Going Private

Hi Friends,
I have decided to make my blog private. Please leave a comment with your email or message me on facebook if you would like to continue to read. Thanks so much. Hope you have a wonderful day and thank you for all the kind comments from the last post.

The Birth Story of Amalie

I think it scares me to write this story down, to try and capture the beauty, the joy and the magnitude of this day. That however, is a fixed mind-set (more on that later-but read "Mindset" until then).

How do I go about writing about a day that completely changed who I was? How do I eloquently describe my feelings and thoughts. How can I transport you, the anonymous reader into that 26 hour time frame? How do I make you experience my emotions and see the beauty and miracle of life. I can't, not perfectly a least, but I will try.

Something you should know: I am a strong believer in natural birth. I believe in midwifes and I strongly dislike the business that birthing human beings has become. I believe that I, as a woman was made to carry and birth a child. I was designed to know how to do this. For thousands of years women have carried and birthed healthy children. Many died yes, but so many more lived. 

Watch "The Business of Being Born." Know that 1 out of every 3 children born in the U.S. is delivered via C-section. Know that your OBGYN is a trained surgeon. Know that most OBGYN's have never seen a natural childbirth and consequently don't know that it can be a natural and normal process. Know that the U.S. has one of the highest mortality rates of mothers and newborns of a developed country. (If you want sources on these, let me know. They are from numerous articles I have read but a lot will come from "The Business of Being Born"-Netflix people).

All that being said, I am completely supportive of people making their own decisions and doing what they feel comfortable with. I think hospitals and doctors and modern medicine are incredible. I just think there are unnecessary things that happen and complicate the process when it comes to child birthing in the hospital. 

Also, I did not choose to do this because it was trendy. I did not choose to have a natural child birth because I wanted to prove something to myself or the world. I didn't do this to show that I was more woman than those who choose to have pain medication. Because it doesn't matter if you have pain medication or not-it doesn't make you more of a woman to experience more "pain" than the next. That isn't what it is about. It was about coming back to the way things were meant to be. It was about having my body perform an incredible function that it was supposed to do. My body knows how to carry and have a child and I needed to trust my body and let it do its thing. It was about understanding that my body was in control, and that was an incredible thing to have to do, turn over my control to my body. It was also about being in tune and feeling every part of the process. It was about understanding who I was as a woman and being there, involved in all of it. 

Weird that I feel like I have to defend myself about this...

Background:

At 26 weeks I starting having contractions or braxton hicks. They scared me. I didn't want this babe to come that soon. Everything was fine and I was put on a "modified lifestyle." I couldn't exercise and I had to slow things down. Contractions continued the rest of the pregnancy but I had countless experiences and confirmations that everything would be just fine and this sweet baby girl would wait until the time was right. 

So I was used to having contractions. I was used the tightening sensation that hugged my baby.

Something else you should know: my birth preparation was called hypnobabies. Learn more at hypnobabies.com. It is a wonderful awesome way to retrain your mind about birth. So much in our society shows labor and delivery as painful, scary and something out of your control. All of these things are not true. We live with this and we have an expectation that labor will be the most painful thing a woman will have to experience. This is just not true. Hypnobabies helped me retrain my thinking so that I understood that I had control over what I was feeling, that I could create anesthesia in my body (it works) and that labor was wonderful and painless.

I had a painless birth.

Thursday, December 13th

10:00 am I wake up and do a bunch of nothing.

11:30 am I bake a cake

1:00 pm I pretend to study for my last final. I calculate that if I were to get 50/100 I would still have a solid A in the class. That is why I didn't study. I take the final online and pull off an 82. Cool.

4:15 pm We drive up to Mutual Dell up the American Fork Canyon for my little sister's surprise 16th birthday party. We set up, we party and we have a good time.

6:00-9:30 pm Tanner and I teach a line dance. I party with my family. I dance...a lot. I was done with finals and we were ready for baby to come whenever she wanted to (on her birthday of course, I also don't believe in due dates).

9:30 pm We start to clean up. I'm having a lot of contractions and they're pretty close together. A few of them begin to take my breath away. I lie down.

10:30 pm We arrive at my parents house and start to get ready for The Hobbit. I'm still having contractions and I'm trying not to think about it.

11:06 pm Wet sensation. I think to myself that perhaps my water is breaking. No big gush, just a small trickle. An uncontrollable trickle nonetheless. I tell Tanner. He gets excited. I'm trying not to get excited because what if I'm just being silly. The trickling however, does not cease.

11:08 pm. I go downstairs to where my mom is in her room getting ready for bed.

Me- "Mom, I think my water may have just broken."

Mom- "Ahh really?"

Dad- (asleep in the bed before The Hobbit premiere) "What? You think your water broke? That's so cool."

Me- "Can I show you, I just want to be sure."

Mom- "Um ya, I'm pretty sure your water has broken. What are you going to do?"

11:25-11:40 pm I call the midwife who tells me I'm at the early stages of labor and to take it easy and try to sleep. I tell her I want to go see The Hobbit and ask her what her opinion is. She called the other midwife and says it's up to us but thinks I should rest. Tanner and I debate about whether or not we should go. My mom says it may be good to go to get my mind off it. I am worried because I need rest but I also think I won't be able to sleep because I'm too excited.

11:40 pm My family leaves for the movie.

12:00 am Tanner and I leave for the movie.

12:15- 1:15 am We "watch" The Hobbit. I tell a woman in the bathroom I'm in labor-I had to tell someone! She was very concerned. I was just excited. We count contractions in the dark theatre. Tanner records them on the phone. I try different positions in the dark theatre. The movie isn't fast paced enough at the beginning. I'm bored and can't sit still. We decide to leave.

1:30 am We try and sleep. Sleep does not happen. I'm woken up every once in a while with pressure waves a.k.a contractions. Tanner keeps track of them all and helps me through them.

4:00 am ish We fill up the big jet tub in my parents bathroom. They go upstairs to sleep. It was very nice of them. I was so grateful in that moment that we were at my parents house because that tub was awesome. It was so big and lovely. 

5:30 am We call the midwives and they want us to come in to see how things are going. My contractions were 3-5 minutes a part but then we would have randomly at 7 min, 10 min, 2 min. They were all over the place. 

6:00 am to the birthing center. I'm 75% effaced and 2 cm. Seriously? All that work for nothing?? LAME. I am redetermined to open myself up and get this baby moving. They give me tylenol pm and magnesium so I can sleep.

6:30 am We get home, I pop in the tylenol pm and drift in and out for a few hours. 

8:30 am The fun begins!!! From here on out I do not remember times at all. It was a haze. I was on my hands and knees a lot during the contractions. Tanner would press on my hips because I was having some major back labor. 

We were in the bed for a while then moved to the couch. We stayed at the couch for a few hours...it felt like a minute-even though there were many contractions had there. I really wanted some ice chips for some reason. It was hard to drink water and eat although I and my midwives wanted me to eat throughout labor. I was just too nauseated. It was funny because after I told Tanner I wanted ice chips I thought-that is awful! That is what they give you in the hospital! Of course by this point I was having contractions every 5 minutes so Tanner couldn't really leave. Okay, he could have but I would not have survived with out him. I am completely serious when I say that. I could not have done it without him. Brian, his best friend was kind enough to go to Macey's and get some of the pebble ice for me. As he was dropping them off and Tanner was out the door, I started contracting. It freaked me out to not have Tanner there.

Tanner was amazing holding me up under the arms. I bore down and sometime even put my leg on the couch in the splits position. Somehow that helped? I think it was nice because I could visualize my hips opening up. How much detail should I go into here? ha ha Anyways, Tanner was recording, holding me, talking to me and it was great. Everytime I had a contraction I would visualize everything opening up and breath or make an "ahhh" sound. When your throat is open, everything else is open. It's called the sphincter law. Pretty neat stuff. 

Throughout this I had to use the bathroom a lot. It is hard to have a contraction when you are using the bathroom. The end...of that.

I was able to snack on some energy granola bars that my mom had gotten me from Costco and they were awesome. 

Sometime during this I asked Tanner to call the midwives because I was having contractions consistently now and wasn't sure when we should go in to the birthing center. Of course I wanted to go as long as possible at home but kept having visions of having her in the car-I did NOT want that to happen. They instruct Tanner that at some point I'll go into labor land. I guess this meant that I would be completely in the zone and a bit out of it? I don't know exactly. 

12:00 pm I get in our tub. Too small. I couldn't move around and change positions. It was annoying.

12:30 pm My mom came over. She brought us Zupas. I got into the bed. I scarfed down mushroom soup between contractions. Everytime Tanner would start eating I would have a contraction and he had to be there pushing on my hips poor guy. Tanner was so amazing talking me through everything. He had little things to say (that the hypnobabies program told him to say). The best thing that he did was validate everything I was doing. If I was breathing or making a certain sound he told me that it was good. He encouraged me to take control over what I was feeling and get in tune with my body. He was amazing.

1:30-2:00 pm I start to go into labor land. I am completely focused and in the zone. I am having contractions 3-5 minutes apart and Tanner called the midwives to let them know that we were thinking about coming in. I think they were a bit skeptical but of course let us come.

2:15-2:30 pm This is probably the worst part of it all. I hated being the car. The front seat was reclined and I was trying to get in comfortable positions but it was so hard. Tanner had to drive and I had to breath and moan on my own. I wanted to kill whoever invented stop lights. At the light right before the birthing center I was facing the back of the car with the reclined seat during a contraction. I remember thinking, if someone looked over at me right now would they think I was completely insane or gather that I was in labor? Who knows.

2:30 pm We get to the birthing center. I was mad that I had to wear clothes in order to get there. TMI? Whatever-I am telling you that when you are in labor you do NOT want clothes on (and I consider myself a very modest person). I thought I would labor in a dress or tank top but no way. I am just so grateful I did not have to have the hospital gown on because that is more awkward than being stark naked...because you're trying to cover up but you can't and it's just awkward. I'm sorry. This is a birth story, what did you expect?

At the birthing center they checked me. Now let me say something right here. I did not want to be checked throughout the pregnancy and labor unless it was necessary. I think they wanted to see how far I had progressed although numbers don't mean a whole lot to me. But I think they just didn't think I was ready to come in to the birthing center. When I was checked I got a  "oh hey girlfriend!!!" from my student midwife. I was a 7 and 100% effaced. That's what I'm talking about.

So they drew a bath and off we went. I threw up as soon as we got into the birthing suite and they were happy about that. Remember the sphincter law? I got in the bathtub and Tanner put on his swimming suit. Here are some pictures... don't worry they are modest. 

I love Tanner's face in this.
He worked so hard through this all. In the bathtub his leg were shaking like crazy!  He was so tired and holding me and pressing me. What an amazing man.

I think the biggest compliment to me and to hypnobabies was when my midwife told me she didn't know when I was having a contraction. Why don't I play poker?

3:30-4:00 I labored and felt like I maybe wanted to start pushing. Looking back I realize this was premature but you don't know how to push if you have never done it before. I was on my hands and knees a lot. At one point they encouraged me to change positions to help her down. We put on the pushing out hypnobabies CD in the background. It was lovely.

4:00-5:00?? pm I got on the birthing stool. That was annoying. As I sat there with Tanner behind me, the student midwife in front, the supervising midwife to the side, another student midwife taking notes and observing and my mom all sitting in this larger bathroom I realized how vulnerable I was. I mumbled something about hating being the center of attention. The supervising midwife asked if I wanted some of them to leave and I did. Everyone left except my student midwife and Tanner. I felt like I could let loose a bit more. At this point I could feel her head. That was neat but discouraging as she was so close yet wasn't coming.

5:00? pm They ask if I want to move to the bed. I secretly wanted to birth in the tub if it could happen that way. But at this point I was up for anything. They were worried that her head was stuck. When a baby is coming out of the birth canal, their head should be tucked with their chin towards their chest. They were concerned that her head was flexed and her chin wasn't near her chest. I would push and she would start coming and then would back up. It was two steps forward, one step back. That was hard. So they got me on the bed and checked her head. It was indeed flexed and not in the right position. So while I pushed they puller her head into the right position. YAY!

After I went to he bed I just laid on my side. I think I had silent tears and felt completely exhausted. I just wanted to be done. I was ready for her to be out. My midwife stroked my face and hair and I remember thinking it felt so nice. She was so tender and caring. I loved her. I snoozed for about two minutes which was the extra boost I needed. I thought it was five, but Tanner says two even though it felt like it was a long time. It helped me nonetheless.

The next part on the bed was a blur. I was completely in the zone and relaxed. When I felt a contraction I would push and feel a lot of pressure. All of the sudden they put an oxygen mask on me. I thought that meant I was dying. I had no IV's or anything constricting me throughout this all so this felt like my world was closing in around me. Apparently her heart rate had started to drop and they were wanting to make sure she was getting enough oxygen. I started to black out and hyperventilate. TOO MUCH OXYGEN. They took it off after about two minutes. I truly and honestly thought I was going to die in those moments. I was pushing, there was soo much pressure and I was blacking out. And I thought there was an emergency because they put oxygen on me. I am sure they told me what was going on but I was too out of it to remember. When I say out of it I am meaning that I was very focused on my body and letting it work the way it needed to. I was trying to get in the rhythm of my contractions and push whenever I could. Everything was a big blur. 

While Tanner was cradling me in his arms and I was pushing, these are thoughts I had:

The midwives kept telling me she had a lot of hair. I remember thinking "who cares? I don't care if she has hair, I just want her out!"

At one point I thought, "maybe she could just stay in there? She's been fine for 9 months, I don't really want to see her."

After she was crowning for a while I asked if they could just reach in there and grab her. I said, "Can't you just reach in there and grab her??" My midwife said she was trying but just couldn't get a good grip! Hilarious. 

Another time, as I was moaning/growling (yes I was extremely vocal. Probably embarrassingly so but who cares) the observing midwife advised me to moan in a different way so I don't get a hoarse voice. I starting making some other noise and thanked her. Because seriously, who wants a hoarse voice right after they had a baby? 

I was so beyond tired. I pushed for about two hours and man it was hard stuff. I truly thought I could not get her out. I was frustrated with myself for not being able to just get her out. Looking back I realize she obviously was not ready yet. Her head was flexed and I was new to this. I was just figuring it out and that is okay. You do have to get to a point where you don't think you can do it anymore. That is when the Lord steps in and you trust Him. You trust that he has created my body to do this and that your baby will not be in there forever. You trust your husband and body. Tanner was so encouraging and helpful and somewhere deep down in myself I found the strength to do this. It was so hard but so wonderful.

Suddenly her head came out! I looked down and saw a blue head. The chord was wrapped around her neck twice. I thought to myself that she was dead. I literally thought that my perfectly wonderful baby was dead. Tanner knew immediately what I was thinking and grabbed my face and told me she was fine. He told me she was alive, healthy and wonderful and that I could do this. The midwives told me to flip on my hands and knees and by some magic, I flipped over. It felt like angel literally flipped my body over. 

I pushed twice and her little body flopped out. I grabbed her and pulled this wiggly, wet, beautiful baby onto my chest and just wept. 

She was perfect. And oh, she was here. She started screaming and I was so grateful she was alive. Her lungs worked, she drew breath and she could cry. She just laid there screaming as Tanner and I held each other and her. It was a perfect, beautiful moment.

After a while she stopped crying and just stared at me. Oh how I loved her. It was a surreal feeling staring at her beautiful eyes as she looked at me. I knew her. I knew she knew who I was too. 

Then Tanner cut the chord and we just continue to stare at her. It was magic. 

I delivered the placenta with a few coughs and then Tanner took her. She was calm and alert for two hours straight, all through measurements and through family visits.

My midwife shoveled chocolate pudding down my throat-gross-so I could take some ibuprofen. 

After an hour or so they took her and weighed her. She was a whopping 5 lbs 9 oz and 19 3/4 inches long. So perfect.  She got her vitamin k shot and her footprints stamped all while on the queen sized bed. It was wonderful and so intimate. 

My family came in about an hour and a half after she was born. The pictures say it all:

Oh, the moment a grandmother is born. Beautiful.

One of my favorite things about her is her stork's bite. I had one too on my forehead. When my mom pointed it out it just made me cry even more-she really was mine! 

I think one of the best things is seeing my dad with her. He is so tender and loving. He also says he wants to kidnap her all the time. 

Aunt Aubrey!!!

Aunt Natalie :)

Aunt Cami-she was a natural. 

His face is so funny. He was so sweet with her and has since learned that he can not break her.

These pictures melt my heart.

Aunty Anna. Sorry, I had to.

Skyping with Grammy and Papa Smurf! (Tanner's parents and two siblings at home)

We took her home four hours after she was born. It was wonderful.

It was a beautiful night. There was so much peace and love in that room. The whole day- 19 hours from when my water broke (the midwives wrote down I had a 26 hour labor?) was amazing. I want to do it all over again. Every moment of feeling defeated and exhausted was worth it. My husband was amazing. He was the biggest support through it all. He never left my side and was there to encourage me, to hold me and to carry me-literally. I feel so blessed to have such a loving and supportive husband. I also know that there were angels there to help us through it all. The spirit was very strong in the room and helped me find strength to do this.

We love Amalie Rose. We love the spirit she has brought into our home. We love all we have learned with her the past five weeks. She is wonderful. Her personality is already very alert and attentive. She is quite serious. She just wants to observe and be a part of it all. She is calm and very good natured. We feel blessed that such a sweet and obedient spirit has been sent to us, to teach us and to help us grow into who we need to be.

Our beautiful wonderful family.

The best Christmas present-a baby.

Well my friends, I have a baby.
She is wonderful. We love her a lot. It seems strange that she just joined our family. It seems like she's been here a lot longer than three weeks and two days. Boy, has that time flown by.
I promise I'll write the birth story soon (hopefully this week) but for now, here are some little updates.
Amalie Rose Pearson was born Dec 14 at 6:19 pm. She weighed a whopping 5 lbs 9 oz and was 19 3/4 inches long.
We didn't have a name for her for about three days. Our list of names just weren't fitting for her. I was frustrated because I wanted a spiritual confirmation of sorts but it just wasn't coming. Our first night home (which was the night she was born-I love birthing centers) I was up in a daze at 3 am feeding her and Tanner was in and out. I guess I muttered something about wanting to name her after a flower. Thus, Rose was born. We thought about having that be her first name for a while but it just wasn't working. Amalie had been on our list but we had basically crossed it off a while ago. Then it hit me, Amalie Rose. That's when the confirmation came. She is so beautiful and the name truly does fit her.
We originally spelled it Amelie. That is the French spelling and Tanner speaks French and we loved it. However, we soon learned that no one knew how to pronounce or spell her name. I was annoyed and didn't want her to be so annoyed for the rest of her life.
My Great-Aunt found a Hedwig Amalie in our line shortly after and I thought that we might as well spell it a way that is a bit less confusing. People still make butcher it but now it's Amalie, the German spelling. And yes, I will obviously call her Hedwig sometimes. If I had known before that we had a Hedwig in our family, that may have been her name. Luckily for her, it will now only be a nick name.
PS. It's pronounced Aw-ma-lie with a long A sound and the accent on the A. Confused? Ask me in person and Amalie, I'm sorry if I cursed you with a ridiculous name. I think it's beautiful.

So we've had a lovely three weeks together as a family. We spent the first week at our home, we had some visitors over and it was great. The ward provided wonderful meals and we had a great time. Then we went to my parents house and stayed there for two weeks. This was not our intention. We planned on staying until the day after Christmas and then returning home to get the hang of our new family but alas, it made sense to stay until new years eve and then while Tanner was snowboarding our car and house key ended up who knows where in the snow of Sundance. We stayed longer than we meant to but it was wonderful. We really loved being at my parents house. It was fun to see my siblings ooh and ahh over my daughter .... AH. My parents were equally as adoring.
We had a lovely Christmas and were spoiled. We not only got a precious child but also a beautiful camera. So my new project for this year is to get my food blog going. It was originally made for a school project but I want to keep it going and now I have a nice camera to take pictures of the food and they will actually look appetizing!

I want to say so much more about our wonderful little girl. But words just don't do my feelings justice. I'll put more of my thoughts with the birth story.
All I can say is that this little child is a miracle. Creation is beautiful and we are blessed to have this special spirit in our home. We feel peace with her and peace in knowing that everything happened in the right time. She smiled intentionally at us last night and oh how my heart wanted to burst. You really don't know what love is until you have a child. And you don't know how much you love your spouse until that happens. I feel whole now. I feel like I've left the old Katrina in the dust and embraced who I was meant to be. I have never felt more complete in my life since I've become a mother. It's my purpose in life and I am so grateful for the opportunity I have to figure things out with my husband and our sweet Amalie.

Thoughts about Cell Phones

Dear Readers,
Let me tell you a little story.
My sister is turning 16 tomorrow. It's awesome. She's awesome. She's turning 16 on 12/12/12. And she gets that awesome date on her license. She also gets a phone tomorrow. I don't think she reads my blog...and even if she did it wouldn't be a big deal because she knows she's getting it. We all got a phone for our 16th birthday. It's a good age. You don't need a phone before because 1) your friends all have one-so you can borrow it and feel lame that you don't have one (that's what she says at least) 2) you aren't driving so you don't need to call mom/have mom call you to pick something up 3) you aren't dating until you're 16 so you really don't need anyone to call you and if a boy is calling/texting you they shouldn't be because you shouldn't be dating. So they can call your house. And your mom can answer and then give the phone to you. DONE.

My mom washed her phone in the laundry machine. So my sister is getting my line (a different number) and my mom gets to put her SIM card in my phone.

All that being said, I am happily getting kicked off my parents cell phone contract. I will be joining Tanner's families plan.
I have a few mixed feelings about this.
-I feel like we should be independent and pay for our own phones.
-I also know we can't afford it and it's ridiculous how much they make you pay for phones
-Tanner needs a smart phone because he's smart and because his field of work (in the business world) basically demands him to be available via email at all times.
-I wish we could get our own plan. We've looked and it is soo expensive. That being said, we're still going to pay for our portion of the plan with Tanner's family, but I still feel bad.
-I will get a new number. I will also get a new area code and people will be like...woah she's cool cuz she's not from Utah

So my mother came and picked up my phone this morning. The number was disconnected and when I called, it said it was my sister's new number. I haven't had my phone for like four hours and it feels like i'm naked...
It is hard in this world to not have a cell phone. It's also strange that it's so hard. We were all fine, happy, functioning people before cell phones were invented. We were fine before it was mainstream to have one too. What happened? Why can't we just call the home line? It takes time for people to get back to you, to return your calls. It's inconvenient to look up addresses on google maps and WRITE DOWN directions for heaven's sake. It's also hard to wear a watch so you can look at your wrist for the time instead of your phone. And it's hard to have to play games on your calculator during class. I'm being sarcastic.
What is so hard about not having a cell phone?
Is it because we're used to having something there, something to check when we have nothing to do? Something to play and someone to text when we're bored? A way to "connect" us to other people. Even though since we've had cell phones I would say we're more disconnected as a society. I won't get into that now though.

Strange. Cell phones are so strange.

I'm sitting in a computer lab waiting for my husband to finish his final. I asked to borrow a strangers phone to text him where I was so he can come when he's done. I told this stranger that I left my phone at home. It was easier than relaying all of what I've written above. So then I was sitting here, doing nothing (because I have one final left on Thursday that is online and going to be EASY) when I just felt bad. I felt bad for telling her a lie. It ate me up so I apologized to her and explained that I felt bad that I just told her a little lie so I wouldn't have to explain details about not having a phone and such. I am so glad I did. It's so easy to apologize and have those bad feelings melt away. I'm so grateful I did so.

So there you have it readers, my cell phone saga and why I love repenting.
So go apologize to someone that you need to and let's start a revolution and not use our cell phones anymore.

What's in a Name?

Well, here I am sitting at home at 10:30 am. We have 9 am church. I sat through Sacrament meeting while Tanner was fanning me and felt like I was going to explode. Hi, I'm almost 39 weeks pregnant. I was hot, sweaty, anxious and could NOT sit still. And I'm supposed to sit upright without crossing my legs to help baby be in the best position. I turned to Tanner once and said, "I think I'm going to die". I really did, in that moment feel like every fiber in my body wanted to explode. He suggested I go home. So I'm home, sitting in bed lost in my thoughts.

One conversation I've had at least daily for the past few months consists of someone asking me if we know if we're having a boy or girl and then immediately followed by, "Do you have a name yet?"

Do we have a name yet...

A name is so important. It's defining. It's your identity. It is the word you will respond to, that cues your attention and beckons you to respond. A name is important.

I remember one of the first talks I gave in church was about my name. I was asked to talk about the importance of a name and my name. I was like what, 10? That's a topic for a ten year old. I don't remember all that I said but I do remember researching with my dad our last name. I remember reading about all those family members who came before me and coming to a small understanding of the significance of a family name. Perhaps the last name is most important because it connects you to other people.

Why does the name, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints matter? Because it identifies us with Jesus Christ. 3 Nephi 27: 3-9 . I love this set of verses. We take upon us the name of Christ and strive to do as He would have us. Verse 6 "And whoso taketh upon him my name, and endureth to the end, the same shall be saved at the last day."

Yes, names are important. Perhaps last names are more important because it is your family name. But I know there is significance in a person's first name. We do have a name we love for this little girl. But we have back up options too. She may come out and not look like the name we've thought of. It may not be her identifying word.

After reading those verses however I have realized that it truly only matters that eventually in her life, this little babe will grow
up and take upon her the name of Christ. It only matters that she stays true to herself and her testimony of Christ. It matters that she feels connected to her name of Pearson and also to her name of Lewis. It matters that she feels loved and cherished by her parents and Father in Heaven. A name is important but a new name in Christ is more important.

This was taken last week just shy of 38 weeks. Gooo baby!

Remind me on Wednesday to write about our neighbors....and their Opera singing at 12 am...I MUST document this time in our lives.

A slurry of thoughts

I just really hope my baby is chubby like Stephanie Nielson's. She's the cutest chub in the world.
I want to kiss those cheeks.

Life is good. Finals are almost upon us and we're busy with final projects. Christmas Around the World is this weekend which means we've spent the week at the Marriott Center. You might wonder why, especially because we're done dancing. BUT Tanner TA's the tour team and I thought I might as well help with costumes since he'd be there the whole time. It's nice to feel useful and practice what I'm supposed to be able to teach soon.

We're getting ready for this babe. My uterus is gearing up for the marathon and I'm really enjoying my pressure waves. (That's the word we use for contractions). I'm doing hypnobabies for my child birth prep and it's awesome. And it works. I love it. Go here for more information or ask me if you have questions!!

We're going to have a quiet afternoon/evening now. I haven't seen my husband very much this week and I'm excited to just be with him. We promised we wouldn't do homework until tomorrow. Maybe we'll get our Christmas tree...ps...any suggestions for cheap-ish tree stands? We were thinking we'd try DI but if anyone knows of a better place let me know!

There's going to be a huge load of recipes uploaded on my recipe blog this weekend...so be warned. The project is due Tuesday and I have a few more to upload along with pictures. So get excited!!!

Tanner just installed the car seat in our car. I think I'm slightly freaking out about everything now. That's normal, right? It's going to be fantastic and overwhelming and wonderful. Happy Friday! :)

Giving Thanks

I'm just going to go ahead and get my gratitude list out a bit early this year...
-I am grateful for the knowledge I have of the Gospel. I am grateful to be a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. I'm grateful that I know it's true.
-I'm grateful my husband makes dinner with me. It is so much fun and we make some rockin' food together.
-I am grateful I'm pregnant. I have loved the past eight (!!) months. Every single second of them ... ha ha. I am grateful for the opportunity to lend my body over for the creation of human life. What a miracle. What a blessing.
-I am grateful for water. I LOVE WATER.
-I am grateful for my awesome husband. He is the hardest worker I have ever met and I admire him so much. He does so much for our family. I love him a lot. He's so handsome and wonderful and helps me be all sorts of happy. And he started a blog too...read it. www.theweeklytap.blogspot.com
-I am grateful for amazing family and friends who have spoiled us the past few months as we prepare for this baby. People are so giving and generous. THANK YOU.
-I am grateful for kindred spirit friends. I am grateful for long Sunday night conversations, pumpkin pie medicine, and bath robes. All of these symbolize my sweetest friends. I am so grateful for them and the things I learn from their examples.
-My mother. My dear friend said this about my mother tonight, "that woman has more kindness and love than anyone I know and that's just stored up in her little pinky finger." (this is not a direct quote...but pretty close). How true this statement is. Tanner just said, "her name is appropriate for who she is". Mom, we love you.
-I am grateful for my abilities and talents. I am grateful for my gifts. I am grateful I have opportunities to use them for good in this world.
-I love education. I'm grateful I'm still in school and learning and growing. What an amazing journey college has been. I wouldn't change it for the world.
-My siblings. They are the best. I love and admire them and all they do. They are some of my best friends.
-My dad. He is the sweetest father. I love him and am grateful for his undying support.
These are just come highlights. There is so much in this world to be grateful for. I hope I can live my life in a way that shows others that I am truly grateful. Hope you have a wonderful and safe Thanksgiving week. :)