up my list. I'm sure there have been other irritating things throughout this experience, but these are the ones that have really stuck with me. I promise, I will never do/say these things to a pregnant woman for the rest of my life.
Cross my heart.
Friday, June 24, 2011
I've got the jeans from "Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants"!
I should have bought 12 pairs.
I bought them when I lived out in moved home from Provo. I'd lost quite a bit of weight and so I went to The Buckle and picked up a pair of Big Star's that look a lot like these:
They are just a straight leg, low rise jean. Nothing too special. Sometimes I think that I should have gone to a different store and bought a more reasonable priced pair. However, then I remember how magical these are, and I'm just not sure that a cheaper pair would have grown and shrunk with me!
Now remember-I've just bought this pair of jeans after losing a bit of weight. Keep this in mind. It is important.
I am currently 27.5 weeks pregnant. I've gained a ton of weight at this point. I can't tell you how much because once I hit about the 25 pound mark pretty early on, I stopped looking at the scale at my doctor's appointments. I just know it is more than 25 pounds and I'm still eating :) ha ha! Anyway....much bigger now than when I bought these pants.
But that doesn't matter because these pants are magical! I'd worn these pants around the 20 week mark, but I haven't put them on lately because I didn't want to depress myself. That has all changed today. I was getting ready for work, and I thought about how much I missed my special pair of jeans and I decided that I would just try them on. Ya know. Just to see.
They slipped on with ease!!! I couldn't believe it! I have to use a rubber band to do up the button, but that is nothing new. And this is why I think my pants are magical. :)
Next pregnancy item: Leg Cramps
I've gotten a few little cramps in my hip flexors and a couple itsy bitsy cramps in my calves. I had counted myself lucky and not thought about them too much. Until this morning. At about 5:30 a.m. I got a leg cramp in my right calf that was possibly the worst of my life. And I've had a few big ones before. Dancing ballet would stress my calf muscles enough that sometimes they would just cramp up and freak out.
This was worst.
I couldn't get it to stop! I wriggled around in pain, trying to get it to loosen. I couldn't even flex my foot! It was just cramped up in the pointed position and no amount of determination could get it to stop! I bet it stayed like that for a full 30 seconds. I know this doesn't sound like much, but it is longer when it is happeneing to you. I accidentally woke Ryan up during this whole process and he volunteered to rub it out, but I was freaking out too much to let him.
After what seemed like an eternity it loosened up and I was able to flex my foot. However, now my calf muscles are so sore that I can't harldy walk on them. And don't even get me started about going up and down stairs.
Tuesday, June 21, 2011
A few funny things said this weekend....
2) My dad was trying to freak my grandma out and so he told her that I had a heart murmer (not true.). Ryan quickly pipes up and says, "Yeah. And sometimes it moves up and comes out of her mouth too!"
He is such a riot.
3) While I cut my little bro's hair we were talking about people that were very rigid about not being the least bit physical while dating. For example: people that don't think they should kiss until they are at their wedding getting married. Not that this is bad, but my lil' bro and I do not uphold this view. I enjoyed (and still do!) kissing Ryan while dating and Kent is turning into quite the lip-slut, so obviously he is not against it. So Kent says, "I'd just like to tell those people, 'I'm glad you are saving yourself, hopefully the mortician touches you!'"
This completely reminded me of the moment in my life that I thought I would wait until I was engaged to kiss the love of my life. I was quite the idealist. Well, I'm sitting at my friend's house talking to his dad. I was telling him about this little goal in my life and he asked why I would ever do something like that. I told him, "My husband will be the best kisser I know."
Without missing a beat Jim (the dad) replies, "Yeah. And you'll be his worst."
I decided right then not to wait.
4) While everyone in my family was playing around with my grandpa's blood pressure cuff, someone asked my Aunt Tammy if you could take someone's blood pressure on their leg. Quickly responding I interjected, "How else could you take someone's blood pressure if they'd had both arms amputated?"
5) Talking about the Young Single Adult Ward and what the older unmarried people do we were saying that out here, they are asked to just rejoin their family ward. My brother-in-law said that they were called "Confirmed Bachelor's" and my grandma, who desperately needs hearing aids but refuses to get them, said, "What are they called? Confirmed Bastards?!"
And my favorite:
6) While out boating on Saturday, I showed my nephew Roman my pregnant stomach. Here's the rest:
Me: "So Rome, what do you think?"
Roman: "It looks pretty weird. And it is kinda hairy (seeing my little dark peach fuzz. What is that called again? The linea nigera or something like that?)......"
Me (laughing): "Yep, it kinda is huh?"
Roman: "Yeah. But don't worry. That is just the baby's hair."
Me: "So I won't have it after I have the baby?"
Roman: "Nope. It will come out with him."
I just about died laughing at that one! He is so matter-of-fact in everything he says. I kinda hope that our baby is just as wild as Roman. Never a dull moment.
Tuesday, June 14, 2011
To Go To Yard Sales
I can't really remember when we starting yard-saling, but I know I was pretty young. Mom and Dad would get out the Basin Nickel Ads on Friday night and we would highlight all of the yard sales. Back in the day they weren't as organized in the ad as they are now. You really had to search through all the miscellanous section to find the yard sales. We then would wake up early on Saturday morning and pile into our 1986 Chevy Suburban and head to Vernal. It didn't matter how many people were going. You always took the 'Burb just in case you found something sizeable.
We learned something valuable in our first year of yard-saling. This is a competitive sport. You've all heard the saying, "The early bird gets the worm." Now imagine that the worm is on this incredible discount, there is only 1 worm, and there are dozens of birds that want, nay need, the same worm. That is yard-saling. Kinda. Less worms and more junk, but you get the idea. We found that highlighting the yard sales just wasn't good enough. We needed a map.
p.s.-sometimes people will put in their yard sale ad, "No early birds" which is really making sense to me right now. Back to the map....
Usually our map was just two lines that intersected somewhere in the middle of the page and a quickly drawn "N" at the top to symbolize north (bet ya didn't see that one coming....!). Now Friday nights consisted of highlighting the yard sales, drawing our map, and then trying to put the yard sale on the correct spot. Sometimes we even went as far as to number the sales so that we had an order to go to them in.
Another valuable lesson from our first year. There was a "Man in the Blue Van" that always bought the stuff we wanted right before we could get there! This led to us getting up earlier and possibly attending the sales as "Early Birds". Turns out people aren't as strict on the "No Early Bird" policy as you would think. Ha! However, if this method still had us running into the "Man in the Blue Van," we just had to cut our losses and move to another section of town, all the while praying that he hadn't already been there. Competition was stiff.
I'm not sure how much yard-saling really paid off. I can't recall anything that I bought that I just couldn't live without. However, that is kind of the beauty of the yard sale weekend. You can go to the yard sales, buy whatever you want, and if you get home and decide you hate everything, you only wasted $10-$20 bucks. Try doing that at the mall!
I also learned awesome bartering skills. If I ever need to flee the country and live somewhere else, I'm good on the bartering front. So what if $1 is a great price for that item? Offer them $0.50 just to see if they will take it! I would say that 80% of the time, you can talk them down from their already ridiculously low price. And the feeling that you get after you have bartered a little bit is purely magical. Seriously.
So lets zoom forward to the present day. I'm a gainfully employed 24-year-old with a working husband and a baby on the way. Some would say that I no longer need to go yard-saling because I can afford to just go to the store. They would be wrong. Not technically. I could just go to the store, but I really like yard-saling! My entire family still goes almost every weekend, and it is one of the highlights of my week! Plus, it just makes sense. Some people are selling really nice stuff and if you are willing to spend a couple extra hours driving around and looking at some people's junk, you can find these items and save a ton of money! I'll give ya a list of the baby things I've found this year at yard sales and what I paid for them. I will then include the prices from Babies-R-Us or another website. I think it will blow your mind:
Johnny-Jump Up Yard-Sale: $10 Target: $25
Winter Car Seat Cover Yard-Sale: $2 Babies-R-Us: $50
Maternity Capris Yard-Sale: $2 Motherhood Maternity: $30
Maternity Shirt Yard-Sale: $0.25 Motherhood Maternity: $25 (Shirt in previous post from 23 weeks)
Maternity Dress Yard-Sale: $1 Motherhood Maternity: $30
Catepillar Book Yard-Sale: $1 Wal-Mart: $13
Wood Changing Table Yard-Sale: $6 Target: $80
AngelCare Baby Monitor (w/sensing pad) Yard-Sale: $5 Babies-R-Us: $125!!!
Boppy Pillow Yard-Sale: $5 (plus dry cleaning) Babies-R-Us: $45
Baby Sling Yard-Sale: $2 Babies-R-Us: about $40-$70. I couldn't find one on the internet that is as nice as the one I got. It isn't one of those cheap, thin fabric ones. It is heavy, padded, and it has straps so the baby can't fall down inside and suffocate like the cheap ones, so this is just a guess.
Baby Chest Carrier Yard-Sale: $3 Babies-R-Us: $70
Total for yard-sales: $37.25
Total for store-bought: $533
And I am not buying the crappy, nasty looking stuff either! This is seriously good, clean baby stuff. It blows my mind that I have saved almost $500 just by spending a few hours on the weekend running around Vernal.
There are probably a few things I wouldn't want to buy for a baby at a yard sale. Car seats come to mind. There are a lot of them, but I wouldn't want to use one that had been in an accident. That just seems unsafe. Breastpumps. I think this one is obvious, but is would just feel weird to strap that sucker on knowing it had touched another woman like that before. Gross. I'll be buying that brand-spanking new. But that is seriously some of the only items that I wouldn't get. Everything else can be purchased and dry-cleaned.
So to anyone thinking about trying out yard-saling, good for you. To those who still think it is weird-you're probably right. I am a little strange. But I like it!
Thursday, June 2, 2011
23 Weeks and Beyond!
ps-the belt makes my tummy look bigger:)
I'm wearing maternity pants in this picture. I love them. Sadly they don't have very cute pockets, but they are dark (a.k.a. slimming) and long and they fit really, really nice, so I have put them in the "love it" pile.
Speaking of pants.....
I have this lovely pair of black pants (I think they are also slimming!) that I bought from Motherhood Maternity. They are divine. I think my butt looks less pregnant when I wear them. Anyway....I washed them this weekend. They faded big time! They also shrunk, so now I need to find someone that can let out the hem and make them longer. I'm so sad. I followed all the directions. Cold water, mild detergent, hang to dry.....I think the laundry witch has cursed me.
I hate the laundry witch.
It is okay though. Let out the hem and occasionally re-dye them in some RIT dye and they will be just like new. Hopefully.
Enough about clothes. Lets move on.
Ryan and I went to Salt Lake last weekend and I bought fabric for 2 baby quilts. I have been working overtime on them (if I don't do it now, I will lose the energy to ever finish them) and I have everything cut out for both of them. I am about half-way done with sewing the first. I started with the most difficult because I figured if I kept the drive to finish it, the second flannel rag quilt will be a piece of cake.
I also went to the doctor for my monthly check-up on Tuesday, May 31st. He didn't say anything about moving my due date up, but I still hope it happens. He just said that everything is looking good and that we will have 1 more monthly appointment, and then we start going every 2 weeks! Kind of weird that it has happened so fast! We also get to do our 3-D ultrasound at our next appointment, so I'm very excited for that.
I have a ton of stuff to do before we can have this baby! I procrastinate all the time (I think I should tell you a story about procrastinating....maybe farther down.....) and I can just imagine myself finishing up the baby nursery after we get home from the hospital. Babies can sleep in their car seats until the crib is set up right? Just kidding! But here is what I want to get done/work on:
- 2 baby blankets afore mentioned
- Nursery set up (I still have to either paint or buy colorful curtains...)
- Baby journal caught up-I'm writing this kind of as a foreword to our baby's scrapbook. Just tells the story of my pregnancy.
- Entire house gone through and get rid of the stuff we don't need. Gotta make room for the baby!
- Schedule in those little baby showers. I better do this soon or the moment will just pass me by! It is hard to work full-time, do hair, and get everything organized on a schedule for the baby.
- Get caught up on my work at the UBATC so I'm not leaving time-sensitive items undone while I am gone.
- BUY BABY STUFF!!!!! I'm excited about this one:)
Maybe that is it, but it feels like a lot.
And now for my procrastination story:
A long time ago, in a very near middle school, there was a little girl sitting in her P.E. class. Her entire class was busy being tortured into a state of physical fitness, but this little girl was calmly sitting on the stage steps. She was working on her "procrastination packet" because she had procrastinated having her parents sign her progress report. She had discovered early into the school year that if she didn't tell her parents to sign her progress report, she didn't have to be yelled at while running around the gym. Instead, she got to quietly sit and write. The P.E. teacher saw this as torture. She saw it as awesome.
I win again.
The End.