Smiles and a Baby Shower

(by Aubree)

I have the best friends in the entire world. They threw me a baby shower a few days ago. It was so much to be with everybody. We're lucky that everybody lives close together, although Lyndzi is moving far away, and we're sad. Thanks, April, for hosting the shower! And thanks to Lyndzi, Lena, and Amelia. It was so much fun!

Between the five friends, we have ten kids!

The four most recent babies

Daddy and baby

Clara has started to smile a little bit. This is the closest we've come to capturing it on film. I also think she's developing a dimple on her right cheek. It's so cute!

One Month Old!!

(By Aubree)

Our baby is 1 month old. Can you believe it? She is such a blessing in our lives and we are enjoying parenthood so much. She is now making eye contact and will study your face. She even reacts to us when we talk to her by raising her eyebrows and moving her mouth. She has been sick for the last week, so she hasn't been sleeping as well as usual, but she will sleep for about 3 or 4 hours at a time, which I feel isn't too bad. She is such a strong baby too. We have pictures of her holding herself up and looking around. Her arms and legs are so strong that it makes dressing and undressing her hard, and she hates getting dressed so it's quite a fight sometimes.

She hates taking baths and this proves it! She is actually getting a little better at it though.

She likes holding daddy's hands. She has really long fingers, but they look tiny compared to his.

These are the pictures of her holding herself up. I was just holding her in the chair and Jeff and I were just talking and all of the sudden I was like "Jeff look at your daughter!" and he grabbed the camera. She was like that for a long time too!

Clara with Grandma and Grandpa Gittins.

Clara with Grandma and Grandpa Larson.

Left to right: Cambry, Cloe, and Clara.

These are my sister Andrea's twins, yes they're twins. Cambry weighed over a pound more than Cloe. The week before Clara was born Cloe weighed 8 lbs 7 oz. Clara weighed 8 lbs 6 oz. at birth. I think Clara was 2 weeks in this picture, so she had lost a little weight since birth.

New Pictures of Clara

(by Jeff)

Here are some new pictures of Clara.

Clara Eliza Gittins

(by Jeff)

Clara Eliza Gittins arrived on January 6th, 2009, at 11:48 p.m. She weighed 8 pounds 6 ounces and was 21 inches long. Clara and Aubree are both doing really well.





Aubree's probably going to kill me for posting these last two pictures because she'll claim that her hair is a mess. But I think it looks great, especially for someone who had just gone through 14+ hours of labor.

For the Record

(by Aubree)

So this is more for my sake to remember just how big I got. I don't know why because it's not at all flattering, but I will want to remember this some day I'm sure.

This is Jeff's sister Ginger who is due at the beginning of May. I can't believe I posted this because I'm a giant to her even when neither of us are pregnant, but like I said some day I will probably want to look back right?

This is me at I believe 35 weeks, so 3 weeks ago. One thing I do want to point out is that this is not a maternity shirt (although it was too big before I got pregnant. Hey, I'll take all of the confidence boosting I can get.)

A little update:
I went to my doctor last Monday and my blood pressure was really high (151/92 or there about) and I had some swelling going on. Then he had me lay down for a little while and came back to test my blood pressure and it had dropped dramatically (120/60). They didn't find any protein in my urine, so it's not full blown toxemia, but he said he wanted me laying down all day. He said it wasn't bed rest, but he said I couldn't get up to do any house work no matter how short of time I was up. So I don't know what the difference between bed rest and this is, but it's so not fun. The swelling has gone down, it really only lasted for about a week, so that's good. I'm trying to stay busy by doing sudoku, knitting, playing nintendo DS, catching up on phone calls that are way past due, watching TV and going insane. I did go to the last block of church today because I hadn't been out of the house for 3 days and it felt good to be around people for a little bit. I've got 13 more days left, but my doctor did say last time we may have to go early, so I guess I'll find out at my appointment on Tuesday what will happen. I didn't really want to go early, but I can't take much more of this laying around all day.

Merry Christmas

(By Aubree)

You all might think we have fallen off the face of the earth. Nope, we're still here. We've been busy, busy getting ready for "D" day (delivery). We didn't even have time to put up a Christmas tree this year, and I think we might have about 3 small decorations up.

I just want everyone to know we are thinking of you all and want to wish you a Merry Christmas! We obviously slacked on the sending out Christmas cards as well.

Just a quick update. We moved the office stuff to a bedroom downstairs and Jeff painted the nursery light green. We finally bought the crib and dresser/changing table combo yesterday. It will be coming in 3 to 4 weeks, and I have 3 and 1/2 weeks left! Hopefully it will come early. Also, I went to my doctor today and the baby measured at 7 and 1/2 pounds!! Again let me remind you I have 3 and 1/2 weeks left. The baby is most likely going to gain 1/2 pound a week. That puts the ending result, if I carry to 40 weeks, to at least 9 whopping pounds!! My doctor tried to make me feel better by telling me he had just delivered a 11 and 1/2 pounder the other day. Yeah, thanks doc!!

Everything else is going pretty good. We are looking forward to seeing our families the next couple of days. I feel fairly calm and ready for everything, which is quite non-characteristic of me. I guess we'll see how I react when the labor starts!!

Health Scare

(By Aubree)

Don't worry the baby's fine. But I had a weird thing happen this last week. It all started last week some time when I found that I had lost the use of some of my taste buds. There was an odd sensation where it felt a little tingly and cool like I had just brushed my tongue with toothpaste. I didn't know what to think because I had gone to the orthodontist to have my retainer removed from my bottom teeth because it had become detatched from some of my teeth, and he scraped off the cement and they did an impression for a new retainer. They didn't inject me with anything, but I thought either something got on my tongue, or my toothpaste had something in it that I was reacting to, so I changed my toothpaste.

Then on Wednesday night for some reason I couldn't make a puckering face. The right side of my lips were droopy, kind of like when you get numb at the dentist, but I didn't feel numb. When I had thought about it, the night before I realized that my lips felt a little weird, but didn't put much thought into it. Then I put my warm hand on the right side of my face and I could tell that it was a little warm, but then I put my hand on the left side and it felt a lot warmer. So my right side of my face was losing sensation a little bit.

Okay, who wouldn't freak out just a little bit? Of course I started to think that I had had a stroke or something had happened with my brain. Nevertheless I slept that night and called my Doctors nurse in the morning and she wanted me to come in to see my doctor. I was trying my best to stay calm, but still was freaking out. I called the pharmacist I was working with that day and told him I had to get into the doctor and when I explained what was going on, he said that it sounded like a type of herpes virus that attacks the nerves in your face. Okay, that sounds kind of horrible, but it sounds a lot better than a stroke or something. It's so great to constantly get free medical advise from the smart people that I work with!

I went in to see my doctor and explained everything. I showed him my puckering face, and he had me do other exercises like squint my eyes. When I did this my right eye didn't close as much as my left eye. He had me raise my eyebrows, but that looked fine. He had come to the same conclusion that my pharmacist had. It was a virus attacking the nerves in my face. The good news is in minor cases, such as mine, the damage isn't permanant. I am now on Prednisone which is a steroidal anti-inflammatory that will decrease the inflammation which will hopefully resolve this whole thing. The bad thing about taking this is my pharmacist said it could make my baby big. The good thing is that it's what they inject unborn babies with when doctors want to deliver the baby early due to health problems with the mom to develop the babies lungs.

Later at work my pharmacist and I came to the conclusion that it was brought on by stress like other herpes virus' such as shingles and cold sores. It has been beyond stressful at work, and I couldn't do anything after work because I was so tired. Then of course my housework got neglected so I would stress out more. When Jeff would cook or clean it would stress me out even more because I know he has stressful, long days at work too and I would feel guilty. And on top of all of that, my baby is coming in 2 months and I don't have the nursery even started, and we have a bunch of stuff we still need to get!! Ahhhhhh!! I cut back on my hours a little bit this week and finally had a day off after working for 8 straight days, so this week has improved a little bit. It's still a little stressful at work, because we have mostly new people who I have to train, but I only have about five more weeks of work before I quit!! yay!!

Funny Quirks

(By Aubree)

I've been tagged...Quirks!

Here are the rules: list 6 quirks about yourself. Tag 6 more people, tell who tagged you!! Heidi tagged me! So, here are my quirks...

1. These first 2 are going to make everyone think I am absolutely nuts! Oh well, I guess I kind of am. If I step on a crack in the side walk with one foot, then I can't go very long without stepping on a crack with the other. It's not like I have to step on all the cracks or anything, but if I do happen to step on one, I have to repeat with my other foot. Weird, I know.

2. So I might be a little OCD. When I'm riding in a car, I have to either flinch my foot towards something on the side of the road like a sign or road marker, or move my finger or or knee or elbow when I pass something on the side of the road. It used to bother me, but I hardly even notice anymore.

3. Now for the not so crazy quirks. I shave my left leg first. I used to have a problem with only shaving one of my legs, and forgetting the other, or maybe I shaved one of them twice. I am not one of those girls who can go 3 or 4 or more days without shaving either, I have to shave everyday. Now I know if I am done shaving my right leg, I am done.

4. I have an absolute fear of spiders. I become paralyzed if I see one, then I scream bloody murder. Jeff really hates this. He tells me I have no right to scream like that unless I've cut of a finger or have some kind of bodily harm. He sometimes even refuses to kill it for me, because he wants to make me stronger by making me kill them myself. I blame my father who would chase my sisters, mom, and me around the house with cat-face spiders.

5. I have to have a plan. I'm not exactly the most organized person in the world, but I am a planner. I think I can blame, or thank my mom for this. She always made sure we had a plan when we were going somewhere with our friends, which is a good thing. If I don't have a plan I panic a little. It can be anything from planning what to eat for dinner, to planning a vacation, to when we will set up the baby's room.

6. I have t-shirts that I wear to bed that I got in high school. I can't seem to throw away some of them, if I just wear it to bed I don't see why not. I can't really see a point in buying new t-shirts to wear to bed unless I will be wearing it at someone elses house.

I tag... Amelia, April, Lyndzi, Anna, Nicole, and Emily.