Done Waiting...

***UPDATED*** I threw in one more picture from Cindy at 37 weeks.

The last few weeks have been dedicated to getting things together for when the baby comes which helps me justify my lack of activity on here. Books talk about some "nesting" instinct that kicks in. That might be it, but more likely is just a plain old need to have a space for the baby to live. I love our 850 sq ft place, but it became quite apparent a few months ago that we have a TON of crap and it's taking up a TON of space. So, 5 or 6 boxes worth of donations and heaps of trash bags later, we've uncluttered.

Now that our crap is gone, we've been busy replacing it with new, baby crap (not literally). Car seat arrived in the mail today as will most of the other major items we need to keep our son alive and somewhat entertained. With all this purchasing, gift receiving, and general preparing, I really feel like our boy needs to be here... now. He's not yet (or I wouldn't be writing this). In fact, he's not due for another 3 weeks. The problem is that I am not a patient person by nature. I've done a good job at waiting 8 months, but these last 3 weeks just might kill me.

Today marks 37 weeks and doctor says that if Cindy goes into labor at this point, they won't try to stop it. So, I spend my free time encouraging the baby to not disappoint us by waiting till the 14th of August to come. I'm also trying the "stern father" approach, telling him he HAS to come early and he doesn't want to start life out by disobeying his parents. Is this actually working? I'd like to think so; then I can write a million dollar bestseller about getting your child to obey you from the womb. But until you see my book on the shelves, you can just chalk it up to wishful thinking.

Cindy's doing well, but I can understand why the ninth month is the hardest for pregnant women. Aside from having dealt with being pregnant for almost a year, I really don't think Cindy has much space left in her belly if that baby keeps growing. People have requested pictures and all that, so here's a cutesy little slideshow that'll show Cindy from the start of it all till now (well... start of when we started taking pictures.) Hover over a picture to see how far along she is and make sure to leave lots of encouraging comments cause I had to twist her arm to post these. :)

Hair!

So I just have to say that my super-great sister-in-law Cassie, did a wonderful job on my hair. She has been going to school at Paul Mitchell in Provo and since she has started has been able to dye my hair the perfect dark brown color and recently lightened it again, achieving almost the exact shade as my natural hair color. That isn't easy! Also, she has continued to keep it cute by cutting it and styling it.

Here's my hair when it was dark:

And here it is now, light again:

Thank you Cassie! You're amazing!!

An Update

Okay, so Chris told me today that I have to write a new post. I don't really know what to say, so we'll see what happens.

These last few weeks I have been feeling very pregnant and ready for our son to arrive. A few things have happened since our last blog so let me give you a brief update. We finally found a crib and dresser for the baby which was very exciting. It was a great deal! Everyone has their opinions about buying used cribs, but after countless hours of research, we decided to at least see what we could find. We really lucked out. A couple in Layton was selling a very high quality set (we found out all we could on that too), for less then half what we would have had to spend on the brand new set.

Chris set it up and we started getting the room ready for our new arrival (I put all the clothes and fun things away). That was when it became even more real that our lives would soon be changing. The room still isn't completely ready (I'm trying to decorate still), but things are a lot closer. Hopefully we'll have a new addition in a month. It's safe for him to come after the 24th of July, but he isn't due until the 14th of August. We're hoping for sometime the end of July, but will be fine with whenever.



Last week was the last of our four week birthing classes at the hospital. They taught the basics of pregnancy and birth, and we were able to tour the hospital, which was nice. It seemed like a lot of people in our class really didn't know much about anything really, and continually asked what we thought were self explanatory questions. So Chris kept me entertained by making fun of everyone and their stupid questions. I was excited for our last class which was about breast feeding. I thought that this class would teach us a lot of very useful things. I was wrong. Rather than just teaching us clearly and giving us lots of useful knowledge, she was confusing, not focused, mumbled, and spent most of the time telling us why it was so important to breast feed rather then how to be successful at breastfeeding. She gave us list of reasons people say they can't breastfeed, then said they weren't good reasons, and, if you ever have problems, get help from someone. She went on for most of the two hours explaining how it is recommended to breastfeed your child for at least 2 years, and that Michael Jordan was breastfed for 3 1/2 years. She even went so far as to say, "if you want to do the right thing, the ethical thing for your baby, you will breastfeed." It was really weird. We left feeling kind of frustrated. We both understand that breastfeeding is important, and we were never against it, but we ended up feeling annoyed by the way it was pushed on everyone as a moral issue, rather than just teaching us the basics. Oh well. So that's over.

Our doctor appointments are weekly now and we are excited about that! We're 35 weeks along this week. I can't believe how fast time has gone by. My body always hurts now; I feel like the baby has completely taken over my body (I feel him in my ribs, my lower back, on my bladder- pretty much everywhere all the time). Working has become more and more difficult and the heat is getting to me a lot more. I was really surprised when, for the first time ever, I was hot, and Chris was cold. That was weird.


My mom got into town the other night which was fun. We love it when she visits, and especially that she made it here for the 4th of July. I love the 4th of July, mostly because when we were younger, that was when we came to Utah and spent time with our extended family. Even though not all of our family was there, it was great being able to spend the day with a lot of loved ones. It was a busy day. We started off going to the parade in Provo, then it was back to my aunts house for lunch where we stayed and hung out and visited for a few hours. Then Matt and Steph and their cute kids came over (it was great seeing them) and we lit a few fun fireworks for the kids (tanks, snakes, smoke bombs, flowers and parachutes). The kids were loving it. Then we all headed out to the MTC Field by the temple to watch the Stadium of Fire fireworks. Again, the kids just loved it. I was exhausted and thoroughly sore by then, but it was so fun just having us all together.
Hopefully we'll post something again a lot sooner then a month.

Also, I'm trying to update everyones information, so please email us addresses, phone numbers, birth dates etc. Our email is burkmans at gmail dot com.