A Major Curveball

Hello Dear Readers,

I figured I’d start with the biggest even that’s happened in the last couple of months. I know you all probably already know this story, but I’d like to have it recorded here too.

So not long after the dust had settled from our move to Utah and we closed on our house, Chris and I decided we were “ready” (can you ever really be ready?) for another baby, and nature didn’t make us wait too long. The pregnancy was pretty uneventful, though I was more sick than I was with Lindsay. Nothing too bad though. Our due date was about a month later than I thought it was going to be, which is interesting to think about when it comes time to talk about delivery day.

So our due date was February 26, and much of the pregnancy was spent with me thinking and worrying about whether or not I should have another C-section for this baby. I went to a group practice, and got six different doctors all telling me that I could go either way and no one would blame me. A few of them said I wasn’t an ideal candidate for attempting a VBAC (a normal birth after a C-section) because I hadn’t had one before, but I could try if I wanted. As the day got closer and closer, we talked and prayed about it, and went to the temple. It made me so nervous to think about attempting a regular birth and then ending up with a C-section and that horrible double-recovery anyway, that I decided it would be easier to just schedule for the surgery. Not to mention that there’s a small risk of the incision scar from last time opening and causing major problems for me and the baby, though I wasn’t as worried about that. I’d been reassured by all the women I spoke to who had had a second C-section that the recovery was way better without all the labor beforehand. There was no way I could have kept up with my toddler with that recovery, and I felt so much peace once that decision was made. We had it scheduled for February 21 (because I didn’t want to have her any closer to my anniversary than I had to) and all was well.

This little one had other plans though. I still wonder if her due date was off, because of the way she decided to come.

I’d been having Braxton Hicks contractions since around week 20, so in January I was very aware of them, and even started writing down the times they came in the last couple weeks before she came. There were never more than three an hour though, so it wasn’t actually labor, despite me being convinced otherwise at least once.

So I had a regular appointment with my doctor, and when he checked me I was dilated to a 4 and 90% effaced. Looking back, I’m kind of surprised they didn’t send me to the hospital at that point. But apparently some women sit at that for weeks, so he wasn’t too worried.

That night I felt miserable. (This is February 9th, by the way.) Going to bed, I told Chris I wasn’t sure I could do this much longer. His reassurances of “Only two more weeks” were not helping. But I knew I wasn’t in labor because I wasn’t feeling contractions at all. When I woke up at 2:30 to use the bathroom though, I felt even worse. I thought I might be having an infection, and so I was frustrated. But as soon as I got back to bed, my water broke. That was a new feeling, because I’d already had an epidural when they broke my water with Lindsay. I actually didn’t realize that’s what had happened until I got back to the bathroom and more of it came out. As I was telling Chris I thought that’s what was happening and we needed to start getting ready to go, a contraction hit me. But this wasn’t an active labor contraction. I felt like I needed to PUSH. That was one of the scariest moments I’ve ever had, because I was not ok with having my baby in the bathtub, which is what I was afraid was going to happen at that point. The next half hour is a little hazy, because I spent a lot of it screaming and trying not to push. Poor Chris had to deal with my hysterics (those pushing contractions were 2-3 minutes apart as soon as they started), getting me dressed, calling his mom to come stay with Lindsay, and driving down to Orem. We called my parents to meet us there, and then the hospital to let them know we were on our way.

The nurses (who were all so wonderful) met us at the door with a wheelchair, and at that moment I was able to relax a little, because I knew I wasn’t going to have my baby on the side of the road somewhere. I think they had called my doctor after we called, so he was on his way. The nurses got me set up in the delivery room and checked to see where the baby was.

“Yeah, this baby is right there. You’re not having another C-section.”

“Ok. Can I get any painkillers?”

“Sorry, there’s no time.”

They didn’t even give me an IV, because things were moving so fast. I’m pretty sure I was screaming “I can’t!” most of the time, and had a death grip on Chris’s hand. They had me start pushing, and I felt like there was a ton going on in the room. At one point, they told me that they had an ER doctor in there, because if the baby was born, they didn’t have to write up an incident report because a doctor was present. At the moment I took their word for it, but looking back I wonder if they said that just so I’d feel better. My doctor arrived maybe five minutes before the baby was born; we’d only been at the hospital for 20 minutes or so. So before we even really knew what hit us, my screaming was over and I was listening to my new baby’s cry instead. There’s really nothing like that moment.

Sammy was born at 3:41 in the morning, so all told my labor was less than two hours. She beat my parents to the hospital, which was shocking to them. The desk attendant they spoke to told them she thought the baby had already come, and my mom was sure she was wrong and it was going to be a couple of hours. Surprise! There must have been something in the water, because the nurses told me all night had been like that, and there were like six other women that all delivered super fast.

I was talking to my sister-in-law a couple weeks later and she asked me if labor was really like it shows in the movies. My response was that I’m not the person to ask, because mine kinda was. And since they’ve told me that labor tends to go faster with subsequent kids, I’ve also decided I should probably start hypno-babies or something so I’m mentally prepared for natural childbirth next time, just in case we can’t get there in time for an epidural (again).

Having said that, my recovery was AMAZING, especially compared to last time. I felt good enough that they almost had me walk from the delivery room to my hospital room, if I hadn’t gotten a touch queasy when I stood up.

It was so nice to be able to sit up, stand up, and walk on my own that day, and it was so great to have family close by to visit us. Other than that, pretty uneventful hospital stay and journey home. So I’ll leave you there for today dear readers.

Love,

The Rawlins

Unexpected potty training

Hello dear readers,

I’m sorry that I haven’t kept up my promise to get better at this. I keep hoping one day it will stick. But until then, I guess sporadic posting is all I can do. But it’s looking like I may be trapped in my kitchen for the next couple of days and so maybe I can manage to knock out some highlights at the very least. 🙂

I’ll try not to get into TMI, but I think being a mom of littles may have skewed my judgement on that. Sorry…

The reason we’re trapped in the kitchen is that due to some unfortunate circumstances (details are gross so they’re being skipped), I’m opting for a no-pants, cold-turkey potty training exercise with Lindsay. As of this writing, we’ve had two successful tinkles and no accidents yet! Wahoo! And I know I probably just jinxed it, but I’m embracing it as inevitable at this point. Wish me luck!

Anyway, quick highlight posts coming soon! (I hope!)

Love,

The Rawlins

PS–I did jinx it, and had to clean up an accident before I even hit “publish” on this post…

So we bought a house…

Hello dear readers,

I was going to write this post a few months ago, but life happens… And with another new start happening as we speak, now seemed like as good a time as any to revive my blogging attempts. Hopefully it will stick a little better this time.

There has been a fantastic year and a half of life that happened since my last post. The thought of trying to catch all of that up is daunting, to say the least. So my plan is to start where we are, and then every other (or maybe every third) post go back and write up some of my notes from that time. Those memories are too precious to just give up on altogether. So bear with me please as I try and figure this out.

So, to start off on our current whirlwind adventure. We have picked up and moved from Alexandria, VA, to Lehi, UT. Chris got a phenomenal job offer with an MLM software company in Orem, and as much as we loved the area we were in, it was right for us to move. I know we were being directed by Heavenly Father, and it will be fantastic to be so close to our families. More on just how much Lindsay loves it in a minute.

Right now it all seems a little surreal to me; like we’ll be heading back to Virginia after a long spring vacation in the next few days. That’s part of the problem with being as spoiled as we were with how often and how long we were able to come visit family when we lived back East. I’m still missing it lots, and all our awesome friends back there. However, my excitement for Utah has finally started to get some traction. It took a few weeks longer than I expected (why I expected to be excited about packing, looking back now, I don’t know…), but things are starting to really move now and that’s helped a lot.

The biggest thing, I think, was that Chris and I went and signed closing papers for our first home today! I still get a little headrush when I think about it, but I think it’s a good thing. A word of advice: sign your name exactly the way it’s printed on the documents. Adding your middle initial apparently makes lenders, banks, or other organizations that are processing the paperwork unhappy. And requires you to resign a lot of documents. (Fortunately, we caught that about a third of the way in, instead of at the very end.)

Maybe I’ll update this post tomorrow when everything’s been officially processed and we’ve got the keys. Because that will truly be an exciting moment. We did get to walk through the house one final time this morning before signing, and it was kind of fun to look at it this time and know that the ideas for how to make it ours could actually come to something. Speaking of which, I’m taking suggestions on color schemes and carpet for a master bedroom, two kids bedrooms (one girl and one hypothetical child) and a living room, but only for the next 48 hours. Call, text, email, Facebook, or comment, by Wednesday if you’d like to share your thoughts. 🙂 And a miracle happened, and I figured out how to add pictures! They’re not fantastic, but it’ll give you an idea.

As a starting point, here’s what we’ve kicked around as ideas so far:

Master bedroom/bath: a dark blue and a seafoam green, still looking for a way to tie them together.

Child bedroom 1: Lavendar/lilac purple and sage green, still looking for carpet ideas. (I like the pink and brown currently, but it’s just not quite the right shade for me to want to keep it.)

Child bedroom 2: help?

Shared bath: yellow and navy (Oh! I just thought of yellow duckies in sailor hats! This could be fun!)

Living area (this is our entryway, living room, and opens to the kitchen, which is where I took this picture): deep, earth-toned red and a warm neutral, tan- or beige-ish.

Anyway, I’m definitely open to some ideas if anyone has them, because the only color scheme I’m decided on is the purple-green one. And we’ll discuss the basement and yard in another post, as they’re both going to be rather large projects unto themselves… In the meantime, I think I’ll leave you hear dear readers, and write about the move and what we’ve been up to while the house went through next time. Including full detail of how Lindsay has become the boss, regardless of which grandma’s house we’re at, and how much she loves being the center of attention.

Love,

the Rawlins

Can we go home yet?

Hello dear readers,

I’ve let this slip much more than anticipated. I’ll do my best to catch us up as quickly as possible.

That first night they took me down to look for blood clots in my legs, just as a precaution. I was still fighting off anesthetic, not to mention no sleep, six or so hours of labor, and some major abdominal surgery. I was out as soon as they wheeled me down there. I also think that was the last restful sleep I got for the next four days.

Coming back to the room, my poor baby girl was hungry and screaming for me. The timing for taking me was not in her schedule and she let us know. Poor Chris was doing his best, but there’s only so much he could do. It was kind of an awesome feeling to be able to comfort her though.

From that point on, it was waking every three hours to feed her (she got hungry like clockwork) and writing down feeding times and wet diapers on the log the nurses gave us. And then in between they would come in and give me painkillers. And in between that someone else would come in and take my vitals to make sure I didn’t have an infection. Apparently my heart rate did some funky things the first 36 hours or so after surgery.

Basically, we never slept, even when the night nurses had her in the nursery for the three hours stretches. And often when I’d finally feel like I was drifting off, the pediatrician would come in to check on baby, and we’d be awake again.

Also, there’s this phenomenon that no one told me about called cluster feeding. What happens is that the second night of your baby’s life, they decide that they need to nurse constantly for about eight hours. I would feed her, and after a few minutes she’d start to cry. So we’d switch sides, and repeat. All. Night. Long. I thought I was broken and that my baby was starving. Fortunately, a lactation consultant came and saw me in the morning, and told me that was perfectly normal, not to worry about it, and that she was surprised that the nurses hasn’t explained cluster feeding to me. I was just relieved that this wasn’t going to be a regular thing and that my baby was fine.

Most of the nurses were great while we were there, and took good care of us. And Monday Dr. Wolf came to see me, and that was nice. The doctor that delivered me had said I probably would not want to try for a natural birth because of my C-section and had said something about how I’d torn during surgery, and that was kind of scary. She was able to reassure me that it was too soon to be able to tell something like that and there were too many factors that could play into it to even worry about it. And honestly, I wanted to cry just thinking about going through all of this again. If you had to decide of you were going to have a second child while still in the hospital, I think most of us would be an only child.

When I was talking to Josie, I think, she told me that it was way too soon and too close to even think about that.

There were too many sweet things to focus on anyway, like seeing who she looked like most and discovering the dimple in her cheek while she ate.

They encouraged me to walk, and so we’d take some very slow laps around the ward, pushing the bassinet and my IV pole, talking about names and singing her her first lullaby. It was in French, so you’ll have to ask Chris what it was.

It took us nearly two days to finally decide what her name was. We’d had a short list, and has almost decided on Evelyn, or maybe Elizabeth. But the more I looked at her and held her and talked to her, the less she looked like either of those names.

We had tossed out Lindsay Dawn as an idea, but neither of us were sure we wanted to make the jump on Lindsay. Chris was really hoping to give it to a son as a middle name, and I loved that idea too. But baby girl had other plans, and so Lindsay she became.

Kerri was able to come out the day before we were able to go home, and that was wonderful, knowing that someone would be able to be there and help me while Chris was in class. I think there aren’t many things more awesome than watching a grandparent meet a grandbaby for the first time. I loved getting to experience that four times, and then some if you count meeting her great-grandparents.

I should also mention that while we were still in the hospital, Chris was working like mad on a mock trial brief. That was due in a few days. That he should have gotten three weeks earlier. Great timing, no? Yeah, we weren’t thrilled with the people running the show either.

Getting out of the hospital was also an adventure. Dr. Wolf had come to see me in the afternoon, and had given us a soft release. That meant we could have gone home that night, or we could wait till the next day.

Because it was already late afternoon, we opted for the next day. That was a big mistake. Even considering the insane cluster feeding night, I remember that being the worst night we’d had yet. It may have just been the exhaustion settling in, coupled with a nurse who had no concept of speaking quietly or leaving lights off in the middle of the night, but home would have been so much better.

And then in the morning we had everything about ready to go and asked the nurse what we needed to do to be discharged. She said she needed 10 minutes to get paperwork together, and we said great, here’s the 10 minute warning. Lindsay had just finished nursing and was asleep, and we were ready to go. We signed the paperwork, and waited for the required wheelchair to take me down. And we waited. And waited. And waited.

Chris took everything down to the car, so all we would have to load would be me and Lindsay. We didn’t even have an extra blanket or pacifier with us. And finally the wheelchair came, but it had been long enough that Lindsay was starting to get hungry again.

For reasons that I can’t quite fathom, they wouldn’t let us go to the garage; Chris had to leave us with the nurse at the hospital entrance and go pull the car around. Lindsay was getting madder by the second, and there was nothing I could do. I felt horrible, and like the nurse was glaring at me because I wasn’t taking care of my baby. I was so frustrated, and sad that we weren’t going to get a cute “coming home from the hospital” picture, and annoyed that we had to wait so long to leave. It broke my heart listening to those newborn cries, just waiting for people to move so we could go home. As soon as we were loaded in the car, we were on the hunt for a parking lot to pull over and take care of her. For the record, those are ridiculously hard to come by around here. Fortunately, Dr. Wolf’s office is close and was a good spot to stop.

And then, at last, we were home. And I’ll leave you there for now.

Love,
The Rawlins

And life will never be the same again, part II

Hello again,

See, I’m doing better! We’ll see how long it lasts.

So, to pick up our story, the doctor had just dropped the C-bomb on us. Not something I wanted to hear, but I was pretty worn out and didn’t have the energy to freak out.

He’d laid out a pretty convincing case, but I still wanted a minute to think about it. We asked for some privacy to talk about it, and said a prayer. Chris was so sweet and supportive. I was so glad that he was right there for me. After praying and talking for a minute, we felt good about going forward with it.

So, surgery prep began. Chris packed up all our stuff and we were off down the hallway. They took me right into the OR, but Chris had to scrub and dress, so I was by myself for a bit. There was a lot of bustling that went on that I couldn’t see from the table, and losing feeling in my legs when they amped up my epidural was weird. I felt like the anesthesiologist was the only one who remembered I was there and awake, because she would talk to me. I think the labor nurse was helping Chris get ready.

They did a prick test to make sure I was numb, and that was the scariest thing. I felt the prick on my left side. When I said something, they told me I’d feel pressure and not to worry; it wasn’t just pressure I felt though. I said, “no, it’s sharp right there.” So they pricked my shoulder to give me a point of reference. They were pretty surprised when I told them it was actually sharp. So even more anesthetic went in.

And I know I said I’d never been happier to see Chris as when he got back from parking the car to triage, but I was wrong. It really was when they let him come hold my hand in that OR. I was starting to get more nervous about being cut open. Especially because my baby had crowned a little bit, so it was going to be a challenge to pull her up and out of me.

I started to feel really queasy then. They had given me a tray just in case I needed to throw up, but I thought to myself, “I haven’t thrown up once this entire pregnancy. I’m not going to ruin that and do it now!” I should note that I was kind of surprised that my determination won out on that battle, because there was a lot happening to my body right then.

Once the operation started, that’s when the freaking out began in earnest. Chris was so amazing. I had him distract me with one of the relaxation techniques we’d learned. It helped, but I don’t think anything can completely remove you from having someone reach into you and pull out a squirming 8 pound baby. Even though I was numbed and it wasn’t painful, it was still incredibly unpleasant and just weird.

But that all was nothing to when they said she was out, and I waited to hear that first cry. I doubt it was even a second, but I was still so anxious. And then there she was, screaming at the top of her lungs in that adorable newborn way. There really are no words to describe how incredible that moment was. My heart just wanted to comfort her and hold her close. I was sad that all I could do was look over when Chris left my side to go be by hers. Another reason to not want surgery…

Chris later told me that the nurses had to tell him to get out the camera and start taking pictures. I’d bet most first-time dads are the same way though.

After they weighed and measured and cleaned her up a bit (amazing that it all only takes about 5 minutes, APGAR included) Chris was able to bring her over to me, still on the surgery table. I imagine that they were working on putting me back together, but all I can remember is seeing my beautiful baby girl and wishing so badly I could hold her. She was born at 1:51 p.m. on September 1, 8lbs 1 oz. and 21 inches long. She also got a 9 and 10 on the APGAR, which is pretty darn amazing. That’s a test they do to rate how healthy-looking babies are, I think is the best way to describe it, and tens are rare according to the doctor that delivered me.

After only a few minutes, they told us that Chris and baby girl had to go wait for me in recovery. It was hard watching them go, and being in there by myself. I was so exhausted and had so much anesthetic going on, I’m pretty sure I fell asleep, even though I was trying not to. I’m not sure why, but it seemed that it took a lot longer for me to be put back together than it should have. In our birthing class, we were told that it typically takes about 45 minutes after a C-section for mom and baby to be reunited. Chris tells me we were closer to an hour and twenty minutes.

I was so happy to get to recovery and see my little family (there are three of us now! That’s so crazy awesome!) and finally get to hold my angel. I don’t know if I’ve ever been happier. Feeling that little life pressed against me was incredible. And apparently she had missed me. Chris said that while they were waiting for me, he would walk back and forth up the hallway with her. She would start to fuss and cry a little, but then he’d calm her down. He said it was like she was looking for me.

There’s also another funny story that happened here. Well, funny now. I’m told it wasn’t at the time. When we packed up to leave the labor room for the OR, they had Chris put everything on a gurney that went in there with us. That includes our phones. And naturally, we had let the parents know that we were going in for a c-section. But when Chris left the OR, he didn’t have a way of getting back in and didn’t think about taking the phone with him. While they were waiting for me in recovery, one of the nurses called out, “Is there a Mr. Rawlins here? Your mother-in-law is on the phone.” My poor parents were at a family reunion and waiting for news. After a while, one of my awesome cousins started calling around to northern Virginia hospitals looking for us because they hasn’t heard from us for so long. Chris felt so bad, but now it makes for a good laugh.

While it was wonderful to be together, we were all exhausted. It seemed like we had to wait in recovery for a ridiculously long time. They were waiting to make sure I got feeling back in my legs and to be sure they hadn’t nicked something inside of me. When we finally got the ok to head up to a room, it took another forever for someone to come and get us. But then, finally, we were in the room. It was so nice knowing we wouldn’t have to move again.

And I think I’ll pick up with the rest of the hospital stay for next time.

Love, the Rawlins

And life will never be the same again

Hello Everyone,

I know this is long overdue, but we’ve been very busy here. I’m going to try and catch up in smaller bites, rather than my usual mega-posts. Not sure if I can do it, but I’m going to try. 🙂 So, here goes the story I’ve told more times in the last few months than I thought possible (for those of you who haven’t heard it, or who want to hear it again, or posterity, or whatever).

The week before Lindsay was born was possibly the longest week of my life. I was so ready to meet my little girl, and so so ready to be done being pregnant. Chris was finished with his summer internship and hadn’t started classes yet, so I was also hoping that she’d come early so we’d have some time before he had to go back. Each morning I would wake up and just be bitterly disappointed that I hadn’t gone into labor during the night, knowing it wasn’t going to be that day. Not sure why I didn’t think I’d go into labor in the middle of the day, but I just didn’t. Something about the movies and how I remember my younger siblings coming into the world. You’ll have to ask my Mom if I imagined that part though.

People kept telling me that it would happen when I wasn’t waiting for it and giving me suggestions to help induce labor, from eggplant parmesan to taking the stairs up 5 flights. There’s a really bumpy road by our apartment that I was starting to eye as well.

It was Friday night and Chris and I were watching Firefly before going to bed. I’d already resigned myself again that it wasn’t going to be that day, so staying up till 1 a.m. didn’t seem like such a bad idea.

Well, when I woke up at around 3 a.m. in the worst pain I’d ever experienced in my life, that didn’t seem so smart anymore.

Just an aside here: There’s this whole period of labor that I’d never heard of till our birthing class. Pre-labor I believe is the term. This is where you’re having noticeable contractions but they’re irregular and usually not painful. This is supposed to last for several hours before active labor (the painful contractions) begins. I never knew this existed till a few weeks before Lindsay was born.

As you may have gathered, my body skipped that part. I’d noticed the occasional Braxton Hicks contraction for the last few weeks, but nothing to indicate I was in labor before waking up feeling like my insides were trying to kill me.

I woke Chris up and told him I felt like I was dying, but when it started to pass we tried to go back to sleep. We weren’t sure it was labor. Until about 20 minutes later when the second one hit.

At that point we figured we should start timing contractions. 15 minutes, then seven, then five. That was a fun hour… Chris was great. He finished up the last minute packing stuff, and even found a free iPad app to help time and rate the intensity of my contractions.

So after a half hour or so of intense contractions coming about five minutes apart we were ready to go to the hospital.

I’d tried calling my doctor, but she wasn’t on call that weekend. Sad 😦 And it was impossible to figure out the phone tree menu for the doctor that was on call. In the birthing class they made a point of calling your doctor before going to the hospital. So we called my mom instead.

When we’d explained what had been going on for the last two hours and that the contractions were coming as fast as they were, she told us we needed to get on the road right then.

Fortunately we were standing by the door with packed bags, so we went. I was having contractions so fast that I wasn’t paying much attention to anything else. Chris had given me the iPad to time them, and as we were getting on the freeway a box popped up that wouldn’t let me time anymore. Once I was able to read it, I would have laughed had I not been having another contraction. “The lite version of this app can only count 20 contractions. Would you like to upgrade to the full version now?” That’s about what it said.

Seeing as we were already on our way to the hospital, we decided not to spend any more time on the worst bait-and-switch I’ve ever seen.

One of the things our hospital touted was valet parking for patients in labor. Except for not that early in the morning or on weekends. Go figure. They let Chris leave the car there while he was checking me in though, thank heaven. I had to stop and have a contraction outside the door and another at the check in desk; good thing they were used to that.

Then it was up the elevator. While I was having another contraction against the wall, Chris talked to the desk that checked me in to triage. Fortunately, by the time I caught up we were moving into triage. I was so beyond miserable at this point. I would have cried but I was too tired and in too much pain. The nurses were nice, I’m sure, but I just wanted to be done. They got me on a bed and examined me to decided if we were staying, and at that point Chris had to go park the car. I was dilated to a six, and they asked if I wanted an epidural. When I said yes, they said they’d call my doctor to clear it. I just thought, “how come you can get ahold of her if I can’t?”

And then I was lying there alone in pain. Probably not for very long, but I was not happy about it at all. I don’t know if I’d ever been happier to see Chris as when he got back then.

By that time, they had assigned me a room and I was pretty happy about being wheeled out of triage. It’s comforting having a place you know you’ll be for a while. Plus the rooms are a very nice purple and green decor, which I was attracted too. I am not a big hospital fan, so something other than white walls was appealing.

Every time someone came in to check on me or set something up, I asked about the epidural. I think I started getting on their nerves… But it hurt, and I’d heard horror stories of the anesthesiologist never showing up, so I kept asking. Fortunately for me, she did come and I did get the painkillers. Side note, the release they make you sign for those is terrifying, which is why I think they only have you read it when you’re already in so much pain you don’t care.

The next bit is a little bit foggy, because I could relax. I still felt the contractions, but there was no more pain. I met the doctor and my labor nurse, and almost fell asleep to the sound of my little girl’s heartbeat. They had to break my water and saw a little bit of meconium, but the doctor said he wasn’t worried. It was a calm, peaceful two or three hours.

And then I finished dilating.

Pushing was not exactly what I expected it to be… Plus it seemed like it would never end. I guess I expected to be moved a little more and it to go pretty quickly because the rest of labor had so far. However, after two and a half exhausting hours, baby girl had decided not to move any farther.

Another thing I learned during this is that you hardly see the doctor while in labor. After checking on me at that point, I think I remember some “discussion” going on in the hallway. Baby girl’s heartbeat had started dropping during contractions. She was also sunny-side up, which was probably a big contributor to the not descending situation. Combine that with the fact that her heart rate was spiking when I wasn’t having a contraction and now that meconium was a reason to worry, it was kind of scary when the doctor came in to discuss all of this with us.

Based on all of that, he felt that we needed to get her out fast, and that it was time to consider an emergency C-section.

And here, dear readers we will pause. I’m sorry for the cliffhanger but a break must be taken. I’ll finish the story soon, I promise.

Love, the Rawlins

Why would a Jammie have a hat?!

Hello everyone!

I’m going to try and get caught up here, but we’ll see how that goes…

So, to pick up from the “notes” I left myself last time, let’s get started with Wolftrap. As a refresher, this is a National Park for the Performing Arts, and is a pretty sweet outdoor venue. They host the National Symphony Orchestra out here, as well as other awesome performances over the summer. I think I mentioned our Father’s Day attendance of Riverdance there before. Anyway, if you buy tickets to three NSO shows, you can get a good discount. We figured this would be our last summer to be able to just pick up and go to things like this, and there were a bunch of awesome shows to pick from, so we decided to take advantage of that. It was probably a good thing we didn’t know what the weather would be like.

The first show was call “Broadway Rocks” and the program was classic rock songs that have been either written for or put into Broadway shows. It was fabulous, even though it was like 100° and humid. (I will note that I started doubting it would be enjoyable for someone as pregnant as me to enjoy the other two shows if it stayed this hot. Which it did. 😦 not so fun for me.) So they had four Broadway singers, and the NSO and some spiffy choir from DC (I wish I could remember, but the name escapes me at the moment). One of the singers is the lead from the Trans-Siberian Orchestra, and that was neat. And one other random factoid before I move on, we also learned that night that Total Eclipse of the Heart (the Bonnie Tyler, “Bright Eyes” song) was totally written about vampires. Wikipedia says so, so it must be true. (The journalist in me just cried a little at that, but for a personal blog I’m ok using that as a source.) Also, I would like to point out that the song makes a whole lot more sense when you think about it from that perspective.¹ That concert was sometime around the end of June.

After that, continuing with the Wolftrap motif, we saw the NSO perform Holst’s The Planets the first weekend in August. This was serendipitous timing (or more likely it was planned carefully between NASA and the NSO, but I like to use serendipity as much as possible) because Chris had heard about the new Mars rover Curiosity’s upcoming landing. This concert was cool because they showed high-def pictures from NASA of each of the planets as their movement was played. Chris had just heard about the “Seven Minutes of Terror” video²  and was trying to get me excited by telling me about how cool and precise and exciting that was going to be, and how perfect it was that we were coming to see this show. I was really hot, kind of uncomfortable (pregnancy does that to you) and annoyed because of work and other circumstances getting to the show. So I wasn’t catching the enthusiasm. But the NSO is very good, and the first act was actually another suite about the desert or the Grand Canyon or something, and I quite enjoyed it. Then, here’s where the serendipity comes in, the director of NASA comes out onto the stage and presents the NSO director with a really cool award and a medal for their collaboration on things like this concert. And then they played a short piece that accompanied the aforementioned Seven Minutes of Terror, depicting how Curiosity was supposed to land (spoiler, apparently it made it and was super awesome) and that was pretty neat. And then watching the pictures of the planets was cool too. But I was so ready to go home when it was over. My feet had started swelling, and I was exhausted.

The third show, about a week later, was a screening of West Side Story, where they dropped out the music track and replaced it with the live symphony. I was still hot and not entirely sure I wanted to be there, but was trying to be a good sport. And it was cool to hear the Orchestra, and very impressive with how well they stayed on with the movie. And I can tell I’m hormonal, because I cried at the end when Tony dies.³ I never do that.

So, that wraps up our culture for the summer, and the conclusion I made is: don’t plan on going to outdoor summer shows when you’re pregnant, because they’re much harder to enjoy when it’s super hot. Also, during record-breaking hot summers, this is especially bad. But good music is worthwhile, even under those circumstances.

Now to our next subject! There were some crazy storms earlier this summer. They were more damaging than the hurricane last year, I think, because so many trees got taken out. Chris and I went to the top floor and watched the first one for a while, and the lightning was crazy. I’ve never seen anything like it. It actually blew out the windows of one of the apartments in our complex, and I’m pretty sure we saw a transistor or something explode and throw sparks as well. The power grid was pretty devastated, and most people in the DC metropolitan area and even beyond lost power for several days. There were a few very lucky areas (our apartment fell into that group) that only lost power for a little while. I think we were down for a minute or so. We didn’t realize how bad it was until the next day though. We decided to try and get one last temple trip in before it closed for summer maintenance, and while we were driving we saw tons of tree limbs all over. When we got into Maryland, though, it really hit us. Streetlights weren’t working, and tons of the restaurants in the area had signs in the door, “Closed, no power.” We were starting to think that we wouldn’t be going to the temple today, but tried anyway. When we got there though, the gates were closed. We weren’t surprised, but a little disappointed. Fortunately, we had planned to do some other things that day, so we got more out of our Saturday than just a nice drive. And by that, I mean we went to lunch (there were still some restaurants that were open) and Buy Buy Baby. That store is almost overwhelming, but fortunately their staff is really great. So we got some ideas to finish our registry, and picked out a car seat.

Church was cut short the next day (which kind of surprised me, because the building still had AC and that would have been welcome to most people) and those of us that had power volunteered our homes to those who didn’t and wanted a cool place to be for a while.

That note is also a good segue into my next topic. We ended up staying at church later that day because Chris got a new calling as the assistant ward clerk for finance. They did release him from Nursery, but not me. Which we were kind of confused by, but they’re still trying to find someone to replace us, so they needed me to stay as long as possible. Which I tried to do, but honestly, with our kids and our numbers, two weeks ago I feel like I hit my limit. I think the bishopric may have forgotten that I hadn’t been released yet, so when I asked Bishop what the plan was for me, he took care of that last Sunday. When I get sustained tomorrow (assuming I pass), I’ll update you all on my new, very low-key calling.

In the meantime, back to everybody’s favorite subject right now: All things Baby! I know this post is already waxing long, so I’ll try and keep a rein on my excitement. I’ve had two more showers since the last post, one from the awesome women in my ward and then one from work. And holy taledo† do I feel spoiled. I wish I could describe all of the adorable clothes and bows and hats we got from the showers, but words just won’t do them justice. Don’t worry, I’ll find a way to post pictures where everyone can see and enjoy the cuteness of her actually wearing them. And we got a ton of other fun stuff too. Toys and blankets, and brushes and nail clippers, and things I never would have though of (like 1 ounce containers for baby food and a Boppy pillow). I’m surrounded by wonderful people. And on top of that, we got a coupon from Buy Buy Baby to get 10% off finishing our baby registry, so were able to go and get things that way as well. I actually kind of feel prepared as far as “home” goes for her arrival. If only we can decide on a “coming home” outfit‡ for both of us now, we’ll be in grand shape. Though I still need a few more days at work, at least, before I can really say I feel ready. Well, as ready as you can ever feel in a case like this, I guess.

Also, with August came the transition to weekly doctor visits. Woot. At 37 weeks, I’ve started to dilate a tiny bit, so I’m hoping this week will have news that I’ve dilated a bit more. Physically, I’m ready to be done being pregnant. But it’s really up to Baby at this point. My doctor has said it could be any time now, but that could also mean like three weeks from now as well. So any good vibes to help encourage her to come a little early would be fine by me! Especially because Chris has finished his internship and has the next two weeks off before school starts. And by off, we mean getting ready for baby and school, cleaning a lot, and generally being the best husband ever and doing all the “nesting” things I would like to do if I wasn’t at work. He’s amazing, and can think more clearly and remember things I can’t, so we’re probably getting more done this way than we would if I were home and doing that. You should see the spreadsheet he’s created of clothing we have, and the correlated sections on the shelves we have for her. (Also, he’s managed to create a definition that separates jammies from onesies from footed onesies.)º

Oh, and I also got more blood drawn and had a follow up with the hematologist this week. I’m responding really well to the iron treatment (apparently what happens is your body slowly uses the iron they pump into you to build new red blood cells over time, which I didn’t know) and things are looking good. I’m still anemic, but only by like one point, and that’s pretty normal for women during pregnancy. So I might even be at a normal level by the time baby comes. They do still want to see me in about a month, after the delivery though. Just in case, I guess.

Well folks, that’s all the news I can think of for now. I’ll try and keep you all as updated as possible on any exciting developments, though at this point I feel like there’s only one big development left!

Love you all,

The Rawlins

 

1 – And this also casts a really interesting perspective on my childhood, since Bonnie Tyler is one of my parents’ favorite artists and I grew up listening to this song.

2 – You should watch this video, whether you’ve already seen it or not. I provided the hyperlink for you.

3 – SPOILER ALERT…oh too late.

† – I feel that the appropriate way to spell this is “toledo,” but we weren’t sure what reference could provide a definitive answer. Seriously though, we are very grateful for all of the wonderful people who have been so supportive and gracious. We feel very blessed being surrounded by so many great individuals.

‡ – Baby clothes can be kind of ridiculous, but more on this later.

º – The spreadsheet shows how many of each item we have per age group. The visual representation is provided by a segmented bar graph. The difficulty comes in trying to account for functional overlap. For example, a light blue garment with long sleeves, footed legs, and little bows on the collar strikes me as a jammie, but it comes with a matching hat! Why would a jammie have a hat?! It’s hard to tell. And don’t even get me started on sizes.

And you thought I was scatter-brained before

Hello Dear Readers,

I know I promised shorter and more frequent updates to you all about three months ago. Unfortunately, that was before my brain checked out for the rest of the pregnancy. I’ve had lots of friends reassure me that “pregnancy brain” is real, so we’re going to roll with that idea, k?

However, with only six weeks (6! Seriously! I can’t believe it either…) left until the big Due Date, I’m hoping I can try and do a little bit better about keeping everyone updated. Wish me luck.

So I believe the easiest thing will be to try and pick up where we left off, at about 22 weeks. Or at least hit the highlight reel.

This was the visit-the-doctor-once-a-month phase, and they really were easy visits. We’d go in, listen to her heartbeat and the doctor praising how good she sounded, ask the one or two questions we remembered discussing earlier in the week, and then be on our way.

It still is the coolest thing to go in and hear a heartbeat that belongs to our child. I think the world would be a happier and more peaceful place if more people could experience that miracle.

My morning sickness also kept diminishing over time, which is kind of weird and very nice. I honestly think I’ve had one of the easiest pregnancies I’ve ever heard of. I don’t know why that’s the case, but I’m grateful- especially because even I have found pregnancy to be very uncomfortable, so I can’t imagine what some friends have had to put up with. Props to all you amazing women out there.

And while I was crazy tired all the time (still kind of am, but more on that in a minute), I’ve got to say I’d take fatigue over nausea every time. I’d read that often you feel the best, or most normal, during the second trimester. I’m still waiting on that round of energy they said happens though…

This stretch of the pregnancy seems to have lasted the longest for me. It never felt like my due date was getting any closer, or that my belly was getting any bigger, or that anything was even changing. During this time I also wondered why people kept asking, “Are you so ready to be done? Everyone I talk to is always so ready to be done.” I’ve decided that is a stage that all pregnant women arrive at, because I understand it now. It just took me getting to 32 weeks first.

April and May must have been fairly uneventful as well, because Chris and I can’t remember anything exciting we did off the top of our heads, though I’m sure there were fun things in there somewhere.

The end of May is when things really started picking up. We were able to come home over Memorial Day weekend, and that was a lot of fun. It was a whirlwind trip though, and we were sad that we didn’t have time to see very many people. We were kind of booked between baby showers, family photos, and seeing the new house in Lehi. Funny side note is that it was also the first (and to date, only) time a stranger has touched my belly. Granted, it was the airport security guard, which for some reason made it much less weird for me, but still. I’m still of the opinion that up until that point people weren’t sure if I was pregnant or just getting chunky.

We also decided that when we got home, we were essentially “grounded” for the rest of the pregnancy. Honestly, I don’t recommend flying while pregnant at all if one can help it. That was one of the most uncomfortable experiences of my life.

Fortunately, I didn’t have to fly anymore. My bosses decided that it wasn’t necessary for me to go to Annual Meeting in Texas the first weekend in June. I’ll admit I was a little bit sad to miss out on the experience and the chance to meet people in person, but overall I was just very happy to be able to stay home and work normal office hours.

That was also when we made the transition from once-a-month doctor visits to twice-a-month doctor visits. And here’s where the fun parts begin…

As most of you know¹, it’s standard procedure to have another round of bloodwork done right around the end of your second trimester to check for gestational diabetes, among other things. But still, people only talk about the glucose test and the yucky orange syrup you have to drink. Maybe it’s because I still like the same soda flavors I liked as a six-year-old, but I didn’t think it was that bad. I’d mentioned that I hadn’t felt baby move as much in the last day or two, but I also speculated that was more due to the fact that work was really busy (pre- and post-meeting rushes) and I probably just hadn’t noticed her. The doctor wanted to check my amniotic fluid just in case though, so into the sonogram room we went. The takeaway from that sonogram was that baby was sitting breach, but still had plenty of time to flip. However, we wanted to keep an eye on that and so all of my appointments from then on were scheduled to include a sonogram.

The other take away is that I really hate getting my blood drawn, but am grateful for good nurses that can find a vein really fast.

Cut to the next appointment at the beginning of July when my bloodwork came back. The good news: I’m not diabetic (much rejoicing!) and things are going well in that regard. The bad news: I’m very anemic (but is anyone really surprised by that? Yeah, didn’t think so)² and need an iron supplement. Ok, a little bit more than an iron supplement. My doctor said that I’d most likely be fine during delivery, but if there was a “catastrophe situation” (yes, that is a direct quote, I’m not the one being dramatic here) then I’d have to have a blood transfusion. So she wanted me to go see a hematologist.

Maybe because I was expecting the anemia, and knowing my Mom’s stories about her anemia, I wasn’t really fazed by this, and took longer to make the appointment than I probably should have. But I eventually made it there, got my blood drawn again, and was told that I would probably have to go through one of three options.

A) increasing my oral iron supplement

B) several small doses of IV iron over the course of a week or so

C) an all-day IV does of iron to try and get all I needed done at once

I’ll give you one guess which one I needed.

The doctor said the goal would be to bring up my levels as quickly as possible because we were so close to my due date, and as soon as I heard that I was almost 100% sure I’d be getting the last option. So when they called me a few days later with my test results, I wasn’t at all surprised when they wanted to schedule the marathon treatment.

So on Tuesday I made Chris take a day off from his internship and come sit with me while I spent almost seven hours hooked up to an IV pump. There was another lady having an iron treatment as well. There were also several cancer patients that were in and out throughout the day as well. In the afternoon several of us got talking about breast cancer, because one of the ladies there was having her final chemo treatment. It was a neat conversation, because we were all able to share how our lives had been affected by the same thing in different ways. I loved how much hope was in the room though. We had a whole spectrum of experiences, from one lady (there with her mother, who was having a treatment) that was several years past it, to the lady on her last treatment and prepping for radiation, to me watching it as the teenage daughter when my Mom had breast cancer. I didn’t think much about it at the time, but reflecting on it now I feel like it reaffirmed my testimony of how mindful the Lord is of us and how our trials are tailored to our needs, weaknesses, and strengths. It’s one of those situations where I don’t know if I should be able to say, “I’m really grateful I was there,” or, “I feel like I was there to share my perspective and a little bit about the Gospel.” I feel like it was more an unplanned, uninspired even, situation where the Spirit was able to touch me anyway, and I was able to talk about things that are important to me. No, I didn’t really share my testimony or invite them to investigate more about the Church or anything, but I was able to talk about genealogy of all things, and hope that they remembered something good about me as a Mormon because of it.³

Anyway, I’ll stop waxing philosophical now and move on. Wednesday morning was another adventure, because we had a regular doctor’s appointment, and Nancy told me not to worry about coming in until afterward. So, drumroll please… I actually drove into Washington, D.C. to pick Chris up. And I didn’t even die! Or even get lost! (I am not counting the part where I overshot the intersection I was going to meet Chris at and had to figure out how to turn around on a one-way street as lost.) But I still say I hate driving in the city and hope to not have to do it very often (I’d say ever again, but I’m more realistic than that). The doctor’s appointment itself was a happy uneventful one. 4

Oh, I just realized that I got so involved in the recent blood drama (which is hopefully done now) that I missed some other fun highlights.

First of all, baby went from a breach position to a pike position (like a diver) with her head and feet on the right side of my ribcage, to head down like she’s supposed to be, and has stayed there so far! Yay!

Second, we had our birthing classes, and that was good to do. I feel more prepared, and I think Chris does as well. Our hospital tour is coming up soon, and that will be nice as well.

Third, I’ve had a few random strangers congratulate me on the street, which still is kind of funny to me. Related to that, I’m usually always offered a seat on the Metro these days, so I feel like I do finally look pregnant.

There’s a Fourth about our Wolftrap adventures, but we have another one of those tomorrow so I think I might save it and give them their own post. Plus there’s a Fifth about the crazy storm that knocked out power to millions of people in the area, but that definitely merits it’s own post. Oh, and a Sixth about Church calling updates. Which I think is a pretty good indicator that it’s time for bed tonight, and I’ll fill in the gaps I mentioned (and probably others) in my next post. Assuming I can remember to write in a timely enough manner to do so… I promise I’ll try really hard!

In the meantime, love to you all!

The Rawlins

 

1- Or you may not know. I, for example, did not know this.

2- She says this because her mom was very anemic when she was pregnant. We should have known though; my wife is a prolific ice-chewer.

3-It did come up that we were members of the Church. Lacie is right, this was a very nice conversation. She did a great job. (I mostly just listened).

4- Sorry, I couldn’t figure out how to make a superscript 4. Yes, Lacie did drive into D.C. I’m very proud of her. Also, during the doctor’s visit, the doctor reconfirmed that we are having a girl. Lacie and I had heard that boys were sometimes thought to be girls based on the sonogram, so I appreciated the confirmation. So we can move ahead with cute baby girl clothes and a name. The short list for the name, by the way, is Lindsey, Evelyn, Elizabeth, Kaitlyn. Lacie likes Lindsey. I like it too, but as some of you may know, my middle name is Lindsay, and so I had always kind of planned as using it as a middle name for a son (it is also my dad’s middle name and my grandfather’s first name). I still think of a boy when I say the name Lindsay. I like Evelyn. We both like the other two, and right now they’re kind of serving as backups in case neither of us can convince the other to go with Lindsey or Evelyn. Feel free to contribute to this discussion in the comments. (Also, her middle name will most likely be Dawn, which is Lacie’s middle name).

So I drank the water….

Hello everyone!

I”m really sorry, because this post is long overdue. I think, to make up for lost time, we’ll cut to the chase, and then for those interested we can go back and tell the whole story, ok? Deal.

So, the big news–I imagine most, if not all of you actually already know this by now– but Chris and I are going to have a baby in September! AAHHHH!!!!! And the rest of the big news (no, it is NOT twins) is that we are having a little girl!!!!!!

(On a random side note, I wonder if/how grammar and punctuation are going to change to accommodate accidental emoticons. It took some creativity to avoid a potentially misleading frowny face in that last paragraph.)

We are both way super excited about it. I’d put down more adjectives, but the English minor in me had to draw a line somewhere. And, well, some moments I’m kind of scared out of my mind. Chris has been great to calm me down whenever I start to freak out, so it’s been mostly good so far. The scary part is that when I think about it, I only have about 4 more months to get ready, and I still feel like I have no idea where to start…

The official due date is September 5th. Name suggestions are being taken here, if you feel so inclined. 😀

Right now, I’m about 21 and 1/2 weeks, and feeling pretty good. I haven’t thrown up once, for which I am extremely grateful. We have digital pictures of sonograms, which can be emailed upon request. I couldn’t tell you why, but I’m just not comfortable posting them for the world to see. Oh, and the best way to do that would probably be to email me or Chris directly, or maybe message us through Facebook. I don’t always see notifications about comments right away.

I think that covers all the “breaking news” for the time being. So, dear readers, if you’d like to follow us on the whole journey, read on. If you’re ok just joining the program already in progress, stay tuned for the next post. 🙂

Ok, so I really hope I don’t get into TMI territory, but this is the first time I’ve ever done this, so wish us all luck.

We’ll start with telling the parents. Chris and I had scheduled my first doctor’s appointment earlier that afternoon. I think we were both kind of in a happy state of shock. I remember it being a very quiet day, in all honesty. That was, until we told the soon-to-be grandparents. The original plan was to just tell our parents, and not tell the siblings until after we’d been to the doctor. We wanted to keep it close for the first little while I guess. But that’s kind of hard to do when both of our mothers are screamers. I laughed really hard, because the scenario played out exactly the same way on both video chats. Mom screamed, and the at-home siblings come running in the room. Naturally, they all know what’s going on, so we then proceed to call the not-at-home siblings (except for Zane, because I don’t think his mission president would have approved the phone call). By a miracle, though, we were able to keep it to just our immediate families for the next two months.

I had been asking around about doctors because I was overdue for my yearly checkup anyway, and several people in our ward suggested my doctor. It was so great to go and see why. She’s fantastic, and even though it’s a bit of a drive to her office, I’m so happy with her. We did a sonogram that very first visit, and it’s amazing to me that we were able to hear a little tiny heartbeat at about seven weeks. I don’t think there’s anything like that experience in the whole world. It was so amazing to be holding Chris’s hand and listening to the new life we’re going to be responsible for. I hope I find the words to describe it someday, because awesome doesn’t even begin to cover it.

After that, it was funny how quickly I noticed pregnancy symptoms. The first trimester I felt like I was constantly motion sick. Sometimes I wished I could throw up and get some relief, but I’ve been told by many sources now that it doesn’t help. So I quickly came to terms with the constant “morning” sickness (yeah, possibly the biggest misnomer ever there) and was happy that it wasn’t worse. I also lost a lot of my appetite, but not in ways I expected. My sweet tooth all but disappeared, and I think I had the opposite of cravings–I was hungry, but all I could think of were foods that did not sound good at all. Can I just tell you how bizarre it is that I don’t really like broccoli right now? That is a completely new experience for me.

Also, I kind of wonder if my stomach shrunk or something, because I’d be eating and get about half-way through with my usual portions, and then one bite would signal to me, “Ok, we’re done here.” I’m still surprised by how suddenly I go from “eating” to “stuffed to the rafters.”

So all was going along well, until I started spotting one day. That freaked me out, and I think everyone who knew (still just parents at that point) and we scheduled an emergency doctor visit. This one sent us to the hospital women’s clinic. I was desperately trying to stay hopeful, but was still pretty terrified. I suspect this was the reason we hadn’t told a lot of people yet. During the exam, the nurse (or was she a technician? I’m not sure exactly what job description and training goes into this…) sounded pretty reassuring though. She did say that someone would go over the results with us after, but that what she saw was looking good. Fortunately, the nurse practitioner that did that said that everything looked great, and they couldn’t identify any causes for bleeding, so not to worry. I don’t think I’ve ever been more relieved in my life.

Those were some happy phone calls made after that appointment, because I think the parents had all been bracing for the worst. This was a great blessing for us.

We had our next regular appointment shortly after, and my doctor categorized it as we’re in the “easy” checkups now. Basically, we get to come in, listen to the heartbeat, and go over any questions we have. When we came in for the three-month checkup, our question was something to the effect of, “So we’ve been waiting until the first trimester was over to tell people…” and she didn’t even hesitate. “Go ahead and tell people. This is a good baby,” she said. So for my first wedding anniversary, I was able to call grandparents and let them know that a great-grand baby was on the way. That was also pretty awesome.

Things at the office have been pretty great as well. Nancy, my boss, has been super supportive and great to talk to about the whole thing. She’s brought in books from her pregnancy (her adorable daughter is about two now) and has brought in some of her old maternity clothes for me. It’s great to have someone right there to talk to about stuff like this, and to get a different perspective. I love that I have such a great work environment. It was fun when I started telling everyone else at the office too, because I work with mostly women. There’s a lot of excitement around babies because of that. 🙂

At the beginning of the second trimester, I noticed that I was feeling better in the mornings, but then the afternoons were a little bit worse. Kind of like the motion sickness had decided to condense into the last half of the day. Still, I wasn’t having to run to the restroom during the day, so no complaints here.

My parents and sisters came out to visit the week of Easter, and it just so happened that we had an appointment that week. Another testament to how great my doctor is, she arranged to do a sonogram in her office so Mom and Dad could be there. It was so amazing to see the difference in the images that were taken at 7 weeks and then at 18 ish weeks. You could actually tell that it was a baby this time, instead of just a vaguely humanoid shape. And the doctor was able to look and said she might be able to tell us gender.

I still laugh at the idea of us trying to wait and not find out until the baby was born, because I think the almost-grandparents, while trying their hardest to be supportive and not-pushy, would have been beyond annoyed. How else are they supposed to know what color to shop for? Plus, we wanted to know too, so we were happy that there was a chance to find out. Though baby almost didn’t cooperate. With the way the baby was sitting, the legs were in just the right position to hide it, according to the doctor. (Yes, the images were much more clear this time, but I still couldn’t tell exactly what I was looking at until the doctor explained things.) But at the last second, the baby moved, and we got a definitive, “Oh, she’s a girl! And that’s the last time she’s ever going to cooperate with you!” from the doctor. It was so fun having my parents in the room to see and hear that with us.

There are times, like that, where I wish we lived closer to family and could share more experiences with more family members. But Chris and I both love the area we live in and feel like we’re where we need to be, so I guess it just makes it that much sweeter when we get the best of both worlds.

Anyway, it was awesome to be able to finally put a pronoun to the baby. We still have no idea what we’re going to call her though (please see link to name suggestions above) so hopefully a stroke of genius will come along eventually. I think it might not be until she actually gets here that we’re able to decide though.

We had the 20 week ultrasound last week, and that was also a phenomenal experience. Technology is amazing, because I was able to see my little girl’s fingers and toes on each hand and foot. They can tell that her heart has four chambers and that her blood flow is where it’s supposed to be. They measured developing bones, and even took a “3D” image so we can actually see her face. They confirmed girl for sure, which I must admit was a bit of a relief for me. The pink stuff started flowing in as soon as we found out a few weeks ago, so I was slightly afraid that we’d go in for this ultrasound and they’d tell us there was a mistake and it was actually a boy. I’m glad that scenario is now just a funny thought I had, and that we’re all happily preparing for her arrival.

Don’t get me wrong, I would love this child just as much if it were a boy, and I hope that my little girl will have brothers some day. I just didn’t want to be the one to call hopeful grandmothers and tell them to start returning the adorable pink onesies and socks, because they needed blue ones instead. If you talk to any of our parents about the baby, I think you’ll understand why I was ever so slightly worried about that. 😉

Oh, I guess I need to backtrack a little bit. I started showing maybe a week or so before my parents came out, and even then it wasn’t much. But this last week, my belly has really manifested that there’s a baby in there. That, and starting to feel the tiny flutters of her moving has really brought home how real this all is to me. It’s an awesome, overwhelming, amazing sensation to have. I love that I feel like I’ve been trusted with something so exquisite as another human life, though I’m still kind of overwhelmed with the responsibility that comes with it. I’m so glad that I have Chris, and that we have our families, our ward and friends, and the Gospel as resources for this. Life is amazing that way, isn’t it?

I can’t wait for the day when Chris can feel her move. Even though I haven’t gained a lot of weight, she’s still muffled inside of me pretty good, though every once in a while she’ll wind up for a big kick that makes me smile.

Well folks, you’re now about as up-to-date on our coming arrival as we are. We’ll hit 22 weeks on Wednesday (if I’m doing the math right…) and everything seems to be going well so far.

And now, dear readers, it’s way past my bedtime. I hope you’ve enjoyed the story thus far, and I promise that we’ll have shorter and more frequent updates from here on out. Chris should hopefully be reporting on his viewpoint of all this tomorrow. In the mean time, loves to you all! Goodnight!

Love,

The Rawlins

It’s time to cut our losses…

Hello Everyone,

As good as my intentions were, I honestly don’t know if I’ll ever get back to writing about Thanksgiving and Christmas. I apologize. Suffice it to say, they were both great holidays, and we’ve had lots of fun little adventures in between. If I get on a roll, I may pull out my journal and update you all. Until then, moving on to more current events.

I can’t believe it’s already February. We’ve been married for a year! Can you believe it? Yeah, me neither sometimes. It’s amazing how fast it’s gone. It’s been a wonderful year though. Makes me excited for all the days ahead.

We actually took a vacation for our anniversary, to Colonial Williamsburg. It was pretty much awesome. Unfortunately, we forgot to pack the camera… which means we bought a disposable film camera instead. Which in turn means we still have to take 10 or so pictures before we can get to Williamsburg pictures. End result: someday I will create a huge photo library of all these pictures I’ve promised for so long. Dream big with me people! 🙂

To recap the trip: Driving out of DC during rush hour is crazy. Hotels are trying to fill rooms in the winter, which makes a February anniversary that much better, because you can find a room almost twice as big as our apartment for $65 a night. Chris is going to have a wood shop someday ¹, and he’d like a forge as well (I’m not so sure about that one)². It was so fun to see him at the cabinet maker’s and the joiner’s shops, because they do different kinds of woodwork. One of the cabinet makers is building a harpsichord, and that was pretty much awesome. They had a finished replica there in the shop, and I played a little bit on it. Also pretty much awesome. Though I’ve got to admit, I don’t know how they managed without pedals back in the day…

It was also a good weekend to go, because there were President’s Day celebrations going on, so we got to see a drum and fife parade and they shot off the cannons. Always a bonus (despite the teenage girls from the high school groups screaming every single time a shot was fired) and we got to attend “A Conversation with George Washington” that was fun. Chris was afraid it was going to be a little hokey, but he managed to enjoy himself anyway³. I guess that’s the risk you take when traveling to places like this with history majors that focused on early American history.

We focused a lot on the trade shops, just because they’re so cool. We also toured the newly reconstructed coffee house, and even got to sample some of the “latest” beverage, chocolate. I never thought I’d enjoy something with cayenne pepper so much.

Chris also got some landscaping plans from the Governor’s Palace, including a full-on hedge maze. Though I think to complete that you have to have little kids chasing their dad around in a crazy game of tag.

We wrapped up with dinner at one of the taverns, which was totally worth it. Delicious food (and tons of it) and the ambiance was fantastic. There was a musician walking around that would alternate between his guitar and a recorder; it’s amazing that something you learn to play in elementary school can actually be a serious instrument in the right hands.

Coming back to reality, even a short week, is never fun after such an awesome trip, but such is life. Except Chris still had two days off because of a faculty retreat. This is a brag alert, please skip to the next paragraph if you don’t want to read about just how awesome my husband is. So while I was at work, Chris (who, by the way, had packed for me so we could leave right from work on Friday for Williamsburg) cleaned the house, grocery shopped, and found some houseplants for us. He also packs my lunch pretty much every day, and during this week he got dinner going by the time I came home most days. Did I win or what? 🙂

Well folks, I’m going to say that wraps us up for now. Loves to you all!

The Rawlins

(Footnotes by Chris)

1.It was so cool! At the cabinet makers, they explained how they hid places where the wood came together using a “double-blind” technique. Why they used pine for some projects and mahogany for others. They explained how they carved round objects into furniture, and how they made they made glue that held projects together. At the joiners, we learned about the planing they did to create molding, and he told us about how they were doing research to find the exact dimensions and techniques for making a crate to carry muskets. It was all very cool. It made me miss having a garage to work in. One day.

2. I see nothing wrong with having a forge.

3. The guy playing Washington was good; I was impressed. I learned some new things. I also ended up asking a nice softball question about Hamilton and Jefferson, setting him up to go into a discussion on the dangers of faction.