Quick (but very long) Update

So......I have about half an hour to do a quick blog update. Ready, set, go!!! 

In January Sawyer and I, thanks to the generosity of my dad sharing his airline miles, had the golden opportunity to go visit my Brother Ben and SIL Chantal and their kids, Jett and Eden, in Arkansas. We were supposed to travel down there with my mom, but a day before we were going to leave she was struck down with the flu! Struck is very accurate because she was SUPER sick and it came out of nowhere! Noooooo! Bad timing to catch a yucky virus. So Sawyer and I went by ourselves, which for some reason I was really nervous about! I think my nervousness stemmed from not having flown in years. I like to travel with another responsible adult who can tell me which gate I am supposed to be at and at what time so I don't have to be the one worrying about it! It was crazy to think that Sawyer hadn't flown since he was nine months old when we went to Australia. Of course flying with a four year old is way easier and much more fun since he was BEYOND excited to fly, as evidenced by the photo below. Thankfully everything went smoothly and I was able to get us to the correct gates on time.  

He was fully captivated while looking out the window during take off and landing, but mid-air I had to try my best to keep him entertained with an arsenal of snacks, games on my phone, his Leap pad  and coloring books. The drawing below I had to take a photo of because it's the first time he has drawn people that are recognizable as, well, people. Sawyer is the big person in the middle who is wearing a hat and holding balloons. I am to the left and he said he didn't draw my big belly because the baby is out of it and is the stick person below me wearing a diaper. Matt is stick figure to the right of Sawyer and has the long beard.  The little details, like Sawyer's shoes, Matt's beard and the baby's diaper make me smile. 

We got into Arkansas pretty late and my brother Ben was nice enough to come pick us up even though he had to get up early the next morning for pilot training exams, which he had a lot of during the week.  

Above is my cutie patootie niece Eden! She is so stinking adorable from head to toe that the sweet way she talks was almost too much cuteness to handle! I sent this pic of her to Matt to let him know I was getting some practice doing pigtails on a little girl since we have that to look forward to in our future! 

Jett and Sawyer had lots of fun and, for the most part, got along really well together! Jett was super good about sharing all his toys, which is really hard for a four year old kid to do, so thanks Jett! He also is a major self esteem booster as he would randomly give me hugs throughout the day and say "Aunt Kristen, I love you".  Soon Eden caught on and would start giving me hugs around my legs and saying "I wuv you too". I've never felt so loved as I did that week! :) 

For some reason Sawyer's Cars sleeping bag was a huge hit and every day the cousins had fun playing in it. 

 Here is a pic of Chantal and I when we 'bellied up' to document the girl cousins in utero. The photo  below is of us doing the same thing back when we were pregnant with Jett and Sawyer in 2009!

Some other highlights of our Arkansas trip included riding the trolley. 

 Eating at a train themed restaurant where your food was delivered to your table via a toy train. 

Going to the park to play in the evening. 

Feeding the ducks. 

Going bowling on base. 

And then there was Sawyer's absolute favorite part of the whole trip which was when Uncle Ben set up a time for us to go in the flight simulator at his school. It was super realistic and really cool! All three of the kids got to be the co-pilot and fly the plane. 

Since we have been back Sawyer has been obsessed with all things airplane. Looks like we might have another pilot in the family eventually! 

At the end of the week it was time to say goodbye and head back to Idaho. The cousins were pretty sad to say goodbye, but we are sure glad we got to see them (and Ben and Chantal too) one more time before they move to Long Island! 

On the way home we had a four hour long layover in Denver, but thankfully Sawyer was a champ the whole day. He got to pick out a toy at one of the gift shops there for being so well behaved and of course he chose an airplane! He has already taken it to Show-and-Tell as preschool twice since we have been back . 

Since being back home I have started school and am wrapping up the second week of my last semester of nursing school. Wahoo!!! So far it's been exactly what I expected, as in very time consuming and a LOT of prepping for the NCLEX (which is the test I take after graduation to become an official RN). 

Thankfully Matt has perfected the art of making a macadamia nut mocha on the new espresso machine that his mom got him for Christmas so those has been my energy back up. 

Look at that beauty above! Now he just needs to learn how to make fancy designs in the foam and we could start charging for them! 

And as far as my pregnancy goes I am roughly 35 weeks and my BabyCenter app on my phone put it very accurately when it sent me an update saying "Fatigue has probably set in again". Yes, I couldn't have said it better myself. I. am. tired. I've gained about 25 lbs so far and that extra weight alone can slow you down, but then the ever increasing basketball on my midsection is making it difficult to bend over or even get out of bed. Plus I have had a lot of uncomfortable Braxton Hicks contractions the past few weeks which has been a new experience for me since I never had any with Sawyer, or at least not that I remember. 

This past Monday I had to be at an orientation at the hospital in downtown Boise by 6:45am so Sawyer and I stayed at my parents house Sunday night to make it easier the following morning. I barely slept a wink that night because I couldn't get my brain to shut off. Literally, maybe two hours of zzz' s and then I got up at 5 in the morning to get ready for my orientation. Then I was gone all day at the hospital and then at school for a skills lab until 4pm. All day long I didn't feel good. I was having what felt like menstrual cramps, TONS of Braxton hicks and lower back pain. Finally when I got to my parents house around 4:30pm to pick up Sawyer I thought it might be wise to call my doctor just to see what he thought since I was technically only 34 weeks then. I was only able to talk to the triage nurses at his office, but they recommended I go to the hospital to get checked out. My mom accompanied me to the hospital and Matt headed over to my parents house to hang out with my dad and Sawyer in the meantime. I was afraid I would get there and they would see me in my nursing school scrubs, hook me up to the monitor, not see a darn thing and think "Just another paranoid nursing student!". Instead, they hooked me up to the monitor and sure enough I was having regular contractions two and a half minutes apart, so I'm glad I went in! They monitored me for about three hours total, all while having me drink a bunch of water to see if hydrating would help the contractions go away. I was only dilated to a one, so the contractions thankfully weren't were making me dilate, but they were definitely uncomfortable! They didn't go away after downing a bunch of water so they ended up giving me a shot of Terbutaline to relax my 'irritable' uterus and within five or ten minutes the contractions dissipated. Miracle drug! The nurses said had I been 35 weeks or over they wouldn't have given me anything to stop the contractions. I'm thankful I wasn't that far along because a) I wouldn't have wanted to go home feeling that way and b) had they continued and started to make me dilate I really didn't want to go into labor that early not only for our baby's health, but also for my own mental well-being because I think school is going to be much easier with baby girl IN rather than OUT :) If she kindly would continue to bake for another four to five weeks to allow me to get some preceptorship hours completed that would be greatly appreciated! 

However...if she insists on making her debut early we have almost everything ready for her. Her crib is set up, her room is decorated, the car seat is ready to go, diapers and wipes are out, all her clothes are washed and folded, and the only thing left is to wash all the bottles. We've been really lucky to have so many friends and family give us hand-me-downs to keep or borrow such as bottles, baby shoes, baby clothes, a super nice Medela breast pump, nursing tanks, crib bumpers, baby wraps, etc. 

So there you have it. A QUICK update that only took me an hour to do. YIKES! It's been an hour?! I have homework to complete! Hopefully I can give another update in the next few weeks, but who knows, my next one might not be until I'm writing the story of baby's birth. Until then!