Christmas and Pregnancy Update

We had a good Christmas but we missed not being with family this year.  Mike wasn’t surprised by any of his Christmas because everything that he would buy for himself in the month leading up to Christmas I would quickly confiscate and wrap as best I could so he wouldn’t know what gift was what.  

He did surprise me this year with a Kitchen Aid.  He used the money that mom and dad gave us plus the money from his parents and the money he was going to spend on my gift anyways and got me something that I never would have got for myself.  I love it and I can’t wait to be able to use it more!

We went to my weekly doctor appointment yesterday and they told me I was already dilated to a 3 and I was effaced 50%.  The doctor said he is VERY low which I already new because it feels like he is going to fall out when I stand up!  I hit 37 weeks on Friday so we are in a perfect position for him to come this week.  My doctor has been very clear that if I don't come on my own in the next few weeks they will induce labor.  That makes me extremely happy because I don't think I could be on bed rest until the end of January AND I'm SO ready to meet our little man!

Me at 36 1/2 weeks.  The picture really doesn't do my stomach justice.  This is the best picture I could get to how far he sticks out for how far a long I am.  Some days are worse than others.  

Secret Santa & Ornaments

Here are a few of the crafts that I've been working on for gifts over the past few weeks.  I can now post these because I've handed them out.  After Christmas I will have a bunch more if I can ever get them done!

This was a gift I made for my work's secret Santa.  I just used mod podge, paper, and stickers.  It was VERY simple once I figured out what to do.  Unfortunately, I couldn't ask her what her colors were because it was a secret Santa gift.  

This was just a sticker that I had.  I thought it added a nice touch to the gift.  
In my recipe group this month we all made ornaments to give to one another.  I found these stars at Michael's for 25 cents and then painted them white.  I then used mod podge to put the cute Christmas paper on.  You can't tell from the pictures but the paper has glitter on it.  I just drilled a hole through the top of the star and used thin twine to tie it up.  (Yes, that is my grandma couch from the Goodwill!)



This ornament is the only one I didn't like how it turned out because I messed up on it.  I was trying to use as little paper as I could and fit three stars on one sheet but I didn't think about the trees not going straight up and down.  

These stars where a very simple ornament to make and if you had specific colors for your tree you could make some cute decorations for next year (or this year if you fast!) I was able to make 12 of these fairly quickly.  

Bed Rest

I've now received my results from my most resent tests and they have now put me on bed rest.  With the results they found that I'm am PRE-preeclampsia.  I don't have anything yet but if I don't start resting now it could easily develop into something and mostly likely would.  Luckily, I don't have anything serious yet and as long as I stay off my feet I should be fine.  During my non-stress tests, our little guy is acting fine so we don't have any need to worry about him.  I think the hardest part about bed rest is seeing my house a mess and not being able to fix it!  Thank you everyone who has shown concern for us over the past couple of weeks and hopefully now things will slow down.      

24 hours of FUN!

Well, here is my update on the pregnancy situation.  We found out today that drinking water DOES help with the amniotic fluid level.  Imagine that!  My fluid was back up to the perfect level and now I can at least stop worrying about that.  

Unfortunately, that wasn't all that we've found out today.  I also had a non-stress test again today which showed my blood pressure being up again for the second time during the tests.  The doctor is having me collect ALL of my urine for the next 24 hours (fun huh?) so they can check it for protein and other deposits.  They think that I could possibly have preeclampsia, toxemia, or pregnancy induced hypertension which is basically all the same thing.  The nurse hinted that I might now be on moderate bed rest but I won't find out for sure until tomorrow during my doctor's appointment.  

Even with all this stress I can't help but think how blessed I am.  It seems that things keep coming up that help me discover complications before they become actual complications or more severe.  For example:  The doctor noticed that I was measuring large so he scheduled the ultrasound which in turn found out that I had really low amniotic fluid.  Because of the low amniotic fluid I've had to do the non-stress tests which has brought up that I've been having high blood pressure for a week.  Hopefully, we have caught this complication early enough to limit any serious difficulties.  

One plus about MODERATE bed rest would be that ability to get a lot of my crafts done or start some new ones that I've been meaning to do!  Unfortunately, we would be loosing out on a good chunk of money we were planning on getting.  We have to take the bad with the good.  I'm sure everything will turn out alright and I'm surprisingly calm about it all!

ps...During the ultrasound we had the tech do a double check on the gender....He is definitely a boy!

My Mom's Creativity!

Since I can't post any of my recent creations, (most of them are gifts so I have to wait until after Christmas,) I decided to show you something that my mom is great at that I never mastered.  Over the years she has done SEVERAL toll painting projects but this is one of them that she gave to me that I love.  It has personality AND it is something that my children can play with without breaking. (Don't look at the shelf too closely.  I didn't have the energy to dust before I put the nativity set up.)  

Pregnancy Woes

At my ultrasound on Tuesday we discovered that our little guy IS measuring two week larger than he should.  I'm not that surprised based on the genes that were handed to him.  Unfortunately, we also discovered that my amniotic fluid was REALLY low.  For the next week I have to drink a gallon of water a day and go in for another ultrasound next Tuesday to see if the fluid level has risen.  If the fluid level doesn't rise they might have to get him out prematurely.  Hopefully, the fluid is low just because I wasn't drinking enough water and not something else.  I also have to go into the hospital now for non stress tests.  I've done one already this week and I have another one on Friday.  They just measure our babies heart rate and movement for a period of time.  They also found out the I'm having "contractions" already but until I can feel them we don't have to worry.  

Drinking a gallon of water a day is almost painful at times.  I took a nap after drinking about 20 oz of water and woke up hurting A LOT from the strain on my bladder.  I hope that my body starts to get used to this mass amounts of water because I think I go to the bathroom 10 times a day now!  I was also starting to swell a little before I started drinking the water but now I can tell I've ballooned out.  At least I know that my body is starting to absorb the water!

Here is just some fun pregnancy humor that I found.  Most are VERY true!

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

We were able to be with my mom and dad for Thanksgiving this year.  Of course we ate a lot of yummy food and ate way too much pie!  While we were there we helped my mom and dad put their lights up, my Dad and Mike played computer games and my Mom helped me out a lot with several different crafts that I needed to start and finish.  I even got Mike to work on one of the crafts that is going to be a gift for his parents which I will post on here after Christmas. 

We also took advantage of the early morning black Friday shopping and even got my MOM to go with us!!  I thought it was fun but I don’t think we are going to get my Mom to go again next year.  We found some great deals at several different stores and got really lucky with a few of them because people changed their minds.  Most of it is going to get wrapped up and put under our Christmas tree so it feels like Christmas this year without the surprise!  That day was very exhausting, especially with the extra weight that I was carrying around.  By the way, people don’t treat pregnant girls different in Walmart at five in the morning then anyone else.  I was kind of hoping that the extra large belly would help me get to where I wanted too!

On Tuesday, I have another ultrasound to figure out why I’m measuring two weeks larger than I should be.  My doctor thinks that I have too much amniotic fluid or our little guy is growing bigger then he should be.  (Not surprising looking at the genes he has inherited!)  If he does measure too big they might move up my due date and I would have to be induced to reduce complications because of his size.  I’m not complaining about having our little guy come sooner than we expected!  If it is just the fluid level there isn’t anything that they can do right now but it is good for them to know during labor.  (At least that is what we understand about the situation right now.)  Hopefully they will give us some more pictures!

Craft Support

I found these letters at Michaels a while back and I haven't figure out the best way to decorate them yet.  I would like some suggestions.  They are really hard styrofoam so they are extremely light and according to the packaging you can paint it, pin it, glue it, cut it and sand it.  They caught my attention because I could put them easily on the wall over the crib and not ever have to worry about them falling off the wall onto our little guy and hurting him.  Plus, since they are so light they will be easy to mount on the wall since we are still moving frequently.  

I was thinking of painting them different colors but that seems so boring.  So if any of you have some ideas on how I can paint them so they aren't boring or any other crafting suggestion, let me know.  PLEASE!

Pediatrics Help

I was wondering from those of you who live in Moscow who you use as your pediatrician or who you would recommend to use?  Should I just pick a doctor out of the Moscow Family Practice or get an actual pediatrician?  If you have any advice please let me know!  Thanks!!

NEW BABY EYRING

My brother Justin and his wife Janelle had their first little baby today.  Allie was born at 4:30 on November 5, 2008!  She was 9 pounds, 2 ounces and 20 1/2 inches.  Both Janelle and Allie are doing great.  We are so happy for them and wish we could be there with them!  Here is a link to her hospital photo.  She already looks different than this picture.  

http://newbabynews.net/hospitals/gtf11/public/showBaby.pl?babyID=h11-5355

Halloween with Dr. Seuss!

This year we decided to dress up.  (Actually I decided to dress up and convinced Mike to do it with me.)  I saw this idea on someone's blog and I incorporated my pregnant belly and Mike.  I just found some clearance red shirts at Walmart and I made some signs to put on both of us.  It was easy and really cheap!

A friend of mine from work provided me with the awesome wig.  I found little blue hairs everywhere!  I was going to put a sideways picture of me on here but it kind of scares me how big my belly is.  I don't have a waist so my belly is ALL going out.   
I used gel on Mike's hair until I could get it to stand up a little.  I need to give him a hair cut so it didn't stay up very well.  We also used an entire can to turn his hair blue.  I'm impressed with how well it turned out.  
We were invited to a fun Halloween party on Friday.  We played games, ate a lot of sugar and were able to get a picture as Frankenstein and his bride!  I love how much this picture slims me!

Baby Quilts

These are a few quilts that I have recently made.  I've decided I love making baby quilts.  They are small enough that you don't hate them by the time you are done AND you don't have to buy as much fabric which helps when you're on a budget.  

This first one is my latest one.  It is a rag quilt style that I wanted to try out.  I thought the flannel fabric was adorable and according to the Internet it is supposed to be an easier quilt to do (I don't necessarily agree!)  I first decided to do a 1 inch seam allowance because I thought it would look better after I cut it and washed it but when I had planned it out, I only planned for a 1/2 inch seam allowance in my mind.  After I had everything sewn together my quilt was MUCH small than I wanted. I had also noticed that I messed up in a few other areas too. I decided that it was better to rip the quilt apart and do it again than not be happy with the final project.  I am so happy that took the time to make the quilt better because trust me it looks MUCH better.  The quilt itself wasn't too hard but cutting each of the seems on the quilt isn't fun for those of you who are interested in doing your own.  You should see the lint on my floor!
I did this fleece quilt from extra material that I had.  It was supposed to be one of those really fast, just throw together type quilts but I kept doing things that are above my experience level which I then proceeded to mess up on.  This is one of those quilts that I will be fine if it gets dirty because trust me there are a lot of mistakes!

The Christensen Style of Pumpkin Carving!

Last year I ordered these adorable foam pieces from Oriental Trading Company to use for school but I didn't end up using them.  This year, I decided to decorate our pumpkins instead of trying to carve them.  I know, kind of lazy, but I think they turned out really cute and hopefully they will last a little longer than a carved pumpkin!

PHOTA TAG

This is what you do: 

1.  Open up your picture photo

2.  Go to the fourth folder

3.  Open the fourth picture

4.  Blog about picture

This is one of our first pictures together.  It was our first Halloween and we decided to dress up as old people (it was kind of our running joke that Mike is old anyways.) and go see the Halloween concert at BYU-I.  You can't see all the details in the picture but I was wearing knee highs and tennis shoes (who hasn't seen old lady's do that!) I was also wearing a pleated skirt and nasty green grandma sweater with a pillow stuffed inside which helped me hunch a little.  Mike is wearing suspenders, pants that were WAY to short, a kind of grandma sweater and a couple pillows/blankets stuffed in his cloths.  Mike ACTUALLY looked old.  I think it was the glasses.  People gave him second glances.  

This was the first picture I sent to my family of mike and they didn't realize that we were dressed up so they thought that was ACTUALLY what mike looked like.  My little brother said something like, "She's dating HIM!"  Fun time!

I tag everyone that reads this! Try it, it's fun!

Fall Decorations

I was inspired by everyone else decorating for the fall and decided to see what I could whip up.  Unfortunately, I'm on a tight budget so I went to the dollar store to see what I could come up with.  After $10, I was able to transform our living room.  With a little help from my glue gun, I added fall flowers and ribbons to decorations that I already had. 

 

 

   

  

 

4 things...

4 random things I like about my husband, Mike:
1.  He will go to a movie, go out to eat, or just watch movies/friends episodes with me just because he knows how much I enjoy those activities. 

2.  He will actually admit if he is wrong and take the blame (how often does anyone actually do that)

3.  If I don’t feel like having leftovers or want to put food away after the meal all I have to do is leave it out and it usually gone by the morning. 

4.  He actually prefers to take naps on our living room floor (makes more room for me on the bed…)

4 movies I can watch more than once:
1. Pride & Prejudice (the new one)
2. North & South (the BBC mini series one)
3. Jane Eyre (BBC 2006)
4. Pretty much any movie, I LOVE MOVIES!

4 TV shows I watch:
1. Friends (I own all 10 seasons)
2. Grey’s Anatomy
3. Dancing with the Stars
4. Fringe (my new favorite)

4 place I've been:
1. Kimberly, ID- lived there for 14 years
2. Rexburg, ID - college for 3 years
3. Washington, D.C.-Family Vacation
4. Alberta, Canada- I have family from there

4 people who email me regularly:
1. My Boss, Tami
2. Wells Fargo
3. Baby Center (I love these weekly updates about my growing baby)
4. Facebook or ebay – (Leslie, I’m always getting these emails too!)

4 favorite foods:
1. French Fries
2. Sweet & Sour Chicken
3. Ice Cream Cookies/Sandwiches
4. Chicken Strips

4 places I would like to visit:
1. China (the mostly civilized parts)
2. Europe (pretty much anywhere)
3. New Zealand/Australia

4. I guess, maybe, Mike's mission, Philippines with lots of super bug spray!

4 things I am looking forward to in the next year:
1. Getting to hold my little boy!
2. Not working at my job!
3. Mike finishing his Masters and being out of school!
4. Mike getting a job and us hopefully getting a house!

I'm tagging everyone who reads this...I really love reading your responses and frankly a few of you need to post something new! 

I LOVE THE GOODWILL!!!

I went to the Goodwill looking for a rocking chair/glider and found a GREAT find!  I think that these shoes are adorable even though our little boy might only wear them for 2 seconds.  AWWW I love cheap cool stuff! 

Future Mom HELP!

It seems like there is SO MANY different options of stuff to buy for your child that all promise that they are the greatest.  I'm having a hard time knowing which ones I should buy.  I know that sometimes the generic brand works just fine and sometimes you want to stay as far away as possible.  I REALLY would love to have your opinion and preference about the following:

1.  Diapers 

2.  Pacifiers

3.  Wipes

4.  Baby Bottles

5.  Baby Monitors

6.  Crib Mattress

7.  Laundry Soap

8.  Thermometer

Baby Diaper Cake

I went to a baby shower the other day and decided to try to make something that was in my budget but also really cute.  This was the final product.  It is really easy to make, especially with help from the internet.  There is a really good youtube video that I used.  I ended up having a package of wipes in the middle which helped make the cake bigger without buying two packs of wipes.  Here is the youtube website I used.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-bKwE9POjnE

And the gender is...

Here is my pregnant belly picture at 20 weeks.  This shirt adds a little to the stomach but Mike was washing all my other cloths.  AND YES Mandy I did end up cutting my hair even though you told me not too!  

This is our proof that it is a boy.  I love the arrow.  We are going to embarrass him early in life!

This is the our baby's side profile.  He has his hand up by his head.  

Christensen Update

Just thought I would update a little about what is happening in our family right now

Mike is now back in school for another school year. He is happier that he now has more structure than he did during the summer. He is only taking a few classes and will be working on his thesis still. He also is a TA for a freshman class that he gets to teach a few times this semester. Mike also is looking into a job through Americorps called Teach for America. He would be working in intercity or small town schools for 2 years and during that time they get him his teaching credential. They hire people like Mike who didn't get a teaching degree and find them the jobs. They seem really interested in Mike so we will see how it goes.

I am now 19 ½ weeks and it is pretty obvious that I'm pregnant. Unfortunately, I'm in that stage where the maternity pants don't fit yet but my other pants won't work either. On Friday, we get to have our 20 week ultrasound and hopefully find out if we are having a boy or girl. Make sure you check back on Friday to find out what we are having. I've been looking forward to this day since I found about the pregnancy. We are very excited and we are looking forward to seeing our little baby. In the last few weeks I have felt the baby move a little but not as much as I want. The baby likes McDonald's breakfast and leaving church after sacrament because that is the only time he/she moved. j/k

Over Labor Day Weekend we were able to be with my mom and dad. It is so nice to be able to get away for a few days and relax from work and school. While we were there we went and watched the parade and we went to the fair. This was Mike's first time ever going to the fair. It was fun to see his reactions to the animals. We watched the auctions of the 4H and FFA animals which was a real eye opener for Mike. He was able to feel like a small town country guy for a little while. One of the coolest things to see was the huge Clydesdale horses. These horses were larger than most Clydesdale horse and they travel all over. Their head was as long as my arm. They were very impressive. In the pictures you can see how tall they are. I’m short but I’m not that short! This weekend we also got my mom and dad playing Mario Kart on Gamecube. They did really well at it and we all enjoyed racing each other.