The Wilhelmsen Botanical Blog

     Well, Brandon and I sincerely hope that everyone had a good Christmas holiday and that you had a good time ringing in the new year.  We enjoyed spending one of my yearly famiy traditions on Christmas Eve and went to my grandma’s for dinner and a good time with all of my extended family.  Afterwards we went to my mom’s and spent the night there with my sister and her husband so that “Santa could come.”  It was a lot of fun. 

     On the 29th I had my first of two baby showers.  I got a lot of cute gifts, many blankets, bibs, and of course cute little clothes for Aiden.  One of the gifts I received was a little inflatable baby pool which I am excited to use when the weather turns warmer.  This shower was also exciting for another reason, I ate an eclair (which I can usually eat just fine, I even ate a real eclair IN Paris without a problem) and had an allergic reaction…I of course had no medication with me what so ever, my epipen is expired and I had left my usual allergy medicine at home.  I had already borrowed my aunt’s albuterol inhaler an hour earlier because I had accidentally left my purse (and inhaler) in the car and Brandon had gone to see a movie with his friend.  Well anyway, I did my usual thing to try and combat the allergy by drinking lots and LOTS of water, brushing my teeth, and swishing my mouth out.  I was also very lucky because by that time I had my uncle Neal, uncle Paul, and cousin Mike all at the party (these things are supposed to be for girls only) and they were able to give me a blessing.  It still took awhile for the swelling in my throat and lips to go down but the blessing helped me to avert hives and other normal symptoms that I get when I have an allergic reaction.  Thank goodness for the priesthood.

     Brandon and I spent our New Year’s Eve at home this year.  I was too exhausted to do otherwise.  We watched an on t.v. movie and then flipped back and forth between various countdown specials.  All in all it was a good evening. 

     This past Saturday I had my 2nd baby shower.  It was at my mom’s and it went really well.  I again got a lot of good stuff, clothes, toys, diapers, and a play gym thing to keep Aiden occupied.  😉  Lucky baby.

     The only other news is that Brandon started back at school.  He is pretty excited about his classes this semester and especially about his visual media class, which actually turns out to be a filming class.  We originally thought it would be a graphic design class and thus an easy A.  I think this will actually be more exciting for Brandon.  He just has two more semesters after this one and then the two (plus Aiden) of us will embark on a different journey. 

     Lastly, Brandon is still looking for a job.  Our specifications are as follows.  It needs to work with his school schedule (so like a 12:30-7:00 shift) while still being 32 hours a week so that we are eligible for health insurance (which needs to be good), we would also prefer that he has weekends off so that he can spend time with mom and baby, lastly, we would really like to make $15.00+ a week or $30,000+ a year so that we can afford health insurance and baby expenses.  If any of you know of anything please let us know and please keep us in your thoughts and prayers.  That is all for now.   Have a good week!

Well, the weeks until Aiden is born are winding down quickly. We are wrapping up all of our preparations as quickly as we can in the off chance he decides to come early. There are just a few more things that we need and a few more crafts and little things to do in the nursery to finish up.

For those of you who don’t know, Brandon and I have decided to go the route of cloth diapers. I read up on them and found that not only are they cost efficient (they can be re-used over and over for multiple children, whereas if you buy disposable diapers you need at least four $10.00 packages a month for 1 child), they are also economical (not that I buy into that too much but it is nice to know that I won’t be sending piles and piles of diapers to the dump), the cloth allows the little baby bum skin to breath better, thus creating less diaper rash, and lastly, (and I guess that I will see if this actually proves to be true) I read that children who wear cloth diapers potty train earlier. Who doesn’t want that? I do want to add the caveat to all those who would consider baby sitting for me, if you baby sit I will bring Aiden to you in a disposable diaper (with other disposables) so that you do not have to deal with swishing the poo off the cloth diaper and wrapping all the diapers up in a bag to be washed by me later. No worries!

So really I wanted to write about our experience with our car seat. First of all may I highly encourage all future moms to install the car seat 4-5 weeks BEFORE you are due and then take it to be inspected for proper installation. After our last birthing class on Thursday Brandon and I saw a set of new parents putting their car seat in the car. The mom was standing by the car and the husband appeared to be struggling with the car seat. I don’t know about you but if I were the mom I would be frustrated, especially since I know that I will just want to get home and climb into bed as quickly as possible. Our experience installing ours was definitely a little bit more complicated then we anticipated. We followed the directions exactly but found that after our first attempt the base was angled and leaning to the side. So of course we tried a 2nd time, this time the seat belt was too loose and we could move the base around. Well, the third time worked much better because I found that instead of just simply, “pulling on the shoulder strap” like it said in the instructions (which caused the funny angle of our first attempt), that you actually push down on the base, pull up on the part of the buckle in the seat, then pull on the shoulder strap. After all of that is done, you then have to attach a little locking clip 1/2 inch from the locking part of the seat belt. Needless to say, in my little car there is not more then 1 1/2″ of seat belt below the car seat base, so the locking clip (which is like 1 1/4″ tall) is only 1/4″ away from the locking mechanism. The good news is that the car seat is installed at the proper angle and will not slide anywhere. I feel confident that when I get it inspected they will give me a thumbs up.

Related to this was our attempt at installing the shades for the baby. Luckily we had been given vinyl window cling ones because it quickly became apparent that the blinds that open and close would not have worked in my funny shaped rear windows, as it is we will have to cut the vinyl ones to the appropriate size and shape before they will be able to install fully and without wrinkles.

So there you have my experiences for the week. Thanks to everyone who attended my baby showers and sorry to those of you who I neglected (due to pregnancy forgetfulness) to invite. Oh, one last thing. After my last visit to the doctor on Thursday he decided to have me start coming every week. Originally I was to have one more 2 week visit and then come once a week but due to my symptoms (and the closeness that I will be to 36 weeks at my next visit ) he changed it. As of next Friday Aiden is free to come whenever he wants and they will not do anything to stop my labor. WOOT!!!! The light is at the end of the tunnel! Ta ta for now!

Well, it has only been 2 weeks since I last wrote but I figured I would write again. Brandon and I only have one birthing class left and it’s focus will be on breastfeeding. I enjoyed the tour of the hospital, but was dissapointed to find that the labor and delivery rooms are a thousand times cooler then the post partum rooms. But, what can you expect? They want you comfortable during the hard stuff and just semi-comfortable afterwards.

The last week and a half or so have been interesting. On the 27th of December I was feeling a lot of pressure in the lower part of my pelvis and the baby seemed to be somewhat lower in my tummy. It isn’t incredibly noticeable but both Brandon and I could tell. Since then I have just been feeling somewhat out of sorts, very tired all the time, everything takes even more exertion then ever before, and my tummy has been hardening a lot more. This past Sunday the 6th I was sitting at church and felt the baby move right near my pelvis. It was the strangest and not exactly comfortable feeling in the world. As the day wore on I was feeling mild cramping and lower back pain, which I have felt off and on since. My next prenatal appointment is Thursday, but I think my body is definitely preparing itself for Aiden’s arrival, whenever it may be.

Which brings me to my next thought, I have no real way of knowing how big Aiden truly is right now. I have no way to know if he is measuring bigger because of his position, extra fat on my stomach, or because he really is bigger. The doctor was saying that hopefully nature will kick in the end of January. I would just like everyone to know that I am ok with Aiden coming whenever he wants to between week 36 and his due date. I will not be dissapointed if he doesn’t come early. I just pray with all my heart that I am able to birth him vaginally because I am absolutely terrified of c-section. My dad’s family thinks that I will have a large baby because my grandma and all of her daughters had huge babies. But, I tend to disagree since my dad (her son) happened to have exactly average sized babies with my mom (I was 7 lbs. 7 oz.). Brandon was 8 lbs. 15 oz. but he was also 8 days late, which added at very least an extra 1/2 lb. to his weight. So there you go.

I have also been experiencing a mix of emotions, which I am sure is normal. Some times I am excited and look forward to all of the firsts, plus all of the innately baby things (like tiny toes, baby powder, baby expressions, baby cuddles, etc.). Other times, I lament the loss of the era of newly wedness that we have shared over the past 2 years and 5 months, the times of being at one with your spouse, a duo, a team, and I only hope that what the future holds is even better then all of that. I hope that I didn’t take our solo time for granted and have cherished every moment that he and I have been able to share due to the loss of his job in Nov. (Although it is about time that something pan out so he and I can pay our January and February bills.) Still other moments, I worry about my abilities as a mom, and about whether Brandon and I will have the monetary means to provide little Aiden with everything that he needs. I worry that I won’t remember the brilliant tricks and ideas that I have picked up through working at daycares, watching other moms, and from my own mom. Sometimes, I forget that I have a whole support system of my spouse, family and friends behind me to help my raise my little one (and future little ones) and worry about my own ability to relate to a little boy. Which is just silly.

Anyway, we are getting prepared for whenever he may come. There are still a few things that we need but Aiden will at least have a car seat to come home in, a place to sleep, and things to wear. Brandon and I both love this little guy so much already. We both find joy in feeling him move around and knowing that he is a live and well. Wish us luck and pray that Aiden will come to earth via the birth canal. Love you all.

My life is one bit of irony fading into the next. A prime example of that occurred this afternoon. It was disgustingly obvious that it was time to empty the dirt canister of our vacuum cleaner. As the man of the house, that chore falls to my charge.

I walked to the dumpster and threw open the lid.  As I was shaking and banging the canister of filth, the wind blew and very silently closed the lid, directly onto my hand. After yelling angrily at the wind, I realized that with the fateful impact, my hand had opened and the canister was lost to the force of gravity.  I peered into the dumpster and to my relief the canister was only halfway down inside, sitting on trash that I prayed would be the dry variety.

I knew I was too short to reach the canister and walked back to the apartment, grabbing a chair to offset that genetic misfortune. I set the chair very near the dumpster and, after looking around for witnesses, half-climbed in.  I easily reached the canister this time and removed myself from the smelly, gaping jaws of the municipal waste bin. Brushing dirt (dry dirt, thank heaven) from my shirt, I realized that I had been dumpster-diving while advertising, “TRUST ME. I DO THIS ALL THE TIME.” on my chest.

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!

Well, I still have not received much feedback on this blog.  Perhaps, less people read our weekly e-mails then I thought?  Who knows…for those of you who do read this, here are the highlights of what we have been up to since I last wrote.  I started to take water aerobics twice a week.  This has been nice because I really hate to excercise but being in the water makes it almost fun…Sadly, because I have such dry skin and the chlorine is so strong and bothersome I will have to re-think going twice a week and will probably only end up going once a week.

I also went and volunteered at Legacy Preparatory Academy last wednesday.  I ended up just sitting in on a class and then attending the assembly with that same class, but it was fun and one of my math students from last year seemed excited to see me.  I will be volunteering at the school approximately once a week through the end of January.

I feel that the highlight of our week last week was seeing one of Brandon’s best friends be sealed in the temple.  He has been searching for the right girl quite long enough and has now found her and snatched her right up.  The spirit of the day was amazing and attending sealings always makes me remember the beauty and joy of my own sealing to Brandon.  I choked up when they talked about eternal families because I was sitting there next to Brandon, with our very own posterity growing in my tummy.  What a wonderful blessing to be together for eternity.

The two of us attended a preparedness fair (it was more like a fireside) on Saturday.  They went over a lot of the basics which Brandon and I already knew, but we got a cool 5 gallon water jug from it and also a yummy refreshment of donuts.  After the fair, because Brandon had been paid for some design work he did, we were able to go and buy our stroller/car seat.  HOORAY!

Brandon has just continued to do what he always does, go to work, come home, do homework or design work, and go to bed.  He has a few big assignments that are due at the end of the month and so we are going to have to give up some of the more fun activities so he can get his work done on time.  I also keep telling him that he needs to write some blog entries too so hopefully he will in the near future.  We love you all.