Showered with Love--part 1

This last Saturday, one of the sweetest things of my life happened. My young women threw me and another leader Skye, my good friend, a shower. It might not sound like that emotional of a thing, but it was very emotional for me. For the past 3 years I have served these girls, and in the pain of my infertility, I felt like a sort of surrogate mother for them. They filled a portion of my life that would have otherwise been very empty.

The girls really downplayed the shower. "It's going to be really small. No big thing." But it was a big thing. There were a dozen or so of us there, and there was so much love in the room. The church was decorated SO CUTE! There were these paper lanterns and tissue paper puffs hanging from the ceiling and a darling "Baby Girl" banner. The other leaders put together these cute games. The girls smelled candy bar diapers and tried to estimate how big Skye's and my bellies were together (back to back).

The girls put together the sweetest gifts. Among my favorites were some gorgeous felt headband accessories and an unbelievably darling quilt. I felt so overwhelmed. This whole time of my life is such a blessing. I can't wait for what's to come. I know the upcoming celebrations and (of course) the birth of our little girl will be even sweeter.

7 Months Along and Loving Life!

Hi Friends,

My apologies that I've been such a bad blogger lately. I'm not sure why, but the longer I take the post, the harder it is.

My life consists of a few important things right now: nesting and studying. I have to say, I am a really spoiled pregnant lady. I have worked my whole pregnancy, but after my first trimester, I've only been teaching online and not on campus. I'm such a homebody that I really don't mind lounging around the house all day. There's really a lot to do around here. (Do I really get the "important" things done? Not so much--most days, but I have been having fun.)

My nesting has gotten out of control folks. Seriously. If I were a normal woman I would be invading every retailer in town to buy darling baby stuff, but I hate waste, and I don't want to end up with 30 newborn outfits that our little girl won't even get the chance to wear. To tell you the truth, I haven't bought anything.

My nesting has been of the crafty variety. I have been quilting and sewing most. This wouldn't be ridiculous on it's own, but I'm telling you, I've planned out a whole wardrobe for our little girl. Hopefully she doesn't look totally weird always walking around in hand-crafted clothes. :/ Here's the latest thing I've made:

My nesting really would be perfectly fine, except that I have a lot of academic things I need to do. I don't think I've written about this at all on here yet, but the last year or so of my Ph.D. has been tough! (You can skip the next few paragraphs if academic chatter bores you.) Last fall I took on a full load of teaching and my own coursework because I knew we would be doing IVF at the first of the year and hoped that we would conceive--(epic success!!). That semester was totally exhausting. It's a wonder I didn't crash one of those nights driving back from Vegas. I was so tired. Last spring, I studied for my comprehensive exams. As is typical for Ph.D. programs, I am required to pass 3 written exams and one oral exam. For these exams I reviewed a list of about 200 works. These texts were in 3 different categories: 19th Century British Literature, The History of the Novel, and Feminist Literature.

The written exams involve sitting in a locked room for 3 hours for each exams and answering essay questions that can be on anything my committee wants to know from my three lists. I took these exams in April and they were SO TOUGH, and I had morning sickness, which didn't help at all. I felt pretty confident, but studying so much volume made me feel confused sometimes. I was totally crestfallen when my chair called me a few after I had completed the exams and told me that I had not passed 1 of the 3. This set me back from starting my dissertation, which I was really hoping to get started before the baby came.

Instead, now I'm studying for my last written exam again. (It's the 19th Century British one, which is the one I felt most confident about last time..??) There's a lot of pressure because if I don't pass this time, they don't let me write a dissertation. I'll be taking the written exam in the next few weeks and then I'll face my committee a few weeks after that. (Imagine 3 Ivy-League-educated, ultra-liberal, and super smart lady Drs. of Literature who all want to find something wrong with me. No pressure.)

And so I'm reading lots and lots. This is what's been on the menu for the past few weeks:

Oh, and on top of that, I need to pass an upper-division Spanish Lit class (Independent Study from BYU) by the time the baby comes. I LOVE school, don't get me wrong, but I am so really to be done. I've got to pull my head out of all the pink tull and floral printed fabric in the nursery to get this done. Wish me luck.

As far as my pregnancy, it's really a gift. Feeling this little baby move inside me is such a miracle. I can't believe I'm really going to be a mommy. It's such miracle, and I try to thank Heavenly Father every day for it. I'm feeling pretty good, but I definitely am getting more uncomfortable. Most nights I sleep great, but about every third night either heartburn or pain in my ribs keep me up. Alas, not even my trusty body pillow can completely alleviate the discomfort.

I have about 2.5 months to go, which oddly feels both long and short. I guess I was expecting my pregnancy to go so slowly, and it hasn't gone slowly at all. I look at my tummy in the morning and think, "what happened?!"In some ways I feel totally prepared for what's about to happen, and in some ways I feel like I'll never be prepared. I'm sure any of you who have had babies know what I mean. Sometimes I'm a jumble of emotions, but I remind myself to take it all in stride and try to just enjoy the ride. :)

Thanks for reading. I promise I'll update again soon. Now all the excitement is happening!