Draft from 37 weeks!

****this post has been sitting as a draft on my computer for over 2.5 months now. I'm posting it so I don't forget how I felt at 37 weeks pregnant! I keep meaning to blog, hopefully soon I'll get a end-of-pregnancy/baby update up on here! Its coming, promise!!!!****

Saturday marks 37 weeks and I feel like time has FLOWN! 3 weeks to go (until baby's due date anyways) and I feel like everything is just speeding up! Hopefully I can find time to finish all these little projects I've started before she gets here!

I still feel awesome! I felt baby drop around 33 weeks, and ever since then I've had to slow down at the gym (due to discomfort really...kind of hard to jog when there's a baby head banging into your pelvic bone with every step). I'm still going to the gym 6 days a week, and I'm making myself walk a mile every time (it just takes twice as long now, which is fine) and do about 30 minutes of lifting. I had to miss a day due to a cold about a week back, and I could definitely feel a difference. I just have so much more energy during the day if I get up and get going first thing in the AM. And I find I'm that much more productive as well! Plus, I've heard that working out daily helps with labor and delivery, and recovery.

Last week I had gotten up to 42 lbs total weight gain, but at my appointment on Monday I lost a couple, so we're at 40! (In case you're concerned, don't be, doc says that's normal, and that as long as my measurements show growth we're good, so we're good!). It's funny, as much as I joke to people that I feel like a whale, I really have loved my body this trimester. I love that I get to wear evidence that I'm creating a life inside of me, it's so incredible to me that my body is capable of such a feat, and I'm so grateful everyday for this huge blessing in mine and Taylor's life. This baby girl is so strong, and when she rolls and stretches I feel her everywhere! I absolutely LOVE it! 

Another funny thing (at least to me), is that women have been telling me over and over how the baby will start moving at night and keeping me up. NOPE. She is so busy all day, and after dinner she does go a little crazy for about an hour, but by the time I crawl (awkwardly...no abs) into bed she calms down and goes right to sleep with me! I know I shouldn't expect this trend to continue after she's born, but I'm also pretty smug when ladies complain to me about something that is imminent and me and my baby prove them wrong. I say lets stop talking down about pregnancy and childbirth. Let's be uplifting, ladies! Why can't we support each other positively!? Attitude is everything, and that kind of negativity is misery loves company in my book...I don't want anyone to be miserable about such a beautiful miracle! It's not like I don't feel discomfort, I still have a human growing inside of me displacing my internal organs, and putting extra pressure on my hips and lady parts, but it's so worth it! I just know it!

Coming up on 37 weeks definitely gets me itching to know when she'll actually come! I've decided to expect late, but prepare for early. So if she does come early or right on time, I'll be pleasantly surprised (but also won't have to scramble to get myself together come go-time). And if she comes late, well, I was expecting that anyway. But really, I wouldn't be mad if she came a tiny bit early...whenever you're ready baby girl!!

Bebe Girl

I'm sitting here feeling my sweet baby bear dance inside of me and I can't help but shout it from the internet heavens, I'M HAVING A BABY! 

I am so grateful to be pregnant! This is something I've wanted for so long, and after months of Dr's appointments, blood tests, and the possibility of involving medication to move it along, I simply can't complain about pregnancy discomforts because I am so thrilled that I get to be a mama in 3 short months! 

I found out I was pregnant really early on (about a week before I would have missed my period, had I been having normal periods, let alone ovulating at all..) and was a nervous wreck until the Dr. would see me at 7 weeks and we were able to hear her tiny heartbeat. I had had a chemical pregnancy (very early miscarriage at about 7 weeks) in the fall of 2012 (when the egg is fertilized but it doesn't implant properly into the uterine wall), and was so nervous that I would have another. When I heard that baby's heartbeat and saw that little bean on the screen right where it was supposed to be, implanted right how it was supposed to have, I lost it. For several weeks after I took pregnancy test after pregnancy test just to make sure I was still pregnant! I don't recommend doing this, obviously, as those things aren't cheap. The only symptoms I had at first were tender (not to mention a full cup size bigger) boobies, and a little bit of nausea in the morning if I didn't eat right away. Those symptoms were quickly followed by the worst acne of my life, but that's why we have makeup, ladies...that is why Sephora exists. 

I remember feeling really bloated for a long time, which I think was partly because I have a gluten sensitivity and all that I could eat without wanting to throw up was cheerios (those are made of wheat, in case you didn't know). We also had our South Africa trip right at the beginning of March, which was right in the middle of my morning sickness stretch, but luckily it seemed to go away for the week I was abroad, only to return when we got back. One exception to this was the airplane. You have no idea how disgusting airplanes are until you are pregnant, with a super-spidey-sense of smell, on a 16 hour flight headed to Dubai. I don't get nauseous on planes...I was so nauseous on this plane. I kid you not, it was the most disgusting 16 hours of my life...and the next one from Dubai to Johannesburg wasn't any better. 

I switched Doctors when I was in Phoenix for my girl's weekend back in April (at 14 weeks) and couldn't be happier with my choice. My doctor in D.C. was pushy about a few things that I thought were unnecessary, and I didn't realize how uncomfortable he made me feel until I went to my Doctor in Phoenix and instantly felt at ease. At the time he was 90% sure of our little bear's gender, so he wrote it down on  a folded piece of paper and stapled it shut. Taylor and I wanted to wait to get excited until doc was 100% sure, and so we waited until we moved back to Arizona and went to our first appointment together to find out that baby was a GIRL! We both had had a feeling that it was girl, and I'm so glad we were right!

I'm not just past the half-way mark, at 25 weeks (as of this past Saturday to be exact). I've gained 27 pounds already, which is a lot more than I intended, (which was a rude awakening) but I've realized I have no control. I eat a healthy balanced diet and I go to the gym six days a week, so what I've gained is what I was going to gain, and I still have another 15 weeks to gain some more! Bring it! As long as I feel healthy and am making healthy choices I'm confident my baby will be healthy and I can get back to my old self in no time after she gets here! As much as I gripe about my weight though, I really do love my pregnant body. I love to feel mine and Taylor's baby move inside of me. I love thinking of another life inside of mine, and how important it is to take care of my body so that my body can protect my little one and help her to grow. I also love my breasts (as weird as that sounds, and as uncomfortable as they sometimes can be); I have curves I never had before and it's kind of fun!

It's funny how much advice I've gotten on my pregnancy so far. Every one has something to say, and heaven forbid you google it! I've taken the approach to my pregnancy, that I do what I feel is right. Many people told me I shouldn't lift weights, but I do. I've read not to let your heartbeat get over 140 BPM, but others say as long as you can hold a conversation you're fine. Websites like "what to expect when you're expecting" say no sushi, but friends from Japan say they eat it while pregnant all the time. I've heard not to use benzyl peroxide while pregnant, but then the dermatologist says topical is okay. I don't know what's "right" and "wrong", but I feel comfortable with my instinct and trust my gut. Honestly I wish people would give less advice, though I know they mean well. Most of it is actually pretty negative, like hospital horror stories, and "you're going to feel so fat and ugly" (which someone ACTUALLY told me). Pregnancy is so personal and intimate and such an individual experience; I've never known two women to have the same exact pregnancy, so maybe assuming that mine will be exactly like yours isn't the most realistic conclusion? 

As far as cravings I haven't really had anything consistent. There have been weeks when I crave things like eggs with salsa (which I hated before becoming pregnant), and cheese crisps (not to be confused with quesadillas), again something I've never liked before. Taylor jokes that because I'm craving things he loves he knows baby is his, silly guy. The past few weeks all I want is salad. All kinds of salad. We had friends over for dinner last night and when I was planning the meal Taylor had to remind me that not everyone can survive off of salad (which I had planned a pretty bomb salad if I do say so myself); I had to focus really hard to come with something that wasn't just another additional salad! Oh, and cypress grove lamb's cheese. I could eat that whole block..and goat cheese with roasted beets..whaaaa? Those sound healthy, and they are, but I did have several weeks where all I wanted was funfetti cake but we had already packed up our kitchen in DC, so first thing I did when we got back to Phoenix was to make myself a funfetti cake. Taylor and a slice, Billy had a slice...I ate the rest of that full sized cake. By myself. In less than two days. Not good, never doing that again. Oh, another silly comparison. So my father-in-law's wakeboard boat's fuel gauge doesn't work, you can't tell its full until it literally starts spitting gas back out at you at the gas station. THIS IS HOW I FEEL. I can't tell when I'm full anymore until my food starts coming back up!! Even after I eat a generous portion I still feel hungry, but if I continue to eat I get soooooo sick and have to sit up for several hours trying not to moan too loudly so my sweet husband can get some sleep! It was a daily struggle to control my portions at first, and I've learned so much about my body! Like, if I finish a plate-full instead of immediately filling it up, wait 10 minutes to see if I'm really still hungry or not.. then I won't have burning pressure behind my breast bone and acid creeping up my throat for 4 hours afterwards! (I've heard word that heartburn means baby has lots of hair? crossing my fingers its red!)

We haven't decided on any names, nor will we until we meet little miss and feel like one of the names we like really fits her! We do have a list, but we aren't sharing it; it's hard to talk about names when we aren't really sure about any of them and don't want anyone thinking we are!

We are so excited for this baby bear to join our little family! October couldn't come soon enough!

Westward, Ho!

Another thing we had been wanting to do since moving East was to do a tour of historical sites for our church. We decided since the sites we wanted to see were spread out from New York to Missouri that a good time to do it would be when we were already planning on driving across the country. Moving back to Arizona was the perfect opportunity!

 ^ We started our tour visiting the prophet Joseph Smith's home in Palmyra, New York as well as the Sacred Grove. It was so beautiful and such a peaceful place.  *if you would like to know more about what the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints believes related to Joseph Smith and the Sacred Grove, please follow the links which can be found by hovering over the typed words!*

^ Our next stop was the Hill Cumorah, which is where Joseph Smith found the Gold Plates which were later translated into The Book of Mormon, which is scripture that we study alongside the Bible. It was a steep hike to the monument at the top of the hill, and it was humbling to think of the circumstances surrounding what happened there. My testimony was definitely strengthened just setting foot in such an important place.

 ^ We took a slight detour between church historic sites to make our way into Canada to see Niagara Falls. Border patrol workers going into Canada are super crabby (apparently I'm a criminal because I keep pepper spray in my car? Guess what, I also have one that fits nicely on my wrist for when I go running. I'm a 5'2" wisp of a female human, not a felon...IT'S PEPPER SPRAY!?!?!?!), and the city of Ontario is not trailer or puppy friendly. After every single parking lot for 10 miles turned us away because of our trailer, Taylor ended up having to  drop me off and drive around while I sneeked a peek and a few photos at the falls and then ran back to the road to jump back in the car. It was incredibly stressful, but I'm glad I have a sweet husband who sacrificed experiencing this gorgeous view so that I could. Thanks for being a champ, Taylor!

^ Since we came back into good ol' USA via Buffalo New York, we decided to stop and have some authentic Buffalo wings. They were amazing. 

^ We stopped in Kirtland, Ohio to see the first LDS Temple. It is currently owned by the Community of Christ Church (formerly known as the Reformed LDS Church), the tour guide was very friendly and sweet, but definitely had different beliefs than we do in the LDS church. Along on the tour were a senior missionary couple from the LDS church and it was interesting to the have the perspective from both groups on one tour. The building was beautiful, and well restored. 

^ Nauvoo, Illinois was my favorite! It truly was the most beautiful place! And the temple! New favorite! Or maybe tied with the Mesa Temple. Funny story: there is a statue of Joseph Smith on a horse across the street from the temple grounds and a massive field right next to it. We took the puppies for a walk and headed towards the field to let them run around a little bit. When Indy saw the statue he went into defense mode and growls we have never before heard from our sweet little Indy came in full force! He was so mad that horse for threatening his humans! He had no idea it wasn't alive, it was hilarious! We walked around the temple for a while and then headed into the historic neighborhood to check out the visitor center there. I'm so glad the church was able to purchase this land back and rebuild the temple (which had been damaged by a fire and a tornado). It is such a beautiful building and such a sacred place.

^ From Nauvoo we headed to Carthage Jail, where Joseph Smith and his brother Hyrum were murdered. It is so sad to me that religious persecution is what we were trying to escape when America was founded, yet it continued for so long, and continues today. Visiting Carthage Jail was a humbling experience, and I'm so grateful for everything that was sacrificed so that we can have the gospel on the Earth today. 

^ Our last stop on our Church History trip before booking it back to Arizona was Liberty Jail in Liberty, Missouri. Another humbling experience (and a rather ironic name for a jail, don't you think?). 

After stopping here and doing the tour we were reallllllly ready to not be in the car anymore. We spent one more night on the road before we made it home. Arizona was a sight for sore eyes, and it took us a good long weekend hibernation to feel ready to greet the world again. We had an amazing drive west and had some amazing experiences. Even though the car was extremely uncomfortable on my pregnant body, I'm so glad we spent a few extra days on the road so that we could visit such important historic sites! 

Wrapping it up in The District

Our time in DC post South Africa was kind of one big blur. A long, slow blur actually. We had a couple things left on our to-do-in-DC list before we headed west, so we decided to use all the time we had left that wasn't spent packing up our life and selling things on Craigslist to check some tourist destinations off our list.

It started with Taylor taking a trip to Phoenix for some job interviews, and then me going to Phoenix immediately when he got home for the annual girls' weekend! So basically, I saw Taylor for one week in all of March, which was totally fine because he got a job, and I got a weekend full of pedicures, shopping, sunshine, and Rito's green chile burritos. Win-win...WIN

I'm actually just going to dump a bunch of photos on here and wrap it up real quick...because it's almost July, that's why.

^first thing first, when we got back from South Africa we decided to share some big news! I'll save preggo deets for another post..

^these are the only two photos I have from my girl's weekend in Phoenix. Partly because we hadn't announced my pregnancy to anyone except family yet and for some stupid reason I felt like a whale already (? oh little did I know...), and partly because I was having such a good time didn't feel the need to keep my phone with me...like the whole weekend (oooops). That cute little chunk right there is the newest niece miss Adalyn, I super like her. As for the tub photo, I'm not entirely sure myself, but I like it :)

^spring in DC is a joke. BUT, since it was slightly warmer some days we took the puppies to the park a lot more often, which is always fun...until a runner goes by...

 ^The cherry blossoms were gorgeous as ever, but unfortunately most of them came right before a huge rain storm, so they didn't last long this year. Luckily a street in our neighborhood seems to have some late bloomers, so we got double the cherry blossoms! When the blossoms fall it looks like pink confetti snow, and the sidewalks and streets are littered in cherry blossom corpses for several weeks afterwards. Which is kind of beautiful, but the smell this year (sensitive nose over here) really got to me and when we walked down this street to the gym I had to plug my nose to keep from feeling nauseated. Go hormones!

^Mount Vernon (George Washington's home) was one of the last unchecked boxes on our list of things to do when living in DC, so we spent an afternoon touring and exploring the grounds. It was beautiful and surprisingly humble, which makes me like that first president of ours even more than I already did!

^Monticello was the last unchecked box, and I honestly can tell you that this was by far my very favorite of all the places we've been and things we have done on the East Coast. Thomas Jefferson was so enlightened and one of the most inspirational men. What a man, what a house! The entire theme of his home was education, he wanted people who visited him to leave with more knowledge than they came with, and every single room and feature of his home was designed in a way to teach. It was truly the most incredible experience, and the grounds were GORGEOUS! If you ever get the chance to go see Monticello, I strongly urge you to take it!

^after two years of hard work, Taylor graduated from the McDonough School of Business at Georgetown University with his Master's! Words cannot express how proud I am of this guy. I feel so lucky to have such a hardworking, dedicating husband! He is the best example to me, and I know he's going to be the best role model for our children of how important education is, and how to work hard for the things you want in life. Thank you, Taylor Robinson, for putting so much work into your career so you can provide for our little family and give us a comfortable and happy life! I love you so much!

(also, I'm 20 weeks pregnant in this photo)

^Sam and Susan came to DC for Taylor's graduation and spent the weekend with us. We hit up our favorite DC restaurants for the last time with them and they helped us pack everything from our little apartment into the trailer to move us back West! It was bitter sweet leaving that tiny basement apartment. When we got in the car to pull out for the last time, we both started unexpectedly crying. We had been missing Arizona so much, and were so eager to leave. But when it came down to it, I think we both realized how amazing our experience in DC had been. It was one of the best decisions we ever made to move across the country for school. We were able to establish who we were as a couple, and make new traditions for ourselves and our future family. I had a wonderful career in DC that gave me experiences I  couldn't have gotten anywhere else. We made some of the best friends and the best memories there, and even though we were excited to get back to our desert, we realized how sad we were to leave all of our friends (both human and canine); to walk away from a little apartment that changed our lives so drastically.

Thank you DC! Thank you Chevy Chase Ward! Thank you Interpreting job, and Georgetown University! Thank you dear friends from work and school for all that you did for Taylor and I! DC will always hold a very special place in our hearts and our memories, I'm so grateful for every single of one our crazy adventures, the hard and the fun!

*that last photo is to illustrate how much Coco wanted to stay, or rather how much she didn't want to get in the car (she gets car anxiety, poor thing)

South African Safari: Thursday

It rained pretty hard on Wednesday night and continued into Thursday morning, so we woke up to a cooler, wetter game drive. Ephraim had fleece lined ponchos to keep up warm and they were sent from Heaven! Although hardly any animals were out because of the wind and rain we did manage to see a giraffe, some zebra, and a lot of fresh muddy animal tracks including: lion, gnu, impala, gecko, and hippo. 

After the morning drive we packed up our things, ate brunch, settled with management, bought be a Cheetah Plains souvenir in the form of a baseball cap, and headed back out onto the treacherous dirt road, now muddy from all the heavy rains. We caravan-ed with Heinz and Elsbeth just past the townships, and then headed towards the Johannesburg airport while they headed to drive the Garden Route and continue Heinz birthday South Africa adventure. 

As I said before, we stayed at the Cheetah Plains Private Game Reserve, Sabi Sand at Kruger National Park. I cannot say enough good things about this place, if you ever go on a South African safari I HIGHLY recommend Cheetah Plains! The staff was amazing! They catered to my crazy food allergies which was a huge blessing. Our guide, Ephraim, was the best ever, he was an expert tracker and was knowledgeable about all the animals, birds, and flora. We saw every animal on our list, including the Big 5: elephant, rhino, buffalo, leopard, and lion. It was such an amazing experience to see such beautiful animal out in their natural habitat; no fences, no one feeding them, pure wild. One night as we were leaving our hut to go to dinner we walked outside to an elephant not 30 feet away from us, just on the other side of the electric fence that was the lodge boundary! 

We definitely had some rookie experiences. Such as our camera lens fogging up, which us being new to photography in general didn't exactly know how to handle! We ended up just letting it dry out before using our camera, luckily on Wednesday morning the fog on the lens cleared up just in time for the lions big debut! 

It was also interesting to experience the different dialects of the natives in South Africa. The Republic of South Africa has 11 official languages! How crazy is that!? Luckily English was one of them, so communication wasn't an issue, but it was funny how different English there is! Instead of saying "okay", people say "ya-ya" and "cool" a lot. To "scheme" doesn't have the negative connotation it does here, it simply means "to plan", nothing menacing implied. They don't send "texts" they send an "SMS", and instead of saying "text me", we heard a lot of people saying "give me a tinkle"...which yeah, totally different meaning here huh? Diapers are "nappies", which I personally like. Oh, and stop lights? "Robots"...that one took some getting used to, and honestly I hardly could contain my laughter every time someone giving us directions would say "turn right at the second robot"; I just kept imagining R2-D2 standing on the corner! Another thing I rather liked was that instead of Zebra [zee-bruh] they used the pronunciation Zeb-ruh (I wish American English was as pretty as South African English).

We had the most amazing trip, and feel so blessed to be able to have gone, especially at this crazy time in our lives! I feel a new appreciation for God's creations, and a new respect for the wild and untamed. 

This world that our Heavenly Father has created is so beautiful, and so perfect! 

South African Safari: Wednesday

Wednesday was a big day for us on our Safari as we finally caught up with our lion friends we'd been tracking! We saw a good sized pride that was an interesting composition: three younger males, and two females. They were just like super massive lazy cats, and they reminded of us our lazy Coco and Indy back home! The young males had funny little mohawk manes, and you could see on the females some scaring from hunting incidents (you know, because the lady lions are the bread winners). 

We saw a couple elephants, a small pack of wild dog pups who had been abandoned by their mother (they were soooo sweet, I wanted to take them home with us...even though apparently wild dogs are extremely vicious and aggressive), and PUMBA (who was super anti-social and refused to stick around long enough for a photo). 

 I should mention here how incredibly stupid that safari rig is right there. Being that close to any elephant in the wild is incredibly dangerous. In fact, elephants have caused several human deaths in Kruger National Park, as well countless damage to vehicles of people on "self-safaris". People think they are so gentle and assume that because of this they won't hurt them. However, if you happen to be in the road this close to a mama between her and her baby, she can flip your vehicle over without thinking about if she feels you're threatening her or her baby. They are magnificent though, just keep your distance and respect the animals.

Unfortunately our camera battery died right after our encounter with the wild dog pups. And Taylor and I, being the rookies that we are, left our extra (fully charged, might I add) batteries at the lodge. So for the remainder of our morning game drive we used my phone, which luckily I had brought along to take video! Thank goodness, because we ran into Zebra, Wildebeest or Gnu, and Impala! Who, we learned, clump together and follow each other around when grazing because it's easier to avoid predators (and to escape them) they more of you there are, safety in numbers! So, here's an iphone photo dump for you enjoyment (all from our morning game drive)

We were soooo tired after our exciting morning drive, and after brunch we crashed in our little hut. We pretty much slept all afternoon, and woke up in time to take a little hike around the lodge grounds and make it to the main lodge in time for high tea and the evening game drive. Everyone except us and our German friends went home after the morning drive, so for the evening drive and dinner it was just Taylor and I, and our new friends Heinrich (Heinz) and his wife Elsbeth. For high tea we even celebrated Heinz's 50th Birthday, which was the purpose of their trip to South Africa! (Side Story: I'm actually super embarrassed about this, but when Heinz first introduced himself I SWORE up and down he had said Hans, even though Taylor was sure he had said Heinz. I was calling him Hans for the first several game drives before I heard his wife call him Heinrich and I realized the short version was likely Heinz, not Hans.)

These nasty MASSIVE spiders were EVERYWHERE, and whenever Ephraim would go off road we would get their webs all over us. So icky gross, I am NOT a fan...but they're photogenic though so...yeah.

 Elsbeth, Heinrich, and Willem

I think I mentioned before how nice the staff at Cheetah Plains was, right? Anyway, some of the kitchen staff took it upon themselves to make Heinrich a birthday cake for his 50th! And I won't lie, I had like three slices, it was DELICIOUS! So sweet, no!?!?

Our evening game drive a little slower than our others had been, partly because it was rainy and many of the animals had found shelter and hunkered down for the night. We saw a HUGE buck elephant, the biggest I've ever seen! Pumba finally stuck around for a photo, and we saw a funny looking Kudu (which is was we ate on Tuesday night for dinner!). We also hung around and watched a silly little Vervet monkey play around in a tree for a while, I though his butt was bright blue and so funny/cute...until I realized it wasn't his butt, and the red thing wasn't either. Thanks, binoculars.

The real highlight of our evening drive was when our rig got "stuck" in the mud, really really "stuck". We kind of think it was all for the "experience", to be honest...I mean, the truck had four-wheel-drive, and a rear differential. Regardless of if we got stuck on purpose, or on accident, our last evening drive ended up being a good one, we ended with a cutie baby elephant and headed back to the lodge for one of the best dinners of our trip (baby sole with a creamy lemon sauce and grilled peppers, zucchini, and squash! mmmm), and an early bed time so we would have energy for our long drive back to Joburg on Thursday.