The Wilhelmsen Botanical Blog

It is amazing to me that I only have 8 more weeks until Aiden is born. We have now been to three of our childbirth classes and I left the first two feeling more scared then ever. The third one was a little better. The anesthesiologist came and spoke to us the first part of the class. I got to see the little tubing that goes into your back during labor and for whatever reason that relieved me a lot. I don’t know why but I was picturing some kind of hard plastic tubing thing that was like 1/4 inch around at one end and like 1/8 inch around close to the back and then I guess I thought that the needle stayed in my back the whole time. So, to find out that I will have flexible tubing taped flat to my back made me a little less stressed. We also got to see the needle that they use for the epidural. SCARY. But I figure that if I just make sure not to look at it when I am being prepared for the epidural then I won’t remember just exactly how big it really is, plus they explained that they stick a smaller needle in with numbing stuff first so you don’t feel the big needle going in. AHHHHHH. But I suppose I would rather worry about my epidural so that I don’t spend the rest of the labor and delivery worrying about everything else. I really am pretty terrified about the whole thing. At the next class we will get to tour the labor and delivery area if there is an empty labor and delivery room. I am looking forward to that immensely.

I have another prenatal visit on the 26th. They are still mostly just talking visits but at this one Brandon and I will probably discuss our birth plan with the doctor.

Lastly, I have been feeling Aiden’s hiccups. How miserable for him. Even I don’t like the hiccups and I am fully grown. I try to ease his hiccups by rubbing my tummy but I don’t think it really helps. Well, I hope that everyone has a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Briefly for those of you who may not know, Joseph Smith was the first Prophet of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints and was martyred for it’s cause.  Even though he passed away long ago, we as Latter Day Saints remember him and what he did for us each year on his birthday, which is today.  He was/is a man of great courage, dedication, hard work, humility, and love.

Well, I just wanted to write and tell everyone that our trip to Arizona went well.  For those of you who don’t know I get quite motion sick on airplanes.  I had previously asked the doctor if there was something I could do for the sickness and he offered a prescription for the scapolamine patch (a motion sickness patch that you where behind your ear).  Having had prior experience with this patch on my trip to Europe and it’s intense side effects (and large quantities of medicine) I declined.  I just figured that I would use ginger as an air sickness aid since the mythbusters proved it to be the best rememdy for motion sickness.  I went and bought some ginger snaps, and figured I would put some ginger powder into a little bit of juice and shake it up before drinking it.  Well, after taking one bite of the ginger snap I went into a sneezing fit.  Ginger is such a STRONG spice that it stuck to my tongue and filled my nasal cavities with it’s potent smell.  Argh!  I still figured the juice thing would work since you know that juice would mask the flavor.  Nevertheless I made sure to take some Emetrol with me (an anti-nausea medicine that the doctor had previously approved) just in case. 

Well at the airport I bought some juice and poured about 1/2 a tsp. of ginger powder into it.  I shook it up and took a sip.  Needless to say the spice was not at all covered by the flavor of the juice and while it didn’t cause me to sneeze too much this time it made my throat burn until I could get my in-flight beverage and wash all the spice down my throat.  Luckily though, I would have to say that it must have worked because I was not the least bit nauseous during the flight.  I had also taken one dose of Emetrol for take off, but that stuff only lasts about 15 mins.  Not long enough to have cured me for the entire flight. 

The flight back was a little worse.  I never did toss my cookies but I felt queasy for the whole flight, I had taken another dose of Emetrol for the take off but we took so long to push back from the gate that I don’t know if it was even helpful.  Needless to say the flight felt very long. 

We did have a lot of fun in AZ though, we got to play with Brandon’s niece and nephew, we celebrated Christmas, Aiden got a lot of cute clothes, we ate at Cici’s pizza (tasty) and we got to go to Golden Spoon for frozen yogurt (hurray for frozen yogurt!).  It was a nice little vacation and fun to see everyone. 

As for any other news, we did some Christmas baking yesterday for our visiting/home teaching families, for Brandon’s friends and for my cousins.  Tomorrow night is our annual Christmas Eve party at my grandma Ferguson’s.  I always look forward to the festivities and traditions of that and especially enjoy being around all of my relatives.  After that we will go spend the night at my mom’s and will open gifts with her on Christmas morning.  Wednesday we are having a party with our friends and then on Friday is my first baby shower at my aunt Vicky’s.  It will be a busy but fun week. 

Lastly, Brandon is still looking for a job.  We did come across a help wanted ad that seems to be a high possibility with good benefits and decent pay.  So Brandon applied and put a lot of work into creating an interactive c.d. rom with some samples of his graphich design work.  It turned out really nice and when he gave to the secretary of the hiring manager she seemed very impressed.  Anyway, I won’t keep you in suspense any longer, the job would be graphic arts specialist II with the Utah Geological Survey.  He would be designing graphics for media, publications, and interactive c.d. rom’s among other things.  So please keep him (and us) in your thoughts and prayers.

So there you have our most recent news.  Have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.  Please travel safely.  (Click on the links below to see a few pictures of our trip.)
Torren playing soccer    Damien, Jordyn, and Kalei at Torren’s soccer game    Sherrada and Cody

Well I just looked at my friends blog and realized that there are a few things that I could write about. Last week was my 28 week check up and glucose tolerance test. The sugary drink that they give you to drink ended up not being as bad as I had thought and the sugar didn’t even bother me. I had heard all sorts of stories about how it gave so and so a headache and was SOOO sugary and then after reading the possible side effects, headache, passing out nausea, you can imagine I was nervous about the whole thing. I was also very nervous about failing because I didn’t want to have to go in for the big 3 hour long test involving 4 needle pokes. I am not scared of needles persay but 4 times in one 3 hour period is a bit overwhelming for just about anyone. I will tell you the outcome of this test after a few words about my appointment.

At the appointment the doctor expressed that I had gained 10 pounds in 4 weeks. (For a total of 30 pounds thus far in my pregnancy.) I have to say that I was a bit shocked at this number because I have been more active in the last 2 months and trying to eat a little better. I am glad to know that I am not alone in this weight gain because my friend Jen gained equally as much. He then went on to measure my fundus height…Instead of measuring 29 like it ought to have it was measuring 31 1/2. He told me that I could be measuring normally again by 36 weeks but then proceeded to tell me that the baby approx. triples it’s weight the last trimester and that by his best estimation Aiden is probably 3.25 pounds and that I could possibly have a 9 pound baby. Can you imagine little me having a baby that large? Doubtful. So of course this has me very worried as well. He explained that when women gain more then the average then the baby tends to gain a little extra as well. Oi. So, I called my mom and she reassured me that babies gain weight independently of their mom’s weight gain but that the more you gain the harder it is to lose. We also both agreed that I had gained some water weight with my swollen feet and that part of that weight gain could be attributed to that. You can definitely bet that I will be trying not to gain anymore weight during this pregnancy….If only sweets weren’t so enticing, they have been my biggest downfall I think. I also plan to eat less sodium/salt to try and lessen the water weight gain.

The reason I put off telling you all my glucose test results is because I just barely found out yesterday. MY TEST CAME BACK AS NORMAL!!!!! You do not know the relief that this is to me. I was incredibly worried.

Well, tonight we start our childbirth class. I am very excited because I am hoping that some of the unknowns of pregnancy, labor & delivery, and breastfeeding will become known to me. I will have to write about my experiences tonight at the class in the morning tomorrow. Next week is my 30 week check up and then on saturday the 15th Brandon and I are flying to AZ to visit his family. It should be interesting to fly while 31 weeks pregnant. Also, when Brandon received his first bit of payment for the website he has been working on we were able to get our stroller/car seat combo, it has a cute noah’s ark-ish print so now we at least have a way to get the baby home and a place for him to sleep. 🙂 Both very important things. Well, I guess that is all for now. Happy Holidays!

I thought I would briefly write about my job and our plans.  The CEO of Independence University saw that the numbers of enrollments were not justifying all the pay that was going out, and decided it was time to let some people go.  Unfortunately, I was on the low end of the numbers and was let go.  There is opportunity for re-hire in January, which I plan to take advantage of.

In the mean-time, I’m looking for some work to get us through December.  Wish me luck!

Well, apparently I have not written a post in two weeks.  I haven’t even had anything to rant about politics wise.  I can promise you that I still have opinions on several things, it is just that right now there are other more pressing matters on my mind.  As you all know I have a tendency to worry about everything.  In my teenage days and before, people would often worry that this stress would cause me ulcers…I am glad to say that it has not and that I think it is just part of my personality, so my body is used to it.  Also, it is not like I spend all day and all night worrying.  I like to laugh and be silly so I think perhaps this balances it out.  Anyway…

For those of you who are curious Brandon and I had a wonderful Thanksgiving.  I was hankering for snow that day.  It just always feels so wrong not to have snow on the ground during thanksgiving and most of the month of december (especially Christmas).  We ate at my my aunt Vicky’s (she is my dad’s sister) and I was assigned to bring 2 pies.  I made cherry cheesecake and I tried making apple pie for the first time.  It turned out mostly ok, but I forgot to add the butter which helps the apple juices to coagulate and the pie crust was a bit small for my deep pie plate.  The pie tasted good but looked a bit goofy.  We were also lucky to have celebrated thanksgiving the Sunday before as well.  That one we celebrated at my step-grandma’s house.  It was lots of fun and there was a 6 week old baby girl to hold, which after a few minutes I was just toooo warm because of having Aiden in my belly and holding a swaddled baby girl.

Over thankgiving break Brandon and I went to dinner and a movie with my pa.  We saw Enchanted, which was every bit as good as I dreamed it would be.  Also, Brandon lost his job 2 days before thanksgiving.  He told me that he wanted to blog about that, so I will let him tell you all the details and the plans for the future.

As for this past week, it has been nice having Brandon home.  He worked on a paper all week and by friday we were both just burnt out with it.  He has another big paper to write this week but it should be much easier because it is in regular research paper format, whereas his other one had to be a legal brief (more like legal pain if you ask me).  But he seems to be in good spirits and I think relieved that the semester is nearing the end.

Next I would just like to say for those who keep asking me how I am feeling pregnancy wise, that I feel wonderful.  I have had little to no nausea this whole pregnancy which has been a HUGE blessing.  The pregnancy related maladies that I have been experiencing are these, heartburn from pretty much day 1, gestational carpal tunnel, dry patches of skin, some back pain and swelling of my feet.  Everything has been proceeding according to the norm.  I did gain 10 pounds over the last month and measured 2 weeks bigger according to the doctor, but I don’t feel too much heavier and am hoping that a lot of that weight is water weight.  Also when I got home I found where the top of my uterus is and measured and it seemed to be right on.  The doc said I could be measuring big now and be measuring normal by week 36 so I guess I will just wait and see what happens.  It got me scared because he said I could possibly be having a 9 pound baby.  Oh and if some of you mothers could tell me what a contraction feels like I would appreciate it because the doctor asked if I had been having contractions and I told him I didn’t think so.

Lastly, this weekend we will be putting up our Christmas tree as well as helping my mom to put up hers.  It is always a lot of fun and so I am excited.  We love you all!