babymoon

with all the school/work we've had throughout this entire pregnancy we thought a babymoon would be out of the question for sure but magically, the stars aligned and my parents gave us an early Christmas gift and sent us to a hotel for Thanksgiving weekend! 

we had plans of eating way too much food and drinking sparkling cider while wearing hotel robes.

and i couldn't stop thinking how much i would love to float around weightless in the pool for-e-ver! 

unfortunately, Hawaii had other plans in mind. like rain! 

it rained almost the whole time we were at the hotel but we didn't let that spoil anything! 

i still got to float around in the pool for a little while and we still ate some great food! 

i also had Matt paint my toenails since i can't even think about reaching my feet and i was sure to take a picture to thoroughly embarrass him!

plus, we took FULL advantage of the AC unit in our hotel room since we're still sweating buckets in our little apartment. 

yes, even in December. 

we had literally been in the hotel room for two seconds before Matt's shirt was off and the AC was set low.

and then he makes this little video.

and i never stop laughing at his little hip shake dance! 

so Hawaii couldn't get us down! 

this baby on the other hand, he certainly has a mind of his own! 

he didn't want to miss out on all the fun we were having so on Saturday he decided to scare me and be super lazy. usually he's active active active so i didn't like the fact that i couldn't feel him wiggling and squirming. 

then there was some bleeding. i thought maybe it was just normal and nothing to worry about since it wasn't very much blood but i called my doctor just to be sure and he sent us to the birthing center to get checked out. 

everything turned out just fine but for a second there i thought we were going to have a baby that night! 

and of course the only thing i could think about was the fact that we hadn't been smart enough to think to bring a hospital bag or the car seat with us. 

yeah...apparently those are the kinds of things i worry about when i think i'm going to be pushing a baby out of my lady bits. 

BUT...no baby arrived during the babymoon. thank goodness. 

and we still managed to salvage the rest of the weekend after our little hospital trip and we had a really great time for our last hurrah before Baby Mars gets here! 

*note: Matt is seriously hilarious! when we were gonna take that pic of our robe wearing/cider drinking he set the timer on his phone and then jumped on the bed and said "laugh like we're rich!" and now i can't stop laughing at that ridiculous picture! even though robes are probably the most unflattering thing for a pregnant person to wear EVER!

pregnancy achievement

as far as pregnancy achievements go, i haven't had too many.

i definitely missed out on that awkward stranger touching my bump or giving me unsolicited advice about my pregnancy achievement. 

i don't know if i should feel grateful or like i missed out on an important right of passage. 

the only people other than Matt that have felt my bump or felt baby move are friends that i force to do it just so i can watch them get creeped out. 

(yeah...all my friends are young and think i'm carrying a parasite inside of me. in a nice way of course!)

so yeah...no one cares to touch/talk to me but when Matt and i were on our babymoon we were in the elevator at our hotel with a very chatty guy and he looked over at me and then at his watch and said "well, it looks like it's about time for you!" 

i've heard a lot of stories of how prego ladies hate it when people make these kind of comments but i was seriously so excited! i was like "IT IS ALMOST TIME, CRAZY STRANGER! THANK YOU FOR NOTICING!" and then i gave him a mental hug as we left the elevator.

so i may not have unlocked very many pregnancy achievements but at least i have that one! 

prego halloween

i really thought we wouldn't be able to give halloween the attention it deserves this year with all the work, school and baby-making that we have going on but i'm seriously so glad we did!

it's just not halloween unless the masons are making and wearing ridiculous costumes, amiright??

as it got closer and closer to halloween we still hadn't decided on a good costume idea that would allow both of us to be something awesome AND would show off this baby bump with style.

finally, as we sat and enjoyed a super incredibly delicious meal at Wendy's one night, we had the best costume brainstorming session ever!

and the idea was born!

 and the best part? it took very little effort! 

we're usually making our costumes for months but this literally only took a couple nights and a trip to the thrift store.  

perfection!

so without further ado...

Ron Swanson and "All the bacon and eggs you have"

i'm really surprised by the lack of holiday parties that go on in this little college town but we did manage to sneak our way into our friends' ward party the night before halloween!

they ended up having a costume contest and the judge lady had us all cracking up when she saw our costumes.

first, she had no idea who matt was.

then she spent a good amount of time staring at me and then walked away only to do a double take at the last second and yell out "oh my gosh! it's a baby!"

apparently my egg yolk baby bump wasn't as obvious as i thought it was.

but i ended up winning the award for funniest costume! 

the judge told me the baby won it for us so this counts as Marshall's first costume contest award!

is he our kid or what?!

real talk

school is hard. 

i feel like i just kinda coasted through high school and even my associates degree. the classes i took were boring and meaningless and i never really had to put much effort into any of them. then i came here and found that science degrees are no joke. this is seriously the hardest semester i've had EVER. when i'm not in class, i'm in lab. when i'm not in lab, i'm studying in the library. when i'm not studying in the library, i'm writing papers at home. when i'm not writing papers, i'm doing chemistry homework. it's an endless cycle of school and it's piled on top of being pregnant and constantly hungry and sleepy and worried about my due date that seems to be creeping up on me and will be here before i know it and i'm not prepared! 

this week i have an exam in every single one of my classes. it's not mid term week or anything like that, this is just how almost every 2 weeks go. it seems that almost every teacher is on the "2 week exam" schedule this semester and they plan their weeks to be exactly the same! my week this week will consist of all my regular classes plus two 3 hour long labs plus homework plus 2 book reports plus an exam every single day. 

i might die.

i'm starting to have serious doubts about whether i'll be able to handle this school thing. it's a full time job and i'm about to have a newborn around here that's gonna need a lot of love and attention. it doesn't help that i also have every teacher at school telling me "oh you'll drop out as soon as that baby is born." really?? that was super helpful mr. biology teacher. thank you for reinforcing my biggest stress and fear as of late. 

i really don't know what i'm going to do. i don't want to drop out. i'll only have 3 semesters left by the time our little baby boy is here but if they are anything like this semester has been...

someone send help. and cookies. 

reasons my baby is da bomb

from the very beginning of this pregnancy things have been Rough - with a capital R.

all the years that we were hoping and praying to have a baby i had this image of me being pregnant and let me tell you, this pregnancy has been nothing like my image.

i'm not all cute with a perfectly round baby bump.

i'm not leisurely taking naps all the time and laying around reading all the baby books on my reading list.

i'm not eating all the foods i'm craving and sending Matt to the store at all hours of the night for ice cream and cookies and pickles.

instead...

my baby bump moves around all over the place as baby boy uses my insides as his own personal jungle gym.

i don't think i've taken a single nap since becoming pregnant.

reading baby books? HA! i can hardly even keep up with all my school work right now!

and FORGET about eating foods i'm craving. i would kill for a waffle from Joe's Farm Grill right now.

basically, those girls who say they LOOOVE being pregnant tricked me. they are complete and total liarfaces.

but, while my experience being pregnant has been less than ideal, this kid inside my tummy has totally won my heart.

he is such a tough little guy and already has the cutest personality!

honestly, he is the best.

REASONS

1. the week before i found out i was pregnant i went scuba diving. normally you're not supposed to go scuba diving while pregnant but apparently my little one is already a little adventurer and loves the ocean. yeah yeah he was obviously too itty bitty for it to make any kind of a difference but in my head, he's a little scuba diving maniac just like his mommy and daddy.

2. gestational diabetes is the root of all evil. i tried so hard to manage it with just diet and exercise but apparently that just doesn't work for some people. baby suffered with me as we went from diet-exercise to diet-exercise-pills and now diet-exercise-insulin. now we are a master gestational diabetes team that kicks all kinds of butt! plus, he puts up with all the needles much better than i do.

3. one of the issues with the gestational diabetes is that we found out i had it after all of baby's organs had started to develop so there was a seriously scary chance that baby's heart didn't form correctly and he either wouldn't survive or need emergency care upon delivery. we had a fetal echocardiogram done to check all the heart valves and assess the situation and it was completely nerve-racking. we had to wait until i was 23 weeks along so the appointment was hanging over our heads for months but when the doctor came in and checked things out she was super upbeat and almost immediately told us everything looked absolutely perfect! it was the best news we've ever received! and watching our little boy wiggle and squirm and hide from the tech trying to get his measurements was one of the funniest and sweetest things i've ever seen. the pictures melt my heart every time i look at them.

4. it's scary to get in a car accident at any time but when you're pregnant? oh man. last wednesday i was driving home with my friend from coconut island and i stopped for a school bus that had its stop sign out and the car behind me rear ended me. the kid that got out of the car told me straight up that he was taking a sip of his drink and wasn't paying attention. at the time i was so busy with getting insurance information exchanged and making sure everyone else was ok that i hardly even thought about myself but on the way home i couldn't stop worrying about my little baby boy. i could still feel him moving around in there but figured i'd call my OB just to be sure. i explained what happened to the doctor and he told me to go to the hospital to be monitored for 6 hours and have blood work done. i thought that was a little extreme and we talked about it a little more and then he sent me to his wife who comes to the BYU health center on wednesdays so she could check me first and see if going to the hospital was necessary or not. she did an ultrasound and baby was kicking like crazy and the placenta was perfect so she told me to keep an eye on things but as far as she could tell baby was perfectly happy and healthy. i saw my doctor again a couple days later and he said because i had let go of the brake when i was hit there was no hard jerking motion and that probably was the key to keeping baby safe. honestly, i had no idea i even did that so it's either a miracle or our baby is just the bee's knees and tough as nails. probably both!

anyway, is it weird for me to brag about my kid when he's not even born yet?

yeah? a little? well i don't care.

my baby is seriously the champion of ALL THE BABIES and i will gladly deal with all the not-so-pretty parts of pregnancy just so he can join our little family!

(profile)

(hiding from the tech lady and seriously cracking us up!)

(when he finally showed his little face!)

last first day of school before baby

was it seriously the first day of fall semester already?!

i literally just finished summer semester a week ago and i'm already back at it.

today really felt like it flew by.

i had four classes in a row today. that seems like too much and then i remember that on wednesdays i have to be at school from 8:30am-5:30pm.

yeah...this semester isn't going to kill me right? RIGHT??

baby boy was a champ today during all the syllabus reading and introduce yourself-ing.

the only time i was like "ok baby and i are over this" was when i was standing in the ridiculously long line at the bookstore waiting to waste a good chunk of a paycheck on books i'll never use again after the next 3 months.

oh the joys of being a college student.

Matt reminded me yesterday that this is the last first day of school i'm gonna have before the little nugget arrives.

and then he realized that we probably should've done something super fun this summer because now when are we gonna get a chance to take a vacation before the little nugget arrives?

oh well, hopefully we can swing something for our anniversary in november.

all i kept thinking about all day was when exactly the final exams are being held because if this baby comes sooner than he's supposed to (which doctor said is very likely) then how the heck am i going to take those exams??

i refuse to sit in these classes all semester just to miss the finals and fail the classes! 

so baby, are you listening? you need to stay in there until my very last final is turned in. get it? got it? good!

the very best part of my day was wearing my new flannel jacket Matt let me buy! 

pretty sure i'm never taking it off for as long as i live! 

baby update listy list

a list of things that are going on in the world of making baby Mason! 

(this pic cracks me up! how cute is this guy?!)

- while no one has tried touching me yet i find myself getting stared at all the time while i walk around campus. apparently most girls that were going to school and then got knocked up drop out pretty quickly. so there i am, the prego girl still sitting in classes and people are weird around me. it might be all in my head but i feel like everyone avoids eye contact with me and doesn't want to sit or stand near me. i find myself wanting to scream "IT'S JUST A BABY GUYS, NOT AN INFECTIOUS DISEASE!" 

- Matt finally felt baby kick last saturday! baby was especially rowdy that day so i just knew Matt would be able to feel it and he did!! he put his hand on my belly and we hardly even had to wait before baby boy gave him a few hard kicks! Matt was so excited! he's been trying to feel the little guy moving all the time now and i don't know if it's just because he knows what it feels like now or if he and baby are bonding but baby always seems to know when his daddy wants some love and he goes nuts! 

- i'm experiencing one of the many joys of pregnancy right now - a pain in my left butt cheek that sends shooting pains all the way down my leg every time i take a step or lift that leg or turn in bed or twist my body. it's super amounts of fun, as you can imagine. i'm gonna talk to the doc about it at my next appointment because it was seriously so bad on wednesday that when i went to sit on our bed i started crying. it's probably a bad sign when you're in so much pain from sitting on a BED that you cry. from everything i've read this is totally common i'm just hoping there's something i can do to make it GO AWAY! 

- sometimes Matt and i wear matching shirts and have bump contests. cause we're awesome like that!

- my new sleep position is on my side sandwiched between two body pillows. not only does it help with the previously mentioned pain but its cozy, like i'm sleeping in a little nest.

- my very favorite purchase we've made lately is an ice machine! i don't get to indulge in pregnancy cravings like most prego people but one thing baby really likes is freezing cold water throughout the day. i used to bring my water bottle everywhere with me and snag ice from restaurants and stuff but now i don't have to! Matt was worried the ice machine would be a waste of money but now he realizes it so SO wasn't. we make a huge batch of ice almost every day!! it's just so nice to be able to walk around the freakishly hot and humid campus with my water bottle jingling because of the ice inside. i'm obviously very easy to please. 

plus, if you combine ice with diet coke with splenda in my new mason jar i will be the happiest girl on the island! 

- i was put on insulin to control this whole gestational diabetes thing and it seems to be going pretty well. all of my blood sugar numbers are within range and it actually helps me eat a little more carbs than before so i don't get too low. my tummy is starting to get really sore from all the needle pricks though. sad day. haven't doctors come up with a better way to take insulin already?

- baby LOVES music! i was making breakfast the other morning and listening to spotify when Billie Jean came on and baby started movin' and groovin', the natural response when listening to any Michael Jackson song. this baby is so my kid!

(20 weeks)

- i have caught my first glimpse of stretch marks starting to form. i want to be one of those girls that's like "stretch marks are my battle scars and i will wear them proudly!" but right now i'm just sad and hormonal and fat and i'm gonna complain about them for a little while mmkay?

- the past week or so baby has been so incredibly active! i feel him ALL THE TIME! part of me thinks it's so stinkin' cute and the other part of me gets creeped out that there's a living thing rolling around on my insides. i watch too many sci fi movies.

(22 weeks and you can't see my feet!)