Photo Book of Bentley's first three months

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3 more weeks! AHH! and Vegas Baby Shower

So the day is getting closer and the preparations for baby Bentley are in full swing. We finally have a car seat so we can bring the little one home. He has a crib with a mattress and a sheet to sleep on but nothing for sleeping in mommy's room when we bring him home. Hopefully that will get here early next week. :-) As for the nursery, we have updated it so I thought I would show a few pictures of the progress. Most things aren't hung on walls yet and we are still getting a feel for the placement of things but are pretty sure this is how it will be situated...

and no that is not a mini crib for a teddy bear, that is a super massive teddy bear overfilling the regular sized crib. Don't worry the teddy will find a new home shortly.

Here is a picture of how I have started to organize the closet... It will probably change another 10 times before the baby is born. Unless he is born tomorrow. Then it might just change twice.

 These sport portraits will be hung above the dresser but since Riley was in Florida when I was laying things out I just set them on the dresser for now.

Okay and then this last photo is one that I saw on pinterest of some cute shelves made with vinyl rain gutters! I loved the idea and since we don't really have many books anyway, I figured this would be a cute way of displaying the books in the nursery. I am just painting my shelves today so I will post a picture of them hanging in the nursery later (probably after everything else is hung on the walls.) I plan to put the shelves above the rocking chair.

Also, this last weekend for Mother's Day I had the privilege of going to Las Vegas to be with my mom and family. While down there, my best friend Cena threw me a baby shower so here are a few pictures from that. It was so cute and we had a blast!

I realize that I don't have any photos that I took with the people there so I will have to get those from Cena later. It seriously was a such a fun party and I am so grateful for all the wonderful friends and family that came! I hope you all know how much that meant to me! I love you!!!

Now just for a little funny photo... 

while in Vegas, my mom cleaned my teeth and I saw this plate on display in my dad's office that made me laugh. Yes I drew it all by myself back when I was seven. It is a portrait of me sitting in the dental chair with my dad standing beside me. Not to be confused with a pile of poo puddling on the floor beneath me as my dad pats me on the back. Thanks to my husband for maturely pointing that out.

Funky (annoying) Pregnancy Symptoms

Notice that this isn't a post about the normal symptoms that I was expecting to experience while pregnant such as (but not limited to):

- morning sickness
- sore achy back
- stretch marks
- swollen ankles and feet (and possibly other body parts)
- tender breasts
- mood swings and crying spells
- heightened sense of smell
- loss of memory/mind
- etc.

All of those above mentioned things were symptoms that I had really been anticipating. Not that I wanted to have any of them, but they at least were in my "pregnancy peripheral" so to speak.

So now I am just going to vent a little about the freaky weird (that supposedly aren't freaky and weird while pregnant) things that have happened to my body since this little guy started growing inside of me.

(****WARNING there are a couple pictures of my body that might be a little disturbing to some. Proceed at your own risk. Don't worry nothing is R rated. Just weird.)

1. First is "bacne."

Bacne (n): a symptom of the skin where giant pustules of pain spring up all over your back resembling a raspberry patch fully ripened and ready for picking.

I have never had more than maybe three zits on my back at any given time in my life but my entire pregnancy I have had an outbreak of the worst puberty-like explosion of irritated pimples and red spots covering my whole upper back. It actually wasn't too big of a deal during the winter months because I was always keeping it covered but now that it is getting warmer and I am wearing more loose fitting neck lines their beady little eyes are poking out on the back of my neck which is a little embarrassing. I promise that I shower daily and scrub off the dead skin and oil. I have tried creams, face wash, exfoliants, leaving it alone, exposing it to the sun, all sorts of things and nothing has seemed to change it in the least bit. I cannot wait to be able to get a back rub from my husband without wincing in pain and holding back a tear from the soreness caused by my bacne.

2. "Linea nigra"

Linea nigra is a dark vertical line that appears on the abdomen during about "three quarters of all pregnancies."

3/4 of ALL PREGNANCIES?! How come I hadn't heard of it before? I thought I had a very peculiar stretch mark. When I first noticed it, I immediately texted my husband and my mother. I wasn't sure if something was tearing, or if I could maybe do something different to make it stop or go away. But alas, it is just another tag that bearing children will leave on a mother's body. (You know, just in case she forgets what it was like.)

Below is the picture I texted my mom and husband the night it appeared. I am very blessed to have a very faint line compared to most.

3. Geographic tongue

Geographic tongue, also known to the smart folk as benign migratory glossitis, is a condition of the tongue that is characterized by red regions or patches covering the surface of the tongue. It is a chronic condition that can change shapes and sizes (hence the "migratory") and often manifests itself after eating any of a range of exacerbating foods, or during times of stress, illness, or hormonal surges. And that is why mine manifested itself just a couple weeks ago. Thank you pregnancy hormones!

I was brushing my teeth at night and while finishing up my brushing, I scrubbed my tongue with my toothbrush. It felt a little sore and so I inspected it to see if I had bit into it on accident. And this my friends, is what I saw....

I ran to my husband and asked him if my tongue looked abnormal to him. He said it was probably fine and would most likely go away by morning. I was worried I had cancer starting but was relieved when I remembered that I work in a dental office and would be able to see the dentist first thing in the morning. When I asked him about it the next day, he examined it and said, "Yup! That is geographic tongue." The hygienist at the office that day assured me that it was nothing to worry about and that she also has it. She stuck her tongue out and it indeed looked like some weird geographic archipelago had been mapped on her tongue. She said that she noticed it first when she was 19 and that acidic foods like pineapple, and also salty chips seem to make it appear. So I supposedly will have this funky mark (or perhaps some other country/region) on my tongue for the rest of my life. FUN!

4. Numbness in heel.

Now this one is accompanied by a symptom that I was honestly expecting and that is sciatic nerve pain. Around 17 weeks into my pregnancy, I started getting a sore back and shooting pains down my right leg. It has only increased in severity as my pregnancy has progressed almost causing about 4 different falls where I suddenly lose the ability to stand or walk on my right leg. 

The story for this one also started one evening. (I just realized that almost all of my pregnancy symptoms are found out right before going to bed. Weird.) I had just brushed my teeth and washed my face and was changing before hopping into bed. I kicked off my slippers and removed my socks and stepped my LEFT foot down on the carpet and realized a tingling sensation. It seemed like no big deal and I just thought I could rub it out for a second and it would go away. After about 5 minutes of vigorous rubbing, my heel was warm and red in color. I KNEW I had circulation in my heel. How else could all that blood be pooled down there making my skin so red? It shouldn't be numb. I started to freak out. I massaged my calf and my thigh. Then I asked Riley to rub and then punch (a massage-like punch) my bum-cheek on my left side. While he was doing that I felt for about 30 seconds like my heel was super itchy and hot. I was getting feeling back. BUT that stopped and the numbness came back. I asked him if he thought I should call the doctor or do something about it. And like a smart husband, he said, "Just google it." I had done this with nearly every other symptom and had gotten results for all of them in relation to being pregnant. And sure enough, as I typed in "numbness in heel dur...." the computer automatically popped up a ton of results for "numbness in heel during pregnancy." 

It is caused by the loosening of my ligaments and shifting of joints which add pressure to my sciatic and other nerves causing a numb feeling in my heel.

And that my friends is why no one should get pregnant just because it sounds fun. Don't get me wrong, it is awesome to be able to grow a human inside of me. But it is also freaky weird stuff man. 

Thanks for listening. Keep checking back as I am sure that there are more fun things to come. 

Riley's Birthday

Happy birthday to my freaking awesome husband whom I love. This post is dedicated to you, Riley. (Also I will share a little about our weekend away for his birthday.)


Okay I am just going to brag about all the wonderful things that I love about Riley Banks:

- I love that you love to cook. I am so happy when you say you want to make pasta for dinner this weekend, or, "let's smoke some ribs tomorrow night," or even, "I want to try something different with some salmon tonight." Most women would shirk at the thought of their husband attempting to prepare a meal but I am lucky enough to have found a man that not only enjoys cooking but is VERY good at it.

(yummy smoked salmon on cedar plank)

- I love that you are so darn funny and goofy. I know I am pretty good at holding a poker face when you crack a wise one but usually I am dying inside. You have a rare talent of being speedily witty and just altogether random. I am often caught off guard at how quickly you process information at a moments notice and are already spurting out hilarity for all to enjoy before we are even ready for it. Please never stop with the jokes. (Except the jokes that involve you jumping out to scare me. You can stop those kind.)

- I love how youthful you are. You are so energetic when you are around little kids especially our nieces and nephews. You are also this way with your best friends and co-workers and I love how playful you are. It is so refreshing when you are in a goofy mood. It makes life so much more exciting.

- I love how attractive you are. (Of course I thought of this one right after posting that awesome 80's picture of you... hehehe) I am so glad that I am married to a man who is a handsome beast.  You take care of how you look and always look so nice and put together. I wish I had some of your wardrobing abilities. You have an eye for tasteful male fashion and look smoking hot in business clothes. I am glad that you care about appearance but also not too much as to seem narcissistic. (I am obviously overlooking your Beatle's hooded "mank")

seriously, smoking hot

- I love that you are passionate about BYU sports. Honestly it is a little hard for me to admit that because I fear the stretch "Y" logo may take over the interior decor in every room of our home but I like that you have something that you care so much about. It is so important to have something aside from family and work and church that you can just lose yourself in. I am glad however that you can and do include your family and church and work in your passion. Go Cougars!

The Y has already taken over our backyard.

- I love that you are very intelligent. It is nice to know that our kids will have someone to go to when they have a question about the world. Modern technology has made information so readily available but it is a rare occasion that you even need to look something up for validation. I love that you have a constant desire to acquire more information. You have quite the memory and I am hoping those genes get passed on to our little ones. It's no wonder helmets are so tight on your head. Big head=big brain. ;-)

- I love that you always take care of me. You work hard to earn money to provide for us and pay for things which is so wonderful and selfless. But you also have been so sweet to me in running silly errands to the store to buy vegetables when I had morning sickness so bad, or random yogurtland cravings I had, or running to pick up my prescriptions from the pharmacy when I was out of commission. I love that you always offer to crack my back first thing when you get home and hug me. You always acknowledge my efforts after preparing a meal even if all I did that night was throw some rice in the rice cooker. You always are making sure that I have a jacket on before I leave if it is cold out. You always force me to wear a helmet on our motorcycle rides. You even shared your tiramisu with me the other night! Now that is true love.

- I love that you are a worthy Priesthood holder. It has been such a comfort knowing that I have that protection at all times that I am with you. I love that you are there to offer Priesthood blessings to me the many times I have needed them. I love being in the temple with you. I am so happy that we are sealed together for eternity.

There really are countless other things that I love about you and many things I discover new about you every day but I wanted to just let you and the world know how much you mean to me. I love you and happy 32nd birthday!


So for Riley's birthday I planned a weekend golf getaway to Las Vegas. Oh yea, p.s. I also love that Riley is good at golf and even takes me with him! Anyway, it all went down like this:

The week before I went into Riley's work and informed his co-workers that he would not be coming into work Monday, March 18th which was his birthday. I made Riley think that I just wanted him to take it off so that we would have the day to spend together but in actuality I had already made some calls and arranged for us to be golfing at some amazing courses in Las Vegas on both Saturday afternoon and then again on Monday morning (Thanks to Dix Jarman for the hook-ups!). Friday while Riley was at work I packed up his suitcase leaving only his bathroom stuff and golf clubs out just so he wouldn't notice something was up. I went to the store and bought all his favorite treats and put them in a cooler to cheer him up in the car when he found out he would be stuck sitting in it for 5.5 hours. That night after he came home from a BYU dinner/auction he was invited to, I snuck out in the garage and loaded up his and my golf clubs. Saturday morning I went and got some donuts for breakfast so as not to leave a mess in the kitchen and told him that I had made some birthday plans for him that day and he was to shower and get dressed in golf clothes. I told him I had a tee time scheduled and therefore we needed to be on the road by 9:00 to make it in time. I almost blew the cover by having packed his favorite golf shirt already as well as his golf pants. But I informed him to wear shorts as it was going to be a super nice day out (in the mid 80's in Vegas) and helped him select the next best golf shirt to wear. He also noticed that a pair of his shoes were missing and then he asked me where they were since he had just pulled them out the day before. I told him that I had packed them in the car along with his golfing shoes. He didn't ask anymore questions. Phew. Then he began inquiring where we would be golfing and if it was a place he had been to before or not. I informed him that perhaps he might have been there long ago but to my knowledge I have never known of him golfing there. He guessed we were going to Hobble Creek Golf Course in Springville. So when we got on the freeway headed South on I-15 and I merged over towards the Springville exit he thought he had guessed it. Until I drove on to the next exit for Spanish Fork. He then guessed that we were going to Spanish Oaks but was confused because we have been there together a couple times. We drove past that exit and then he asked if we were going to some golf course in Payson that I honestly had never heard of. I just laughed. When we passed Payson he asked, "Are we going to VEGAS?!" Again I laughed and then asked if he had ever golfed at TPC Las Vegas before. He hadn't. Phew. I didn't lie. I disclosed the weekends adventures to him and we enjoyed a wonderful time in the warm sun golfing, going to a show, eating lots of yummy food and just relaxing. Here are some awesome pictures from our weekend.


                                                                Golfing at TPC Las Vegas

Beautiful conditions and a gorgeous course with awesome mansions all around. 

Then after Riley's last putt on hole 18 there was a massive bird crossing right across the green where he had just been.

My mom and dad bought some little chicks so we had fun watching them jump all over one another and listening to them chirp all day long. 

 

Then, on Monday morning we golfed at Badlands in Summerlin. Also great course and beautiful conditions all day.

There were hundreds of these little bunnies on both courses. They would get so close to you. Riley had to dodge several little baby bunnies that didn't understand the rules of a cart path and the potential consequences of an approaching cart. 

We ended our trip Monday afternoon by eating at a delicious restaurant called Honey Salt. We both enjoyed it very much after our long morning golfing out in the sun. If you ever decide to go there, I don't care if you are too full, GET THE SALTED CARAMEL ICE CREAM! Heaven in my mouth. So yummy.

 And that about sums up Riley's birthday this year! I had a blast planning it and surprising him with it. I just hope in the future I will be able to live up the standard I have set. Haha. He deserves it. He is great.

Nursery Update!

Well folks I have some pictures finally of our nursery. Now don't get your hopes too high because there is still literally nothing in the room. We had one of the walls spruced up a bit as well as our office so I will go ahead and post those too. We are both very happy with the results.

Here is what the wall looked like before in the nursery:

Okay yea pretty boring. 

Here is the finished wall!

 So I imagine that will be the wall that we put the crib up against. The window wall will have the glider/recliner up against it and then on the opposite wall of the fancy one we will put the changing table/dresser thing. So far, we have purchased the crib but it is being shipped into the store hopefully this week thus why it isn't set up yet. We purchased a super fancy stroller that I honestly had little to no decision in buying. Riley is quite the researcher when shopping for new things. He likes to price match/compare, read rating reports, customer reviews, watch videos, etc. before he makes a semi-large to large purchase. I did have the final say of course in whether we were going to get it or not but lets just say that he was a pretty persistent salesman in convincing me to join the "Origami Stroller" bandwagon. Click on this link for a little video of the fancy shmancy thing. Origami Stroller Demo

And here is the glider chair that we found at the Liquidation Team store for a smoking deal. I am on the lookout for some cute fabric or for a cute pillow to go on it so let me know if you know of something. (colors we are thinking about are grey and dark blue but we are open to other suggestions)

Okay so now to show the before and after of our office. The walls in this room are grey although the lighting makes it look several different colors.

And here is the finished product:

Oh we also had two accent can lights put in to highlight the beautiful painting on the wall. We LOVE how all of it turned out. I have to give praises to Riley's friend Bart Dallin who did it all for us in a VERY short amount of time (it only took about 2 days for these two rooms to be completely done and painted) and for an extremely reasonable price. Let me know if you need a contractor to do some projects around your house. He is a perfectionist (which we love about him) and also very talented at what he does. Also he is just a great guy. 

Emily and Laura. This one is for you.

I have been reading a lot of other blogs lately and have been thinking oh that is something that I should do... later... like when I do something really cool and have a picture of it. Then, I am like, "I don't EVER take pictures." So then I thought I should maybe start it up when my baby gets here. HAHA  Oh yea, news flash other people who might be reading this, I am pregnant. 25 weeks pregnant to be precise. But anyway, then I decided with the help of two pregnant blogging cousins who live far away from me that I really enjoy reading and hearing about their lives via the internet and blogs and such and they probably would like to hear about mine as well. So this will hopefully be a treat for friends and family everywhere to read about my experience being pregnant. 

Okay so quick catch-up on the whole getting pregnant thing... Riley and I tried for 1 year and 9 months to get pregnant before we actually did. So hurray! I actually had gone into the OB at like 1 year 8 months to get tested for infertility and such and about a month later I received a call to report on my lab work from blood tests they had done and they were like, "well your levels are a little low but we think we should do some more testing before we start administering drugs to assist..." I was SUPER bummed after they called so on my way home from work I purchased a two-pack of pregnancy tests and was determined to make sure I wasn't actually pregnant. You see, the weekend before "the call" I had had some spotting which I perceived to be a really light period but then had read that sometimes you get light bleeding when the egg is implanting in the uterus. Having taken several negative pregnancy tests earlier though I was discouraged from taking yet another one and crushing my and Riley's dreams. So I didn't tell Riley. I went home and took the test. I left it in the bathroom and went out and said a little prayer and then went back into the bathroom to read the results.... heart pounding... I looked down and it said I was pregnant!!!! I maybe cried a little to myself and I knew that Riley was going to be home within minutes so I hurriedly grabbed the test and placed it out in the open on the kitchen counter for Riley to see when he walked in the house with groceries. When he saw it he just said, "Well what does that mean? I don't understand those things." As if he couldn't tell already from my beaming smile and giddy attitude what the plus sign meant. He came and gave me a much deserved high five and then a hug and kiss and we just kept smiling at each other the whole rest of the night. It was wonderful. Our projected due date is June 10th.

So skip ahead another few weeks... MORNING SICKNESS era. BOO.
About week 8 I started feeling really sick to my stomach while on a business trip with Riley to San Francisco. I ended up just staying the hotel room for the majority of the trip because I couldn't function. I couldn't eat or walk or shower or smell anything without wanting to vomit. I came back and had to call in sick to work for about 4 days in a row until they called and said that they would give me a few weeks break off of work to get feeling better which was soooo nice. However, it didn't get better. Not at 12 weeks, not at 15 but finally around week 17 it started to ease up. Phew. I was living on my Phenegran prescriptions to get through my days and just did my best to keep snacking on saltines and veggies and water. I only threw up about once every week. I lost about 8 lbs total during that miserable era.

During this time I did have a few ultrasounds because of some spotting I had while in San Francisco. Turns out I had two fairly large cysts on my right ovary. One was 2 cm in diameter and the other was about 5 cm! The doctors were concerned about it so they did a few extra ultrasounds to keep tabs on them and luckily they both have completely dissolved. Which, in retrospect, the nurse said that may have attributed to my difficulty with getting pregnant since my right ovary was probably not always producing an egg as it should have.

Here is our little one's first picture ever! This is at 9 weeks.

Really it just looks like a little peanut but you can kind of see where the body and the head are. 

Here is the next ultrasound picture that I had at 13 weeks. 

Definitely a lot more definition but still no knowledge of the little one's sex yet... until...

this one taken at my 20 week appointment.

Little boy!!!! Riley and I are way excited. So in this picture he is being a little shy but trust me we got a really good spread eagle glimpse of his goods to confirm a little later in the ultrasound. 

So now here is a quick preview of my belly's growth from the outside. I haven't been very consistent but have taken few so I guess I will show you all the ones I have. 

This is me at 9 weeks

Here I am at either 16 or 17 weeks I believe

And 22 weeks

And here is 24 weeks

And BOOM there you have it. There is a baby in there now. For a while I just felt like I was getting an excessively pudgy tummy. (Okay maybe I still feel like I have one but at least there IS a baby underneath staying nice and toasty warm.)

Other progress in the baby area include that we are pretty set on naming him Bentley Banks but haven't solidified a middle name yet. So from here on out I will just refer to baby #1 as Bentley. The nursery is just getting started tomorrow. We aren't painting the walls but are adding some paneling and a shelf on one side of the room to spice things up a bit in there. I will post a before and after photo when it is all finished. I'm still not sure on colors or theme yet... Ideas are welcomed!

I haven't had any real cravings besides just food all the time and sleep mostly all of the time. I also did start working again in January just one day a week and only HALF day on that day. Can't beat that!! Haha. I have noticed though that I have been extremely bored during my long days at home while Riley is working and especially when he is out of town. It actually gets me pretty down in the dumps some days and even makes me cry at how lonely I feel. Maybe that is the pregnancy hormones making me feel that way but I have determined to at least leave the house at least once a day or speak with someone on the phone or in person at some point in the day to help. Has anyone else had problems with this? I typically am a pretty happy person no matter what but maybe I just never realized how much I rely on others to help boost my spirits. Who knows.

So that is my baby update. There will be more to come soon so please keep checking back. I want to keep this up so I have a good record of my pregnancy experiences. Let me know if you have any questions or things you wanted to know about so I can have something to write about. :-)