A Happy Home is Filled with Love and Laughter

STRESS

Beej & Chris

New JOB:

I started working at my company as a LPN. They pay me per visit and it has worked out really nice. I have enjoyed the job and have started getting more challenged lately which has been good. I put in my first IV and got it on my first try, I was soo happy! I flushed a nephrostomy and helped with a central line dressing change. Well- when I got my RN and faxed the license to my work I started charting RN after my name. I was pretty excited for my new raise and the extra money that I will get just for adding RN after my name. A few days ago my boss told me that since I got my license in the middle of a pay period (5 days into it) that it would be too hard for them to pay me RN pay and I would just have to wait to get paid RN pay the next pay period. WHAT??!!! 5 days into the 15 day pay period and I am not going to get paid for that?? My boss said, I tried to talk to payroll and fight for you but they said it was just too hard to do. HARD TO DO?? How is it hard to pay me more money? Why can't they just retropay the extra on the following paycheck?? UGH so Frustrating especially with the car problems we are currently having as well as this new baby bundle on the way.

Car Problems:

We recieved our car from my parents and have really enjoyed it these past two years, but it is starting to fall apart and I am ready for a new one. The heater started giving us problems about a year ago. It will blow heat for a little bit, but then starts blowing cold air. We have gotten used to it though...untill yesterday when the heat totally blew. Good thing it is warming up outside and this little "bun in the oven" is keeping me pretty toasty. :) Well- today the car started overheating on my way home from getting gas. I made it home ok but we have to get it into the mechanics tomorrow to get it checked. Not a big deal except for we just had it in the mechanics two weeks ago for a tune up and a month before that because he totally died on us on our way to Desert Start Theatre. So in the past couple months we have forked out around $700. We want to buy a new car and have been planning on doing that for awhile. But with the baby on its way and our current finances it just isn't the best time. And if we bought a car we would have to rely on my job which we really don't want to do cause I don't want to work very much so I can be home with our sweet baby, and it makes us both nervous to have to rely on two paychecks with the chance of one of us losing our jobs.

I am not trying to complain I am just STRESSED and for some reason writting it down helps to ease my stress. But through all this I have realized what great friends and family I have. I have had cousins, my family, and neighbors help get me to where I have needed to go. It has been a wonderful blessing and something both BJ and I are very grateful for. Despite the stress we both feel extremely blessed and are appreciative of all that we do have. We haven't had a car payment since we have been married, we are both healthy, we got pregnant despite the endometriosis I have, we both have great jobs, and best of all we have wonderful friends and family!

We are both just praying that when the baby comes that we will have a way to get to the hospital! Today was supposed to be my doctors visit, but since our car is having problems we had to cancel it. So I will let you know what he says on wednesday. To end on a funny note. I see a 92 year old patient quite frequently. And this last week he said "You are planning on having your baby at the hospital right?". I told him that was the plan. He looks at me very seriously and says, "Ok- just...don't have her here ok!" LOL I just cracked up and said, "What, you dont want to deliver my baby?" He just stared at me and said, "NO- I really really dont!". SO Funny!

WHAT A DEAL!!!!

Beej & Chris

LOL! I had to take a picture of this when I saw it! You could save a whole $0.01 if you buy this space saver high chair TODAY! BJ and I heard about this AMAZING sale at Toys R Us and decided to go look for some baby things, needless to say the deals weren't all that amazing. But while we are speaking of deals...BJ has been at it again with his coupon deals. Here is the latest deal he has done......

We went grocery shopping yesterday at Smith's and got all this for $38.04. Before all the coupons and our smith's card the bill was over $118.00!!!!! How did we do it you ask? Well- WE didn't do it...BJ did! He follows the following blogs every week and starts to make his plan for the weekend on what deals he is going to attempt.
http://hip2save.com/

http://www.utahdealdiva.com/

http://slavetosave.blogspot.com/

http://thekrazycouponlady.com/

*** Note: Not all of these blogs are done by people in Utah, so some of the deals are not valid here***

Saturday is usually what I call "BJ's deal day". Every Sunday in the morning he cuts out ALL the coupons from the Sunday newspaper and the alphabetizes them by the brand name. Then as he is looking at blogs he usually remembers the coupons that he has and can figure out which deals he can do with the coupons he has. He will also print off some coupons from specific name brand websites as the bloggers advice him to. It is definitely A LOT of work and time but we have saved so much money and our food storage just keeps building! It is always rewarding for him when he sees the bill go from $118 to $38 and having the cashier say "wow- that is a lot for $38 dollars". It takes time out of my BEEJ time on Saturday but it is all worth it to see his face after a great deal!! What can I say- my husband is AMAZING!

Pregnancy Class #5

Beej & Chris

Phew- we only have one more class to go. CRAZY! The classes have been a lot of fun and we have both learned a lot, but I am excited to be getting to the end cause that means I am to the end of my pregnancy and get to see our daughter soon! Woot Woot!

This week we talked about breastfeeding. Our teacher is a "Lactation consult" and is really really good at what she does! I ended up staying after to ask her even more questions and made BJ late for basketball (he was soo patient and understanding. THANKS again BJ). There is soooo much to learn about breastfeeding. I kinda wish we would have taken a breastfeeding class as well. She teaches one on top of this class we are in and goes more into depth. For all of you that have thought about taking a pregnancy class- DO IT! Even if it is just to find out about breastfeeding! ANYWAY.........

Quick warning: I spent the last year in a half in nursing school where we talked about everything. We talked about gross wounds or diseases while we ate our lunch like it was no big deal. Not to mention being in the medical field- some things just dont phase you anymore. SO- that being said. SKIP this if you are a guy or a girl that doesn't want to read about breastfeeding in detail :)

Here is a lovely picture of the "breasts" that we got to practice feeding with. :) Neat huh! We learned about all the different ways to hold a baby and what the best way to keep your milk supply up. So I was not going to buy a breast pump at first, but then decided to buy a cheap small one to have just in case. BUT our teacher recommended buying a pump and told us to use it from the very beginning. She said that the baby usually just eats from one breast and if he/she gets a good latch then they will fill up. Sometimes in the beginning they will go to the other breast for "desert" or more foremilk just to top them off. SO she told us to keep our milk supply up it is good to breast feed on one side and pump the other side and freeze the milk. She doesn't recommend feeding the breast milk from the bottle for at least 4 weeks so the baby doesn't get lazy and not want to latch on anymore. It was really interesting and I felt like I learned a lot. I wont bore you will all the details that

she told us. But I did have a question for all you experienced breast feeders out there. Our teacher recommended buying a "Medela" brand breast pump because the motor will last and make it worth the money. Anybody buy a Medela and how did you like it? There are also so many different kinds of Medela's out there. Any other recommendations out there? Would love to hear what everyone thinks!!!

Oh and this is a "ticket to breastfeed in public". It has Utah's law about breastfeeding in public. We talked about how in the United States it is still controversial to breastfeed in public. Where in Italy, BJ would be teaching someone from his mission and they would just whip out their breast like it was no big deal. I dont plan on doing that by all means. But I thought this ticket was funny and informative :)

37 1/2 weeks= No baby

Beej & Chris

So at our 35 week doctors appointment when I was dilated to a 2, 80% effaced, and at a -1 station, our doctor got really excited and told us to pack our bags and prepare cause she might come early. Well- last week..he seemed surprised to see me and not having a lot of contractions. I think he thought since I had progressed so much so early that I would go fast. It has definitely not been the case. I got pretty excited at our 35 week appointment but after last week and not having a ton of contractions as of recently, I thought I was pretty prepared to hear that I hadn't progressed much. But it was still hard for him to say, "well. I will definitely be seeing you next week!" I am still dilated to a 2, still 80% effaced, BUT now a 0 station. That's right. She dropped her little head a little bit more.
Bright side of all this- I will make it to my ward baby shower this thursday. I won't have the baby on my birthday this friday. I should be able to finish my pregnancy class with BJ AND I can keep working and earning some money to help pay for this baby :)
Down side- I wanna see her face soo much! Since she has dropped, she doesn't kick as hard or as much so I get nervous all the time...always checking for her to kick to make sure she is ok. At night I wake up to go to the restroom and then come back and try to wait for her to kick- but then end up falling asleep just to wake up panicked realizing that I had fallen asleep before I felt her kick and try feeling her again just to fall asleep again. Its a viscous cycle. I already know that I am going to be laying right over her bassinet listening for her to breath. I know I know- I worry to much.
Well- we will continue to keep ya posted. Tomorrow is our pregnancy class so I will write about that later!

3 Weeks Left...

Beej & Chris

BJ and I were talking about Italy the other day, and I realized that I was pregnant when we went! That seemed like such a long time ago that we went on that trip, I can't believe I am getting to the end of this long 9 month journey and going to start motherhood so soon! We had a doctors appointment this last Monday. Since he had checked my dilation and effacement the week before, he didn't need to check me this week. He asked me if I was having contractions and I said, "well, I have been having menstrual cramps on and off for the past couple days?" He then told me that those were contractions. Now can I just say I am grateful that theses cramps aren't excruciatingly painful but they sure do g

et old fast. I have been so use to not having a period these past months that I forgot how annoying cramps were...especially when they drag on for days. But as I keep saying, I really can't complain too much cause I have had a pretty good pregnancy thus far. So these minor aches and pains I can deal with.
Well we now start the big waiting game! Our little girl just keeps teasing me with these contractions. I will start to get them stronger and lasting longer but then they will go away. Last night I kept dreaming that I was going into labor, and when I got up to use to restroom BJ told me this morning that he thought I was going into labor and got excited. We are just both so anxious for this bundle of joy to join our lives. We both want her to be healthy and make it to full term, but sometimes the wait is hardly bearable.

Only three more weeks.....only three more weeks...we can do it!!

Here are a few pictures of the finished nursery...well pretty much finished (I have a few pictures still that need to be hung up). My mom and dad bought us a brand new crib! We can't thank them enough. The crib we had sanded and painted ended up missing parts that we were unable to find so they suprised us with this gift. Thanks mom and dad! We also purchased a stroller and car seat, it took me awhile to find one I liked that was also gender neutral but I am pretty excited about this one. I also finally figured out what to put in the squares of the wall with the help of my mom and it only costed about $6. The picture of the diaper changer looks pretty cluttered in this picture but it is because I haven't bought a diaper bag yet and am still trying to organize how I want to put the clothes away.

WAHOO it is finally coming together! After the shower, BJ and I went through and was organizing the clothes and can I just say, doing that got me soo excited!!!

Pregnancy Class Week 4

Beej & Chris

Yesterday was week 4 into our pregnancy class. We were supposed to have a pediatrician come and talk with us, but he couldn't make it. So we played a jeopardy game and practiced swaddling a baby doll. The jeopardy game was very informative and interesting. But my favorite part of the class was watching BJ swaddle the baby doll. It was so cute, he did a great job! I just had this overwhelming feeling of gratitude and love for BJ and realized once again what a great father he is going to be. I just feel very blessed to have him in my life and appreciate all that he does for me and everyone around him.

Baby Shower #1

Beej & Chris

I had my first baby shower this last saturday. My mom and a few of my aunts were so kind to organize the party and prepare some yummy goodies! It was so fun to see everyone and oooooohhh and awwww at all the cute girly outfits.

My mom made this amazing diaper cake! Isn't she the BEST!

My cute nephew Carson. He is so cute. When he sat on my lap he kept trying to lean back and get comfortable but my belly kept getting in his way. It was so funny!