A new-found passion and a fun date

I have told Eric a few times since we have been married that it would be fun to take a ballroom dance class together or go dancing together sometime. I took a beginners class at BYU and loved it while Eric never seemed too interested.  Though he is the one who always wants to dance around the living room. :)

Well, we just recently found out that the Balboa Park Dancers host ballroom dance lessons and dances every Friday and Sunday night at the Balboa Park Club. I got Eric to agree that we would go at least once before the baby comes. We missed the free night our ward hosted last Friday (we were at a Ron Paul town hall meeting supporting our good friends who organized it- an interesting experience) and with our weekends busy til right before baby girls's due date, this was our weekend to go!

We made a date night out of it, complete with dinner beforehand and frozen yogurt afterwards (very extravagant for us and oh so nice). And the dancing - was amazing. We learned the waltz and the two-step. The best part was that Eric loved it. I think he has found a new passion - he told me he wants to be a dancer now. :) We have practiced our waltz and two-step in the living room a couple of times already and are just bummed that we won't be able to go for probably a good while after our baby is here. At least it won't be as easy.

If only we had discovered that Eric actually likes ballroom dancing - and found this amazing place - sooner! 

My dragonboat racer

Ever seen a dragonboat race?  I never had before Saturday but they are pretty exciting to watch!  

Eric was part of a team from his school that participated in the annual San Diego Dragon Boat Festival where over 30 groups put together teams to race. None of the teams are professional and it is all in good fun.  I came along to be the cheerleader. 

Eric's team: The Musing Dragons. You might notice there a few older people on the team - about half of the students who volunteered bailed at the last minute, so their sponsors had to step in and help.  

A few pictures of them 'practicing.' None of them had ever done this before.  It was very amusing.

Complete confusion. The man halfway cut off on the left is their self-appointed coach (remember, he has never done this before either), giving instructions.  Apparantly they didn't help. 

 Off to start the first race.  It was double elimination, so they had two races at least before they were finished. 

At the starting line!

 Eric's team is the one closest to the camera.  Look how close they were! 

The result?  They lost.  But it was actually close so that was exciting. 

Hanging out with his friends in between races. During which time they all overate on the food brought by the nice sponsors. I will blame the results of their next race on that.  And the fact that about a third of their boat consisted of ladies over the age of 60.

Off again!

Starting line...

We are the boat that is hopelessly behind.  That's right, they were creamed. 

Even if he did lose, twice, he is still awfully cute. 

Birthdays!

Eric and I both have May birthdays so May is just a big month of celebrations in our little family. 

My birthday was this last Thursday. I love birthdays, despite the fact that every year I keep getting older...

Eric is such a sweet husband and though he has been super busy with school and work, he still made sure it was a special day.  He even came home and made this amazing cake for me 

 

It was delicious!  We even had ice cream with it, which is a big treat in this house. :)

We spent my birthday evening at birthing class.  I didn't mind too much since we both really like our class. It is at the birthing center where we are getting our prenatal care and where we will have our little baby girl. Our teacher is a very experienced doula and birthing teacher and she is amazing. Our class consists of just 8 couples who are all having their babies at the birthing center.  It has been great to meet other couples with the same goals and plans for natural births as us. Our topic this week was not so fun as it was discussing the possible interventions that would occur in the case of a hospital transfer, which of course none of us want. But it was good to talk about all the alternatives and preventative measures we can take. And class ended with relaxation which means Eric gives me a massage. My favorite part. :) A good end to a great birthday. 

A sneak peek at baby

Last Thursday I went to have my growth ultrasound. My midwives and the back-up doctor were worried about how small I was measuring and so sent me for this extra ultrasound.  I was so stressed about all of this and was really apprehensive going in for the appointment.

The technician was super nice. She helped to make me feel a lot more calm than I was feeling when we went there.  She seemed surprised that I was there for a growth ultrasound and told me that I looked just fine.  Then we started and she measured our little girl.  The results?  She measured 32 weeks, 4 days.  And on Thursday I was exactly 32 weeks 4 days along.  She was right on.  And the fluid levels looked great too. So everything seems to be just fine!  I guess we will just wait and see what the midwives say at our next appointment on Monday.

While we were there the technician tried to get some good views of our baby so we could see her. Her head was down and pointed towards my back so the technician wasn't able to give us a good view of her face at first.  Then her head turned to the side a little and we were able to look at her face.  It was incredible.  The technician was so nice and printed off some pictures for us to take with us.

So the appointment I was dreading turned out to be a very special experience!  I am so grateful our baby girl is okay. And doesn't she look just adorable!

Baby Shower!

Saturday was my baby shower.  I have been looking forward to it for weeks!  I have never had my very own baby shower before! :) My sister Ruthie who lives in Phoenix has been planning it along with my visiting teachers and good friends Brittany and Cori. My sister Tamara also helped out and did a super fun game.

The day got off to a very stressful start as Ruthie's plane from Phoenix was not able to land in San Diego. I didn't know this at first and was waiting at the airport for her, wondering why she wasn't calling me since the airport's website was showing that her plane landed an hour before!  I was thinking her phone must have died and she was stranded somewhere when finally I got a phone call from my dad telling me her plane had been rerouted. Two hours away.  Oh dear. But thankfully, the airport she was at just happened to be the one about 15 minutes from my parents' house who also just happened to be about to drive down to SD for the shower. So she arrived with my family, an hour before the shower. So glad that ended up working out!  Just bummed we didn't get our time together in the morning. 

But the shower was amazingly perfect. And so much fun! 

Everything looked so nice, I wish I had gotten more pictures of the tables and decorations. That glass canister in the background is filled with the cutest homemade soaps that Cori made for party favors.  They are beautiful. And then on the table in the background you can kind of see the centerpieces which were mini diaper cakes and then a pot with flower made of baby washcloths. Super cute!

 And the food. Yummy. Cori and Brittany went all out and made some amazing things - mini pita bread with hummus, mini fruit pizzas, orzo salad, etc. So good, and not just junk food! 

One of the games we played - guessing how big I am. 

Ronell from my ward was the winner!

My mom and sister Tamara with my niece Hannah, Eric and my Dad hiding out in the background. All of my family was able to drive down for the shower which was awesome since a lot of them have not yet been able to come visit us in SD yet.  

My sister Ruthie and I. We realized as we were about to drive her back to the airport that we had not gotten a picture together at the shower.  So this is just outside our place.

What a fun day! Thanks so much Ruthie! 

Weeks 29-32

Time for another pregnancy post!

Week 29

Still feeling great.  The week it was back to having to go to the bathroom a ton again.  Especially annoying when I am out running - makes it quite uncomfortable.  I have to plan my runs so that there is a bathroom halfway through. My runs are getting so slow! But I am still doing about 4 miles a day which doesn't seem too bad. I actually passed someone up for the first time in a long time.  He might have been quite elderly, but it still made me feel good. Eric and I got around to starting our baby registries this week.  We have been putting it off for quite a while. It was really nice to walk around the store and actually look at things.  I still have lots of research to do though, especially with cloth diapers, strollers, and baby carriers. Any tips or thoughts on ones that you have liked would be very welcome! 

Week 30 

Eric was on spring break this week which was so nice. I loved having that time with him. At this weeks midwife appointment, I measured small, again - at 28.5 weeks. The midwife also couldn't tell which way the baby was positioned so she did a quick ultrasound.  Baby girl was oblique , lying on her back with her head in the bottom left corner. It was neat to get a quick glimpse of her. 

Week 31

This was more of a difficult week. Started off with a not so fun trip to the birthing center's back-up obstetrician's office. The birthing center requires us to meet once with the doctor, mostly so we can meet them in case something comes up later on requiring a transfer to the hospital. It was such a difference being in his office compared to the birthing center.  That and the almost hour wait to even be seen made me super happy to be going where we are. He examined me so quickly and said hardly anything to us - felt so much less personal.  And what he did say was that I am too small and need to have a growth ultrasound to rule out IUGR. Well he didn't even say that, he just wrote it on a piece of paper and said to give it to the midwives. Driving home, I was quite the mess. He thought my baby might be IUGR! If that turned out to be true, I would feel like quite the failure as a dietitian if I couldn't even feed my baby enough. 

So this week I started tracking my protein and calories, counting baby's movements (which I was supposed to start this week anyway). All of that, along with my weight gain still seemed to be on track. Intuitively I felt everything should be fine, or that at least I am doing what I should. But I couldn't help worrying. I started having dreams this week that I had my baby and kept forgetting to feed her (like a baby would really let you forget). 

Week 32

Back to the midwife today. I measured at 29 weeks. So they think we should go ahead and do the growth ultrasound just to make sure everything is fine.  They said that it most likely is since baby's heartbeat is good, she is moving lots, and I am gaining weight- but that since uterus measurements have slowed in growth we should check to make sure it isn't anything else.  My ultrasound appointment is this Thursday. 

Baby is still oblique, though the midwife said her head is definitely more down than last time, which is good. 

I am so excited to meet this little girl.  Only 8-ish weeks left! 

Hiking in the hail (in San Diego!)

We went on a really pretty hike yesterday on Black Mountain.  At least it was pretty until the rain and hail starting coming. We went with a group of students from Eric's school and had lots of fun, even with the hail. It wasn't too bad, I just held tighter onto Eric's arm on the way down.

At the top, right before the rain/hail started coming.