#2 - What will he look like?!

I can't wait to find out what this little guy looks like!! I can only picture Isaac in my head, so I wonder what our combination of genes will produce this time around. Walt and his siblings all have strong resemblance. It's very easy to tell they're siblings. Mine not so much. What do you look like, little guy?

#3 - Up for a challenge

I'm looking forward to the challenge of managing two young boys. Everyone tells me that the first 6-12 months are really hard, and then it is great because they can play with each other. I'm a little nervous but also excited to figure out how to enjoy it and make it work for us. Growing up I really liked having a plan and sticking to it and knowing what was going to happen. Going on a mission, working in the schools, getting married, and having a child have helped me be much more flexible and easy-going. I like that, and I have a feeling that many more of my rough edges are about to be smoothed. I'm up for the challenge! If any of you have suggestions about how to stay sane and enjoy those first months with two young children, please feel free to share!!

#4 - Light

For those who might just be tuning in to the countdown, I'm doing a Top 10 List (in no particular order) of things I'm looking forward to with this new baby coming. I started ten days before my due date. Now on with #4: Light.

This one has a dual meaning for me. First, Isaac is getting heavy, and getting him into his carseat takes a little heave-ho these days. He's healthy and growing and just as he should be. I'm looking forward to having a little tiny baby that in comparison will be light as a feather and so easy to carry around and lift into the carseat. I still can't believe I'm at this point with baby #2 when I distinctly remember just barely being at this point with Isaac - anticipating the birth any day.

The second and more significant meaning for me of Light refers to the connection newborns and small children seem to have to Heaven. The way they sometimes stare at what seems to be nothing, and you wonder if they're seeing things that you can't see or being instructed or calmed by heavenly beings. I remember several times when Isaac would suddenly calm down and just stare off, and I wondered if my mom could possibly have been comforting him or if he was calmed by a little remaining memory of his recent life in Heaven. I probably won't know this for sure until the next life, but in the meantime it is comforting to know that these little ones are sent to us straight from the presence of God. No one has been there more recently. And the light they bring refocuses our vision on our eternal goals.

p.s. Be sure to vote on the poll at the right-hand side of our blog! Will this little guy be early, on-time, or late? Share your guess!

#5 - Baby Smells

I'm looking forward to all the smells that come with a new baby. The milky smells, the spit-up smells, the baby powder fresh smells. I love to just snuggle a baby close and inhale it all. And if I remember right, the diapers are basically odorless until solids are introduced, so that's an un-smell I'm looking forward to! :)

#6 - Let's Be Honest

Pregnancy is a wonder. I love feeling this life inside me and seeing how my body is so amazingly adaptable - who knew skin could stretch this much?! I'm so grateful for the ability to be pregnant. But let's be honest. It will be kind of nice to be able to roll over again and lose the TUMS and only have to get up once in the night to pee. :)

#7 - A few new things

So having two boys is great because we have boy stuff already. But because the seasons they're born in are different (Isaac was the end of June), I got to go buy a few new things so this little guy will have warm newborn outfits. I can't wait to dress him in them! We also broke down and bought a new Pack and Play. Our old one is a much appreciated hand-me-down. It has been very functional but heavy and has about 12 pieces to put together. So we got a new one with a bassinet and changing table, and we rearranged the house a little so Walt's office is now a baby room for as long as we want it to be. We also bought a Phil and Ted's stroller that is a single stroller, double stroller, and jogging stroller all in one (this makes me want to jump up and down and clap my hands)! It's so fun to have some new things, and I can't wait to use them!

#8 - Just Looking

I look forward to holding the little guy and just looking at him. You know, those first days when they're sleeping so much (during the day!). Their eyes roll around and are partly open when they sleep and their mouths pucker up so cute or start sucking when there's nothing there to suck on, or they smile in their sleep or yawn. Or they just look at you while you look at them. And you're both good to sit there just looking.

#9 - Brothers and playmates

I'm sooo excited to have two boys close together. I hope they become great friends and playmates. Isaac is pretty good about entertaining himself and playing by himself for stretches of time, but he LOVES it when other kids come over, and I think he'll really enjoy having someone else to play with at home once the little guy can interact with him a bit.

Top Ten List - #10

I thought it would be fun to make a top ten list of things I'm looking forward to with this baby coming. These will not be in any particular order of importance or anything. There are 10 days until my due date, so one for each day. If I deliver early my list will just be shorter.

No signs at all of baby being ready to come yet, which is fine. Isaac has been really sick this week with a high fever and strep throat. He has antibiotics for it now, but he's been dizzy and unable to walk without falling over since Wednesday. Poor kid! Last night his fever broke, which I am so relieved about, but he's still dizzy. So if the baby waits to come until we are free and clear of the sickies, that would be great!

Without further ado....#10 Mr. Personality

I'm so excited to get to know this little personality and see how he's different from and like Isaac. I've always heard moms say that their kids are very different from each other and come with their own personalities, and now I'll get to experience it first hand. Sounds so fun to me!

Blessings

We're down to two weeks 'til the due date. Yay!

Last Friday we had Walt's holiday work dinner. They decided to have it in January instead of December so it wouldn't be one more thing to fit in over the holidays. It was a nice dinner and lots of fun to sit with Walt's co-workers and get to know them better. One of the other wives is due five days before me, and she asked me where I was going to deliver. When I told her Utah Valley in Provo, she looked at me funny and said, "You know they're not covered under our insurance, don't you?" I was stumped. They must be! They're the biggest hospital around, and our doctor who is covered by our insurance delivers there. But we have different insurance now than we had with Isaac, and it had not occurred to me that certain hospitals are in-network and others aren't, just like doctors. So I went home and called the insurance company, and sure enough! It would have cost us thousands of dollars more to go there, and we were less than three weeks from the due date!

I felt so blessed that we just "happened" to have that conversation at a critical point. It saved us a lot of money and stress. So now we're registered at an in-network hospital just slightly further away, and we took a tour of labor and delivery for Family Home Evening this week. I'm SOOOO excited for this little guy to arrive!

Spread the Word

Some good friends of ours in Missouri are hoping to adopt and have just had their profile posted online. They will be wonderful parents, and we are so happy for them. Please spread the word! You can see their profile HERE.

Getting Ready

Less than four weeks left! I'm so excited for this little guy to arrive. All indications are that he's healthy, and I feel great. I think we're ready besides moving a little furniture around and calling some people to see if they're willing to be on our last minute phone call list to help care for Isaac when things start to happen.

We had such a wonderful Christmas. Nothing beats spending time with family. This year most of my siblings were gone. My step-sister is on a mission, my step-brother spent the holidays with his dad, my sister was with her in-laws in southern Utah, and my youngest brother was on a cruise with his in-laws. Alan and family were here until Christmas morning when they flew out to be with in-laws. So it was a small group of us, but still just so nice to be together. My dad and step-mom gave us a unique gift this year. Each family received a certain amount of money from them to be used at our discretion to make Christmas meaningful for someone else. We could do Sub for Santa, donate to a charity, buy something meaningful for our family, or do anything else we could think of to serve others and spread Christmas cheer. The best part of this gift was thinking for weeks about what to do. I found myself thinking of others more and noticing needs that I hadn't noticed before. I also realized that the biggest needs may not be financial so much as emotional and spiritual. Our time and interest seemed to be more needed than the money. We finally settled on a unique idea, and without going into detail, I just want to say that the idea we chose made this one of the best Christmases of my life.

I got a bad ear infection last weekend, and the pressure in my ear still isn't equalized, so I can barely hear out of my left ear, and it has a constant and very loud ringing. It's not a huge problem, but I would really like for it to be gone before I go into labor so I don't have to worry about a painful pop when I'm pushing. Maybe that's not even possible, but it's what I'm worried about. Any prayers would be appreciated. Thanks! (This happened to me one time about 7-8 years ago when my ear never equalized from a plane ride. It lasted 6 weeks before my ear "popped" on its own in class one day. I still remember that blessed day.)

Screamin Daily Deals

Hi! You may or may not be interested in this, but I love this type of thing, so I'm passing it along. And I get a referral credit if you join through the link on the bottom of the email. So please feel absolutely no pressure to do anything at all, but if you're interested, here's the info:

I discovered the website "Screamin Daily Deals" today. They offer local deals for restaurants and services at deep discounts. And you can choose a local charity or school to support, so with every purchase you make the site donates 10% of the proceeds to that cause. Today's deal in Utah Valley is a $12 Hickory Kist gift card that you can buy for $6. And if you set up an account with them, you get a $5 credit, so it makes the gift card $1. If you click on this link to set up an account, I get a referral credit:

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