One Week Old!

Myles is a week old now! It has been the best week of my life. First of all, he's an angel of a baby - eats well, sleeps well, poops and pees well (for those of you who don't have babies, just know this is a very good thing). He has a cute tiny cry, not too loud or high pitched. I love his little ears and his huge little feet.

My recovery has also been very smooth and relatively easy, so that made the week go by easier. We've even been on a couple of walks. It's nice to have some of the pregnancy discomfort gone. I can bend over again! And lay on my stomach!

Also making this week great is having my mom here. She has helped us with the baby, lending her experience, which makes the whole first week much less scary. She has helped organize and clean the house, putting up pictures and mirrors on the walls - which had previously been bare. She sewed a quilt! which I've been meaning to do forever (as in, I've had the kit for at least 7 years). Curtains were hemmed and sewed, hooks for towels put up, and a hundred other little things that make our house much more homey. And she made minestrone soup for us - I LOVE Mom's minestrone soup! I'll sure miss having her around when she flies back to Utah tomorrow. Love you, Mom!

Without further ado,
the part of the blog you've all been waiting for,
the very reason you even came to the blog today...

Myles! One week old!

His "one week old" photo shoot. 

His cute big feet! I think the line across the big toe is interesting.
Featured on both feet. 

He loves to chill out in the sitting burp position.
He's happy to just sit there and look around.

Checking out Grandma and Grandpa Briscoe.
Dad managed to have a long layover on his way home from a business
trip so he could meet his newest grandson. 

Just cute. Alert and skeptical, apparently. 

Some more one week photo shoot.

Cooperating for the camera - for the moment. 

Maternity Photo Shoot Pre-view

Here's a sneak peek at our maternity photos. I'm really excited for them, even if I don't love my hair. I didn't realize how humid it would be that day! Thanks to Kara and Rich for the fun shirts! Thanks to Toni Asay for the photos.

Also, I think this baby is coming. Like, today!

Jessica's Laws of Advanced Pregnancy Physics

1. Objects on the floor will stay on the floor unless acted by a force that is not Jessica.

2. The effort to get off a couch, bed, or comfortable chair is approximately Mass x 400 normal effort.

Actually, I just like the first one. Chase has been a good sport and laughed at me many times this week as I moan the fate of the dropped thing which I cannot possibly pick up. Except when I can.

I'm just about 40 weeks. The baby has dropped right onto my bladder (yay!), and I have experienced frequent but painless contractions. Other than that, no signs of imminent labor. But I can dream, right? I'd be happy if he came right on his due date, or maybe Wednesday or Thursday. I still have several things I'd like to get done tomorrow, but if they don't happen, we'll survive. Hopefully.

Chase and I had a photoshoot session on Saturday. I had realized that while there are several pictures of me being all pregnant (obviously, since most of them are represented in the blog here), we didn't really have any of Chase and me together while I'm pregnant. So that happened. It was fun. We spent all Saturday together as a kind of super-date Saturday. Photo shoot, breakfast picnic, a little hike, the chiropracter, naps, dinner, picking Kara and Rich up from the airport as they got home from Europe - just a fun day. When I get the pictures back I'll post some of them. Yay for being cute pregnant!

Imminent Arrival

It seems like the time for Baby to join us is very close. We're now into August, the month of his birth! I finished up my last (official) week of work. I'll still be doing some coordinating and scheduling for them, but via phone and email, not going on site. I hit up some consignment and garage sales this week, so I'm feeling pretty prepared as far as material things go. A few contractions here and there, but nothing painful or really all that noticeable. Just warming things up, I guess.

Yet despite all the feelings of "soon," I also know that these last two or more weeks are going to take forever to pass by. Definitely getting to the point of uncomfortable sleeping (what's the point of telling an extremely pregnant woman to sleep while she can before the baby comes? I don't know about others, but I'm not sleeping all that well these days. Bathroom trips, trying to find a comfortable position, taking huge amounts of effort to change sleeping positions, having the baby kick around while you're trying to fall asleep...it's not so easy to get beauty rest).

I'm also making lots of plans of things to get done before the baby comes, and knowing I'll either get it done in the first three days and go crazy with waiting, or that I won't get hardly anything on my list done because I'm too busy enjoying not going to work every day. Washing the baby clothes and blankets, making freezer meals, getting the house cleaned and the nursery put together. I might even break out the sewing machine! Hair appointment and shopping and visiting friends while it's still relatively easy. Lots to do. I hope.

Anyhoo, here's a picture of me at my last day of work. I'm sure glad I'm done with that - even my large shirts aren't fitting very well now!

And Kathy and Keith Roos (aka Mama and Papa) took us to dinner the other night to celebrate Chase's graduation and our soon-to-be newest family member. I love those two!

A big weekend

This was a pretty eventful weekend. On Saturday, Chase and I attended a childbirth class from the hospital. It was ALL day long, from 9am-4pm. I felt like I didn't learn too much that I didn't know already, but it was good to hear it from a more dependable source than blogs from pinterest. I did learn that I actually have felt a few contractions already. My doctor has been asking at the last several appointments if I'd experienced any contractions yet, and my answer was always no. But the class instructor explained that a contraction may just feel like my whole stomach is hard, instead of just where the baby's back or bottom is. Nothing painful or serious, it's just interesting.

My dad flew into Atlanta on Saturday also, so we got to spend some time with him on Saturday evening and Sunday. We spent our time going to Ikea (Chase had never been to any Ikea before), eating dinner at the cafeteria, and buying a daybed. We had a lot of fun trying to fit it into our Nissan. Chase and Dad had some nice bonding time putting it together.

Obviously we're still working on the nursery. At least I got the gifts and clothes sorted. 

Brothers and Baby Showers

It was a pretty exciting week for us - a returned missionary and the baby shower (and a bunch of less exciting stuff, too).

Chase's brother Jordan came home from San Bernadino, California on Wednesday. We had planned to meet his family at the airport to welcome him home, but we got hung up in traffic. Fortunately we made it just in time for me to drop Chase off at the terminal to see Jordan come out. Then we all went up to our church building where the member of the stake presidency released Jordan as a full time missionary. Chase was SO happy to have his brother home, he was bouncing around like an excited puppy!
We also got to hear Jordan talk in church today, and he had some pretty amazing stories to tell about being led by the Spirit and the power of the priesthood. My favorite was about how they randomly knocked on the door of a woman who "no hable ingles!" Well, luckily these were the Spanish speaking elders! When they asked if she had heard of the missionaries, the Mormons, she responded, "oh yeah! My brother is a 70!" Wait, what?

After dinner on Sunday.

 On Saturday morning, my friend Kara Harward (from my old ward - Paper Mill) threw a baby shower for me! We had a really good mix of people there - ward members and family and friends of Chase's family, and my friends, and a co-worker of Chase's. It was really fun and I was gifted with lots of really adorable baby clothes and a diaper bag and some blankets.

I can't believe I'm almost 37 weeks pregnant! I'm feeling rather huge, but lots of people tell me that I still look (relatively) small. That's good, I guess. Good for my vanity, anyways. My newest development is swollen ankles. Not so good for the vanity. But all things considered, I'm feeling great and looking good!

Last week - 35 weeks, 6 days!

July 19 - 36 weeks, 5 days!

Meet the Newest Member of Our Family

Ta Da!

We've been wanting to buy a vehicle that would better accommodate a car seat and a growing family. Plus, Chase's car is falling apart and has no air conditioning. After some extensive internet research, we went to CarMax and decided that we really liked the Nissan Rogue. Small SUV, pretty good gas mileage, and a back-up camera.

Also our car seat and stroller came this week, courtesy of Mom and Dad Briscoe. Yay for having the necessities covered!

36 weeks on Tuesday, or one month from yesterday. We're getting close!

Summer Adventures

Other than the fact that June has been unusually hot (the hottest June since I've been in Atlanta), life seems pretty awesome.

We're settling into our new house nicely. I haven't got the nursery painted or set up yet, but most of our other stuff is out and organized. I went on a garage sale / estate sale shopping trip this last weekend and found some great stuff: two matching 6' bookcases, some old kids books, some nice slacks for Chase, and best of all, my reading corner chair! I've been wanting a nice plush chair to put in the corner of our bedroom for a reading corner and I found the perfect one at an estate sale. Since it was the last day of a three day sale, it was 50% off - only $100!

My awesome reading corner with a beautiful chair and big bookcase!

I also found this super terrifying doll. But I didn't buy it - $20, seriously!?

I've been trying pretty hard to stay fairly active despite the heat and the increasing difficulty of simple tasks like putting on shoes. A couple of weeks ago we went to the cabin with our friends, Brad and Sarah Yates. On Saturday morning we hiked a little 3 mile portion of the Appalachian trail - it was gorgeous!

Oh yeah, funny story. While we were moving, Chase "found" his old hiking boots (they had been hiding from him at the bottom of his closet - where his shoes theoretically belonged). He was so excited to wear them hiking. Less than 5 minutes into our hike, the sole flopped off of his boot, attached only at the heel. He shrugged it off and wanted to keep going until two minutes later...FLOP. The other sole disattached. So we had to go back to the car so he could change out to his normal tennis shoes. Good thing, too, because we discovered we'd been going the wrong way! We eventually made it to Preacher's rock, which had this awesome view.

Chase's family likes to go camping up at Lake Lanier three or four times every year. And finally, two years after joining the family, I was actually able to join them. They were all there from Wednesday to Saturday, but Chase and I only made it up for Friday night and Saturday clean up. I slept in my hammock, which was surprisingly comfortable. Plus, the view when I woke up in the morning was amazing!

I got to go up to North Carolina  on a "work trip". This means that Fockele has a couple of sites in the Raleigh/Durham area that we sub-contract out to another company and we like to check up on them quarterly. I happily volunteer to go, since I get to see Mindy and Jeran. Plus, my company pays for my drive time, so that's awesome. I had fun hanging out with the Stratfords, even if baby Allison had a bit of a cold. She liked sitting on the hammock with me. It makes me very excited for a couple of months from now!

And now a quick pregnancy update - everything is going great. I am 33 weeks +5 days (meaning my week mark is on Tuesay. So this coming Tuesday I will be 34 weeks pregnant). I have had a little bit of ankle swelling, but so far it's not a permanent thing - just once in a while. Sleeping is sometimes difficult, but I really like (and/or need) an afternoon nape. I really don't like being outside in the heat (I'm not sure that's actually a pregnancy symptom, but I have a good excuse for staying inside more!). My right ribs feel pretty bruised. So pretty much, this pregnancy is going really well and I have nothing to complain about!

Two Months to go!

I can't believe it's already the middle of June! That came out of nowhere! I am happy that I only have two months to go before our baby gets here. I'll be 32 weeks (out of 40) on this coming Tuesday. It's kinda weird being at the point where people feel comfortable just asking when I'm due. I feel like my growth has leveled out somewhat in the last few weeks, so I haven't gotten much bigger. But I know my time is coming to get huge!
    (Apparently I don't have any good baby bump photos in my photo stream - I'll work on that and post one next week!)

Along with working to get stuff put away after the move, I've also had some fun putting together some of my new baby furniture! The pack-n-play was a baby shower gift from my aunts in Logan and the baby bouncer is from Grandma Hatch. Thank you guys so much! So far, that's all I have for furniture, but I do have a crib lined up. It's all so exciting!