Sleep? Not Overrated

This picture is Eric trying to make Lillie the "happiest baby on the block"... this used to really help, but not lately.

I had no idea what sleep deprivation felt like before Lillie. I had been sleeping a minimum of ten hours a day during my pregnancy, I was so tired all the time, or so I thought...the only difference between then and now is that I used to be able to just take a nap when I needed it. The last couple of nights have been doozies. Lillie sleeps all day but at about 6 o'clock the last two nights she would be wide-awake and decided that she would stay awake and fuss for the next 6+ hours. And then I still have to get up a couple times during the night to feed her and then struggle to get her back asleep.
So we decided we'd had enough of that and that we needed to do something about it. We borrowed a book from our friends that many people in the ward had raved about, it's called Save Our Sleep. The main points are that children need a schedule to follow and that they need to learn to put themselves to sleep. Today is our first day and I have to admit that it was really hard to listen to my tiny baby cry the loudest and the longest she ever has. But she finally cried herself to sleep. We'll see how this goes. This is going to be as hard for me as it is for her, I don't like having to follow schedules, but I think she needs it.

Baby Blessing and Family Visit

Well, its been a couple of weeks and already Lil' Lillie has gained a couple of dozen pounds. It seems like she is growing faster than we can keep up with. The last doctor visit (at 2 weeks old) she was 9 lbs 2 oz! She has already grown out of many of her newborn clothes. She is starting to realize that she has lungs with which she can get our attention, and its becoming interesting at night sometimes, but we're surviving.
Lillie's Baby blessing was Sunday and we were lucky to have my parents, grandparents, and some aunts, uncles and cousins here to help out and celebrate with us. It was a great time and Lillie was an angel through the whole thing (she slept). She did look very cute in her dress but didn't feel up to posing for the camera afterward.



It was nice to have my parents staying with us to help us catch up on some things and to help with the little one. School was crazy busy for the first time all year which wasn't very convenient but we had a good time.

And did I mention that the Giants upset the Patriots?!?!? Way to go Eli!

Bouncing Baby Girl

Baby had her first Dr. visit today. All went well except right as we're getting her naked to weight her- what does she do? poop poop poop. But the Dr. said her jaundice is all cleared and she gained 5 oz in her 5 short days, which was good. Carrie and Grandma are short on sleep (I don't hear the baby cry half the time), though she does sleep well during most of the day. Baby and Mommy are getting used to feedings which they're both now getting the hang of. She's a doll and we love every minute with her.

Our New Addition

Lillie Marie, 7 lbs, 12 oz. We love her so much its amazing. Carrie already says she was worth all the pain of the 9 months of pregnancy. She's perfect and we love her. More to come (if we're not to tired).

40 weeks and still no baby

This has been the longest day to date. It is my due date, the date that has been confirmed on 3 ultrasounds as being the day that this baby was supposed to come into the world. So why am I not at the hospital? I have come to realize that this kid must be more like her parents than I originally thought: I hesitate to try new things and I resist change...I like my "womb" of familiarity. And Eric's just a bit lazy at times so I think that she's taking a little after both of us, not wanting to go through all the hassle of making her debut and loving the fact that she doesn't have to work for her food or worry about messy diapers.
I also think she has taken after her father with her apparent stubborness. This has led me to believe that she will be a redhead. We have tried everything possible to get her to come out, except for castor oil, but to no avail. She is definitely more stubborn than I am. I give up.
The last hope I have is medical intervention. I have my fingers crossed that tomorrow I can convince my overly patient OB that it is time for pitocin. But I have a feeling that he will want me to wait yet another week...no skin off his back, he doesn't have heartburn, nausea and trouble sleeping.
So we are all ready for her to come, Eric did a phenomenal job painting her room a light pink...even though he didn't want to. His hesitation was that if our next kid was a boy then he'd have to paint it again. And I laughed...hard. Another child while in dental school? A second child at all? It was the funniest thing he's ever said.


Notice how there is nothing on the wall above her crib. I am worried about So Cal earthquakes. We had three in the first couple months living here. Earthquake safety makes for pretty boring decor.

Pregnant and happy!

Finally I got a good picture of Carrie and her pregnant self. Show that baby off! Carrie and Lil' Bow wow comin' atcha.

Baby Blues? I've got the Baby Pinks.

So I vowed long ago that I would never become the type of mom who loses her own identity and lives only through her children...but I am already beginning to see that that is nearly impossible to avoid this and my baby hasn't even been born yet. I think it has something to do with the fact that every time I look in the mirror I can't help but notice my huge belly and everyone else notices the gigantic bulge first thing too and asks how I'm feeling and when I'm due. And that's not all, lately I've even gotten really excited about completely losing myself and taking care for this tiny being that is so helpless.
Throughout the past nine months, I have been pretty preoccupied with how terrible pregnancy has made me feel and it wasn't until a couple weeks ago when I started to get this feeling...you know, the feeling you get on Christmas Eve or on your birthday, when you get really excited about the unknown contents of your presents. But I really couldn't care less if Christmas came this year. In fact, I would be ecstatic if I woke up tomorrow and it was January. I am getting a present that is light years better than anything that could be under the tree. Now don't get me wrong, I have always been excited about having a baby but now it's starting to feel real. Like it's really going to happen.
I think it all started after my baby shower, thanks again, Desi, Dori, Kerri, and Alyssa. I hadn't really gotten anything for baby before then, because I thought it would make the pregnancy last even longer. So, I don't think I had realized how fun it is going to be to dress my baby. Now my baby has more accessories than I do, bracelets and headbands. And all the cute little clothes, plenty in the closet and even more in a dresser. I am in heaven and I've decided to call this feeling the Baby Pinks.
So in the next five weeks I have got a lot to do to get ready for this kid to come. There are still a lot of things that I need to get...and man, babies are expensive. But I look forward to waking up each day, so that I can get another thing ready for my daughter. She has pretty much taken over my every thought and I don't mind that I've become the person I didn't want to be. Dang it, I am obsessed with my kid and I am happy that I am.

Black Friday...the darkest day of the year

Okay so not the darkest, I tend to be a little dramatic. Thanksgiving week is my husband's favorite week of the year. Not because of turkey or family and not even because of football, but that is a close second. But because my husband LOVES to get good deals. All week long he spend a lot of time on the internet looking at Black Friday deals, researching the quality of the merchandise and where he can get a better price. It is a serious deal for him, and although it drives me crazy, I am grateful to have a husband who wants quality products at any price point.

Right before midnight on Thanksgiving we headed down to the closest outlet mall to try and get discount prices on already marked down merchandise. We only made it to one store, Carters, because I'm a wimp (okay, it's really because I'm 8 mos pregnant and it's difficult for me to get around). We did get some cute little baby clothes. My favorite is a onesie that Eric picked out. It is magenta and it says I love Daddy. It was the only thing he chose, but it was fun to see him get excited about it.

Eric managed to get about an hour of sleep before heading out again with a friend to try and get us a video camera. Not having lived here very long, we didn't seemed to realize how many people live around us and how many of them also want to get a deal. Eric said lines went down the block or farther, hours before the stores opened. So, he got us a video camera online. It was still a fabulous deal...if only we had known about it earlier, Eric could have gotten a little more sleep that night.

All in all, it was an adventure for both of us. I don't know if I'll ever be doing it again, but I don't regret going.

WICKED Birthday Party

I almost forgot to blog this. Carrie and I went to the musical Wicked at the Pantages theater here in LA (Hollywood area) for her Birthday. We put our names in for the lottery that they have and got lucky - front row tickets for only $25 each! We went to a nice little Italian restaurant nearby and checked out the stars on the sidewalks over there and the show was GREAT! Lots of fun. Luckily we got it in before everyone started striking.

The Sunny Side of Life

Carrie is happy to be pregnant - NOT! Don't let this photo deceive you. She IS happy though to only have 8 weeks left. Though I have a feeling they'll feel more like 8 months (to me at least). We're getting really excited for the 3rd member of our little family to arrive. In the mean time, Carrie is feeling the baby dance more and more each day and that along with her heartburn keeps her up late at night (good practice for the coming months I think). She is still hoping to get the NCLEX test done soon too before life gets REALLY hectic.

California weather is our new best friend. We had a picnic in the park today and it was like 90 degrees! Its mid-November! The picture is of me and my first try surfing a couple of weeks ago. Despite the nice weather, the water was FREEZING but there were some dolphins out there with us that day and it was a ton of fun. I know I should be standing on the surfboard but hey.­.­.­ when the water is 30 degrees it messes with your muscles (and it was my first time).­

Fantasy Sports aren't my fantasy

Back a couple of years ago, every time the TV was turned on by Eric, it was on ESPN watching Sportscenter. I know that I complained plenty about the amount of time he spent getting the wrap-up on the day's sporting events. It has been a couple of years now since I've seen Sportscenter and I have since learned that there are much worse things.
You'd think this would make me happy, but now Eric has to watch as many of the actual football, basketball or baseball games that he possibly can...thanks to fantasy sports. Now I'm sure that everyone knows what fantasy sports are, but essentially it is a team that you put together of players. So now he has "players" playing in every game that is played on TV.
And it only gets worse when he has "players" playing on different channels at the same time. Then he uses sopcasts off the internet, score updates on yahoo sports, and toggles between all the different games on TV.
The NFL football season has ruined my Sundays! This is my biggest annoyance. Multiple games, all day long and now he isn't just depressed that the Seahawks lose, but also the Redskins and the Buccaneers and many more teams, because it affects his points in Fantasy Football. And pro basketball and baseball aren't confined to two days a week, they happen all week long.
These are just professional sports teams. He still needs his fix of college football and basketball. Honestly, what is a girl to do?

Midterms from the hot place.

So I've taken many tests in my life that I thought were bad, but nothing could have prepared me for what USC had in store for me with our midterm exams. WOW. I've never felt so dumb after taking a test. Did I pass? Probably not. Gladly, its over and now I have 4 days of vacation and some time to straighten out my slice! Carrie is doing well, happy to be no longer "morning sick" and I'm starting to get packages unexpectedly in the mail from Children's Place and Gymboree. Sgt Pepper is trying to recruit me to the Air Force, and after paying 1 semesters worth of tuition I'm the one doing the recruiting. If USC could just put together a national championship football team I could justify spending the 100k/yr, but come on ... Stanford?? Really?!? I'm confident we'll show Notre Dame what football is really about.

Keep on keepin' on

One month of school is now out of the way and I'm almost getting the hang of things. We're starting to get into a routine and its nice to feel slightly more acclimated to big city life. We got our car back from the body shop a few days ago and it looks pretty good. Can't hardly tell its been wrecked. I'm getting through my tooth morphology class and as you can see, I've spent lots of time doing some carvings. Its actually the funnest part about school so far. We're getting to do a bunch of wax-ups too which is fun. I can say that school is much funner when its stuff you actually want to learn about.

Carrie and I have also gotten season passes to the home football games this year and its been fun. We saw WSU get whooped up on and then a huge upset by Stanford this last Saturday (a very sad event for all involved). The parachuting Navy Seals was cool at the beginning too. The only downside is the 4 hours straight of standing up in the student section (which can get a bit rowdy). It does take its toll on a 6 1/2 month pregnant woman. She's a good sport though.

The baby's been kicking quite a bit. Carrie threatens spankings at least daily (baby thinks the bladder is a punching bag sometimes). Carrie is no longer fitting into normal clothing and as you can tell by the picture, she's been doing her fair share of maternity clothes shopping. She doesn't believe that its possible to get any bigger until she watches Baby Story on TLC. I still think she's more beautiful than the day I met her (especially at a football game).

Life in the Big City

Well as you can see from the pictures, the LA traffic hasn't been so good to us. Our little car was recently the victim of an out-of-control blind motorcyclist on the freeway. We were fine thankfully but he was taken to the hospital (hopefully he's ok) and we delayed traffic for a good couple of hours. Sorry LA. But we're trying to avoid driving and trying to forget the event. Carrie finally got an appointment with an OBGYN here and we're set to find out what we're having Sept 11^th (hopefully not a sign of things to come). We had a little "White Coat" Ceremony last night at USC welcoming us into the dental profession. Don't I look professional?!?! School I also got my 2^nd week of orientation about done and am looking forward to moving on with things. I feel like I should be busier. Joe is telling me about how crazy stuff is for him at OHSU after only a couple days. Oh well. More Xbox for me. Haha.

School has Begun!

Well, we've been in So Cal for 2 whole weeks now and I already have one boring week of dental school orientation under my belt. I can pretty much fix you teeth as well as any dentist out there right now. Thats how good USC is. We've thankfully been forced into getting settled thanks to the Smith's arrival for a night while supporting they're man Terry Fator (now winner of America's Got Talent) and are liking it here for the most part (though we were forced to sleep on the air mattress and floor for a week or so before we broke down and bought a mattress at Costco). I also went to Grandma Maurine's funeral in Salt Lake a week or so ago. It was sad but a great memorial to a great lady. It was also nice to see family that only gets together one every 15 yrs or so (cousin Dan thought I was Kacey's husband). On another topic, Carrie is almost 5 mo pregnant now and we're excited to get her into a doctor soon to find out what we're having - a little Henry or a little Lillie. She's been bored here during the day while I'm gone but takes long naps to make up for it. We like our ward and people seem really nice here (which we've missed in our past couple of wards). There's not much to complain about except for crazy expensive school, and 30 yr old ovens - nothing serious.

I Love Vacation

So the Nighthawk chapter of my life is finally over (thankfully) and the Dental part is set to begin in just over a month. We just got back from a vacation to Island Park where Lyle and Mary just bought there new cabin. We went to Yellowstone and did some boating and rafting. It was a great time and really nice to get away from everything for a while. It was the longest (5 days) that I've been without TV or internet for about as long as I can remember. We're about to go camping at Priest Lake with Carrie's family, and then start packing for Cali. Should be a fun time. We've purged most of our furniture and appliances and only have a few boxes to take now. LA is a world away from the tranquility of Island Park but we're always up for new things.

Busy Weekend

Lets see... Julees wedding, and reception, and golf and morning-sick wife. Almost too much for one guy to handle right? Well it took a few days of recovery but I'm doing better now. Can't say the same for Carrie who's been throwing up every other day or so but that just means her hormones are out of wack in a good way right? It was a good time though, all the fam together in O-town. I decided I can't take much more of my job and am quitting on July 2nd before they can make me work another holiday (i think Thanksgiving, Christmas Eve and day, New Years Eve and day, Easter and Memorial day were enough weren't they?). So we'll have a month or so to lounge, mooch, relax until school starts for me. We're excited to get to So Cal though. I'm ready to get going with school. Not sure where we'll live or how we'll survive but we're excited.

Job Woes and Interviews

12/9/2006

So I've been working now at a teleradiology for a whole 4 months now and its still a good job. I really can't complain too much. There's always going to be things here and there that I wish were different but its a good job and it pays the bills (which seem to be piling up these days). I did get a Christmas bonus this year too which is nice, maybe it will pay for a flight to Vegas for another interview if nothing else. So yeah, I have an interview now scheduled for my birthday next month, but they said I could call monday to see if there are any drop-outs next week and I may get fit in earlier (I'm crossing my fingers). This whole dental school application process is very stressful. I am really getting anxious to hear from the 2 places I've interviewed at (UW and Temple). I just heard last week that Joe got accepted to NYU which is very cool. I decided at the last minute not to apply there but I may if I dont get in this year somewhere. I'm happy for him though.

We had a ward EQ party deal last night which was fun. A little karaoke and some catch phrase. I think Carrie is getting mad at me for being anti-social all of the time, so I may have to make some friends for her sake. I haven't been to church in like 3 weeks because of work. It really sucks having to work every holiday and weekends sometimes. Hopefully I'll have more sundays off from now on though - I did talk to them about it. All in all life is good. Just this whole D-school crap is really stressing me out right now. If I can just get in somewhere it would be a huge relief. Ok enough for now.

Dental Application and Life in Spokane

November 14, 2006

So I am going to start keeping a journal here in my gmail account I think. It is easier and more secure than a blog. I already made the mistake of doing that when NRS, the company I've been working for for about 5 months now, found some things I'd written about them and asked me to delete it. I was just stating how happy I was to have landed the job too. Oh well. I do like my job except that it is very slow in the mornings like now, until about 2pm when we start doing normal cases. I do learn a lot of medical jargon which I think is very useful too.

So I'm deep into the 2006-2007 application cycle for Dental School now. I have only actually interviewed at 1 school out of the ten that I have applied to. Luckily for me that one is UW, which is my obvious first choice. I think it went pretty well too. Jay and Stephanie and Carrie drilled my as a panel the day before the interview and I think that helped a lot. I am happy with my chances and feel like I'd be a good fit there at the school. I like the small class size and the focus on rural care. Hopefully I'll get in. I'm interviewing at Temple University in 2 weeks as well. I have heard good things about the school from Benny, Carries cousin, who I hopefully will be staying with. I still need to call him to make sure. I'd like to go there too I think, except that its on the east coast. Clinics are supposed to be great. I'm just hoping to get in somewhere. Arizona rejected me and 7 other schools are leaving me in the dark on my status. I don't like that. Its stressing me out. Oh well. Temple and UW are my top 2 probably so that's the most important anyhow. As long as I get into one of those I'll be happy.

So Carrie and I have been contemplating having a kid soon. Carrie gets soo stressed out with school that I don't know how she would handle pregnancy and school next semester, but if it happens then it will work out I'm sure. Kids would be nice, although taking care of a newborn during my first semester of school might be difficult, but fun - maybe. Carrie will have one semester left come January and she claims she hates everything about nursing and wants to drop out. Stress. She doesn't handle it well. She'll be fine though. I love her. Shes a great wife and we're perfect for each other.

We've moved to the Valley recently and are enjoying it. We have a much nicer apartment and are loving the dishwasher/washer-dryer lifestyle for the first time since being married. Our ward is good though we don't have friends there except Noriko and John (which is kinda strange for obvious reasons). Its good though and we like it. Carrie has a calling in the YW but doesn't like the people she works with. Oh well.

Well I'll see if I can figure out how to post some pictures up here and then be done with it.