Pepin

My shoulders are just too sore to allow me to sleep right now, so I thought I'd do another blog post, even though it's 4:23 am.

This past Saturday night, David and I were driving home from seeing a play with my family, when we spotted a small cat on the side of the road. It's never a good thing to see domesticated animals running around up the canyon, because they're either going to get eaten by something or hit by a car. David pulled over and went over to see if she was friendly, and as she ran right over to us to jump in the car, David cried, "Holy cow, it's a baby bobcat!" and quickly shut the car door. Upon closer inspection, we determined that she was not a baby bobcat, but she did have a small, poofy tail like bobcats do. We decided to take her home for the night so we could take her to the Humane Society, in the hopes that she belonged to someone. We tried to put her in the back of our Yaris, but she just jumped over the seats and came and sat right on my lap. Isn't she cute?

So we took her home, gave her some food, and kept her in the bathroom for the night. We determined that she is an American Bobtail, which is obviously a crossbreed between a domestic cat and a bobcat. She has a docked tail, huge paws, and short, thick legs which make her an excellent jumper. She is also extremely friendly. She doesn't meow for some reason, but purrs like crazy whenever you come near her.

She seems to like David the most. She always wants to be in the same room with him, and follows him everywhere whenever he moves. We've decided to call her Pepin because of her short tail (her name referring, of course, to Pepin the Short, the father of Charlemagne who is remembered only for that achievement and his diminutive stature, poor man).

Right now you're saying to yourself, "Rachel, you already have two cats and are 35 weeks pregnant, you cannot have another cat!" I know, I know. David and I would like to keep her at least long enough to find a decent home for her, but we honestly have no idea of the gender of this cat, whether she's been vaccinated, or how old she is. If we had any extra time or money, we'd pay to fix and vaccinate her ourselves so more people would be interested in adopting her, but, as I could basically have the baby almost any time now, it's just not practical to have to worry about a newborn and trying to find a home for a stray cat.

So, as much as we will miss her, David's taking her to the Humane Society today. They'll fix and vaccinate her as part of the price of adopting her, and maybe her owners will be able to find her better this way.

 Our other two cats won't miss her, though. They don't understand why they don't have the run of the whole house and why something else is eating up our time, attention, and their food. It's kind of been a small preview of what they could be like when the baby comes and eats up a lot of time, attention, and food (although not theirs). Cats are extremely jealous creatures, I've discovered. I'll have to make sure to still pay attention to what I term my "fur babies" as well as my human baby after she comes. :)

35 weeks

Yesterday I reached 35 weeks! The baby is about 5 1/4 lbs and 18 inches long, about the size of a honeydew melon. I'm almost a month away from my due date of January 17th, which is simultaneously terrifying and exhilarating. It's terrifying because David and I still have so much stuff that we need and I have so many things that I still want/need to do before the baby comes. It's exhilarating because I am so ready to be done being pregnant. I'm sure I'll be eating my words in about a month when I think, "Why did I ever want her to come out? All I had to do was take care of me and my body took care of her, and I didn't really have to do a darn thing." I noticed last night that my feet were a little swollen. Curses! I had hoped to avoid that. I sat with my feet up at work all day today in an attempt to prevent them from swelling again. I'm considering wearing my mary jane crocs to work tomorrow; I defy anyone who's not carrying around an extra 30 lbs to stop me. :)

Here are some 35-week pictures for your enjoyment:

 

 Overall, I think I've had a fairly easy pregnancy. I still have four weeks to go, and I suppose that all sorts of complications and additional discomforts could appear between now and then, but it really hasn't been that bad. Reading about all of the things that could go wrong or the symptoms that I could have, I consider myself fortunate. I've never thrown up or had heartburn; I didn't develop terrible acne or seriously unruly hair (although it is a lot thicker). My legs and feet cramp and twitch, I can't sleep at night, and my shoulders ache, but I can deal with those.

David and I have our list of possible names narrowed down to four. We want to wait until we meet the baby to pick one to see which one fits the best. In the meantime, David has come up with a nickname for the baby: he calls her Baby Bug (say bug with an "ah" sound in the middle). I like it. :)

I hope everyone is having a great holiday season, and that you are all enjoying spending time with family and friends. I just hope I can stay awake long enough to enjoy that, too. :)

34 weeks (almost)

So here we are, in the third trimester, with only about six weeks to go - and these are the first "belly pictures" that I've taken. Sad, but true. But here they are, nonetheless!

 

The strange thing is that my belly doesn't seem to go up or down, it just goes straight out. This is making clothing particularly vexing, because almost all of my shirts are now too small, but any maternity pants that don't come up over my tummy just fall off my hips. I have figured out a temporary solution to the pants problem, though - suspenders. David has a few pairs, and I just put them on before I put my shirt on and they work great. I do feel like a secret agent or a mobster with suspenders under my clothing, though, like I should have a gun under my arm and maybe a knife in my sock. I'm actually wearing the suspenders in the pictures above. And could you tell? No, of course not. Yes! :)

Baby's doing well, too. On Monday (when I'll be 34 weeks), she'll be almost five pounds and about 18 inches long. She is very squirmy, and since there's not a lot of room in there, it's probably just as uncomfortable for her as it is for me at this point.

I'm wondering when exactly the baby plans on making her debut. I'm 37 weeks the last week of December, and there seems to be about a six-week window in which she could come. I don't like the unpredictability of this whole operation. It's like waiting for a bomb to go off without being able to see the ominous red numbers counting down to zero. Oh well, I suppose there's nothing I can do about that, and it doesn't make any sense to stress about things I can't control.

Well, there you go! A baby update and pictures. Your day is now complete. :)

Fall Pictures

A few weeks ago, my friend Kylee took some pictures of David and I in Emigration Canyon where we live. They weren't maternity photos, per se - just some fun pictures of David and I before we become a threesome in January. I thought my tummy was pretty apparent when Kylee was taking the photos, but apparently it wasn't. Her only comment about it? "You look like a little light bulb!" :) Here are some favorites:

 

I add this one first because it's the only true "maternity photo" that was taken. As you can tell, I have no idea what I'm supposed to be doing while David's making a cute heart on my tummy.

  This last one is by far my favorite.

Kylee has this wonderful way of making you laugh and feel comfortable so that your smiles and poses are genuine.

I will try to post a more recent picture of my 30-week tummy soon. I kept waiting for a good hair day or the weather to cooperate, and then our camera broke. Figures. :)

Can you feel the love tonight?

Unfortunately, David and I did not do the fun things we had planned to last weekend. We didn't go on a picnic, or to a concert; no, we stayed inside and cleaned the house in preparation for my family to come over and gave each other colds. Awesome! :(

This week was a little rough as a result of both of us being sick. David seems to get over being sick as quickly as he gets sick, maybe because he doesn't ever complain. I haven't recovered quite as quickly, mostly because I currently have no immune system. We've both been drinking wassail and orange juice and sanitizing everything.

This weekend we are doing fun things, though, sickness notwithstanding! David and I are going up Millcreek Canyon tonight to roast hot dogs and marshmallows, and tomorrow we're going to the Lion House with my family and then to see the "Lion King" at Capitol Theater! That's right, it's a themed night. We'll see how loud my 17 year-old brother "roars" in protest the entire night about being forced to spend time with the family. :) Have a great weekend, everyone!

School and babies

Things are going well in the Steed household. David's finishing up his third week at Westminster and is really enjoying going there. Unfortunately, one of his classes has turned out to be a profound disappointment, and it's also unfortunately the class he was looking forward to the most. It's a 300-level political science class, "Contemporary Political Philosophy," and the teacher is the biggest flake I've ever heard of. He told the class the first day that he really "didn't feel like" having a midterm or a final, or really any assignments at all because he didn't want to grade them. Their only assignment (and grade, pretty much) is a term project. The class is held twice a week, so it should be longer than normal, but the professor "doesn't feel like" lecturing longer than an hour, so the class gets out early every day. Half of me thinks, "Great, easy A." The other half of me thinks, "We're paying $12,000 a semester to go to take classes from one of the flakiest teachers in North America?!" Suck it up, buttercup. We all have to do things we don't like. If you don't "feel like" grading papers and tests, maybe you shouldn't have "felt like" becoming a professor in the first place.

I'll stop ranting now. I blame the pregnancy hormones. This baby is turning into a convenient little scapegoat: "I'm sorry I can't go, I'm just too tired;" "Oh, thanks for carrying that for me, I just can't lift it;" "I need chocolate, David;" "It's not my fault I need a whole new wardrobe, David!" See? Wonderful. Extra naps, extra favors, extra clothes, and extra calories. Woo hoo! :)

In other baby news, I'm still waiting to feel anything. When we had the ultrasound, the technician told us that I have an anterior placenta, which is a fancy way of saying that it'll take me longer to feel the baby move because there are extra layers of stuff in front. I thought I might have felt a few jabs the other day (the baby obviously appreciates bacon potato soup), but I haven't felt anything since then. It's so frustrating to not know what's going on in there. I look forward to doctor's appointments every month to hear the heartbeat; it's the only time that I have proof there's something alive in there other than the fact that the number of clothes that fit me are rapidly shrinking. I guess if I'm growing, the baby is too.

Have a great weekend, everyone! David and I might bundle up and have a picnic tonight and then go to a free concert tomorrow to hear a band comprised of a 10 year-old, a 13 year-old, and a 17 year-old. Should be fun!

Ultrasound pictures

Here are some of the ultrasound pictures of our little girl! The technician fortunately labeled parts for everyone's convenience. :)

It's a girl!

Happy news to share: David and I are having a GIRL!!! We're both very excited! I had my 20-week ultrasound yesterday, and we got to see our very squirmy baby! The technician took lots of pictures of tiny arms, legs, and feet (which I will post later, promise!), and the baby is perfectly healthy. David had her check the gender several times, just to make sure. He has his reasons: his parents thought he was a girl (going to be named Amanda) until he was born. Nevertheless, we are already sorting through names we like and whispering them and calling them and repeating them dozens of times in an effort to find the right combination. And no, I'm sorry, no one gets to know the name except us until the baby's born. You'll all just have to live with it and say nothing, even if it's Olga Mildred (which it's not, don't worry).

Back to school

David started his sophomore year at Westminster this past week, and has thus far loved every minute of it. He's taking four classes: Math, English, Contemporary Political Philosophy, and Speech. The campus is fifteen minutes away from our house in Emigration Canyon, it only has a few thousand students, small class sizes, and did I mention it's the only liberal arts college in Utah? David definitely puts the "liberal" in "liberal arts." He's right at home. His English teacher told the class the first day that he would occasionally make completely inaccurate or false statements and opinions, and that it was part of the students' grade to catch him when he did so. David's definitely at the right school - I think he's devoted his life to ensuring that everyone's statements and opinions are accurate and fact-based.

It feels very strange to me not to be going back to school. I've gone back to school in the fall for the past 17 years, and the fact that I'm sitting at a desk in a bank and not collecting syllabi and making a homework schedule makes me a little wistful. I might have to go buy some school supplies, just for me, in order to cope.

Have a good weekend, everyone!

Raspberries, cousins, and errant felines

I don't know about you guys, but I had a busy weekend. My family and I did lots of fun things, but now it's Monday and I'm exhausted and need another two days off to recuperate from the weekend. How sad is that?

This past weekend was Raspberry Days at Bear Lake, so David and I drove up there with my family to enjoy some delicious fruit. The ironic thing is that there were no fresh raspberries to be found. The raspberry shakes were amazing, as was the raspberry pie, but there were no signs of any fresh raspberries. We passed a fruit stand on the way up to Bear Lake advertising fresh raspberries and we thought, "We're not stopping there, we'll get the real thing when we get to Bear Lake." We should have stopped.

There was a wonderful craft fair at Bear Lake, where I got a beautiful seashell bracelet and helped my poor, girl jewelry-challenged brother pick something out for his girlfriend. Aw, cute. :) We ate a chuck wagon dinner before seeing a play at the Pickleville Theater called "The Return of the Bandito;" or maybe it was "Bandito Rides Again." Anyway, the majority of it was hilarious; some of it was just too silly, and I really could've done without the Obamacare and "The government is taking over our lives, what will we do?!" jokes. But, after all, we were on the Utah/Idaho border, so David and I were the only ones who laughed disdainfully instead of appreciatively.

David and I didn't get home until about 1:45 am - much later than anyone had anticipated, and I hadn't arranged a substitute to play piano for me in Primary on Sunday. So, I managed to drag myself out of bed, go to church and play piano, and then come back home and crawl back in bed. My cousin Tyler and his family invited us down to their house in Lehi for dinner, so we again climbed into the car with my family and drove down there. A few more aunts, uncles, and cousins were there as well, so it was a lot of fun. We spent most of the time outside talking and enjoying the unseasonably cool weather. At one point, one of Tyler's kids got hurt playing on the trampoline with David. As all of us turn to ask what happened, Tyler says, "David beat him up - he started spouting conservative rhetoric and David couldn't take it." Oh, he knows David well, and don't worry - children are one group that David would not beat up for spouting conservative rhetoric. :)

We had a rather eventful morning today, though. Yesterday as David and I were watching a movie, a gust of wind blew open our back door. I got up, shut it, and locked it, and neither of us thought anything of it. Until this morning. I got up around 6:00 am to use the bathroom, and looked into the living room to where we keep the cats at night, and saw that the back door had again been blown wide open - and the cats were gone. Fortunately, Chloe - the tiny, paranoid, homebody - was sitting on the back steps, and she was more than happy to come back in the warm and dry house; our other cat, Riley, was nowhere to be found. I woke David up, and he and I searched the canyon for about an hour yelling his name before we heard him crying in the bushes about a hundred feet up the canyon from our house. David climbed through the scrub oak and found Riley shivering in the bushes, covered in burs. It took us the better part of half an hour to cut all them off of him and make sure he was otherwise uninjured. Then the stupid cat fell asleep instantly after what, I'm sure, he deemed a night of adventure and David and I still had to go to work after a morning of frantic and frenzied searching. This must be what parents feel like when their toddler goes missing, only to be found in the neighbor's backyard a few blocks away. You're at first happy and relieved that they're safe, and then angry that they ran away and caused you grief; there's a simultaneous impulse to cuddle and throttle, and you might do a little of both. I know I would/did. Just kidding, don't call PETA, or Child Protective Services. :)

So now you see why I need another weekend. I might spend my entire lunch break sleeping. It's a good thing there were donuts at work this morning. :)

Downeast Basics Giveaway

Madeline of Uber Chic for Cheap is having a giveaway on her website from Downeast Basics! If you enter, you have the chance to win the clothing item of your choice, selected from their new arrivals. Simply go to Uber Chic for Cheap and leave a comment with which item you love the most, along with your first name and email. Winners will be drawn on Sunday - good luck!

Baby Update

For those of you who don't know (and if the "how big your baby is compared to food" widget didn't give it away), David and I are expecting a baby in January! This accounts for the complete lack of blogging activity for the past few months, and the fact that there's a social networking sites moratorium on the computers at work. :)

I'm 14 weeks pregnant today! I made it successfully and for the most part unscathed through the first trimester. Fortunately, the nausea was minimal and the throwing up was nonexistent, so I consider myself fairly lucky to have not had to deal with that too badly (although it sure felt worse when I was experiencing it). I had my first prenatal appointment a month ago, and David and I got to hear the baby's heartbeat for the first time then! That was pretty awesome. I wasn't sure exactly how far along I was, so we had an ultrasound to determine that. Here are a few pictures:

This is the side view. I was about 11 weeks pregnant then, so the baby still looks a little alien-like. Can you see the tiny arms?

 This is the top view. You can see the baby's head right in the middle, with the left arm just off-center.

I had my second prenatal appointment today, where I got to hear the baby's heartbeat again and schedule an ultrasound in six weeks to determine the gender! And FYI, we will, of course, be telling everyone what we're having (as far as sex is concerned), but we're not telling you any names. We're picking ones we like, zipping our lips, and presenting the baby to the world with a non-negotiable moniker. Sorry for those of you who were looking forward to some sort of name poll, but this is not a democratic decision: you get no votes, and no representation. It's a dictatorship: two people make the decision, and then tell you, and you like it or suffer the consequences! Just kidding. But seriously. :)

Pregnancy has been treating me pretty well thus far. I have the usual complaints - stubborn acne, lower back pain, fatigue, etc. - but it has its advantages. For one thing, I get to eat more and it's okay, even encouraged, and I get to shop for new clothes. It's also an excuse to go to bed early, leave early, or skip out on things in general. I also get to tease my husband. David will come home from work and say, "Oh man, I am so tired!" and I'll say, "What's your excuse? You're not growing another human being!" He can also claim to be "hungry" or any variation of "moody" (angry, upset, disturbed, etc.) and I can use the same response. It's awesome. :) I do miss some things though, and will probably consume them in large quantities after I have the baby and then not want them for another few months after that. I miss mayonnaise and cold lunch meat and cookie dough and creamy salad dressing and slightly pink steak. Anyone know of a good mayo substitute? I put it on/in more things than I realized and really miss it; is that weird?

Anyway, there's your baby update! I'll definitely post more ultrasound pictures when I get them.

Alaska!

I recently took a trip up to Alaska to visit my mother-in-law, who is up there on business. It was quite an adventure - solo plane rides, midnight sunsets, permafrost forests, delicious dinners, moose, bear, killer mosquitoes, seals, birds, fish, and major jet lag. "Where are the pictures?!" you cry. They're coming, not to worry.

I took this picture out the airplane window coming in
to Anchorage. It's about 12:30 at night and, yes,
the sun is just barely setting.

*Quick side note: my seat on the plane was unexpectedly
changed to the emergency exit aisle; when asked if I was
prepared to assist in the event of an emergency,
I responded, "I've seen all six seasons of 'Lost,'
I know how to survive a plane crash."

This is the view out my in-law's back porch.
It's about 10:30 pm.

*Side note #2: I decided one morning to hike out to the
lake you can see in the picture. I took two steps into the
forest and decided against it. The ground in Alaska is permafrost,
which means it's rock-hard most of the year and thaws to
a degree in the spring and summer. It was like walking on
textured, bouncy foam - the strangest sensation ever!

My mother-in-law and I drove into Anchorage
from Big Lake where she lives almost every day.
One evening we were there, we went to a restaurant
called The Brewhouse, a very fancy shmancy place.
We both ordered this dish: grilled salmon on baby spinach
and garlic mashed potatoes, topped with tomato basil butter
and sprinkled with fresh tomatoes and cucumbers.

Salivating yet?

On my last full day in Alaska, we drove down to Seward,
and the view was spectacular!
This is the Cook Inlet and the Chugach Mountains.
I never got over how enormous they were!

 

What are those white specks, you ask?

Bugs. Dead ones. I took this through the windshield. :)

It was a little windy!

While we were driving along the Seward Highway,
my mother-in-law would point out the window and say,
"Look, they're going net fishing."
Finally, I said, "What's 'net fishing?' Do you just stick your
net in the water and hope something swims in?"
"Yes," she said. "O-kay," I thought, "Optimistic folk,
these Alaskans are." But that's exactly what these people in the
picture are doing. The groups seemed to be families mostly.
The dad would put on waders, grab his net, and walk
not 6 feet from the shore and plop the net in the water.
After twirling it around for a few seconds, he would bring it up,
and at least 10 fish would be inside!
These people could fill up one of those white
food storage buckets with fish in about half an hour!

"That's my kind of fishing," I thought.

I went down to the shore to get a closer look
at the process, and to stick my toes in the Alaska water.

It was SOOO cold! Wow. I took off my shoes,
put my toes in, took the picture, and got out.
The sand was very strange, too: it was dark gray,
sparkly, and extremely compact. This was not a beach to take
those romantic couples "two footprints side-by-side pictures"
- my feet made no impression whatsoever in the sand.

We stopped at an animal refuge on our journey to Seward.
Most of the animals here were found injured or
otherwise incapable of surviving in the wild and
are being rehabilitated, or are there to rebuild their population
because they've been all but eradicated in the wild.

*Sidenote 3: Lest you think that the only moose in Alaska
are in fenced enclosures, I did see two, real, wild, Alaska moose;
they just weren't nearly as close as these two.

Musk ox, against those incredible mountains.

A very friendly brown bear...

...who also acted a little like a dog. Just kidding.

She had been trained to sit and stick out her tongue

so the vet could check up on her.

Caribou/Reindeer. I was surprised to see how

fuzzy their antlers actually were.

*Side note #4: the place was swarming with mosquitoes.

I got over 24 bites on my face, neck, arms, and feet,

and my body has a really bad allergic reaction to bug bites.

I've been home for almost a week and they're still

not gone and haven't yet stopped itching.

When we got to Seward, we visited the aquarium.

It wasn't a large one, but it had great exhibits.

 

 

 

 

 

They had a large, open enclosure full of Alaskan birds as well.

 

This funny little bird, a rhinoceros oclit, was

raised by researchers, so he loves people.

He would splash around to get your attention,

then swim right up to you, trying to escape.

They also had two seals, and a huge stellar sea lion.

We were looking in the enclosure for him when he came

thundering around the corner and dove into the water with

a huge splash that would have drenched us

had not 8-foot plastic walls been protecting us!

 

Beautiful Alaska sunsets (again, around 11:00 pm,

and, sorry, more dead bugs).

It was a great last day to spend in Alaska, because the last night was terrible. My plane was scheduled to leave at 1:55 am, but was running (flying?) late and wouldn't be there until 2:30 am. By the time it got there, they got everyone off, cleaned it (we all yelled, "We don't care if it's clean!"), loaded us and our luggage on, I switched seats again, we didn't leave until 3:30. We got in to Salt Lake around 9:45, and it was 11:00 by the time I finally got home and promptly collapsed for about six hours.

*Last side note about Alaska: people do not live in igloos or drive a team of sled dogs to work. They do not live solely off of what they can kill and cook over an open fire. They do not always have subzero temperatures. They live in normal houses, drive cars, shop at Walmart and Target, pick up their prescriptions at Walgreens, eat at Red Robin, and go into the city on the weekends to shop at the mall. Alaska is, in short, not at all primitive and highly civilized; it's just incredibly vast and amazingly beautiful to boot.