Our Little Miss Elsie

Well, it's taken me about 4 weeks, but I've finally found a minute to write a little bit about our adventures as a new little family!  Elsie Rebecca Anderson was born on Aug. 21st, 2014 at 12:05 p.m. in St. George, UT.  She was 7 lbs even, and 20 inches long.  I was lucky enough to have a really smooth and quick delivery.  The day before Elsie was born I had started feeling some small cramping contractions.  By about 1:00 that night (maybe sooner, I'm not sure), they had started to increase in their intensity.  Needless to say, I didn't get any sleep that night.  But it wasn't until about 4:30 that morning when I had such a bad contraction that it woke Jevan up.  I ended up calling the hospital and even though my contractions were about 3-5 min. apart, they said I could wait or come in, it was up to me.  So, I decided to wait.  At 8:30 I finally went into the hospital.  They asked what my pain level was, and I said, a 4, not wanting to be a wimp if I wasn't very far along.  I was then a little overwhelmed but super excited when the nurse said, "Well, looks like you're going to stay and have a baby today.  You're already dilated to a 7!"

Shortly after I got up to the delivery room my water broke.  It was such a surprise!  And made the contractions so much worse.  They were still able to give me an epideral (even thought I found out later that they usually don't give epiderals if you're dilated above a 5...and your water breaks...oh well.  I survived.)  Man, that epideral was heaven!  Then I quickly escalated to being dilated to a 9, and, once the doctor and I were both ready, I gave about 5 pushes and out came our beautiful little girl!

She has been such an amazing little baby.  So good.  Sleeps a ton, at least she used to!  She is awake a lot more now, and does have her occasional rough days and nights where she just cries.  But in general she is super happy, and we've loved having her in our life!  Here are a bunch of her professional pics, since I've put others on facebook already.

9 Days and Counting!

It has been forever since I've posted on here!  And it's crazy to look at the last picture I put up, because I am much, much, bigger now!  I mean, heck, I only have about 9 days left!  I can't wait!  This pregnancy has been so great!  Seriously, I have still loved being pregnant, even though I have to pee all the time, my feet and hands get swollen, it's harder to sleep, and even my pregnancy clothes don't fit as well now.  But every time I feel tired of being pregnant, I feel my little girl move, and I just love that feeling.  She's my baby, I couldn't wait to be pregnant, and I can't wait to meet her!  Here are some pictures of how I've grown.  I think next time I'm pregnant I'll have to wear the same outfit for every picture so I can see the progress a little more clearly...

38 Weeks!!

Alright, now for what's been going on since I last posted on here.  I moved to join Jevan in St. George, which has been a ton of fun.  We've been able to live in his grandma's condo, which is so nice to have a place that is "our own".  At least as much our own as it can be for right now.  I'm getting ready to have our apartment back with all our own things in it like our couch, bed, and our cutco knives!  Who knew I would miss those knives the most of all??!

Since being in St. George Jevan and I have been able to enjoy lots of fun things.  Swimming in his parent's pool, going out to eat, going to Lake Powell, a fun girl's retreat with my awesome mother in law and sisters in law, Jev enjoys golfing and the hot weather, and we went and saw two Tuacahn plays in a row!  The Wizard of Oz, and The Little Mermaid.  Pretty cool.  We got them for half price.  I have to party it up before this little baby gets here!

I was also able to have a great baby shower in Highland with Jevan's family, and then a great one in Yakima with my family!  I technically wasn't supposed to fly without a doctor's note, (which I did have), but no one ever asked me for it.  I guess I looked small enough not to question.  

While on my Yakima trip I got to spend most of the time in Lincoln City on the beach.  I love that place!  And while I've been partying it up, Jevan has had to work.  His internship is going great!  He's learning a lot, and we're so grateful he has had this opportunity!

My beautiful coworkers on the last day of school.

I got these two little cuties to get pulled in the no wake zone with me at Lake Powell.

Quincy at Lake Powell.

Last day at Lake Powell.

I caught this funny picture of Emily at the beach house.  She's a cutie!

Jane and grandpa!

At the airport on my way back to St. George.

Tuacahn!

Jevan's 26th  birthday!

Two pregnant ladies, just a month apart!  I'm due Aug. 23rd and Kassi is due Sept. 23rd.

I made this mobile for Kassi's little girl.  I plan on making one for me too, but haven't gotten around to it yet.

Jev and I went to Tucanos because he had a free meal for his birthday.  I think it's my new favorite place to eat!

Here is the latest picture of our little girl!   That's her arm in the way of her face.

Just to give reason as to why I have an ultra sound picture of our baby...I went in to my doctor's appointment and I was measuring 3 inches too small.  Because of that my doctor wanted to do an ultra sound to make sure everything was okay.  He didn't want to risk the baby growing, but not having enough fluid.  So, I was a little nervous, but went into my ultra sound, and everything was great!  She had plenty of fluid, but she is still on the smaller side.  Measuring about 8 days behind. (which they said is perfectly fine).  She is still in the I think they said 32nd percentile, so needless to say, I won't be having a 9 pound baby, which I'm happy about!  The only explanation they have for why my uterus was measuring small (and still is), is that she is getting lower and lower into my pelvis, making it harder to measure.  

Everything is still going great though, I'm dilated to 3 cm, and effaced at 80%.  Now I'm just waiting for her to arrive, which could be any day!  Luckily my doctor is pretty sure I won't go past 41 weeks, and I'll just get to go into spontaneous labor.  Pretty crazy! Can't wait!  P.S.  When I moved to St. George they moved my due date to Aug. 23rd instead of the 26th, so I'm pretty happy!  Thanks for reading my ramblings if you did!

Third Tri-mester!

According to several different websites, I am in my third tri-mester!  We'll see what the doctor says when I see him this Friday.  I can't believe it though!  It's gone so slow and fast at the same time.  But I'm about 2/3 of the way done and can't wait to see this cute baby girl!  Apparently at 27 weeks my baby is around 2 pounds, and is about the size of a head of cauliflower?  Weird.  She moves a lot more, but she still seems like she's a pretty chill baby, at least by the amount of movement I feel.  She could be tricking me and turn out to be a wild child, you never know!  It's been cool though because I can see the movements a lot more obviously now.  I even took a snap chat of me balancing a remote control on my tummy.  You can see it moving from me breathing, then all of a sudden, a little jolt!  That's the baby kicking or punching, or whatever.  I was able to send it to Jevan, and it was the first time he really saw it move.  It was pretty cool.  I hope I'll catch it on video again, and then I'll post it on here.

27 Weeks today on May 27th!  I got really sunburned on our field trip today, so I had to wear something that covered it up.

26 Weeks!

In general, this is what I look like from a front view.  I'm pretty happy I'm only bigger in my belly really.

The last week and a half of school has been crazy!  We went to Fat Cats all day for a field trip last week to reward the students that graduated from the DARE program.  It was awesome!  We could mini golf, bowl, and watch movies in the theatre for free!  Then the police force made us grilled hotdogs.  My favorite part though was the fact that for some reason they had two camels there!!!  It was so crazy and random.  I decided it would be worth the germs to touch one, and I even got proof that I did it!

Here I am touching the camel!

Today we went on a walking field trip to see the Planetarium at BYU-Idaho, and then see a chemistry demonstration.  The chemistry demonstration was the coolest part.  We saw what happens to a racquetball when it sits in liquid nitrogen for 15 min.  Breaks apart and sounds just like glass!  Awesome!  We also some some hydrogen balloons burst into flame.  Just some of the reasons why I love being a teacher.  :)  Sadly, and happily, only 1 1/2 more days!  Then I'll get to enjoy the hot weather of Saint George, my wonderful husband, and getting ready for my beautiful baby girl in August!  Can't wait!

Last Month of Teaching

I can't believe it's already May!  I feel like it was just yesterday that I started my first day of teaching 5th grade, and in just 2 1/2 short weeks I will be done with my first year.  I'm proud to say I never missed a day! It's been an amazing experience.  It started out pretty tough, but doesn't every job take a while to get used to?  I am so grateful I was able to be a teacher to 90 amazing kids and have this great experience.  I'll miss them, the teaching, and my amazing co-workers, but I am so excited to get to be a mom!  I couldn't ask for anything more.

25 Weeks today and loving it!

24 Weeks last week!

I have to resort to taking my own pictures for a while because Jevan took a last minute internship in St. George!  It's pretty crazy how we live our lives.  Always doing things on the spur of the moment.  We had been planning for him to do an internship with his dad's company in the Fall, but while we were at his nephew Taft's baby blessing we talked to his dad and found out he could do his internship in the summer.  We decided Jev needed a break from Rexburg, and it would be better for me if I could have a few months with a doctor in St. George before the baby was born there instead of just a few weeks like we originally planned.  The only bummer is that I have to stay in Rexburg the whole month of May without my sweetheart.  At least I have work to keep me busy.  I can't wait to see him in a few weeks!

Here is cute Taft on his blessing day.  Too bad he didn't have his awesome Tux on anymore.

23 Weeks

At 23 weeks, my baby is supposedly the size of a large mango.  She also is supposed to be able to hear noises that go on in the house.  I guess this means she'll be used to a lot of sports buzzers and cheering thanks to Jevan and the NBA playoffs.  ;)

I had a doctors appointment yesterday, and I have to say, I love my doctors, and I love going to my appointments.  It is so fun to see how things are progressing, and very reassuring as well.  Starting with this last appointment, the nurse will be measuring the growth of my baby by measuring the top of my uterus to my pubic bone.  Apparently the length of that space should be about equal to the amount of weeks I am.  Luckily, it was pretty much exact!  That was good to know everything is growing right on schedule.

I've been feeling our baby girl move a lot more.  She can get a little wild sometimes...in fact, she's moving like crazy right now.  She must know I'm writing about her.  But it was even cooler at the doctors when I was listening to the heart beat.  The nurse could tell from the Doppler when the baby moved.  So she would say, "Did you feel her move just then?"  And it was awesome, because I could!  She is supposed to respond to the Doppler, so I was glad she was.  Luckily everything is still very healthy and going well!

My next appointment is to find out if I have gestational diabetes or not...hopefully the test is negative!  It would not be fun to change my eating habits now.

Also, thanks to Kari, (and technically Wendy), I got some fun new maternity clothes!

23 Weeks!

And, on an unrelated note, I got a new phone today!  I finally joined the world of smart phones.  My awesome, 5 year old flip phone has been difficult lately.  Basically, I couldn't hear anything or talk to anyone unless it was open on speaker phone.  It was a big pain.  So, I figured if I was going to get a new phone, might as well go all the way!  It's an Iphone 5C, and I love it so far.  But it's only been a few hours.  ;)

Also, only a few more weeks of teaching!  May 29th is my last day.  Pretty crazy.  It's sad, and exciting at the same time.  I can't wait to be done, but know I will be bored waiting the last 3 months for this baby to be born.  It's been a really great experience being a teacher though, and I'm so happy and grateful I was able to do it, even if it was only for one school year.

Pregnancy is Awesome!

Okay, I have to say it.  I'm one of the lucky girls out there that has the best pregnancy ever.  And I get to say, I love being pregnant!!  It's been so awesome so far.  I love that I took a long time to start showing, and now I love that I am finally showing more!  I don't have to worry about sucking in my stomach or anything.  I get to just look pregnant.  :)  I have been able to continue teaching 5th grade just as easily as I started, and I even have enough energy to do workouts with Jevan almost every day.  I even did the plyometrics on P90X today, which is pretty dang intense!  Life is good.  :)

21 Weeks!  Jev was out of town, so this was the best pic I could do on my own.

22 Weeks.  Right before my workout today.  I guess sometime I'll have to get a new workout shirt!