A little Something

A few quick and incidental stories. Just in case anyone wanted confirmation of how good of a man Tyler is. Perhaps a little mushy, but hopefully portraying how appreciated he is.

Walmart

I've been trying to get everything ready for baby the past couple of weeks by cleaning out his room, washing clothes, and putting together lists of items still needed. Last week I finally made it to Walmart, a trip that had been delayed and put off for far too long to get baby necessities and other goods. I started out by dropping my car off for an oil change and then proceeded to wander throughout Walmart while on the phone with my mom and sister to make sure I had all the basics covered for baby and postnatal recovery. I had quite the collection of goods by the time I got to the register. The lady scanned my items and when I opened my purse to pay, I realized I did not have my wallet containing all my plastic cards and money. Brief panic subsided as I spotted my rarely-used checkbook in the side pocket. I wrote a check, and mentioned something about not writing a check in forever. I handed it over with all the baby goods bagged and in my cart. The lady looked at me and asked for my ID. Panic returned. No wallet, no ID, just a checkbook. I explained this to her, but unfortunately no ID means no payment via check. I couldn't help it, I started choking up and tears were welling. She mentioned something about how she wasn't going to ask for ID until I said something about not having written a check in forever. She (and the manager that happened to walk by at that moment) tried to say something about holding everything for me if I could make it back that day, but I opted for a quick apology instead and walked away from the cashier before the tears could fall. All my baby goods that I'd spent over an hour gathering, were sitting bagged in my cart and could not make the trip home with me. With no car to escape to, I felt like an idiot as I sped walked past the closed restroom and down to the isolated and secluded Gardening section. No baby goods, and no means of getting home if I couldn't pay for the oil change my car had just received. I stood there for a minute telling myself, "It's ok Ali, you're a big girl, it will be ok," but the tears still cascaded. Not even the grass seed was enough of a distraction. I called Tyler.

Tyler. The wonderful wonderful man I call my husband and best friend. I think all I said was "hey"(with a couple of sobs) and I could hear him running down the stairs and heading to his car. I told him what happened and how silly and ridiculous I felt. All he wanted to know was where I was at. He stayed on the phone with me until he came to my little section of the gardening department and gave me a giant hug. My knight in shining armor. Isn't it funny what a difference a hug can make? Or how having someone on the other side of the phone saying, "it's ok" works so much better than when you try to tell yourself the same thing? He put his arm around me and we retraced my previous course to regather all of my 'almost' purchases, paid for them, and retrieved my oiled car. He's the biggest hero of my life. That's all :)

Mornings

Lately I've kind of been a complainer in the mornings. I have a really tough time when I wake up feeling worse than when I went to bed. My hips really hurt by the time morning comes, and some nights are so filled with trying to find any comfortable sleeping position, that I swear I never actually fall asleep. So the other morning, I woke up with Tyler's arms around me and he asked if I liked the massage he had given me. I felt so bad when I had no idea what he was talking about. He continued to tell me how he knew that my hips and legs usually hurt in the mornings and so he had been massaging them for me as I woke up. Lo and behold, my hips and legs felt great all morning. -Love- Every morning since, he takes just a couple of minutes to rub my back or play with my hair to help me sleep before he heads out the door to go to work.

Cars

Getting in and out of the car can be challenging. Especially if there is an incline while getting out, and gravity complicates the process further. The other day I mentioned how it is so much easier to get out of Tyler's car than it is to get out of mine. He now takes my car to work, allowing me to use the car more well-suited for pregnant ladies :)

Baby

It's obvious Tyler is already in love with little man. He comes up to my belly at least once a day to let baby know that his daddy loves him, that he is so excited for him to come, and gives him a kiss. The baby room was in need of definite repair when we moved in as it hosted many many holes in need of patching and definitely required a paint job. A couple of months ago, Tyler spent almost every day after work patching up the room and painting and was so proud and excited to get the room ready for baby. The room is now beautiful and clean with a nice coat of creamy colored paint. Just one of Tyler's many little labors of love.

It's kind of crazy to think how much things will change as we adjust to having a little person in our house. The thought is very exciting and a little scary at the same time. It just makes me so happy to have such an awesome, patient, and loving buddy on this adventure with me. And by buddy, I mean Tyler :)

Just for you, Panz

My family is coming into to town next week, and Anna does not want to be surprised by my increase in girth. So, with the help of my new camera and full length mirror, here it is.


Baby is doing great. We found out in another ultrasound last week that his heart is just fine. I think Tyler and I heard "ventricle" the last couple of ultrasounds and assumed it was his heart that was on the verge of too large, but all was clarified at this appointment. The right lateral ventricle of the brain, where choroid plexus cysts are found, is on the verge of normal limits. The normal limit is 10 mm and he measured at a 10.5 mm, but he has no other visible indicators of growth abnormalities. The ventricle size has stayed stable from the last couple of ultrasounds, so we've opted for no more prenatal ultrasounds. Four was plenty. Six weeks left until the due date, and we are excited for little man to come.

Just a Funny Story

I'm loving having a "blog journal" and this is just a funny story from the other week that I'd like to add to it.

So, I was trying to tidy up the house and started tackling the sink full of dishes I had neglected from the night before. Not long after starting, I realized my tummy was starting to feel quite warm and a little wet. Kind of like it was being washed too...

It was at that moment I realized I might be getting too large for my standard wardrobe. I continued my regular tasks for the day and tried my best to keep covered. But the hard part was that I couldn't even see around my belly to know when the shirt had ridden up. I learned my lesson and put the black shirt away for now and into my Post Pregnancy bin.

I now have a much deeper appreciation for shirts that cover, and much more sympathy for little Chancho. It's tough being exposed like that.

Yes! I have a Belly

28 weeks and 3 days along. We've worked hard for this belly. Here are candid and less candid shots for proof.

Sweet Sweet baby

So at our last ultrasound, they found some potential brain and heart abnormalities in little man. He had a choroid cyst in his brain and his little heart ventricles were at the very upper limits of normal. The doctor was awesome and bluntly explained that these could be indicative of Trisomy 18 or 21, or it could indicate learning disability or potential heart defects. The chances were really low, around .25% or something like that, but they wanted to do a follow up just to see where he was at. We knew we would love our baby regardless, but we did want the heads up if he needed special care immediately after birth. Yesterday was our follow up, and he is looking great. He's still at the upper limits of normal for his heart and there is a little bit of variation in brain tissue, but nothing to be worried about. He's been quite active and has wiggled himself into the head down position already. I just love the little profile shots we got of him.

He was stretching and arching his back in this one:



This one can be hard to see, but it's my favorite. Look at it more like a 3D image on his face, and you can see the shadows showing his eyes, nose and little cheeks:

Pregnancy is going great! My biggest complaint is that he LOVES moving at night, and during church. I've learned to just stretch out as much as I can when we starts kicking up towards my ribs and moving his head and hands excessively. Stretching helps. But I love it when he moves too. I guess I'll add that to my list of bitter-sweets in life :)

Visitors!

Mama and Papa Southwick came last week and it was absolutely wonderful. On Friday, Tyler and Taylor took time off from work and school to come see the Bloch exhibit at the Museum of Art on campus. BYU transported a collection of original alter paintings from Denmark to display at BYU. I had seen his work many times, but the beauty, size, and attention to detail in the originals was astounding. Here are a few of my favorites from the exhibit:





These pictures are borrowed from LDS Church News and some of them show the audio/ipad system they had set up for visitors to learn even more about the paintings.

Tyler and I loved seeing the paint globs, the brush strokes, the cracking paint, and flawlessness of detail in every shadow, expression, and bulging vein. It was also great practice as Tyler volunteered to carry little Nellie around with us in her car seat.

Sunday was another incredible day. It was an "ah ha" day in many ways. We started with Dallas and Jessica's baby blessing for little Kayla at 8:30. Tyler, Taylor, and a few of their friends from Anacortes were able to stand in for the blessing. Then we went to Taylor and Martha's blessing of little Nellie at 11, where quite a few pews were filled with Southwick family and friends. Both Kayla and Nellie were absolutely beautiful and so very loved. Listening to the blessings, sitting with family, sitting with friends, and knowing I have a husband who has lived his life in a way that he could stand in for those beautiful blessings and offer the blessing of our little boy when he comes, was wonderful. It was a reminder of my Heavenly Father's love as I realized how much I loved the people I was surrounded by. It was a reminder of the inherent and divine strength of families. It was a reminder of how happy I am to have an incredible husband and baby on the way to teach me how to love more purely.

Mama Jana then came with Tyler and me to our ward at 2 to help teach our primary class. Our little five year olds were extra reverent and attentive when they learned Tyler's mom had heard how good they were and wanted to come and see them. Tyler thought of an awesome lesson plan to teach the importance of prophets and the priesthood in Christ's church both anciently and today. We took plastic cups and built a "tower" or "castle" depending on which of our boys you asked. Each cup was a component of Christ's church as we see in the bible and what we have today. After building the cup building, we talked about how the people weren't so good after Jesus and his disciples died, so they no longer had prophets or the power of the priesthood on the earth. We let two boys pull the cups labeled "priesthood" and "prophets" out from the foundation of our structure and the kids loved watching the whole building crumble. We also tried to show them that there were still good things on the earth, like the Bible and the ability to Choose The Right and do good things, but a lot of other important things were lost. Then as the lesson went on we talked about how all of those components were restored and rebuilt our building cup by cup. It felt so good to feel like we had a productive lesson that kept their attention (mostly) for the hour that we had them.


We ended the day with dinner at Taylor and Martha's with lots of Nellie holding. We were sad to say goodbye to Scott and Jana, but so so happy they came. We're excited for them to go see the Jason and Leah family in Florida and for them to be there for Ollie's blessing.

The Sad Truth

Tyler loves Christmas time. He starts listening to Christmas music after his birthday. His birthday is September 14th. This last Thanksgiving, Jana and I went to Martha's baby shower and came home to find Tyler and Scott on the roof putting up Christmas lights. Tyler was SO excited! They had found some colored lights and an adapter that twists into the existing porch light, allowing us to turn on the Christmas lights with the flip of a switch from inside. Our colorful lights were on every night. Until the sad truth was revealed.

I had been struggling the decision of how long into the year we should keep our Christmas lights on. I took note as one by one, our neighbors' beautiful yards reverted back to their pre-Christmas states. Most ceased to sport their lights within a week of Christmas: and only the stalwart few remained after the snow melted. When I realized ours was the only house with lights remaining, I suggested that maybe our season of Christmas Light Cheer had come to an end. Tyler was visibly heartbroken, but still switched our plug-in adapter for the traditional energy saving bulb. This was last week, the first week of February...