AI

Prepare to be shocked. This is not a post about Julia. *GASP!* Hey, it was bound to happen sometime.

Anyway, I watched American Idol last night, as usual. We're down to 5, and they all are pretty good. However, Jason Castro just isn't doing it for me these days. He had a couple of good performances, and I do think he's a great musician and should get a record deal, but out of the 5 left he is probably my least favorite. I think he's sort of stuck and needs to come up with something new and different.

I didn't like Syesha for weeks and weeks, but between last week and this week, I feel like she's found her style, her niche, and she's really pulled out some great performances. I thoroughly enjoyed "One Rock and Roll Too Many" last week, and "I Thank the Lord for the Night Time" from this week was also well done.

And then we have Brooke White. You know, I think she's a great musician, and my guess is she would be a great songwriter, but she's just not quite there as a singer only. I really like her, and I hope she does well in the world, but I don't think she's quite good enough to win a singing competition. Just like with Jason Castro, I think she'll get a record deal regardless of when she gets kicked off AI, and she'll probably do much better when she can write her own music for her CD.

And now we're down to the Davids. I like them both. A lot. I like David Cook the best. But I think David Archuleta should win. I just think that David A would do better as the AI winner than David Cook with. Call me crazy, but I don't really like American Idol produced CD's. I feel like they don't cater to the artist as much as they should. The AI people know how to write a certain type of song, and if the singer's style doesn't match, too bad. Take Taylor Hicks, for instance. I loved him, loved loved loved him, and I was so happy that he won. And then his CD came out, and it didn't sound at all like something Taylor Hicks would choose to sing. His "hit song" that he sang at the finale was garbage. He needed to be able to sing his own music. We saw him at the Stadium of Fire that year, and he sang an original composition. It was fantastic! I thought his CD would be more of that. But no. And so, I think that David A should win, and David C should record a CD with his own music on it. Because that would be a really good record. I'd probably buy it, and I don't buy CD's much anymore.

As for who will get voted off tonight, I wouldn't be surprised if Brooke left us. Brooke or Jason would be my pick.

Baby Pictures

I thought that Julia looks more like Clark. But then I looked at one of my baby pictures. Now I'm thinking she looks a lot like me. Now, it's hard to find a good picture of Julia (I swear, she looks different in every single picture, and none of them look like her when she's awake), but I think I got a pretty good one. What do you think? Does she look like baby Shannon?

Weekly Quote 4/28/08

"Julia, Julia, oceanchild, calls me
So I sing a song of love, Julia"

This is from the Beatles song, Julia. In fact, we were listening to that song years ago when Clark looked over at me and said, "What do you think of the name Julia?" As it turns out, I liked it. New quote up!

Winners!

Well, Julia is here, and that means that we can now announce the winners of our little guessing game.

Karen is the winner of the date and time, with her guess of April 15. Way to think late! And Sabrina is the winner of the poundage, with 7lbs 9oz. I decided that the length would only be used if 2 people were equally close to the weight. Email me what kind of candy bar you want!

Sleepytime

Last night Julia decided to actually sleep. She only woke up for feedings every 3 hours. And she didn't even need the binky most of the time! Only when she got the hiccups and couldn't get back to sleep without it. I'm so proud of her! And Clark has got to be a happy camper today, he got a LOT more sleep than he has the past week. Here's a little video.

Now what you really want. . .

Pictures of Julia!! Well, Julia and family.

Julia and her Papa. Notice that he is wearing the Pants shirt - he wanted to be well labeled when she came out.
Julia and her Mama

Julia and her Aunt Whitney. I really like Julia's face in this one - I love it when she looks at me like that.Julia and Grammie. As you can imagine, my mom was just tickled to come down and see the baby. And we were so glad to have her!
Chicken legs. I just thought they looked so cute and so small in there!


That's all for now. I should probably go take a nap while Julia's sleeping. Or a shower. Oh, but before I go, I've got to say it again: my husband is amazing. He takes such good care of his girls. OK, now I'm done.

Final Prego Pictures

Well, I finally feel like I can breathe again for a minute, and so you are finally getting the last pictures of my pregnancy.

The first one was me cooking Sunday dinner. Clark liked the fact that he came home from his meeting to find his pregnant wife, barefoot in the kitchen, cooking dinner, wearing an apron. I never wear my apron, but I figured that spaghetti sauce + pregnant belly + Shannon = mess. So there you go.

And this picture is right before we went in to get induced. So this is it, the final belly shot, this is how big I got.

Weekly Quote 4/21/08

"Come down!
Lady come down.
Come down.
Lady come down,
Oh lady come down."

"She will not come, I know her well. . ."

I love that movie. The Importance of Being Earnest. And it turns out, she did come down!! New quote up!

Let the adventure begin

I should be sleeping. But I'm not all that tired. Weird? Yes. Bad? Probably. Oh well.

In case you haven't been keeping up with Clark's blog, I'm a mommy! And not only that, I'm a mommy to the most beautiful girl in the world! Ok, I might be a little biased, but she really is quite cute, and I love to just watch her.

What I really wanted to say, though, was that Clark is a real champ. He helped me with all the labor and delivery stuff, and I didn't even have to worry about him passing out or anything! And he has taken such good care of me in recovery. I ask for it, and he does it. No complaining. And best of all, he is an awesome daddy. He knows how to calm Julia down and keep her calm. I guess he's had plenty of practice being my husband. He keeps his emotional girls in check. He's asleep right now. So is Julia. Julia has been asleep for 5.5 hours, actually, I keep waiting for her to wake up, but she seems to be content where she is. Don't worry, I have gotten some sleep. But I've been awake for the last couple of hours, kind of waiting for Julia to wake up so I can feed her, kind of resting, maybe dozing off for a few minutes here and there. Oh, and writing in my journal. I feel like I should probably document everything that's happened.

We plan on going home this afternoon. The OB mentioned that he might have me do a chest X-ray before we leave, just to make sure everything is ok. But I feel great. Really great, considering I gave birth yesterday. Things are sore, but they feel improved this morning. And this is coming from the wimp. I wanted to kill myself when I was feeling those contractions, and they weren't even that hard, nor did I feel them for hours on end. But I will say, all the other procedures have been a lot better than I anticipated. The epidural was no big deal, just a small needle stick. The catheder wasn't a big deal either, in fact I preferred to have it in, especially with the lasics (aka diuretics) they put me on after delivery. There was a lot of urine coming out of me. Everything seems to be healing quite nicely. Breastfeeding is still somewhat of a chore, but I feel confident that we'll get the hang of it in time. I was so concerned about all of these things, and they were all fine. The one thing I wasn't concerned about was contractions, because I thought to myself, "I'll just get the epidural." And those were not fine. Funny how life works.

Ok, time to rest again. I'll try to post more once we're home.

This is it, don't get scared now.

Well, here we are, Tuesday afternoon. Tomorrow is the big day. Induction Day. I went to the doctor for my last appointment today. The NST looked good, as usual. And we still haven't made any progress as far as labor goes. So tomorrow it is.

I actually have been having some shortness of breath the last few days, meaning since Friday afternoon. When does this happen? When I'm walking, or going up stairs? No. When I'm sitting there, doing nothing. Seriously. It's worse when I'm sitting on the couch and leaning back (as opposed to a chair). I'm just sitting there, minding my own business, and all of the sudden it's hard to breathe. Really hard to get a deep breath. And it feels like there is some sort of pressure change in my chest, kind of like when you remember that you have an essay due in English class today and you totally spaced it. So I mentioned it to the doc and he sent me to get a chest X-ray. I've had many a chest X-ray in my life, but certainly none as a pregnant lady. I got good and leaded up, one pink lead apron over my belly and one over my back. As if I didn't have enough weight in that particular area. But I really wasn't annoyed or anything, I found it freaking hilarious. I only wish I could have snapped a photo, because I'm sure it was a sight. And then they were trying to move it around so they could get a good shot of my lungs, but still cover the baby. Tricky business when the baby is practically in your lungs. In any event, they took the X-ray, and I really have no idea what the results were. The nurse from my OB's office just called to let me know what the plan for tomorrow is (wait for labor and delivery to call, and if they haven't called by 9am, call them), and she mentioned that the doctor would explain the results to me tomorrow. I'm guessing that means that there is nothing terribly urgent, but it also probably means it's not 100% normal. I guess we'll find out tomorrow. I'll let you know.

Melissa asked if we were inducing or going straight to C-section, and you probably figured out that the answer to that is we're inducing. (If not, go back and read the first paragraph). The board (I think that's what I should have been calling all my doctors all along, the board) has decided that a vaginal delivery would most likely be less stressful on my body than a C-section. I know, nothing unusual there. So we're trying to avoid a C-section as much as possible. Again, nothing unusual. I guess we'll see how it all goes.

And finally, I've just got to say that I cannot believe that we're almost done with this pregnancy and on to the next phase: Parenthood. Seriously, we've been wanting this for years (yeah, years), and it's finally about to happen. It doesn't seem like this can possibly be reality. Taking a look back, I sure had a rotten 10 weeks at the beginning, but the rest of this pregnancy has made up for it. I feel so good, even today. Sure, I have my bouts of discomfort, but they don't last long, and then things settle down. And what a miracle that I've had such good health the whole way through! I realize that we aren't in the clear yet as far as possible heart failure goes (we don't hit that point until 6 weeks postpartum), but I've made it to full term, nay, past full term without any major complications. We are so blessed. And we've had so much love and support from all our friends and family. I just feel so fortunate. I know we've been watched over, and I am so grateful for it all.

Stay tuned - hopefully we can post some news tomorrow! (or Thursday, depending on how dang stubborn this kid is)

Oh, and Bah Humbug Tax Day to you! (Because you can't say "Happy Tax Day," that's ridiculous. Especially when you have to pay the government.)

Slip of the Tongue

I forgot to blog about this the other day. You know the whole YFZ Ranch raid thing? Perhaps you've heard that there were a few cases of chicken pox among the children? When I was watching the news a few days ago, the reporter mentioned that everyone was healthy, there was just a minor outbreak of small pox. Um. . . . oops?

Silhouettes On the Shade

I really have nothing exciting to post, but I came across this project, and I thought it was cute. I might have to try it out one of these days. Just thought I'd share.

Weekly Quote 4/14/08

"I guess there is no one to blame.
We're leaving ground.
Will things ever be the same again?

It's the final countdown. . . "

This was from The Final Countdown by Europe. Of course, I didn't know that these were the words until I looked them up. When I sing along it involves a lot of do do do doooo's. And thoughts of GOB. I guess this week is the true final countdown, only 2 days till definite babytime! New quote up!

Still a Good Day

Yes, folks, the due date has come and gone. And we still aren't even close to having this baby. Of course, I've always had in my mind that the "real due date" is April 16, so I'm not wholeheartedly disappointed. But it would be better if I could go into labor on my own. Ah well, I'll take what I can get!

I did have a doctor appointment yesterday. That makes 4 visits in one week! Things continue to look good as far as everyone's health is concerned. I continue to be pretty well effaced and not one bit dilated, much to my doctor's frustration. Oh well, not like I can actually do anything about it. I've never wanted to be in pain in my entire life, it feels like opposite day or something. I have my next appointment on Tuesday, and if I still haven't made any progress, then my induction is all set for Wednesday. Of course, the hospital is nice and busy on Wednesday, so we'll see how that all goes. By this time next week, I will have a baby. That's what I've got to keep telling myself.

In the afternoon, we had our Stake Enrichment Activity. It was a Humanitarian Service Project, and the goal was to get 100 quilts tied (I guess yesterday was the 100th day of the year). I only stayed for about half of it (and before you think I'm such a slacker, just keep in mind that this activity was 4.5 hours long), but they had over 50 when I left, so they were right on track to get them all done. Originally I wasn't planning on going (and part of me was really hoping that I'd have a baby and not have to go), but I'm so very glad I did. It was fun to chat with some sisters that I don't know well, and I had forgotten how much fun it is to tie a quilt, probably because I can actually do it. Real deal quilting is just a disaster with me, but I can tie like nobody's business.

In other happy news, THE OFFICE IS BACK!!! And they did not disappoint with last night's episode. ("What a cute bench." "Thanks, that's my bed." HA!) Excellent work, guys. We went over to the Charlesworths' to watch it. I made chocolate covered pretzels (it was the only Office-y treat I could think of ["364 more days until the next pretzel day."]), and they actually turned out pretty well. I used our double boiler pot for the first time ever, I had forgotten we even had it. After the show we had a good time remembering past episodes. If you don't watch this show, you should start. I know, I know, that's what everyone says, but there is good reason. It brightens my life way more than any other show out there, even American Idol.

And to top off the night, Clark and I came home and played the 6 degrees of Kevin Bacon. Well, kind of. We tried to connect ourselves to Kevin Bacon. I think we got it in 7 degrees, so it's still a work in progress. If we get it down to 6, I'll post it.

All in all, a good day, even if it was babyless.

No baby yet. Sorry to disappoint.

The Weekend Update

I realize it's Tuesday, but I feel like I should mention our wonderful weekend. On Friday we had dinner at the Charlesworth residence (and it was so yummy, thank you!), and afterward we got our first taste of the Wii. Ok, maybe Clark has played it before, but I certainly haven't. And I must say, it was much more fun than I thought it would be. I bowled. And I liked it. If you know me, you know this is fairly amazing. I do not enjoy bowling. For some reason it's way better when you are at home, and you don't actually have to touch the ball, or wear someone else's shoes. In fact, I had so much fun that I wouldn't be dead set against buying a Wii ourselves. Again, this is amazing. Of course, I don't think we will, I just can't justify spending the money, but the mere fact that I would consider purchasing a gaming system is fairly incredible. Clark made a deal with Wombsly that if she came out on Saturday, he'd buy her a Wii. I guess she's not as excited about it as we are.

Saturday and Sunday were General Conference, which was excellent as usual. I love being taught and inspired by the general authorities, and I'm so glad we get to hear from them twice a year. And the Solemn Assembly was an incredible experience. President Monson is an incredible man, and already a wonderful prophet.

In honor of conference, we decided to make aebleskivers! We got the special aebleskiver pan for our wedding, and we've never used it, so I decided the time had come to rectify that. They were pretty tasty, although they didn't look anything like the picture on wikipedia. We also got a puzzle to keep our hands busy while our ears were listening. And we finally finished it last night! Clark did most of the work. I helped with the edges, some of the sky, and some of the final pieces. I just get so overwhelmed when there are 800 pieces that all look the same, so I waited until there were fewer pieces. But in any event, it's done, and here's the finished product:


I also went to the doctor already this week. Twice. ("A gazillion times," says Clark). Yeah, it's only Tuesday. I went in on Monday, and Wombsly had moved back down, and I was back in the 90% effaced category, but still no dilation. But at least we had moved forward instead of backward. Then she nearly failed the NST, so Dr. Fagnant did an ultrasound to make sure things were alright. He couldn't find anything wrong with her, but he was still a bit nervous, so I went back in today for yet another checkup. The NST went much better today. He did another ultrasound, and things still looked good (she got a 10/10!). And I'm still nice and effaced, but still not dilated at all. My due date is tomorrow. That would be a great day for her to be born, nice and punctual. But we'll just have to see. I go back to the doctor on Thursday. Hopefully some progress is made by then. Clark has been pretty frustrated that she isn't here yet. All day on Sunday he kept saying, "Just come out and play! Come out and play!" He then told me that he didn't know if he could make it to April 16. I guess I'm not the only impatient one.

Trusty Balloon

The other day I went into the bathroom to discover a visitor.
The little balloon that won't give up! It's from my baby shower in St George that was on February 9. Two months old and still going strong! It lives in Wombsly's room, but somehow it migrated to the bathroom. It made me chuckle to see it hanging over the toilet. Here's a video of the journey (would you look at that, I've got video on the blog!):

Weekly Quote 4/7/08

"Her child was a girl, a small bald-headed mite, ugly as a hairless monkey and absurdly like Frank. No one except the doting father could see anything beautiful about her, but the neighbors were charitable enough to say that all ugly babies turned out pretty, eventually."

This was from Gone With the Wind. I thought it was funny. Sad, but funny. New quote up!

Doctor Visit 4/4/08

I feel like all I do is go to the doctor these days. Not that I'm complaining, but it's probably not the most entertaining blog fodder. Oh well, you're the ones reading it, not me.

Today's appointment was pretty. . . boring. Had another NST. Looks great. Registered a few contractions, but nothing painful. Heart looks great. No major swelling. Lungs sound good. Baby looks good. Except for the fact that the little sneak moved back up. How ridiculous is that! She was so low in my pelvis last week, and this week it's like she never dropped! And apparently I am now 50% effaced instead of 80%. And absolutely no dilation at all. It is somewhat disappointing, but I still have in my head that she probably won't be here until April 16, so I'm doing alright mentally. Doesn't mean I wouldn't be happy to have her here before then, though. I guess we'll just do some more waiting. *Sigh.*

What do you think, should Clark take me on a date tonight?

That's my Dad!

As it turns out, my Dad was on the radio today!!! If you'd rather just read what he said, here you go. He's a church historian, so he was interviewed about the upcoming Solemn Assembly. I didn't hear it, I just heard about it after the fact. And he is having a TV interview as well! So be on the lookout for that on the noon news, those few of you who are home at noon, and have read my blog by then.

Gone With the Wind

Yesterday was a momentous day. I finally, finally, finished Gone With the Wind. Would you like to know when I started reading this hefty novel? August 2007. Right about when we first found out I was pregnant. It has been quite the saga, and I'm not just talking about Scarlett and Rhett. Alongside the many intricacies of their tale has been the saga of my reading this book.

I checked it out from the library in August because it's one of the Great American Novels and I needed a good summer read. I really had no idea how long it was until I actually had it in my hands. And even then I thought, "Surely this book isn't really over 900 pages. Surely there is an introduction, a preface, some sort of commentary that takes up a lot of space." But no. The copy I own has 960 pages. The last page is About the Author. The first 24 pages are all the Preface, Title Page, etc. That's 934 pages of content, 934 pages of solid book. That's a lot of book.

So I hunkered down for the long read. Unfortunately, I then began puking my guts out, and had a really hard time concentrating on anything. But I persevered! The book came due at the library. I renewed! But alas! I ran out of renewals on the book, and it had to go back. It was a sad day. And so I decided to ask for the book for Christmas. Then I wouldn't have to worry about library late fees. And I got it! (Thank you, Jessica!) I was back on track.

And then another book that I had requested from the library months earlier was on hold for me. So I had to read that one. I mean, I owned Gone With the Wind, right? There would be time. This happened a few times. Until finally I decided that it could be put off no longer, and I simply had to finish this book before Wombsly arrived, I just had to! Luckily, I had plenty of doctor's visits to help me on this quest, I don't think I could have done it without all that time spent waiting.

OK, so now that I've told you all about reading the book, let me say that I really enjoyed this book. Even though it took me 9 months to read it. It gave me a greater appreciation for the Southern point of view, and I learned a lot about the Reconstruction Era. It's really a book about people, and what drives them, which I find fascinating. There is a quote from an interview with Margaret Mitchell in 1936 that I think sums up the book pretty well. She was asked what Gone With the Wind was about:

"If the novel has a theme it is that of survival. What makes some people come through catastrophes and others, apparently just as able, strong and brave go under? It happens in every upheaval. Some people survive; others don't. What qualities are in those who fight their way through triumphantly that are lacking in those that go under? I only know that survivors used to call that quality 'gumption.' So I wrote about people who had gumption and people who didn't."

Well said, Ms. Mitchell. Well said.

Alternate Spelling

Yesterday someone asked me what we were going to name our baby, and I told her either Julia or Ella. She asked, "How would you spell Julia?" (I, of course, answered, "The normal way.") But it got me to thinking, how else would you spell it? Clark and I were discussing it this morning, and we came up with a couple of great alternate spellings. First: Joule-ia, like the unit of energy. I thought that was fitting for a nerd like Clark. And then Clark busted out the best spelling ever:

Dgiuleighah

Yes, that rhymes with Goolia. Can you imagine?

"Please spell your name."

"D-g-i-u-l-e-i-g-h-a-h B-l-o-c-k-b-u-r-g-e-r."

Poor kid.

The many doctors of 4/2/08

I had my last appointment with Dr Gonzales today (He's the perinatologist; I see him monthly). We did an ultrasound, everything looked good. Except that Wombsly wasn't moving much. I actually noticed yesterday that her movement had decreased, but I did some fetal kick counts last night and she passed the test. But the doctor was a little bit concerned, so we did a non-stress test. And she passed. Hooray! All is well! He told me to just see my OB on Friday, and we'll take it from there.

A couple of hours later, I got a call from my OB's office. "Dr. Fagnant just read the notes from your visit with Dr. Gonzales, and he would like you to come in this afternoon." Um, what? That seems weird. . . So I went in. Apparently Dr. Gonzales had written in his notes that the baby scored 2/10 on her biophysical profile. Just in case you are too lazy to follow the link, this profile measures 5 things through a non-stress test (NST) and an ultrasound: heart rate, muscle tone, breathing, movement, and the amount of amniotic fluid. Each category is worth 2 points. So you can imagine Dr Fagnant's alarm at reading the 2. Not good. He was fairly certain this had to be a typo, because what kind of doctor would give out a 2 and then send the pregnant lady on her way? But he felt that it was better safe than sorry, so I went in and he did another ultrasound, just to double check that everything was alright. She wasn't moving much at first, but eventually she perked up, and then we got all the components we needed. He gave her 8/10, I think just because it took some time to check off the good muscle tone, and because he didn't do an NST. Phew!

To summarize: we had a little scare, but all is well. Lots of worry for nothing. However, it's better safe than sorry, so I'm fine with them doing all the tests they want. 39 weeks today!!!