What's going on?

I've mentioned  how the pipes in our house are super old and rusting and that they need to be replaced. It has become a pain. I'm so glad that we don't own the house and therefore don't have to pay the cost of repairs but I feel bad for our land lords. They are our friends and just had a little baby of their own a copule weeks ago. To make things even more hard, they live in Texas. This makes it more difficult to be a part of the fixng process. We are all working really hard together to make it easier on everyone. So far it has been decided that the pipes have to be replaced now and that it needs to happen ASAP because we need the nursery fixed and safe for Noah when he comes. The contractors and insurance adjustor we spoke to all seem to be confident that it will be done by then. My only concern is how close to my due date will they have it done? I don't like to have things done in the last minute. I'm the type of person that has things done well in advance. I really am hoping that this is all fixed with at least 2 or 3 weeks to spare before I go into labor. I really would have prefered to have the nursery done and everything organized already like I had previously planned but that is out of the question and I just need to move on I guess. It really is a blessing that it happened now rather than later when Noah was in the room. That would have been disasterous. We had a guy come and test for mold and other things that could harm us or baby Noah earlier this week. Now we are waiting for the results and also waiting to hear where we go from there. Assuming there is nothing harmful in the air or walls we should be able to go through with the repair process. Annette and Grant (Landlords) will need to pick a plumber and have them start on the work. That should only take a day or two to get the pipes done. The snag we are hitting is that Annette and Grant need to have the money to pay for the plumbing. I'm not sure how that is going to work yet. Then after the pipe replacement the water damage restoration people can start on fixing the walls and replacing the carpet and painting the walls. That is thankfully covered by the home oweners insurance. This is great news for Annette and Grant because they don't have an out of pocket cost. Its also good for us because it means we can get the work done faster. Sean says they should have the restoration work done in a day maybe two after they are able to get started on it. We shall see how fast this all goes down. I'm getting worried it won't be done in time. Sean however is the best at calming me down and he assures me everything will be ok and work out fine. Even if it doesn't get done in time we have friends and family that are more than willing to come help us get things organized as soon as it is able to be done. 6 more weeks until my due date!

Here is a list of things that need to be done before Noah comes:
Carseat put in car
Hospital bag packed (Should be doing this tonight)
Make a playlist on Sean's ipod for the labor
Send out Thank you cards for baby shower
Nursery clean and organized (It was clean and organized but now it is in shambles due to the above story)
Cloth Diapers stripped (they need to be rinsed 3 times before use)
Clothesline installed in backyard
Rest of baby things bought (health and safety kit, bath soaps, swing, baby monitor, hamper)

Then the things that I would just like to have done before Noah comes:
Truck Sold
Car paid off
Front yard and Back yard pretty
Lavender planted in front yard

Bradley Class #7

We were elated to be back at the class after missing last week. I love learning all about this and being more educated about whats going to be going on with my body in the next couple weeks. I can't believe we just have 7ish weeks until he is here! I am torn between wishing I had more time and wishing it would go by faster. I love the bond I have with Noah. I feel so close to him. Well yeah thats an obvious statement considering he is inside of me, haha. But I can't wait to meet him and hold him either. The subject in class was on breastfeeding and caring for your newborn. It usually is taught in the last class, lesson 12. But since I am due the week of the last class Rachel switched lesson 7 and 12 to accommodate for us. Sean and I were so tired by the end of the class last night.

Yesterday I got off work early, like really early, at 1pm. He had to take my car to the mechanic to rotate the rotors. Every time I braked the car would shake. So Sean came and picked me up after work and we went home to relax and eat lunch together. It was so lovely being home with him in the middle of the day with nothing to do. Then at 4pm we went to our appointment for the ultra sound. After that we went and picked up the car and went straight to the bradley class. We made a big mistake ... if you didn't notice I said nothing about dinner being eaten. Thats right we both competely forgot about dinner! I don't know how that happened. We were just so busy going from one place to the other, food didn't cross our mind. I think this is where the exhaustion came from. During class it was a little hard to concentrate but we both still got a lot from the it. We had a guest speaker come and talk to us about breastfeeding. She is a nurse and a lactation consultant. Sean is now going to take over and tell you all what we learned.

We learned about breastfeeding last night. The class was very interesting. We learned the proper ways for a baby to be held for a feeding, which seems very straight forward, but really isn't. We also learned many of the benefits of breastfeeding as opposed to formula feeding. Breastfeeding is tons better. A baby can easily absorb the contents of breast milk while at the same time gaining immunity to everything that his mother has immunity to. This is not to say that formula isn't good or doesn't serve a purpose, it does, breast milk is just a little bit better for the baby.

Picture Time For Noah

We got to have an ultra sound of Noah today! Yay! The last ultra sound was about 15 weeks ago and much growing and development has gone on since then. Our little guy is getting so big! We weren't able to see his face in the last one because he was being shy and kept his hands up on his face. When his hands weren't on his face his head was burrowed into my spine. Seems like he is just a shy little guy because he kept his hands and his feet in front of his face today too. After work today Sean and I went to the Dr office and Sean's Mom met us there. I think she really enjoyed be able to share this experience with us. We are glad grandma got to be there for Noah :) We were called back to the room before Elizabeth got there and the tech was just doing some measuring but she was unable to get any face shots. His foot was covering his whole face! Then as soon as Grandma got in the room he started moving more. It was sweet. He likes his Grandma Elizabeth! He didn't keep his face uncovered for very long but we did get a couple good pictures. They say he is about 4lbs 12 ounces so that means that if I have him at 40 weeks he will be about 7 or 8lbs. They got to that estimate because usually babies gain half a pound a week.  Here are the pictures of our handsome little man:

 His right foot is on the side of his head in this picture. He is such a silly baby.

 I love his lips! He totally has the Howell boy lips. He also has Sean's nose and chin. He is just our little Sean boy  :)

 This is a funny picture. His foot is on the right with his heel on his nose and his fist is on the left on his cheek under his eye. He just likes his face covered. He is one flexible baby! I don't know how he got his foot in that position. At one point he had both of his feet on his face and his hand under them with his ankles crossed. The rest of the time during the ultra sound his one foot was up to his face and the other foot was up on my ribs. His head was down on my bladder all day.

 Another good face shoot. I just love my little baby Noah man. I can't wait til he is here! I just want to hold him even more now that we got to see him again. Sean is so excited!

 This is his man-ness. He is definitely a boy. If you remember at the last ultra sound the tech sounded a little unsure and it made me unsure. I'm so happy to know that he is definitely a boy.

Tonight is the Bradley class as well. We were so bummed to have missed it last week so we are really looking forward to going even more than usual. We have been super busy with the plumbing problem I wrote about in an earlier post. There is a lot going on with it right now so I'll post about it after we have more of an idea of whats actually going to be taking place to fix it. So far there have been 3 plumbers, an insurance adjustor, water damage people and mold and water tester people all at our house within the last week. See what I said, BUSY! So more to come about that later.

Fathers Day!

Yesterday was Fathers Day. Even though baby Noah isn't here yet he is still Sean's son so we got to celebrate Fathers day for the first time. We had planned that we were going to go to my parents house on Sunday to see my dad and then we would go out just the two of us later this week to celebrate for him being a daddy. We unfortunately are short on cash so we don't get to do anything to celebrate like we did for me for Mothers day. This makes me more sad than it does Sean. He just doesn't care too much about things like gifts and going out. He is just as happy with kind words from me and a hug as he would be about going out. So after church we went home and took a nap and just cuddled lots. Then we went to my parents house that evening for family dinner. We all went around the table and said why we loved my dad and made some jokes and rhymes as well. Mine was "I love you dad, thanks for being rad, and still loving me even when I was bad" haha Yeah I'm a great poet. The rest of the night just consisted of hanging out talking and telling stories and being silly.  Sean's dad lives in Florida so it was not an option to go see him. Sean did give him a call and got to talk to him for a while. I am looking forward to someday after Noah is born that we can take a trip to Florida and spend time with Sean's Dad and his Wife. I'm so grateful that Sean and I have loving fathers that hold the Priesthood and helped guide us in our lives. We are who we are today because of them. I am also so grateful for Sean. He is an amazing husband and I know he will be an amazing daddy. He already is and Noah is one lucky baby. I am most grateful for a loving Heavenly Father. He grants us such wonderful blessings and really does all He can to care for us.

The Awesomeness of a Coed Baby Shower

The day finally came! Sean and I have been looking forward to it for months. The day of our baby shower. We are just cool like that, and decided that we should do a coed baby shower. Noah is just as much his baby as mine so why shouldn't he be able to join in the festivity? Exactly there is no reason other than the old traditions of only women at showers. We are breaking the mold! Haha. It turned out to be just as fantastic as we planned. We had about 50 or more people come and fun was had by all.

The food was delicious! Catering included (provided by friends and family): veggie trays, fruit trays, two different kinds of meatballs, lil’ smokies, lots of pizza, chex mix, cupcakes, and cookies. We didn’t even have anything left over it was so yummy! The party lasted from 4pm to a little after 8pm. I really loved that it was coed because it meant that all of our friends were able to come and it made it even more of a celebration. We got tons of gifts, which we are very grateful for. I love friends! Now there are only a couple more items we will need to get before Noah comes. Mostly just small things like soap and nail clippers.  My sister Amanda hosted the shower and did a superb job at it. She and my mom planned some awesome games. Now I am going to overload you with pictures of the night. 

 This is my mother in law and my sister, Andrea, preparing the feast!

 One of the games was just for Sean. He had to carry that monkey around with him for the entire shower and treat it like it was our baby. He did a great job and won the prize at the end.... We still haven't decided what that prize is yet but the committee (Amanda and I) is in the process of figuring that out. It will be something awesome though!

 Party People!

 This is one of the games we played. We had 6 volunteers that had to suck on the bottles and see who got the most guzzled down in 10 minutes. Andrea won with a close second by Blake Shill. Some unlucky contestants received prune juice instead of root beer or apple juice. Poor Brittney and Alex.

 This was the baby food eating game. Contestants had to be fed by their partner and see who could finish the jar first. Andrea and Kirby won this one but there was talk of cheating. She scooped it straight into his mouth with his head tilted back.

 I love this picture! Kirby pushed out his belly and made me feel small again. What a good friend :)

 We played Measure Mommy. Everyone cut off the amount of ribbon they thought it would take to make it around my belly. Some people were nice and made theirs really small, others were not so nice... Jimmy for example (Sean's Brother) made his as tall as I am! haha I think he just has a poor concept of how bit I actually am. Sean knows me so well he even knows exactly how big I am. His ribbon was the perfect length to go around my belly.

 Jessica was off by many inches. haha. Her ribbon didn't even go around her belly. She has a bad perception on body image I think, lol jk

 Present Time!!! This is one of my favorite gifts. Ok I have about six favorite but still. This one my mom made for us. Its made from my wedding dress. She made a blessing suit for little Noah and she also made a blessing dress for when we
have a little girl.

 I'm pretty sure I was either purposely making this silly face or I was in the middle of saying something? Either way I love it.

 This is another one of our favorite gifts. Our friends Ben and Melissa made them for us. They got a couple plain white onesies and then hand made a bunch of ties and bow ties to velcro on to them. They will differently be Noah's Sunday outfits.

 Another of our very favorite gifts! Tim and Adriana gave them to us. Adriana made them. Matching accessories. A tie for Sean, bow tie for Noah and a head band for Me. We decided that they will be worn the first Sunday we take Noah to church. I love when families match :)

 More presents! Amanda and Corey gave us the vibrator bouncer and the play gym. Noah will love these!

 This is another of the awesome games we played. As guests came in the were able to write advice for us as newly parents. Also there was another index card for them to make a guess of the day and time I will have Noah and also how much he will weigh. Who ever gets the closest wins movies tickets.

 We also did a diaper raffle. Since we are using clothe diapers instead of disposable we asked for donations to be given and then they were put in the raffle to win movies tickets. It was a nice try but sadly we only got $8 from it. Oh well that's $8 more than we started with!

 Our other favorite gift. My mom made us a diaper bag. She cross-stitched the sock monkey on there. I just absolutely love this! I have an original diaper bag.

 More party people and present time. So that is pretty much how the whole shindig went down. It was great fun and wonderful people. Sean and I are so blessed to have so many friends and family support us and show us such love. Thank you to all those who came. We love you!

Leaking Pipes, Swollen Fingers and 33 Weeks

For the past couple months our water in the house has been coming out yellow. It wasn't too bad at first, we just had to run the water for a bit and it would turn clear. But in the recent weeks it has gotten increasingly worse. Its so bad now that the water is just plain yellow no matter how long we run it. Its pretty gross to say the least. We call our land lord and scheduled for plumbers to come take a look and give estimates. It turns out they recommended re piping the whole house. The pipes are very old and are made of galvanized steal. They pipes are really rusted and corroded. They suggested replacing the pipes with copper because that won't rust. The estimate was for several thousand dollars and I don't think the land lord can afford to have that cost right now so he suggested just getting filters installed on the faucets. Sean and I were happy to oblige for now as long as it solved the problem. We all knew at some point the pipes would have to be replaced as they are just going to get worse but we were fine with holding off on that for as long as we could. This plan was radically altered last night, due to the findings of Sean but the prodding of Me.

The last few days I have been smelling a mildewy smell in the whole house. It smelled kind of like wet dust. I told Sean this but he just shrugged it off as another pregnant women smell problem. (In all fairness to Sean. I tend to smell things that bother me all the time lately. My sense are really sensitive since I got pregnant. I smell things from rooms away.) Sean finally smelled the mildew last night and went on a hunt to figure out what the culprit was. He even climbed on the roof but to no avail. Last night about 9pm last night he noticed a discoloring on the ceiling in the hall. I then followed my nose and found some more water damage in the nursery closet.

 The plumber came and cut a hole to look at the pipes. You can see the discoloring around it. That's where a bunch of water leaked. It was really damp even last night.

This is the closet in the nursery. Its even worse. The water leaked from the ceiling all the way down the wall. Its still damp right now because the water was still leaking most of the day until about 2 hours ago when the water was shut off. I can see this being a big inconvenience for at least a couple days. I don't know how long its going to take to get this all fixed but I assume a good amount of time. Looks like the filter idea is out and it is a must to just change all the pipes in the house. It could have been a lot worse though so at least there is a bright side. None of the stuff in the closet was ruined and we caught it as soon as we could have.

Today I am 33 Weeks

I can't wear my wedding ring anymore due to fat fingers! Haha, ok they aren't really fat but still that's how I feel. It's summer time in good ole' Arizona and that means deathly hot temperatures. This in turn causes even more swelling that would normally occur in a pregnant women. My hands aren't super swollen but enough to make my wedding ring quite snug. I can still wear it right now but it hurts to take off and leaves a small indent.  Sean said it was a good idea to just take it off now rather than later when it won't come off and they have to cut my finger off or worse cut the ring in half! That would be tragic! So now my wedding ring graces my neck on a chain instead of my finger.

In other news, coming up events and activities that will be blogged about in days soon to come:
Baby Shower Tomorrow!!
Ultra Sound on Tuesday!
Bradley Class Tuesday!
Selling Sean's Truck
Looking for Blessings in Every Situation
Alex and Kirby's Birthday Parties Next Week

Food Poisoning and the Missed Bradley Class

Sean, Me, Andrea, Brittney and Kirby went out to Applebee's on Monday night and had a grand old time. It was hours after that though that Sean had a horrible experience. He got food poisoning from the sliders he had. (His mistake for not going with the crowd and getting wings like everyone else did lol) He woke up Tuesday morning with a stomachache and he was throwing up and other details I will not share... yeah .. you probably figured it out.. It was bad. Poor honey. I hate seeing him sick and weakly. He stayed home and slept most of the day. When I got home from work I took care of him and we just watched some netflix. 7pm came and went and we missed our Bradley Class. We were both really bummed to miss out but he was not in any condition to be leaving the house. I sent a text to the instructor and she said she would send us an email with the info from the class. We were going to learn about the second stage of labor. We have the workbook at home so we are going to read it tomorrow when Sean is feeling better. Today is Wednesday and he is still feeling sickly. He isn't throwing up anymore but he is still weak and has a bad stomachache. Seeing him sick today just made me realize even more how blessed I really am. Even though he isn't feeling well he still was asking me how I was and if there was anything I needed. He just takes care of me no matter what even when he is the one who needs taking care of. Man I am one lucky women. Of course I told him I was fine and to let me just take care of him. Well that is all that is going down in the land of Howell. I hope he starts to feel better asap! Our baby shower is this weekend and its co-ed so he is supposed to be there.