Baby Update #3

We had another NST today and an ultrasound. Everything was ok with the baby and with me. There was just one problem... the baby weighs 6 lbs 15 ounces and she still has 4 weeks to go (maybe), which means she could end up weighing 9 pounds!! I'm not sure I like the idea of a 9 pound baby, so I'm hoping she comes sooner than later, but we will just have to wait and see.

I go to my regular doctor tomorrow, so we will see what she has to say. She may say I can move around more, which would be nice.

Today's ultrasound provided some really good pictures of our little one. Her hands were, yet again, in front of her face and her nose looks really wide, which I'm hoping is just the angle. She is kind of frowning in the second picture too. But she is still so cute!! We can't wait to meet her! Oh and the ultrasound doctor said again, that she has LOTS of hair! I can't imagine a DeHart being born with lots of hair, I can't wait to see her!

Baby Update #2

I went for another non-stress test yesterday. Everything is fine. The baby has a strong heartbeat and I still have a quivering uterus. That's a whole lotta info for some of you, but who cares. But I don't think I've had too many contractions this week, a few, but not a lot.

I keep hearing stories of people that were put on bed rest for weeks and then had to be induced at 41 weeks cause the baby decided not to come on it's own. This, my friends, is my biggest fear! While I want her to cook as long as she needs, so she is super healthy, I don't know how long I can stand this! Hopefully she will join us in this world in the next 2 weeks, but we will just have to wait and see...

I am bored out of my mind

So this is the end of week one on bed rest and my official stance on the matter.... it sucks! I've got one and a half more weeks to go and I just might die from boredom. I've had lots of visitors, which I LOVE, but I can't wait until tomorrow for my weekly trip to the doctor. That's the highlight of my life right now... going to the doctor... yippy!

This is how Stella spends most of her day. Although usually she's sleeping on my lap. I think she loves having someone home to hang out with.

Adalyn Estelle Shirley

Brett's brother and his wife had their baby girl yesterday. Everything went well and she is just beautiful. I do have to say I'm shocked that she was 8 lbs 11 oz and 21 inches long. Neither Brett's brother nor his wife are big, so I expected a tiny little thing from them. But I LOVE the little rolls Adalyn has. Congrats guys! Can't wait to introduce our little girls to each other.

P.S. I stole the pics from their blog.

Baby Update

I went for another NST (non-stress test) on Tuesday and everything looks good. I had a few contractions and some irritability of my uterus while I was there, but they let me go home this time.

The last time I had the test they had to give me some orange juice to get the baby moving, so I figured I would help them out this time. I ate some toast with peanut butter and honey just before we left. Little did I know that I was pumping the baby up therefor making it hard to read her heart rate. Oops. They said any baby that moves that much has got to be healthy. So there you go, now I know that she loves orange juice and peanut butter.

Hidden blessings...

So as many of you know, Brett and I had quite the scare this week. I've been measuring big since week 23 or so (extra amniotic fluid) so my doctor had me start going to get weekly NST tests (non-stress tests). Tuesday was my first one. I had been at work all day, and I left a little early to make it down there, thinking nothing of it. I was just going to be hooked up to a monitor to check the baby's heartbeat and make sure everything looked ok. No big deal, totally routine. I felt fine, 100% normal.

So the lady hooks me up to the monitor and after about 20 minutes she says, "Are you aware you are having contractions?" NO! I mean I kind of felt them since I had a band around my belly to monitor the baby and my stomach was pressing against the band, but I didn't think anything of it. Well she decided to call my doctor and I overhear her saying I'm having contractions TWO MINUTES APART! WHAT?! She was really calm, and acted like it was no big deal, but she had to send me down to labor and delivery. SO I'm all alone, since the test was just routine Brett didn't come with me. The tech tells me not to worry and to go downstairs to just be checked out. On my way I call Brett and tell him what's happening, he just kept saying, "Tara, that's not funny." Well I didn't think it was funny either!

I walked into labor and delivery thinking I will just have a quick test of some sort and be sent home. That did not happen. They checked me in and gave me a room. Then they tested me for the protein that tells whether you are in labor or not, and guess what, I was positive for it. AND, I was dilated. Not cool when you are 32 weeks and 6 days pregnant. The baby is too young. So they admitted me and started pushing some serious drugs to stop the contractions. At first the drugs made the contractions worse, so they had to up the dosage. Finally the contractions stopped and things started to seem like they would be ok. But I didn't sleep at all that first night, it was awful. I was poked and prodded and left with zero modesty! The next day I was still on the meds, which made me feel so sick, but my doctor was hesitant to take me off of them. She said had I not had that NST test I would have had this baby! Talk about a blessing that I had that test. So I stayed on that medicine until Wednesday night. Once they took me off, I started to have contractions again. The oral medication they were hoping to switch me to wasn't working. I also started with a fever and shivers, something was not ok. The nurse we had wasn't too comforting either. She was acting really nervous and then asked us if we had talked to anyone from the N-ICU! WHAT!? So I started bawling, of course. The nurse tried to tell me everything would be ok, but she went to get the doctor and another nurse to check me out. The others came in and decided to up oral meds to stop the contractions and give me a strong dose of antibiotics. They assumed I had some infection which was irritating my uterus causing the contractions. So after taking all the meds and finally getting the chance to take a bath, everything settled down. Friday late afternoon the doctor let me go home.

She told me I had to be on strict bed rest until I go to see her again on the 30th. I will have to go for NST tests every week, as well. Once I go back to see her, if I haven't had the baby by then, she will take me off the medication that stops the contractions and let my body do what it wants, since the baby will be almost 37 weeks.

So, here I am, thankfully without a baby yet, but laying in bed, sick and sore from spending the last week in the hospital and dreading the next few weeks of lying here. I am, however, so thankful to everyone that has called and sent flowers and worried and prayed for us. I know we were truly blessed to have to take that first NST test, without it I would have had the baby and she would be in in the N-ICU right now. So that's my story for now. I will keep everyone as updated as I can.

Introducing....

The first "human looking" photos of Baby Shirley!



We had an ultrasound yesterday and at one point the tech changed it over to 3D. If I had known she could have done that I would have asked for it LONG ago. It was neat to see her and kind of get a feeling for what she may look like. I think she has my nose! It's hard to tell though because her hands were up in front of her face, so the tech had to erase her hands, and it kind of messed up her face a little. But it's still really cool!!

I'm famous

Not really, but I am on the Making Memories blog today, along with the 2 other pregnant girls in my office. Apparently it's totally crazy to have 3 pregnant girls in one office.

WHAT A BIRTHDAY!!!!

Yesterday was a very special day - it was Tara's birthday! She didn't have any presents to open yesterday but that's my fault. Not because I didn't have any presents for her, but because I made the mistake of buying early. Whenever I buy early, I get so excited to give them to her that she inevitably opens her presents early.

This birthday was a little different from her birthdays in the past, thanks to the little bun in the oven. I'm learning alot about what pregnancy can do to the human body and how it can interfere with celebrations.

Pregnant women know how to be specific. They are never really in the mood for whatever. So, for Tara's birthday, we ate out, but it wasn't anything extravagant. We didn't have a cake because she wasn't in the mood for it. And, judging by the clock in the picture, we weren't out late. These things made me worry that she wasn't enjoying herself on this special day. But right before we went to bed, I asked her if she had a good birthday and she told me she had and that she was happy.

Really, happiness is the best gift I could give her. And, I hope I can always make her as happy as she makes me. Happy Birthday, Tara! I love you!

Hey! I don't look like a house in these pictures!!

My friend from work, Jenny Weston, is a photographer, but had never taken maternity shots before, so she asked if I would pose for her. I said "Sure!" Brett and I met her early Saturday morning at Memory Grove, took a bunch of photos there and then went downtown to a cool alley. I stole these pics off her blog, hope she doesn't mind... I think they turned out beautifully, I'm so excited to get them printed!! I even wore lipstick for these photos... now that's big time for me!

You can see more on her blog if you like.

Hogle Zoo...Schmogle Zoo

I went to the Hogle Zoo last Saturday with Brett's cousin Ally and her kids. Brett stayed home to work on the cabinets so he missed out on the coolest zoo I've ever been too. Oh wait, I mean smallest zoo I've ever been too! It was really fun to hang out with Ally and the kids, and the few animals it has were kind of cool, but really, it's not an awesome place. I will definitely go back, especially with our little girl, but I wanted more from the zoo. I got some really cool pictures though. Especially of this one really cute chimp. And the kids are pretty cute too!

Freaking huge...

I've had a few people ask for a recent photo of my giant belly. So here you go. Freakin' huge, FREAKING HUGE!!!

And yes, I still strongly dislike being pregnant. It's terribly uncomfortable and everyone lovingly tells me it will just get worse. Thanks for that bit of uplifting info! But I continue to be thankful that I am healthy and the baby is healthy, and I can't wait to meet her. I have another ultrasound on Dec. 1, because I'm "consistently measuring big" at my doctors apt. which could be bad for the baby. But I'm confident everything is ok with her and me. We did find out that I do NOT have gestational diabetes, which is awesome!

The latest ailment I am struggling with though, is heartburn. My mom, so nicely, told me tonight that her terrible acid reflux problem started when she was pregnant and it never went away. YAY for me!! Thanks mom! Sure hope this horrible heartburn can keep me up every night for the rest of my life.


Oh and you can see the cabinets in the background that are almost done being painted! I'll post more pics of the kitchen when we are completely done.

Rest his weary "Bones"....

The likable dog I had growing up had to be put down yesterday.

Cash had, what I call, territory issues. Every fall, the "scent" of other dogs in the neighborhood would carry through the breezes for miles to Cash's nose. A slave to his urges, he would track that scent down and try his hardest to father illegitimate children.

Cash wasn't the only pooch that would track this scent down, and being stricken in years, the competition to father bastard children would get fierce. This last bout wasn't the only one that required a visit to the vet. But, it wasn't the battle to subdue his passion that got the best of him, it was the side-effects of his age and internal health.

Hopefully, Cash will find and become best friends with the spirit of the guy that created hot dogs. I think that would be heaven for both of them.







Posted by Brett

My CMYK girls

My 3 girlfriends and I have a monthly tradition. Around the second week of every month we go to dinner and sometimes a movie too. We usually try to go somewhere none of us have ever gone before, and we really like going to small, hole in the wall places. This month we went to a little place that you may have heard of, it's called the Olive Garden. HA! The salad sounded really good to me and the girls were cool with it. We have been going to dinner every month for about a year, and have never taken photos, but this time I remembered!! Here's our first CMYK photo ever.

Next season's Dancing with the Stars

LOVE IT!!

Favorite people

Last week I was able to see 2 very old friends that I pretty much haven't even talked to since high school. It was so fun to catch up, they both look the same! Angela (Barnett) Bladen came to visit her parents in Farmington and was able to go to dinner with me and Brett. She brought one of her little guys, Dalin, he is so cute! Unfortunately I didn't get any picture with them, maybe next time we see them, which hopefully won't be in 10 more years.



Two days later, one of my most favorite people ever, came to Park City to shop with her girlfriends, and invited me to join them. Lisa Valdama, LOVE her! She's the same, still totally awesome and it was like we had seen each other everyday. No awk-weird moments, just fun!! This was the weekend of our first snowstorm, so I was very grateful that I was able to get to Park City and home safely. Oh, and she totally started crying when we first saw each other, it was hilarious!! She's the coolest! Can't wait to see her again.

This is what we woke up to last weekend.


A few more weeks ago, another one of my ALL TIME FAVORITE people, Dayna, came to town for a minute. We went to Provo to have dinner and talk. Fun as always. She just did her first triathlon today and I am so proud of her! Wish I could have been there to cheer her on.

Take one down, pass it around....

99 days of pregnancy to go!!!


If anyone is paying attention to the little baby ticker to the left, you will notice that today, October 19, marks 99 days left until the baby is due!! We've made it to 2 digit numbers, no more hundreds of days left!! It's still too long, I'm terribly uncomfortable and pretty much hate being pregnant, but I am so grateful and excited!! I can't wait to meet this little one.

This is what I've got Brett doing today.


Sewing! I don't really know how to sew, but I wanted to make a runner for our table. So I started it, and Brett is finishing it! Like usual. He wasn't too happy with me taking a picture of him being domestic. Sorry babe.

A-OK!

This afternoon we had to have another ultrasound. At my appointment last week I was measuring 4 weeks bigger than I should be and the doc was worried. So we went in today and everything is fine! The doctor said the baby is perfect! She is measuring 1 pound 14 ounces (she should be measuring 1 pound 12 ounces) so she is just a tiny bit bigger than she should be, but nothing out of the ordinary. I do have a lot of fluid, but not more than they want me to have, so that is ok too! I'm having the glucose (gestational diabetes) test earlier than normal, to make sure it's not that, but I think everything is ok.

The tech that did our first ultrasound pointed out how cute our babies bum is, and the doctor who did the ultrasound today said the same thing! So apparently she is going to have an awesome butt! Here's hoping at least!! HA! And they did verify that the baby is definitely a girl, so we don't need to worry about that either.

We were able to get the coveted profile picture this time, so enjoy!!

Ross Shirley

June 25, 1912 - October 1, 2008



As Tara mentioned in an earlier post, last week was a hard one. Both of us lost our granpdpas, just 2 days apart. Loosing someone close to you is never easy. Certainly, I wasn't the closest person to Grandpa, but he has been a solid figure in my life as long as I've been alive. Thanks to frequent visits, a couple fishing trips, and one entire summer of sleepovers, I started to feel pretty close to both him and Grandma.

When thinking about all the good times we had with Grandpa, it's impossible to ignore everyone else that was present during those times. There are so many occasions we got together as a family, if for nothing less, than to simply enjoy each other's company. Towards the end, Grandpa would so quietly disappear that few would notice. Not because he wasn't enjoying himself, but because of the amount of energy it takes to be that old. Who could blame him, there are times I wish I could escape the steady background noise of guitars and 60's rock, screaming great-grandchildren, and elevated conversation. Yet, it was all thanks to him that we were there at all, and had a place to catch up with each other.

If I was going to pick one word that would describe Grandpa's funeral, it would be pride - not typically one of the words associated with the passing of a loved one. Certainly, we all feel a little grief and some sorrow that Grandpa isn't going to be around anymore. At least, that's how I feel about it. But from my Dad, and from his brothers and sister, I couldn't help but notice pride in each of their faces. It was easy to tell that, much more than any sadness and sorrow, they were proud to have had a man like Grandpa as a father. They were proud that he was a man of strong mental and moral character. They were proud to have had him as a role model. They were proud to have simply known him.

I was fortunate to have had a few one on one experiences with Grandpa. Thinking about it now, I'm sure all of us that knew him can participate with pride in the lessons we have learned from him.

We love you Grandpa, and we'll miss you.

Alfred Leroy Ewer

October 13, 1924 - September 29, 2008




My grandpa passed away on Septemeber 29 at the ripe old age of 84. We had his funeral this last weekend. It was beautiful. He served in the US Navy, so he received a military burial. I had never seen one before so it was a great experience. There was a bagpiper, a 3 gun salute and a bugle. Needless to say that as soon as the music started, the tears started. And really, there is no stopping those, especially since I've been pregnant. I'm sad to have lost my grandpa but so happy that he is now reunited with my grandma, the love of his life. Now all my grandparents get to meet our little girl before we do and prepare her for what to expect with me as her mother. I'm sure they are encouraging her to torment me and Brett, like I did my parents.

Here is a small excerpt from his obituary:

He served honorably in the US Navy durring WW11 aboard the USS Dunlap in the Pacific. He not only repaired the diabled ship, but laso designed and built the required tools. He married Fern Hart, became the beloved father to her three children and later added two more. He joined the LDS Church and the family was sealed in the Salt Lake Temple.... He was a true gentleman and will always be an example of Christlike love, selfless love. He was always gracious and appreciative. He tenderly cared for his eternal companion until her death...."

My grandpa was one of the most kind and gently men I've ever met. He really did set a great example for Christlike behavior for all of us. I didn't know him as well as some of my siblings did, but I loved him dearly and will miss him terribly.

Wanna win a free handbag?

I do! Go to Handbag Planet and enter to win a handbag. Their website opens in a few days so they are giving away one bag per hour on the day they open! I registered to win hour 20. Which one do you want?

Click here

Some "Week in the life" photos

It's been a pretty bad few days, but in order to focus on something good, I thought I would post some of the photos I took today for my scrapbooking project. I'm pretty excited about it and I hope it turns out as cool as Ali Edward's does. I just wish I could remember to take photos throughout the day.


Morning photo. I never realized how tired I look when I leave for work.


Best lunch ever! Veggie Low Mein and cheese wontons!!! I could eat this every day.


Mmmm... healthy pumpkin pie! I forgot to take a picture in between lunch and pumpkin pie. I went to the gym and ate dinner, THEN came home and made healthy pumpkin pie. I'm so domestic.


Favorite part of the day, a hot bath.


My other favorite part of the day, bedtime!

What a loser...

I'm assuming that since I haven't received a call about the dream nursery contest and the top 3 are supposed to be on air tomorrow morning, that I didn't win. Boohoo. Anyone want to give Brett and I a $2000 nursery?? Flavia?

Found!

I found the baby bedding for our little girl! It's so cute but not over the top cutesy! And, there is orange in it! L.O.V.E. Now we just have to buy it. I hope we like it in person, this is only an online store, so we can't see it or touch it before we buy it. Oh well, we can always return it.

UPDATE!
I found it at a bunch of stores around here, including Babies R Us, so I can totally go see it in person! Yay!

Ah crap, I'm gonna scrapbook!

One of my favorite people I've discovered since becoming a part of the scrapbooking world is Ali Edwards. She always puts out a "weekend creative" project on her blog and this one I have decided to do! It's called "A Week in the Life" and it documents one week in your life, all the mundane boring aspects that, at some point, might be nice to look back, or at least our little girl might like to, maybe? So I think some of you should do it with me. I know Jenna and Sara scrapbook, and I know you check this blog, and I know you have lots of crap to do this project with. So do it!

One more half day of voting!!

Voting ends tomorrow at 11.59 am for the dream nursery baby bump contest! If you haven't voted yet, PLEASE do!! PLEASE!!! I'm #92, and if you don't want to see some really gross photos of big pregnant bellies, don't even look at the photos, just go straight to voting and click on #92.

Click here to vote for me!

Thank you everyone soooo much for voting for me!

Our Photo Shoot!

Last Saturday Brett, myself and Stella had our photos taken. The photographer was having a sale, so it was super cheap. I'm not sure it was such a great idea for me to have my picture taken at this point, and I have to say it was a horrible idea for me to wear a white shirt! White is not slimming. And I don't think the photographer was very good, there are only a few that we actually like. Good thing we didn't spend much on these. Here are a few that we liked. As always, Stella was the star of the shoot. She is beautiful!