4 Months and Counting

     Once again I am slacking at the blogging part of my life, but in my defense keeping up with everything is crazy once you have a baby. I don't know how people handle more than one. Jace sure is a handful!
    We have been busy for the past month doing all sorts of fun things. At the end of August we celebrated my little sister's birthday. It was a peculiar family gathering because it was just Paul, me, and Jace, my parents, Kess, and Tallus. All my other sibs were either away at university or not in town. It was kind of nice though to have my parents almost to myself for a night. :)
     We went out to lunch with Matt and Amber Hobbs, two of our good friends from Cedar City. And since we drove down to American Fork to meet them, we decided to swing by The Martel's, another set of Cedar friends. There we caught up with them, Paul watched the BYU game, and Shay, Ray and I went out to their orchard and picked ripe peaches and nectarines right off the tree. They were about as good as they come!!
 

Paul and Jace enjoying the BYU game the best they know how ;)

     We have some pretty great neighbors up here in Cottonwood Heights. They had us over for dinner, which was great. Meagan has a little girl that is about 6 or so weeks older than Jace. We always joke that Jace and Lyla are boyfriend and girlfriend. After we had dinner, both of our families took a stroll through the neighborhood. Lainey, (Meagan's oldest) didn't want to be in the double stroller with Lyla, so Jace and Lyla shared the double stroller. It was so cute! 

Don't mind Jace's crazy red/glowy eyes. No matter how many pictures we took, they always turned out like that. 

     Next biggest event happened Sept 12-13. Paul has a coworker from Taiwan. Wei and his wife Jessica have never been camping before. I guess the Chinese just don't go camping much. Anyway, we told them we would take them camping. We took a short trip to "ease" them into the idea of spending the night in the woods. We left Friday after work and drove to Payson Lakes. We got there after dark so we ended up putting up our tent in the dark. It was oh so much fun. We talked around the camp fire, checked out the stars, cooked our smores, and went to bed. In the morning we had breakfast, packed everything up, drove down to the lake, walked around the lake, then headed home. All in all it was a fun trip. I wish we could have stayed longer, but its hard to coordinate time off of work last minute. 

Jace all bundled up for the cold night outdoors.

Jace snuggling up in our sleeping bag.

Little baby trying to decide if he wants to wake up or keep sleeping.

Jessica and Wei snacking on breakfast.

Wei chillin with Jace by the camp fire while I eat and take pictures. 

Paul, our master chef manning the camp chef. He did such a great job. We had a better breakfast than we usually do at home. ;)

     Jace is now 4 months old. I can't believe how fast the time has gone. It is crazy. He weighs a lot. Maybe 16 or 17 lbs? He is cooing and babbling a lot more this month. He loves to play with his toys. He recognizes that they are objects and loves to pick them up himself off of the floor. He can roll from his back to his side and from his side to his tummy so I think that if he really wanted to, he could roll from his back to his tummy in one smooth motion, but he has yet to do that. He is a pretty good sleeper. Not all through the night every night. But every few weeks we get a 7-8 hour stretch. He is ticklish under his chin, below his ears, on his tummy, under his arms, and on his thighs. But he isn't always ticklish in those spots all the time. It just depends on his mood and the time of day. But with out fail, at least one of those spots will get him giggling. Jace loves to drop his paci on the floor, and have me bend him over, and let him pick it up. He loves to sit in his bumbo and watch me do things in the kitchen. We finally have a pretty good nap schedule too. It varies depending on when he wakes up, but its pretty darn consistent most days. He loves to take baths in both the big tub and his little baby tub, (which he is almost too big for now). He still loves to snuggle with me. I am grateful because I love having a snuggly baby. 

4 months old! So big! And those thighs, oh gosh, I just love them to death!

Jace got sick of the sticker on his shirt so he decided to eat it, (like he does with anything that he puts in his mouth).

I can't get over how cute his little nose is! Such a natural at getting his picture taken

Smiley boy just getting too big for his little tub

     One of my best friends from 3rd grade moved from Orem up to Sandy. She seriously lives 5 minutes away from me! Anyhow, Shanda invited me to go to the zoo with her. Jace actually enjoyed it this time, I think. We rode the train around the zoo. We also rode on the carousel. He was unsure at first, then decided it was fun, then decided he was tired of going around and around all the time. We also played in the splash pad. I didn't think Jace would like it because the water is cold and he prefers warm water. But I put his little feet in a small little pond and he was totally chill with it. It gives me hight hopes that he will like the water. 

Selfie on the carousel

Baby Jace is 3 months old!

Yet again, I have been a slacker at updating the blog, but Jace is 3 months old! Thats cause to celebrate! Of course, lots of things have happened over the past month, but I will try to keep it short.

My cute little chunk is getting so big! When its hot, this is how we play outside.

Jace isn't 100% strong enough to sit in his bumbo, but he can sit there and hold his head up for about 10 minutes before he starts to get wobbly. This bumbo has made dinner so much easier. Paul and I actually get to use both of our hands most days. 

Jace has started to interact with his toys. Usually its just me putting them in his hands to play with, but on occasion he will reach up and take a toy from me. I love that he is starting to develop coordination. 

Both my parents and Paul's parents are big cougars fans. It was a glorious moment the first day Jace wore his BYU onsie. And Paul told me I had to document. 

My parents are remodeling their kitchen and I came over a couple of days to help them with the demolition. Paul went to Vegas for a few days for work so to keep busy I went over and helped them. Paul also came over to help when he got back from his work trip. Jace is all decked out in his cute demolition gear. Don't mind me laughing hysterically in the background. He was so cute I couldn't help but laugh!

We celebrated the 24th of July with Paul's Family. His Aunt and Uncle have a pool, so they usually throw a pool party. The last time we took Jace swimming he liked the hot tub (more of a warm tub). But this time, Jace actually loved the water in the pool. It must have been warm enough outside that he was okay with the pool water. We bought a floaty so that he could get used to the water, but he wasn't such a huge fan. He loved the water if I was holding him, but didn't like being in the floaty all by himself. Hopefully we can get Jace more used to water.

Paul's company paid for tickets to a Disney symphony concert. They had the Utah Symphony and Utah Opera come together to perform a Disney concert in Park City. We got dinner to go and had a picnic on the hillside while they performed. It was fabulous. We loved it! The traffic getting home was horrible though! We were stuck in construction traffic for 2 hours.

The morning after our super fun trip to Park City I went running with my neighbor. When I came home from running, these cute boys in bed where what I found! I love that they are just alike!

Paul had some paid time off a few weeks ago that we originally planned to go camping with his family, but in the midst of all the chaos it didn't happen. We ended up doing a family staycation, and we went to the zoo instead. Jace didn't seem to care about the animals really, but he is still so little. I am hoping that as he gets bigger he will love seeing the animals more and more.

We took Jace on his first camping trip last weekend. Our ward did a ward campout. Just a small overnight thing, but it went surprisingly well. Jace hardly cried at all. It was cold outside for him, but we kept him all wrapped up and cozy and he just had a ball. The only tent we have is a 2 man back packing tent so its quite small, but somehow all three of us crammed into our tent. Jace slept great too! He slept in between Paul and I in our zipped together sleeping bags. He stayed toasty warm in our tent. But Paul and I didn't sleep super great because we were worried we might accidentally squish the baby with the limited sleeping space we had.

Jace is getting SO...BIG! Seriously. My little newborn baby is gone! He now weighs almost 15 pounds! I am sure of it. I know he is 14 but I think he is getting close to being 15! He is 24 ish inches long, give or take, (he wouldn't hold still very well for me to measure him). He is all smiles most of the time. He rolled over twice about 3 weeks ago, but ever since then, he hasn't really tried much to do it. His abs are getting stronger though. When he is propped up, he is always trying to sit himself all the way up. He doesn't of course, but I think it is great that he is trying so hard and working to develop his muscles. Jace is cooing and babbling like crazy. He will sit and talk to me for 10 minutes at a time. It is really cute. He still isn't a fantastic sleeper. He isn't horrible though. He will usually sleep for maybe 4 to 5 hours before I have to wake up to feed him. I am hoping that as soon as he sleeps through the night we can transition him into his own bed. We are still co-sleeping, and can't really wait to have our bed back, but still, sleep is more important than my bed, so I guess I can be patient for a little bit.

Living in the (801)

It has been almost 2 months since my last post and my how lots of things have happened. Brace yourself for a novel. Though I will try to abridge it and just share the important details.

June 8th we blessed our sweet baby boy Jace. He was rocking it in his kilt. I love how our pictures came out. They are just so great. All of our family came down for the blessing. They also helped us get as much of our house packed as we could.

All ready for church

My whole family came down for the blessing. Tyson and Yulia completely surprised us. They just showed up at church before the blessing. It was so fun to have all of them here. 

Paul's parents down for the blessing

Cute little Jace in his festive kilt. Fun fact: my dad was doing family history and found some connections in my family line that tie back to Scottish kings! 

June 9th we finished loading up the moving van and moved up to Cottonwood Heights. We are renting a basement apartment from Paul's Aunt. It is perfect for us. We have a back yard to play in, there are TONS of trees and parks everywhere, and we are right next to the mountains, so hiking trails are in abundance.

Tallus showing off his muscles while he helps load the moving van.

The last load of stuff in our empty apartment.

We went to the Scottish Festival at Thanksgiving point on June 14 to kind of sort of celebrate Jace's one month mark, (it really wasn't planned that way, but we can pretend).

Jace at 1 month old. He is in his kilt because we went to the Scottish festival

Since being here lots of crazy things have happened. Jace smiles for real smiles now. He still has some gassy smiles, but he will look at us, and respond to us with smiles. He is trying so hard to laugh, but they still come out as grunts combined with cute little coos. He can hold his head up for a pretty decent amount of time, he kicks like crazy. I think Jace is going to figure out how to roll over pretty soon. He is always kicking and wiggling like crazy when we put him down for tummy time. We are still working on getting Jace into a routine. He sleeps in his crib occasionally, but he will sleep SO much better if he is in bed with us. When we have energy and drive, we put him in his crib and don't mind getting up twice as many times in the night to get him. But when we are exhausted we just give in and let him sleep with us. Jace will almost sleep through the night if he is co sleeping with us. But when he is in his crib he gets up like every 2 hours. In my mind sleep wins out every time. We will get to the point where Jace sleeps only in his room, but while we are still adjusting to everything, I really don't mind that he sleeps with us.

These are two of Jace's first smiles that are really real ones. He is such a cutie and I love it when he is happy. He tries so hard to laugh when we tickle him. It will be fun to hear it when he really can laugh. 

Jace loves to make tons of faces and I am on a mission to put a page in his baby book called Jace's Faces. This face is his pouty face. Its a hard one to catch. I think it is so cute and love it when he makes this face, but it is also sad because he only makes it when he needs something. 

Jace had his first experience swimming this past month. Paul's Aunt and Uncle have a pool and they had all of their kids and grand kids over visiting, so we went over to visit with all of his cousins. Jace did not so much like the big pool because it was kind of cold, but he did enjoy the hot tub which was turned down to more of a lukewarm tub for all of the little babies. He had a washable swim diaper on and I am pretty impressed with how well it kept everything in. This little stinker pooped in his diaper in the pool, and nothing leaked out! Hurray!

Paul and Jace with Paul's cousin-in-law and lots of cousins' kids

We went to Taylorsville Dayzz with Paul's family. Jace watched his first set of fireworks. He actually watched them. He didn't cry and was enthralled with all of the flashes and colors in the sky. He also got to watch his first thunderstorm. We stood out on our patio deck and just watched the pouring rain and thunder and lightning. I am glad its not scary for him. Paul and I love to sit out and watch storms. Hopefully Jace will enjoy doing that with us.

Jace actually looks like he is smiling in how did that happen? This is his first experience with fireworks!

My brother Tyson and his wife Yulia had their first baby. YAY for cousins. Jace has his first girl cousin on both sides. Cute little Gloria is teeny tiny compared to Jace. He is a monster! He was 2 pounds heavier at birth and now he is seriously double the 6 pound ball of cuteness that Gloria is.

Doesn't Jace just look massive compared to Gloria? He is only a little about 5 weeks older than her and look how tiny she looks compared to him! This is my cute first niece ever Gloria. 

My Daddy and his two first grandbabies. Crazy that they came a month apart. Jace wasn't too happy in this picture, but Gloria is all cute and composed!

Paul's youngest brother came home from his mission. Jonathan is the last Burnett boy to serve a mission in Paul's immediate family. Jonathan just got back from the Philippines, and it has been fun to tease him, and help him adjust to the life outside of a mission.

 Jonathan Burnett home at last after two relatively short years in the Philippines

This year as the first year we celebrated the 4th of July with our family since being married I think. Usually we just stay in Cedar City. It was different being up in the big valley. It was pretty cool to see fireworks in every direction though. Paul and I drove home right in the middle of everyone lighting off their fireworks. We are glad we didn't buy and ourselves. Everyone elses' fireworks were enough for us.

We got to travel down to Cedar City to see the baptism of one of our close family friends. While living in Cedar City we got really close with the Olenslager family. They have all girls and Paul just loves to tease them to no end. Payton, their youngest girl got baptized and we made the journey down to support Payton in her decision. We got to spend all day with them and their family and had a blast.

From left to right, Kylee O, Paul, Payton, (the girl of the hour), Camden, Kylee B, and Ashlie

We LOVE these girls. They are practically family. We decided they are like nieces to us. Always and Forever!

On an emotional level, I have decided that being a mom is kind of tough. I love it, don't get me wrong, but holy smokes, going from full time teacher to a full time mom is a HUGE change! The no social life has been a little tough, but I just recently started going to play dates at the park with some moms in the ward here. Even though Jace is too young to enjoy them, at least mom gets to socialize and Jace gets to go for a walk in his stroller, (which he loves).

Paul and I have finally started a routine for our morning. We actually get up and exercise together. It has been so great. Hopefully we will start to see ourselves get back into shape and get our bodies back to where we were pre-baby. Living apart and being pregnant took a toll on both of us.

Paul is getting ready to take another CPA exam in the next few days. Fingers crossed that he will pass and not have to re-take. He has certainly studied more this go round so hopefully all goes well.

Well this is us up to date. I will really try to be better. As a stay at home mom I should have time to update my blog a lot more than I have been, [yeah right ;) ]

Baby Jace, and the Story of His Birth

        WARNING: This blog post is my birthing experience of Jace. I have in no way tried to make it appealing for all readers. It is my memory and set of experiences of what happened.  If it is too graphic for you, stop reading or toughen up a bit. There ya go, you have been warned ;)

     After being a week "overdue" I was starting to get a little bit anxious about our baby finally coming. I was handling it really well, but eventually had a few meltdowns worried that Paul would have to leave before the baby would be born. The midwives came to visit us on Tuesday, May 13 which would put me one week overdue. We had a nice visit, and I was a little emotional and they checked everything then left. Every week they have said see you next week. But this time they didn't. I didn't think much of it until that night, then I started to think about it and realized they hadn't said that, so I became hopeful that baby would make it before Paul had to leave. I scheduled a prenatal massage for that night, and had her work on the labor reflexology points. That night Paul and I finished our Harry Potter marathon that we started on Sunday, and I started having a few contractions here and there. They were not consistent and didn't get more intense, so I tried not to think much of it or get too excited incase nothing happened.
     A little after midnight I woke up to contractions. I went to the bathroom and experienced my "Bloody Show." I figured that is what it was but I wasn't sure and it made me a little nervous. I went back to bed and tried to sleep, but my contractions continued to be regular. They were at that point between 8 and ten minutes apart. I tried to rest and sleep and was able to stay in bed for another hour or so. I then started to get a little more nervous as I continued to have more "Show" each time I used the bathroom. I didn't know what to expect or anything so I had Paul call the midwife. Good thing Paul called and not myself, because I was losing my midnight snack halfway through the phone call. She had us track the contractions for half an hour then report back to her.
     My wonderful husband Paul stayed up with me and played Farkle while we tracked the contractions. They were between 2 and 5 minutes apart-ish at that point. Lily had us try to get some sleep and see how things went. I thought she was crazy because they were so close, but I trusted her judgement and I didn't want to have the midwives hovering over me while I was laboring. I tried to lay down and was able to sleep for maybe 45 minutes, but laying down made my contractions more intense. I let Paul sleep and just got up and paced the house breathing through each one. I tried to eat a coconut water popsicle to give myself some electrolytes since I had now lost my "lunch" about 3 times and was able to eat about half of it before I thought I might make myself sick again.
     At about 6:30 I finally woke Paul up and had him call Lily again. She had us track contractions again and they only continued to get stronger and stronger. We tracked them together for half an hour then reported back. She said she would send over her attendants to check vitals. At this point I was getting anxious and wanted to fill up the birthing pool or get in the shower to help myself relax and ease the contractions, but Lily told me to wait. so I did my best. I continued pace the house and let myself sink into the trance of "laborland" where I was basically zoned out of everything but listening to and working with my body.
     Sara showed up finally showed up around 7:40, mind you this is partially from Paul's perspective because I was zoning in and out each time I had a contraction. He talked me through things and paced with me a little bit and I was able to breath through most of them. After Sara checked vitals I asked her when I could get in the water, and we finally started filling up the tub, but I had to wait for it to be filled and I seriously felt like the pool would never finish filling up!
     At this point I truly started to question my ability to go through with all of this because the contractions began to be very intense and even squeezing Paul's hand made it hard to get through. Thankfully the pool was nearly full and Sara let me get into the water. I am grateful that the midwives weren't over at my house tracking my every contraction because I was able to relax and do my thing. When Sara did show up, I thought it might bother me or that I might not be able to relax quite as much. Especially since I like to pretend I am tough and don't like other people to see me in pain,  but I was able to stay relaxed and keep doing my thing even with other people watching me.
     There was a night and day difference, truly, between being in the water, and being out of the water. As soon as I got into the pool I could easily manage the contractions. They just felt more like pressure. Also, I felt like it was time to start pushing. Slowly but surely our son started to make his entrance into the world. With each contraction I was able to breathe and push and work with him, and in between each contraction I was able to relax and almost sleep. It was great. I was able to put myself "into a state of deep relaxation," as quoted from my hypnobirthing cd track. As I think back on it, I really just remember breathing and pushing, then just total calm, then more breathing and pushing, and more total calm. And it wasn't even pushing pushing. I was just breathing with my body while it kind of did its own sort of pushing thing. I don't think I opened my eyes very much through most of the process. Paul sat in the tub with me and dabbed my face with a cool washcloth which was a huge blessing for me. In the beginning, Paul didn't want to really be in the tub because after the baby is born, it is a little gross, but he was such a champ and sat with me the whole time.
     Slowly but surely baby made his way. My body started to get tired after a while especially my legs, but thankfully the water made it so there was less resistance and work that I had to do, so I didn't run out of energy. I felt a pop and mentioned something to Lily. She said, "did you feel the pop in your head?" or something like that, and my cheeky response, while i was still zoned out and in labor land, was, "no but I sure felt a pop in my vagina!" That pop apparently was my water breaking. The baby started to crown and Lily said, "Kylee reach out and touch your baby, he is almost here." I said something along the lines of, "I think I will wait until he is here." Lily did have a mirror that she put into the water so that Paul could look down and see that there was a baby. Glad I didn't look, 'cuz man that would have been weird to see! Somewhere during this phase of labor someone made a comment about keeping calm or something, and Paul started to sing "Soft Kitty" from big bang theory to me. I laughed in my head, but I was relaxed and zoned out so my outward appearance was just a small smile on my face, but Paul saw it and knew that I had acknowledged his comments. Multiple times the midwives asked me, "are you sure this is your first baby?" I am interpreting that to mean that I took things and handled them very well?? Anyway, several more contractions, pushes and breaths....
     And then, baby popped out. It was a weird feeling beyond explanation. I remember pressure, and a little bit of a burning sensation, then a pop as his head came out. Then another feeling to push and breathe and another set of stinging burning sensation mixed with pressure and another pop and the rest of him came out. I was still trying to remain relaxed so my eyes were closed as he made his grand entrance. Don't know what it looked like, but poor Paul got to watch it all!
     Lily snatched up the baby and plopped him on my chest and I just got to sit and look at my cute little messy babe. He started breathing while he was on my chest and I remember feeling like I had just witnessed the most beautiful and perfect experience in my life. The spirit was so strong, and amazing, but I didn't cry. Which is impressive, because I cry at everything. Paul says he almost shed some tears, but didn't quite.
     Paul and I just sat there for a minute with the baby while they checked his heart beat and the umbilical cord and his breathing. We mentioned to each other that he needed a name, and we actually checked to make sure he was a boy, which he was, and decided that we didn't know what to name him yet so we would wait a little bit. The midwives told me it was time to get out of the water so that I could pass the placenta, blech! Good thing they had me get out when they did, because basically soon as I got out of the water, before they were ready, here came the placenta! Sorry to be graphic but man it was all over the floor! They had just pulled me out of the tub and tried to get me to sit on a birthing stool with a bunch of pad things under it, like the ones you train your dog to pee on instead of peeing in the house. Guess I didn't want to feel like a dog because that placenta just popped right out before I ever got to the stool. No worries, the floor was covered with lots of plastic wrap so it wasn't a big deal that I didn't quite make it in time. They had me sit in that stool after the placenta popped out to "check" me. They said I tore just a tiny bit, but it was hardly anything and would heal quickly. That was a relief for me, because a lot of my friends tried to scare me with horror stories of tearing all the way. No stitches for me, YAY.  Paul got to hold the baby and cut the cord. It was really cute to watch him because he was so hesitant at first and worried about hurting the baby. He did a great job though. Once the cord was cut he took baby and carried him while I got myself cleaned up. Well not really cleaned up, just cleaned the placental painting that was up and down my legs off, and put on my "sexy" panties. Who knew you could describe a depends as sexy panties, (midwives say they are sexy because you can rip them right off), guess that is sexy. Anyway, yeah, I got to wear a depends. Weird. But hey it was actually kind of nice to not have to worry about my insides leaking out onto my bed. Depends have you covered man, like all the way around not just a little!
     While I was laboring, one of the attendants made the bed in the other room, so by the time Paul and I were kind of cleaned up, we could get into our own bed and snuggle with our little baby. We finally decided that we should let our parents know that we had a baby. I feel like everything happened so fast that we didn't even call them to let them know we were in labor. Truly though, I am grateful that Paul did not call or text our parents. I was able to labor in my own space and not worry about delivering a baby to appease everybody. We sent a text to just our parents and let them know. We didn't say much except for that Baby Burnett was born at 10:05 on May 14th. We had no name still, and the midwives hadn't taken him to be weighed and measured so we didn't want to tell the whole world quite yet.
     The midwives had me feed him for the first time before they took him and weighed him and measured him. That was interesting, breast feeding for the first time. But it was nice to have someone to give me pointers and advice because I really didn't know what I was doing. Sometime during all of this Paul jumped in the shower, which I am sure he was ever so grateful for. After they checked our vitals one more time, the midwives left our room to clean up a few things, and Paul and I had some time to ourselves. We sat and pondered for a minute about the name that we wanted and what we felt like we should name him, and made our decision. We both felt like Jace was what he should be called, and we had both had separate experiences over the past week that had brought that name continually into the forefront of our minds. The rest they say, is history. I don't remember how the rest of the day went.
    I took a shower at some point, which was heavenly, and also weird not having a massive belly to be in the way. It was also weird because instead of my massive hard belly I had a gelatinous belly that flopped all over the place because my muscles hadn't tightened up yet. Point of all of that, I got a shower. I fed Jace a few times, and basically rested in my recliner a  good portion of the day. Lisa came to visit for a few minutes, our neighbors came over, and we were brought dinner by the relief society president. I don't know if I took a nap or what I did, but thats ok. I remember the important parts.
     Those first moments with Paul and Jace and myself just sitting in the tub together gave me a feeling of completeness. Our family is starting to take shape, and our son is here with us. I feel more love than I thought possible. I can't wait to see what the future brings for our little family.

 

Our first few moments looking at our son. Look how little he is!

Paul was so supportive through the whole process. I am so grateful that he is such a trooper!

Just lookin at my baby. Man my farmers tan is awful!!!

First picture ever taken of Jace with clothes. He looks really chubby because of how he is swaddled. He really isn't too chubby yet. 

Jace Boy with his eyes open the day he was born. He really likes to have his eyes open. Unless he is sleeping. From the minute he started breathing, he has had his eyes open lots and lots of times. 

40 Weeks and Then Some!

     As of today I am a few days "past due." I am still trying to decide how I feel about it. I know that a due date is a rough estimate and that it can be + or - 2 weeks of my due date that baby will actually come. It is a little hard not worry so much about the educations people have drilled into our minds about babies coming right on their due date, and if they are late you need to be induced and all of that nonsense. Our official "due date" was May 6th. It has only been 2 days since that day and it has gotten easier each day to not worry so much about what everyone else thinks.
      I did have contractions the night before baby was due. Strong enough that they woke me up in the middle of the night. I was excited that something might actually be happening. But after getting up, using the bathroom and laying back down in bed they stopped. And baby's "due date" came and went and there was nothing else of it. The midwives stopped by and had an appointment with Paul and me and we just took their advice of not expecting anything for a week and let it sink in.
     Thankfully we didn't have any melt downs or freak outs, but I think both of us were a little disappointed that it wasn't going to happen as quickly as we were hoping for, but we are trying to stay positive and optimistic that when our baby is ready he will come. Since then we have just been positive and hopeful that each day we will be closer to having our son in our arms.
     It has been really nice to have Paul here with me. I feel like we have had time to reconnect with each other and grow closer as a couple before we have our baby. I just worry a little bit that baby will be 2 weeks "late" and Paul will have to leave for SLC shortly after his birth. I feel peace in my heart though that everything will work out and that I should stop worrying about timelines. So I try harder every day to humble myself and have the faith that Paul will be here and be able to spend some time with our son before he has to go back to work up North. Until then we are just hanging in there waiting and trying to be patient in all things.

Paul's Masters Graduation

     Paul completed his Masters degree in accounting back in December, but SUU only has one commencement ceremony in the spring. So if he wanted to walk and do all that fun stuff he had to wait until May. He was able to take a day off of work so he could come down Thursday and prepare for his graduation on Friday. His brother Peter also graduated on Friday in the same college as Paul, (it was really nice to only have to sit through one convocation rather than two).
     Paul's parents came down so they could attend both of their sons graduations. They stayed will us and it was fun to have them, but I feel bad that they had to sleep on the floor/couch. After being in social Siberia with myself for the past 2 weeks, it was really nice to have people in the house! It was a little overwhelming going from just Kylee to Kylee plus a husband plus the in-laws, but after I adjusted to noise and clutter it wasn't bad at all.
    Friday we had graduation pretty much all day. The processional was at 8:30 so naturally we had to be there at 8. Then the commencement was at 9. Ann Romney was the main speaker and she did a great job. I was very grateful to have the opportunity to hear her speak. Although sitting in those stadium chairs just about killed me. My feet got super swollen and pretty much haven't gone down since then. Aside from that, after commencement we all had lunch together at the All American Diner. A classic diner in Cedar City that all the locals have to eat at at least once in their lives.
     After lunch we ran home to have my dad load some of our stuff into his trailer. He came down to pick up my sister Kalena from school and some how I convinced him to bring the trailer and take a load of Paul and my stuff up to Salt Lake. We had him take a bunch of our big stuff and it was pretty great. Our house is slowly getting emptied of its contents, but its nice to have less "crap" to worry about packing a month from now.
     Dad left and we rushed back over to SUU for the business convocation. THANKFULLY it was way shorter than they planned! I didn't have to sit for much longer than an hour which I was truly truly grateful for. I don't think I could have lasted much longer than I did anyway. We finished graduation and went to Peter and Jessica's for a little bit. Then we went to dinner, came back to Peter and Jessica's and played games for multiple hours. Finally the gang finished their game of T-birdopoly and we could all go home and go to bed.

     Saturday the boys went and played golf. Jessica and her family, (Peter not included), went to visit family, and Julie and I went hiking. I was hoping that if I went hiking it would put me into labor. We hiked half of the incredibly steep, infamous "C" trail to no avail. I hardly had any Braxton Hicks contractions let alone real ones. I was hoping though, that I would at least feel sore the next day, but sadly I wasn't sore either.
     After everyone got home we prepared a picnic lunch and had a great time at the canyon park. We even convinced Rex, my father in law, to play bocce ball with us, (he is not a big game fan). After our picnic, Paul and I went to visit Shay, Ray, Ada and Dion. Shay and Ray were visiting from Manti and we just had to go and see them while they came to visit. After visiting with them we picked up pizza and had a party with the family. We chatted for a while then went out to ice cream.

     Sunday was a lazy morning. Paul sort of let me sleep in. That is one of the things I have had to get used to with him being home with me. He gets up way early and I just want to lay in bed a little longer. He did let me stay in bed a little longer than his sense of usual, but not much. Paul's parents went to church with Peter and Jessica, so Paul and I had some time to ourselves before we went to church. It was nice to decompress and relax after having company all weekend. I am grateful that Paul has been able to be home with me, and I am even more grateful that he will get to stay with me for the next few weeks. Now all we have to do is be patient and wait for baby boy to come. Hopefully it is sooner rather than later, but I guess we will find out!

37 Weeks

    I am still managing to hang in there. I am actually feeling pretty great right now. I baby must have shifted positions because exercising hasn't been a problem for about a week and a half now. I used to have the hardest time even walking a mile. But I have been able to go 2.5+ miles the past few days and still have energy for weights and some floor work. Maybe its the surge of energy that you get right before labor. Or maybe its not :) Either way, I am grateful to have more energy and motivation to get myself out and moving and get things done around the house.
      My principal finally replaced me at work. I don't know how I feel about it quite yet. I am excited to be staying at home, but I have made so many amazing friends working at Three Peaks that I know when it truly comes down to it, it is going to be really hard to leave them all behind. But hey, adventure is out there, and its time to start my next one.
    I have continued to work on some of the hypnobirthing relaxation techniques and I have to say it is really quite interesting. On my walks the past few weeks, I get Braxton Hicks contractions like crazy (especially when I am trying to speed walk), which tends to make my walk a little more uncomfortable than it needs to be. But this week I started using my relaxation techniques and putting myself into a relaxed state, even while walking, and I do have to say it works. I could tell I was having contractions, but they didn't phase me. I was able to enjoy my walk, and just be at peace in my mind, and relaxed all over. I know that I will need to continue practicing them if I want to be relaxed during labor, but I feel like I have had a few good practice rounds.
     Baby is doing good. He is just chillin. I have sat and "talked" with him, and I know he isn't ready to come yet. I tried to convince him to come a little early but I know he isn't ready. I can feel that he is excited to join our family, but he just needs more time to prepare for the journey to join us. He is responding to me and to music more these past few weeks than he has before. I was listening to the radio a few days ago on my way to work and Pharrel Williams song "Happy" came on, and at the part where it says "clap along if you feel like a room without a roof" my little man totally started to kick and wiggle to the beat. It was the cutest thing. He must have been having a good morning.
    My family came down to take their foreign exchange student to visit Zion and Bryce Canyon. I took a day off of work so that I could spend some time with them. It was certainly quite different going on lots of walks and sight seeing with a big ole belly. But I enjoyed being able to spend some time with my family. My mom and I worked on baby boy's kilt for his blessing day. Its pretty much all finished except for the pin that will hold the whole thing together. Now he just needs a sporran and a shirt and he will be ready to go!
   

Yes I look like a schlum but I needed to take a picture this week before I forgot. I have been lazy and not as photo happy the past week. He is definitely getting bigger. But that means he is coming soon!