A little too comfy

Aubrey is almost two weeks old and she STILL has jaundice and is under the bili lights. Her jaundice isn't too bad but it is sure taking a while to go away.  It has been a big obstacle in getting her to eat because it makes her so sleepy. As you can see, she is a little too comfy under those lights.....

Today the doctor said that she should be off the lights tomorrow. That will be a great start to the new year and make one happy mom. I'm crossing my fingers.

Life does not have to be perfect

to be wonderful....

This is the quote that hangs in the parents lounge in the NICU. I have been spending a lot of time there and I am learning more and more the sweetness and truth to this statement.

Our little girl is doing pretty good. She is completely healthy, her lungs are great, and she is maintaining her body temperature on her own. Her remaining obstacle is learning how to eat and gain weight. Her digestive system was not completely developed when she was born, and so she is having a few setbacks and not tolerating all of her feedings. She will still be just fine but I think we might still have a few weeks ahead of us in the NICU before she can come home.

Having a baby in the NICU is completely emotionally and physically exhausting. But Aubrey is honestly so amazing, and Steven and I are both in awe at how much we love her. She has a sweet disposition and rarely cries, even as much as she has been poked and prodded.

Christmas this year was special and very different. We spent most of Christmas Eve and Christmas Day in the hospital. Aubrey got her first Christmas ornament and the NICU staff brought in Santa Claus to take pictures with all the babies.

I just want to also thank everybody for all of their support and help. We have had so much help with moving, and cleaning, and getting everything else sorted out during this crazy time. I'm sorry that I haven't responded to many people yet, but I'm working on it and I appreciate all the support we have been given. 

Steven left yesterday to go to San Jose to move into our new apartment there and start his job. Life really is crazy right now. I miss him a ton, but I'm enjoying the sweet moments we have here, while definitely looking forward to when we can be together as a family again. 

Our Little Aubrey

This morning we received the best early Christmas gift you could ever want. Our sweet baby girl, Aubrey Paige Foote was born at 5:15 am. She was 4 lbs 9 oz and 18.5 inches long. Despite being 5.5 weeks early, she is doing great, and will just require a few week stay in the NICU to grow and get stronger. Here is her story.....

Steven and I get kicked out of our Wymount apartment tomorrow (Monday.... yes we still have to move) because Steven just graduated Thursday. So we spent most of the day on Saturday packing up boxes with Jeremy and Kedra. I just pretty much "directed" everybody else's packing while laying there because being 8 months pregnant I was trying to take it easy.

After packing, we went out for dinner to the Pizza Pie Cafe with Jeremy and Kedra since we have no food left in our kitchen. We finished dinner around 6:00. I went home, showered, and was just getting settled in for a night on the couch in my pajamas, when whoosh...... the biggest shock of my life. My water broke. Having not even had a single braxton hicks contraction or anything, I literally was in complete shock.

We had no hospital bag packed. Nothing. So, I grabbed my purse and a towel since my water was still gushing and we headed to hospital arriving at about 7:25 pm. The doctor and nurse came in and said that 34 weekers do as well long-term as full-term infants and since I was already dilating and almost completely effaced, this baby was coming.... and coming tonight.

I got an epidural at about 10 and things started moving pretty good. The only problem with the epidural is that I just don't seem to "freeze" like most people do. Last May when I got a cavity at the dentist, I needed 6 shots to freeze instead of the usual 2. This is pretty much how things went with the epidural. Even though it took the edge off the pain, I could still feel a lot and by the end it completely wasn't working and I felt everything. Labor is painful.

I started pushing at 3:00 and after two hours of pushing, our little Aubrey was born. I am a little scared for future babies because it took me two hours to push her out and she was not quite 5 pounds. Yikes. I always knew I didn't have great birthing hips.

She came out crying and scored a 9 on her APGAR test, which is great even for a full-term infant. Steven was a champ through everything. He was my labor coach, he cut the cord, and he got to be with our little girl the whole time since they rushed her to the NICU away from me right after she was born.

She has been doing great in the NICU, is breathing completely on her own, and pretty much just needs to get bigger. The NICU nurses said that she is at the stage of most 35 to 36 weekers, which makes sense to me since my doctors moved my due date back 10 days at the beginning and so it is quite possible she was further along than we thought.

We love her so much and she is just the sweetest, most adorable little girl. Things still feel completely surreal, but life is definitely sweeter now that our little Aubrey is here.

Bad Blogger

I have been terrible at blogging lately. And terrible at taking pictures. I blame this on the fact that so much is going on right now and my life is just crazy. Which is really sad because I know that I am going to wish that I documented everything that is happening right now!

So, here is my quick attempt to catch up between work, dinner, making the shopping list, and trying to start packing up our apartment since we are moving in 10 days....

We went to Las Vegas to spend Thanksgiving with the Foote Family. We had a blast, except for the 9 hour drive home in a snowstorm.

We went and took some pictures at the wedding chapel and on the strip. Always fun. Steven and I took a picture just like this almost 6 years ago right after we had started dating. I had no idea at that point that we would actually get married. It was fun to recreate now that we are married and I'm quite pregnant and large. 

 And, the whole family (except Jason on a mission) was able to get together. Katie and I can't travel at Christmas since it will be too close to our due dates, so we celebrated Christmas a little early with a gift exchange....

I have also been very very blessed and had a few baby showers in the past few weeks. One with the awesome girls that I work with, one with some girls in my current ward, and one last Saturday with Steven's family and some friends. And the young women from my old ward even gave me a shower and made me a quilt.

 I feel so lucky and blessed and I want to say THANK YOU again to everybody. I only have pictures from this Saturday, but I had a blast at all of them and I feel so overwhelmed by love and friendship.

I actually might have cried after last weekend because I have such an awesome support system and family here in Utah. And now I am moving where I will have no family and very few friends. It makes me grateful that we have had this time at BYU to enjoy being around so many wonderful people. I am excited to get to know a new place and make new friends, but I will miss everybody that I already know so much.

And, since thinking of my baby girl occupies most of my waking and sleeping hours, here is an update. I will have to take some updated belly shots, but the big news this week is that she moved! For the past two months, she has been quite content to wedge herself into my right rib. I had a weird, lopsided belly and sometimes it hurt so bad to breathe.

Well, I woke up on Monday and she had moved to the middle. So, now my heartburn is much better, I have a normal rounded belly, and I can breathe. Yeah! We are making progress. 7 weeks to go. I am so excited. Having a baby, moving, husband graduating, and Christmas all at the same time certainly makes the time go quickly.

30 Weeks

I am now in my third trimester and I can't believe that I will have a baby in two months. I am getting so excited. Of course, before the baby, there is still Thanksgiving, moving, Christmas, sending Steven to San Jose, finishing up work, etc. Since we are moving, I am a little sad that I am missing out on the "nesting" phase of pregnancy.

I love to organize and so the fact that our "nursery" is a stack of boxes is probably a good learning experience for me. I'm definitely getting better at just going with the flow.

At my mother's request again, here I am at 30 weeks or about 7 months pregnant. Steven wasn't available to be my photographer, so I had to document the belly myself with the bathroom mirror.

I will admit that I feel pretty big, but I keep getting shocked looks when I tell people how far along I am. It bothered me at first, but I have gained exactly the right amount of weight, and I'm measuring right on track. So, I think our little girl is doing just fine. 

And.... speaking of our little girl, we had a 3D ultrasound this week that also confirmed that she is indeed a girl, and a pretty cute one at that. The 3D ultrasounds are kind of crazy (i.e. the picture only shows part of her head). I'm feeling pretty good, and I really just can't wait to meet her!

SketchUp

Even though Steven and I are both accountants, which I guess in some ways is the epitome of "nerds," I like to think that we are still social and normal. Hopefully, even fun.

However, sometimes I realize that we really are nerds. For example, I think that we make a Google Doc spreadsheet for everything. We track all of our finances in not one but two different accounting systems, and our spare time is often spent reading the Wall Street Journal (me) or tech articles (Steven).

With that being said, as we are getting ready to move, we are realizing how incredibly expensive it is to move long-distance. Steven's company is going to give us a moving reimbursement, but we don't want to spend any more than that, and it is going to be close.

The biggest expense is the moving truck. We found a good deal with a company that will drop off a 28 foot truck. We pack our stuff in the back of the truck and then they ship other goods in the rest of the truck. It should work out great but the initial quoted price that is still hundreds of dollars is for 8 feet of truck space. Which is not very much. Each additional foot is $50. So, Steven measured and sketched all of our furniture in Google SketchUp.....

and then we virtually "packed" our moving truck....

We don't think we can get it down to 8 feet, but it will be pretty close. 9 or 10 at the most. And you can bet we will have printed out copies for direction on moving day.  I guess there is no denying that we really are quite dorky. 

"What's a dishwasher for?"

The title of this post is what Steven said in jest yesterday as we were looking at all the great features of our new apartment! Having never had a dishwasher in our married life, that is one definite perk that we are looking forward to.

We are really excited that we finally have a place to live in San Jose in a couple of months. Well.... we haven't officially signed the contract yet, but the unit has been reserved and everything is in process. So, barring some disaster, our new digs will have a kitchen like this....

a bathroom with tons of counter space like this....

...and we are almost doubling our current square footage, so baby girl will have room to roam.

Of course.... it also comes with MORE than double the rent price, but I'm learning to just deal with that. Rent is just sooo expensive in California. Comparative to all the other rentals we looked at this one definitely was the best deal. It was in our budget, is across the street from a park, is behind an elementary school, and is in a nice area. Which was important to me since we are leaving "happy valley" behind. 

So, we are excited and I'm mostly just relieved that everything is starting to work out. There are still a lot of uncertainties but this was a big one I'm glad to have out of the way.

Pumpkin Masterpiece

I love Christmas and Easter and Thanksgiving and pretty much all holidays. I get so excited for holidays. Except Halloween. I don't really love Halloween. However, pumpkin carving is one part of Halloween that has definitely become a Foote family tradition.

This tradition is mostly because Steven loves to carve pumpkins. However, faces on pumpkins or pre-made patterns are never part of his pumpkin carving. Steven creates his own pumpkin carvings and designs. He is always so creative. Past year's pumpkins have included Jack Johnson, Batman, and Kenny Chesney (that one was my request).

This year, in honor of our time spent here in Provo, Steven created a BYU pumpkin, showing off Y mountain, the Tanner building and the SWKT.  We both can't believe that is was 6 years ago now that we met here. We have loved our "BYU" days, but we are excited for the next chapter of our lives. Here is Steven's pumpkin creation:

6 Months

Right now, like most pregnant women, I am hungry. Steven and I are going out for dinner before a concert we are going to tonight, but Steven is doing homework. However, despite temptation, I'm being a good wife and leaving him alone. So I thought it was a good time to do a pregnancy update!

Here I am at 6 months pregnant. Or at least I think 6 months pregnant. I don't quite understand how some people quote the whole pregnancy timeline. I am almost 26 weeks and I will be having my baby in about 3 months. 6 months right? Well, most people say that 20 weeks is five months..... 24 is 6 months.... 28 is 7 months... etc. But, that would make pregnancy 10 months when it really is 9. I think that is crazy. So, 6 months it is. 

Right now I am enjoying this stage of pregnancy. I finally have a noticeable "bump" but I'm not too big to be uncomfortable. She is moving like crazy and I love being able to watch my belly and see the kicks. 

One thing that I am learning about pregnancy is that there are alot of symptoms that come along with it. I was prepared for morning sickness and getting bigger, but I was unaware of charlie horses, ligament pain, nosebleeds, heartburn, etc. But, whenever I start feeling like complaining about anything, I just remember how lucky I am to get this experience, and how excited we are to be parents. Then, all of those symptoms don't seem bad at all.

I haven't really had too many cravings, which Steven has been disappointed about. I think he wanted me to wake up at 3 am one day and demand that he go get whatever food I must have NOW. 

However, my first trimester I could not eat anything sweet. It all sounded disgusting to me. Luckily, that has passed and I am pretty much just eating normally, except forcing down a zillion cups of water a day and making sure I eat more fruits and veggies. 

Time is going fast now. There are still so many uncertain parts of our life coming up in just a few months that it is a little scary how fast time is flying. But, I am mostly so excited. I can't wait to finally meet her and be a mom. 

Viva Bike Vegas - Round 2

Last time I wrote a post on here, everyone thought it was Paige, so I just want to clarify that, while Paige does indeed write most of the posts, I (Steven) am writing this one. 

About two years ago we wrote in our Christmas letter that I was going to do a century during the coming year (2009). A century is 100+ miles of bike riding in a single day. I did the century in Vegas, riding the first half with my brother, Tyler, and the last 30 miles with my dad. My dad took a picture very similar to the one below last year. This year, however, both Tyler and my dad rode the whole thing with me.

Seeing the 100 mile sign is enough to make even the most sunburned cyclist smile. Tyler forgot to apply sunscreen. I forgot to reapply.

 This picture is of us crossing the not yet opened Hoover Dam bridge. It was open just to the cyclists of the event for a 2.5 hour window. Pretty awesome.

 About 10 hours after we started, we crossed the finish line and got these cool medals. Don't let the smiles fool you; we were in an incredible amount of pain. But, the fact that we didn't have to ride any further was enough reason to smile a bit.

 Our support team met us at lunch and a few other places along the route. They sure are cute. I didn't see any other posters, so I guess we're pretty awesome.

 Paige is so awesome. Who can dispute that?

 In cross-country I learned to sprint to the finish of every race. This race, however, had police barricades about 5 feet past the finish line, so I had to restrain myself and slow down a little early.

It was a great day, and to anyone who thinks they might be interested in buying a road bike, I would direct them to my other blog, where I write about such things fairly often. stevenfoote.posterous.com

Conference Weekend

This past weekend was General Conference. I love conference. We also always get to spend conference weekend with family, so that will be quite the adjustment because next conference.... we will be in California. I'm still pretty excited about that though. The Foote's came into town and we spent Friday night eating dinner up at Sundance. Steven's sister, Lisa, also got engaged that night. Congrats Lisa!

The Foote family is definitely growing. There are 13 + one fiancé (Miguel) + 2 babies on the way in January. Don't worry. Only one of those is mine. 

The boys spent the conference break going on a bike ride. We are going to Las Vegas this weekend because Steven is riding in Viva Bike Vegas again.

I just have one complaint. Most husbands, when their wives are pregnant, gain "sympathy weight." Well, Steven is slim to start with and is training for a 120 mile bike ride with average practice rides that burn 1500 calories. Hmpff... I'm not getting any sympathy!

That is ok. I'm right on track and I know that the weight is good for our little gal. But, I do sometimes freak out about it. Which is why Steven might have hidden our bathroom scale on me. He did a really good job too. I have looked and looked and do not know where he put it.

During the Priesthood session, we had our "girls craft night." This has become quite the tradition. We have decorated eggs, made t-shirts, bracelets.... and this time.... flowers! For our hair of course.

My flower was black and didn't seem to show up in any of the pictures. But, I assure you I was wearing one too. We even made one for my adorable niece, Rebecca. 



A Day in the Life...

of a CPA! Well, I guess not quite. Yesterday was a long day, full of work stuff, but it definitely wasn't a typical day in the office.  First we had our firm retreat up at the Zermatt resort in Midway. As part of the retreat we had Larry Gelwix, the Rugby coach from the movie Forever Strong speak to us. I definitely want to see the movie now. We also had panels, food, and my favorite part....

In between each section of panels/speakers, our office (50+) was divided into teams of 4 for a "Minute to Win it Challenge." Each round was single elimination and nobody could go twice. My team won! Whahoo. And the best part is that we each won one of the new Ipod Nano's with the touch screen.

The prize was pretty exciting and will be fun to have when I can get back into good running/biking shape after the baby. The other part about the win that I was really excited about was that I redeemed myself from last year.

 Last year, the activity was bowling, and I won the award for the lowest bowling score in the entire firm. Out of over 50 people that was really embarrassing and pretty hard to do. I guess useless games is a new talent of mine. My particular game involved getting two penny's out of the bottom of nylons. 

After the retreat, Steven picked me up and we headed up the SLC for the "CPA Inauguration." It was an event to celebrate all the new CPA's in the state of Utah. As part of it, we each walked across the stage to receive a certificate and this funny little award....

And of course, the night wouldn't have been anything without my awesome support system:

I sure love him. We didn't take any pictures until we were in the car going home, so this is the best I got of Steven. I definitely couldn't have reached my goal of becoming a CPA without him.

I will admit that I was feeling a little sad last night. Right as I am feeling really competent at what I do, and my career has the chance of advancing, I'm putting it on hold. At least for now. I love the social interaction and sense of accomplishment of going to work. I love helping people and feeling like I'm contributing to our income. However, I know that in just a few months my life is going to drastically change and I'm kind of terrified.

My husband might not be able to be there for the birth of our first child and will be working tons of hours after that. I am moving to a brand new, huge city with absolutely no family or support system. And, I'll have a new little girl and I'm not quite sure how to be a mom yet. I know that instinct will kick in, but it will be a learning experience for sure.

However, as I was walking across the stage last night, our little girl was kicking me like crazy. I like to think she was telling me congratulations :)

Those little kicks reminded me of what I am doing and why I am choosing to be a full-time mom. Why I know that it is the best thing for our family right now.  Why I feel like getting the chance to be a mom is such a privilege. Because despite all the sacrifices and scary unknowns that my future holds, I know that I am doing the right thing and I would make the same choice again in a heartbeat.