PREGNANCY--A LOVE/HATE RELATIONSHIP

What I love about pregnancy:

• Feeling the baby moving around and knowing everything is okay. The baby becomes especially active when I take baths--maybe it will love the water!

• Not having to worry about sucking in my stomach to look skinnier. If I've overeaten it's okay to just relax because, hey, my stomach is supposed to look that big!
  

• I get to wear an entire new wardrobe of super cute clothes. Maternity clothes have to to be some of the most comfortable clothes I've ever worn! Plus the ones I have are very cute and stylish.
  

• I'm allowed to eat a little extra of everything...well almost everything. I'm supposed to be eating lots of protein and fresh/frozen fruits and veggies. This gives me an excuse to buy fresh fruits and veggies and not feel guilty about it since canned foods are usually cheaper.
  

• Being pregnant is a very popular conversation starter. You know those awkward moments you have with people you don't know very well after you've already said, "Hi' and asked how each other are doing? Well, being pregnant is usually a good way to start a conversation with most people and keep the conversation rolling.

• Extra special attention from Kenny, family, and friends. Kenny has been very sweet and understanding through this entire pregnancy. If I need my back rubbed, he will rub it; if I need a bath drawn, he will draw it; if I can't remember to take my daily vitamins, he will remind me; if I don't feel like doing my walk and yoga, he will encourage me; and if I'm irrational or hysterical, he will handle the situation beautifully. Friends and family have also been very concerned in how I'm feeling and very sympathetic.

• I crave fresh, steamed broccoli. Yep, that's right! Not chocolate or potato chips or pickles, I crave fresh, steamed broccoli! And, if nothing else sounds good to eat, I can always eat cereal. I try to eat the healthier ones--the ones with less sugar/carbs and a little more protein.

What I dislike about being pregnant (especially right now):

• The nausea gets really old after a while. The first trimester I was nauseous all the time--I was lucky enough to not throw up (and it's still a running record)--the second trimester was okay, and the third trimester has its ups and downs. It doesn't help when the baby pushes up on my stomach.

• The back pain! Oh man, the back pain is excruciating sometimes. I try to do a 20-30 minute walk and pre-natal yoga each night, and then apply a heating pad to my back when I go to bed. However, my back is still stiff when I wake up in the mornings, so in order to be halfway limber during the day I have to take a 15-20 minute bath every morning before work.

• Steak and pork chops aren't very appealing to me right now. Normally I love steak and pork chops, but every time Kenny suggests is for dinner I say, "No way." I also don't like pickles very much right now either.

• Not being able to sleep. Between the back pain, the peeing every few hours, and just plain being uncomfortable I don't sleep very well. As soon as I hit my third trimester I just started dragging anyway, and the the "no sleep" part came, and then working 40 hours per week with no naps really doesn't help resolve the tiredness issue.

• The dreaded swelling. I officially can't wear my rings anymore which makes me feel sad (and naked). I also had to buy a different pair of shoes for work (one's without heels) and I had to go to a size 6W--yep, WIDE--my dainty little feet are no longer dainty and little. :::sigh::: However I've been lucky that my ankles haven't swollen...yet.

• The extra sebaceous oil and acne. As if I don't already have to deal with that all the time anyway, pregnancy has made it so that you could hook up and oil rig to my face and pump enough oil for the entire state. And of course the acne that comes with that is always fun.

29 weeks

I have been having trouble uploading pictures to this blog but I finally was able to get one on here.

Here I am at
29 weeks.
I have recently started feeling sick and tired again, but I keep trucking along. I am still working at ISU and am counting down the days until I can quit and be at home with our baby. Kenny is still putting out applications but jobs are still scarce and employers are picky and want experience. We keep hoping that something will come through soon though!

Baby Garrett

Just a quick note: I just posted two lists of items on the right hand side of my blog that has things we already have for the baby and things we need. I will be adding and deleting to each one as we get stuff or as I think of things we need. This is for those of you who would like to get us things and for any baby shower ideas. And as a reminder, we are not finding out the sex of the baby, but we do like green and yellow. :)

ASCP Registry Exam

I just wanted to post for those of you who don't know yet that I have taken and

PASSED

my certification exam for the

American Society for Clinical Pathology (ASCP).


This means that as soon as I send in my Official Transcript I am officially certified as a
Medical Laboratory Scientist
Jamie Garrett, MLS (ASCP)

It has been a grueling past six years of college and 5 months of hard studying but it finally paid off!

Thanks to all of those who have been so supportive in all my years of schooling and these past few months of studying. It's been a long journey but my life of school and studying is over (unless I decide to go back for more torture) and it feels great!

Productive Day

Kenny and I had a productive day today!

We had a bunch of apples I picked from my Aunt LaDean's trees that needed some attention, so we got started on making APPLESAUCE!

Kenny got a pretty good picture of my belly in this one (which has finally started to develop). Here I am at 18 1/2 weeks:

Kenny loved working the Victorian Strainer and was bummed whenever I strained the apples.

We decided to make a batch of fruit leather with the applesauce! :)

We had almost twice this much applesauce. We got 7 1/2 quarts which we froze, plus some fruit leather.

Next we decided to clean out our freezers so that we know what exactly we have and so that they are ORGANIZED! I didn't take any before pictures (sorry), but here are the after pictures:

After we cleaned out the freezers we took the dogs up to Mink Creek to give them some exercise. If you know us to have only two dogs instead of three, well, that's still true. We are taking care of my brother, Ryan's, dog Duke until Christmas. He is stationed in Georgia for the U.S. Army. We just wanted to let Duke come down and live with us for a couple months. He is having a lot of fun with our dogs!

Kenny posing with Duke. That's about as far in the water as Duke got.

Here's Joey and Maggie. Joey had to retrieve a stick in the culvert and from there couldn't decide how to get out. He's a bit afraid of just jumping out.

After we got home from our Mink Creek adventure we made a nice dinner. Kenny gave the dogs some baby carrots for a treat and we noticed Joey was chewing kind of funny. This is where Kenny confessed that he ACCIDENTALLY hit Joey in the side of the face with a rock. I said, "WHAT!?!" Kenny was swinging his arm to throw a rock when Joey came running up behind him and Kenny, with rock still in hand, clubbed (or I should say "rocked") Joey in the side of the face. Well, Joey has a nice golf-ball sized lump on the side of his face now. So what did I do?

Yep. I strapped an ice pack to the side of his face for ten minutes and plan on doing it some more until the swelling goes down. :)

Cheshire Cat, Kenny's Birthday, and Halloween

I just want to start out with a couple funny pictures of our funny cat Chevy. When we have our dogs' pillows/beds laying out, Chevy just has to go an "hide" under them, but he doesn't always do a thorough job:

Our Cheshire Cat:

Next, we have Kenny's birthday dinner. I didn't get any pictures of Kenny because he's not a huge fan of pictures and just poses to amuse me sometimes, so for his birthday I didn't take pictures of him...just dinner. He had to work all day, but when he got home I had one of his favorite meals ready for him:

Chicken Tettrazinni

Caesar Salad

"Skor" Cake
(It's also known by a different name but I won't mention it, and it was mostly devoured by the time I remember to take a picture).

Now on to Halloween! We didn't know what we were going to do for the day, so we mostly just bummed around most of the day. Then we tried to figure out what to do for the evening besides hand out candy, so at the last minute we decided to do a Halloween-y dinner for the three of us (me, Kenny, and Kenny's brother Travis).

This is dinner as a whole. We had Swamp Juice:

Mummified Hot Dogs:

Vampire Fangs
(sliced apples dipped in strawberry sauce):

Amputated Fingers

Cupcake Spiders

We had a lot of fun making everything. Travis and Kenny really got into making the "fingers". The swamp juice was different but still fun. After dinner we had a couple friends come over who had a Halloween Trivia game we played. Of course we all sucked at it cause most of the questions were about "Silence of the Lambs" and the "Halloween" movies and "The Shining", all of which most of us hadn't seen. But we all made it fun anyway.

Birthing Center, Montana, and Halloween Decos

Two Fridays ago (Oct. 2) Kenny and I went up to Rigby to check out the Agape Birth Center (http://www.agapebirthservice.com/) and we met with a couple of the mid-wives there. We were very impressed by them and the birthing center. They seem to really know what they are doing and they know if/when a situation turns bad enough to send the mom/baby to the hospital. They have rarely had to ship a mom/baby to the hospital, so that makes me feel good! My mom, stepdad, and Grandma Logan all came too because they were curious as to what a birthing center was and what it looked like--let's just say that they went in skeptical and came out totally impressed (not only with the actual birthing center, but with the knowledge of the mid-wives).

Below is a partial picture of one of the birthing rooms. They have a huge tub with candles all around it, there is a double (or queen size) bed in the room, and the ceiling has a sheer canopy-like material strung up with twinkling lights around it to create a relaxed atmosphere. The room is also very spacious (no crowded hospital delivery rooms!).

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The following Sunday my mom and my stepdad took me up to Glendive, Montana (a 9-10 hour drive from St. Anthony) where they now live. I stayed there for a week and was able to have a nice relaxed week! I was able to spend time with my newest niece, Zoey:

...and my nieces and nephew Taylor, Skyler, and Maddison:

I worked on crafts with my mom and stepdad:

This window was taken from an older home when new ones were put in. My dad primed it and painted it green, and then I put a "crackle" paint on it and coated it in a cream color, so the crackling will show the green underneath. I am planning on decorating this side in just a neutral decoration, and the other side I am going to decorate Christmas-y so that at Christmas I can just flip it over. :)

Mom and I staining our freshly cut and sanded blocks to make into Halloween decorations (see farther below).

My sister, Adrea, my mom, and I worked together to make and can salsa:

I was also able to go and hang out at the Glendive Medical Center in the Lab to see what their lab was like. I got to see a venipuncture on a newborn (I've done heel sticks, but haven't seen a venous draw on a newborn yet) and I got to see how a medium-sized lab runs.

I also got to be lazy and just sit and watch the Disney Channel (which I thoroughly enjoyed), and since it is October I got to watch Halloweentown and all the sequels. Kind of corny, but not half bad either. There really aren't too many good Halloween shows out there (either they are too gory, rated R, or just plain stupid), so I thought the Halloweentown series wasn't too bad. So me and Bentley (my parent's little poodle) just hung out together while my parent's were at work and we watched/snoozed while the Disney Channel was playing. :)


I really had a great week spending time with my family--it was just what I needed! Thanks mom and dad for taking me up and bringing me back and for everything else this last week. Thanks Adrea for letting me hang out with you and the kids at your house and for all the baby stuff!
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Today I put up Halloween decorations and had a lot of fun doing it!

These blocks are some of the crafts I worked on while up in Montana:

This says "Spooky"--it's hard to tell from the picture.

These decorations I already had, I just wanted to take a picture of them:

I painted and carved this small pumpkin today and am really pleased at how it turned out!

And my brother-in-law, Travis, and I put this scarecrow together today as well. Travis stuffed the shirt and pants with newspaper and I drew the face and added the hat, gloves, and boots. I really like how he turned out as well!