August Update

This month has been SUPER busy!! So here it is!

Adam and Ashley: We mostly spent the month bouncing from one thing to the next. Earlier in the month, I took a spur of the moment trip to visit my friend Kayla in Las Vegas and Adam was a trooper at home taking care of Eli. After 6 days, I came back. We had a 4 day break and then my mom came in town! She was helping my grandpa drive back to Idaho so she decided to stay a bit longer to be here for Eli's birthday and the eclipse. Then, a few days later we had the eclipse, picked up Kayla from the airport (in insane post-eclipse traffic haha), and had a birthday part for Eli. My mom then left a few days later and then the day after that Kayla spent the weekend with us (her mom lives in the area but we were lucky to have her for a bit). Then Sunday night, a bathroom drawer fell and smashed my toe so I had to go to urgent care (not so fun but nothing broken). The rest of the week, we spent prepping for our trip to Wyoming for a baby blessing Labor Day weekend. It has been a whirlwind month but lots of fun :)

At the Bellagio with Kayla; party time for Eli's birthday; two very needy toddlers attached to Adam's hips haha

Eli: is officially 2 years old!!! He has become a little chatterbox and a mimic. He will repeat everything he hears haha. He has also discovered Thomas & Friends and Chuggington, so he's obsessed with trains. He has become super affectionate which has been fun and loves to give hugs and kisses. He is also very opinionated and throws tantrums when he doesn't get what he wants or if we can't understand him. He loves to go to the park and play outside. He loves food and we are attempting a third time to try to wean him from a bottle. We are trying to do it SUPER slowly, decreasing it ounce by ounce every week and so far it is working and we're down to only 5 oz at nap time and bed time. It is fun to see his little personality shine through and he learns more.

Eli loves to take silly selfies; I put his pants on his head and he thought it was hilarious haha; at our favorite Thai restaurant in Idaho Falls, Eli heavily flirts with the waitresses haha this one is particularly enamored and brought him ice cream for his birthday :) ;at his two year check up and growing like a weed!

2015: Year in review

Here are some of our big moments of this year:

- Adam started his second semester of grad school

- We announced I was pregnant the end of January

- visited Washington in March for one of my best friend's weddings

 - had a baby shower in Provo

 - visited WA again the end of May and had another baby shower there

 - Adam turned 26

 - a summer filled with baby preparations

- Adam co-taught a new class at BYU

- Our son Eli entered the world on August 21st

 - Adam started his second year of grad school

- I turned 24
- Eli was blessed October 11th

- We celebrated lots of fun holidays

- Eli grew

- I quit my job

- We started 2016!!

Happy New Year everyone!!

<3 The Lloyds

Our December

Quick updates!

Adam: finished off his semester with a 4.0!

Ashley: officially quit work the first week of December to become a stay-at-home mom

Eli: turned 4 months, rolls from tummy to back easily, became more vocal, and learned to stick his tongue out

Christmas: I got sick, then Adam got sick but overall we had a fun Christmas. We stayed in town and spent the time with my sister Stephanie and her family going to temple square and having a yummy Christmas dinner :)

Anniversary: We celebrated our 4th wedding anniversary by going on various dates throughout the day. We first went to the Norman Rockwell exhibit at BYU and then we went to a matinee of Star Wars. In the evening, we went to dinner and then shopped using our Christmas gift cards. I know, we are so exciting haha ;)

New Years Eve: We spent the evening eating dinner and playing games with friends. This day was bittersweet because my maternal grandmother passed away.

Our November

Here are our quick updates for the last month!

Adam: He is continuing his semester and is now almost done! I reduced my work hours so that was very helpful in relieving some of the stress he's been dealing with. We also found out that he will not be teaching DigHT 215 next semester. This is the class he's been teaching for the last three semesters. Adam has enjoyed teaching but is kind of relieved to have a little more time to work on his master's project. Luckily, he will be able to work a full 20 hours at BYU Online next semester which has a little bit of a higher pay :) He is excited for the end of this tough semester and to have a break at Christmas!

Ashley: I continued to work part-time until this week. It has been great working for Wasatch Mental Health and I absolutely love the people I work with. But being a stay-at-mom will be exactly where I need to be :) I hopefully will find hobbies and happiness even without going to a job.

Eli: He is one happy baby! Adam and I always remind each other on how lucky we are to have him. He is healthy, developing properly, and relatively easy to take care of. We are so blessed! He has discovered his voice and so he babbles constantly which is adorable :) He loves to roll from side to side, smiling, and giggling. I hope no one minds how often I post pictures of him!

Thanksgiving: This month's special event! We stayed in Provo again and did dinner with my sister Stephanie and her family. We divided up the dishes and everything turned out delicious! It was interesting to have to make many different dishes while tending a semi-unhappy baby haha. But we did it! We ate our yummy food and enjoyed watching Inside Out together. I must say that from a former psychology student, that movie is AMAZING!!! :)

We are excited for a fun December and Christmas to come!

<3 Ashley

The Love Comes: Continuing my journey of postpartum depresion

I had a really great response to my first post on postpartum depression so I thought to document how I've been doing lately. I hope that by me being open others will be encouraged to seek help. One of my biggest pet peeves is stigma with mental health so if I can help educate people in my little sphere, that is what I want to do.

First off, I am doing a lot better. I am not completely 100% back to normal but every week gets better. The first month postpartum, I struggled with suicidal thoughts occasionally. I am happy to say that it has been quite awhile since I have had any such thoughts. I have been going to therapy consistently and have adjusted my medications a couple times hoping to get the right balance and improvement. In therapy, I have been practicing recognizing when negative thought patterns begin and stopping them. I try harder to celebrate the little victories.

One thing I initially struggled with was bonding with Eli. I should first say that difficulty bonding is not the main indication of PPD. You can still be experiencing PPD without it. But for my journey, that was one of the symptoms. After Eli was born, I felt a strange disconnect between him and the baby I had carried inside me. It seemed too surreal that he could be that baby. Although it helped in the long-term, I struggled to come to terms with quitting breastfeeding. I felt unnecessary in my baby's life because anyone could take care of him. I also felt a bit of resentment towards him for putting me through this. That made me feel really guilty because I knew it wasn't his fault or mine. But the love came. One night I was struggling with guilt because I didn't feel like I loved Eli like a mother should because I enjoyed my time away from him so much. Adam asked me how I would feel if Eli was taken from me now having known him. I started crying realizing that I couldn't bear the thought of not having my little boy in my life. I had been too caught up with how a mother's love was supposed to be, ignoring what I felt. Now, I take note of the little moments in motherhood that I feel that love.

Also, Adam and I made the decision for me to leave work earlier than we planned. Originally, I was going to work until January but it was getting difficult for Adam to juggle his work and school responsibilities with taking care of Eli while I work. So, we decided that I should reduce my work hours now and end the first week of December. Whenever I thought of being a stay-at-home mom in January, I always felt fear. I worried that my PPD would get worse. However, after prayerfully deciding to leave earlier, I felt peace. I knew that Heavenly Father would help me if I made an effort to focus more on Eli. In my last days of working, I've tried harder to enjoy the time I have with Eli, rather than always looking forward to my next work shift. That has definitely made a difference.

I still struggle with times of feeling down or overwhelmed, but it is getting better. I know I am not alone in dealing with this and I am so grateful for all of the support I have received from my family and friends. Thank you!

Our October

Updates
Adam: He continues to be an incredible husband, dad, and student. Sadly, he decided to withdraw from his family history course so that he would have more time to work on his graduate courses and his master's project. On the 11th, he went to Salt Lake City and presented with his team at the West Coast Conference for the Association for Asian Studies. Also, he got officially accepted to present on a online education panel at the AAS's national conference in the spring! He also got a scholarship for next semester which will be a HUGE help since I will no longer be working then. He is such a hard worker.

Ashley: I'm still working for Wasatch Mental Health and enjoying it for these last few months. I am getting more used to being a mom which has helped my PPD. I still am getting treatment and slowly improving. There are still bad days but hopefully I'll feel closer to my normal self soon. I'm used to feeling the anxiety but the depression is so new to me that it is difficult to deal with sometimes. But as Eli grows, my strength and love for him increases.

Eli: He is now two months old and a very happy baby. I think the Lord knew that we needed to be blessed with a good baby at this time. He is now just over 11 lbs, fitting into his cloth diapers, gets the hiccups ALL the time, and smiles lots. He is just starting to laugh more and occasionally grab or wack at toys. He also is getting better and better at head control. He loves sitting up on the couch, sucking on his fist, and having us talk to him. He's very social but is also content to just lay on a blanket and look around (a perfect mash-up of his parents' personalities). He enjoys when we sing to him and smile at him. We love him so much and are looking forward to all the new things he will learn.

Special Events
Blessing: Eli was blessed on the 12th. We were so lucky to have Adam's parents, Adam's sister Sharon and her family, and my sister Jessica all in town. Sadly, my dad came down with shingles right before they were going to leave to come down here so my parents weren't able to be there. They were sorely missed but hopefully it won't be too much longer before they get to meet their second grand-baby. We had a fun filled weekend spending time with both sides of the family. We hadn't seen Sharon and her family in over a year and were so excited to meet our newest nephew. All the kids enjoyed meeting Eli as well. Eli was a good sport for the blessing and the pictures afterwards. He slept all through church and then woke up happy for the pictures and just started to fuss when we were finishing. After the blessing, we all went to Adam's cousin's new house to chill and party the rest of the day.

Halloween: We had a pretty low key Halloween, not doing too much on the actual day except playing games with friends and watching Hocus Pocus. We did enjoy going to the church Halloween party! I'm always amazed at how creative people get with couples and family costumes. We were Charlie Brown and Snoopy last year and we decided to use them again. Funnily enough, we were trying to get pregnant this time last year and talked about that if we had a baby next year, we could do a Woodstock costume. So this year, I made one and it turned out super cute. I used every bit of the minimal craftiness I have to make the hat. He looked so adorable :)

Well until next time!

<3 Ashley

P.S. I hope no one on facebook minds the numerous baby pictures :)

Our September

I really appreciated everyone's response to my last post. I was so worried about sharing that much of what I was dealing with but I know it was the right thing to do. So many people reached out to me and shared their experience with postpartum depression and anxiety. Thank you for showing I am not alone.

Here's how the month has been for each of us!

Adam:  He has been amazing. He helps out so much with Eli and around the house while still finding time to support me through the PPD, do homework, and work in his jobs. For a little bit he stayed home from his classes to be with me, but luckily his professors have been super understanding and he didn't have to miss too many classes. He is only taking three classes this semester and they aren't too taxing right now. He is taking an advanced instructional design class, a statistics course, and a family history class (just for fun). He is also continuing to work on his master's project. In a couple of weeks, he will be presenting what he's been working on with his team at the regional Asian Studies conference in Salt Lake City! That also happens to be the same weekend as Eli's blessing so it will be VERY busy haha. Adam is aiming to graduate from his program in August 2016 so he doesn't have too much coursework left. Mostly it is just finishing his project. He is continuing to work for BYU Online as well as teach Digital Humanities 215 at BYU. He is enjoying the incoming of the fall season because it also means football season! Eli will learn quickly all about his daddy's love of BYU football :)

Ashley: I am improving every day. Dealing with PPD is rough sometimes as I have occasional bad moments but there are more good than bad. I was lucky to find some medications that are working right now as well as learning some coping skills in therapy. I returned to work at my part-time job at Wasatch Mental Health last week and it went really well. I am happier and less overwhelmed when taking care of Eli because I am able to have that break to what I did before he was born. It also helps to get into a routine of what will be our new normal. Everyone at my work was very excited to have me back which was a good mood booster. Many of the regular clients were excited to see me not pregnant anymore and see pictures of Eli. I am very grateful that at least for now I have the opportunity to work in such a wonderful environment. And Adam has been great at balancing all of the things he does with taking care of Eli while I work. I am hoping that I will continue to feel more like myself while still not being too hard on myself when the PPD/PPA flares up. I have definitely felt the prayers and thoughts on our behalf. Thank you :)

Eli: He is growing every day which is always so shocking to me. Already a month old! He is starting to grow out of his newborn clothes and he's gaining some more baby fat. He is more alert now which has been fun. And this last week he just started to smile! It doesn't happen super often right now but its always so wonderful when you successfully get him to grin :) He does not enjoy tummy time very much but he is getting a lot better with head and neck control when he is vertical. I met with a nurse that works for an in-home program for first time moms and she gave a lot of information and instruction on what we can do to help facilitate his development. I try to do what I can but its not always easy when he gets overtired. Eli enjoys eating, being held, and being allowed to wiggle while laying on his back on a blanket. We can't wait for his blessing in couple weeks so he can meet more of his family :)

One month old

Again, thank you everyone for your service, thoughts, and prayers. We have felt so much support near and far :)

Eli's Birth Story

Well it turned out that my last post was the last one I would write while pregnant! Our little boy Eli Edmund Lloyd was born last Friday on August 21, 2015. At birth he weighed 7 lbs 10 oz and was 20 inches long. I thought I should write down his birth story while I have it pretty fresh in my mind. It is pretty long but I wanted to keep it for posterity. The short version is that I started labor on the afternoon of the 19th, Eli was posterior so it was long, my water broke at 3 am on Friday, and he was born at 11:42 am. And this is the long version :)

Last Wednesday (Aug 19th), we had my 39 week appointment. Nothing new happened there, just the usual blood pressure, weight check, fundal height check. I had decided that I didn't want to do cervical checks unless I went late because it really doesn't tell me much that I'm at a 1 at 39 weeks. Also, they aren't fun so delaying them as long as possible was appealing. Our midwife ended the appointment saying that they may see me next week or at the hospital next. On our way to drop off Adam at work, we laughed at the thought that I could go into labor any day. There were quite a few people who predicted that I would go early but as I hadn't had consistent surges (contractions) yet, I wasn't convinced. I went to work as usual and around 4 pm I noticed that I had been having surges a lot more often than usual and I decided to time them. They weren't very painful but I continued to practice my hypnobirthing and breathing each time. It turned out they were coming about every 5-6 minutes lasting a minute long. This surprised me because I had never been that consistent before. They continued that way and at 5 I left work to pick up Adam. I called him to let him know what was going on but I was trying not to get my hopes up as every time we timed surges before, they stopped. I also texted my doula, Fiona because I was having some back pain occasionally. She told me that it might mean that he wasn't in a good position. I tried not to worry as I picked up Adam. He drove the rest of the way home because the surges were getting a little more intense. We ordered pizza when we got home and watched TV as I worked through the surges. Eventually I decided to take a bath to help with the surges and pain in my back and Adam read some hypnobirthing scripts. The surges kept staying consistent at 5-6 minutes apart lasting about 1 1/2 long so we started to consider when we should go to the hospital. We debated for a long time but eventually we decided to go just to see what was happening. We went to the hospital and I was only at about 1 1/2 cm but I was 80% effaced so we went home to labor some more. The nurse said that since I was pretty thinned out, it shouldn't take too long.

When we went back home we tried to sleep but the surges kept coming consistently at 5 minutes and getting more intense. Now every surge was paired with horrible pain in my lower back. It worried me a lot so I texted Fiona for help at about 5 am on Thursday. She said it sounded like he might be posterior and that she would come over and we'd try some things to turn him. When she got to our apartment, we tried a few different positions to try to turn him and she helped put counter pressure on my back and hips whenever I had a surge. It was so great to have her there with that extra knowledge and so that Adam could have a break. I would recommend EVERYONE get a doula for labor because we definitely couldn't have done it without her. The back pain wasn't letting up so we decided to go back to the hospital at around 7 am to see if I'd progressed and to double check his position. When we got to the hospital they checked me and I was at a 3. They also did an ultrasound and sure enough, little Eli was looking right at us. So they laid me in very uncomfortable positions as I labored for another hour. The back pain continued but I kept trying to use my hypnobirthing to stay relaxed. After an hour, they checked again and I was at a 6! So they admitted me and I continued to labor. My goal was to give birth naturally so Adam and I had been practicing hypnobirthing relaxation techniques for months. He was a champ at keeping me relaxed and even the nurses were amazed at how well it was working. Around midday my midwife came to check on me. After so much time and effort I was hoping something would have happened. But no. I was still at a 6. I wasn't ready to do anything to help things along so I continued to labor. There were times that Eli's heartbeat wasn't variable enough so they put me on IV fluids and oxygen which helped. At this point my mental game was fading but I kept trying to focus on my relaxation. The surges weren't getting any closer together but they were VERY intense and my back pain was killing me. The midwife was at another hospital so she had one of the nurses check me again around 7 or 8 pm and...still at a 6. After over 24 hours of labor. At this point, I started sobbing because they said that this could go on for days since he wasn't turning. My midwife was going to come to the hospital to talk to me but she got stuck with an emergency c section so she relayed her recommendations over the phone with our nurse. She said that since I wasn't wanting augmentation, it would be best if I went home. This was not what I wanted to hear but the nurse and Fiona and Adam all thought it might help for me to get out of the hospital setting for a bit especially because this could go on indefinitely. I was pretty close to begging for pitocin and an epidural but I decided to go home and let him come when he was ready. So they gave me a shot of morphine and some sleep medicine to hopefully give me some relief. 

We all went home at around 10 pm and I was able to sleep for about an hour and a half before I woke up with more surges and back pain. They were now about 10 minutes apart so I tried to do some of the positions to try and turn him to give me something to do since I was not sleeping. Eventually they stretched out to 20 minutes apart with no change in my back. Now that I was home, I recognized that it was good to not push Eli to come. Since the surges were getting further apart, I decided to go back to bed to try to get some sleep. We went back to bed but I felt like I had to go pee so I got up go to the bathroom and at that point my water broke (around 3 am on Friday). I ran to the bathroom and just stood in the tub as I yelled to Adam to call our doula. I just stood in our tub for a bit shaking as the water kept coming. Eventually we got some towels and wrapped me in an old robe to go back to the hospital. At least now we knew this was for real although I was extremely worried that he had engaged posterior and there would be no chance of turning him. I was also still having loads of back pain. We met Fiona at the hospital and this time I was able to skip triage and go straight back to the same room I was in. There was no need to verify that my water had broken as I was making quite a mess on the floor, including losing my mucus plug. I thought that happened before your water broke but it was kinda simultaneous for me. They checked me again and...I was still at a 6! I was not happy. I had hoped to have a natural birth (not to mention I had been scared to death of getting an epidural) but after 36 hours of labor I decided I would get an epidural. I felt a bit sad but everyone pointed out how amazing it was that I had gotten that far with just hypnobirthing. So the epidural was ordered and we waited for the anesthesiologist to come. He eventually came and Adam used hypnobirthing scripts to get me deeply relaxed for the procedure. With my phobia of needles, I couldn't have gotten the epidural without hypnobirthing but I did it. And I finally got some relief from my back pain! They also checked me again and I had made it to an 8!! I was so happy. Everyone felt that the epidural had allowed me to finally progress. Now I was able to relax better but after awhile I started to feel the surges and back pain again. They had to up the anesthesia a couple times but eventually I was able to have relief again. They checked me again later and I was fully dilated! This was around 10:30-11 am on Friday. The midwife was on her way but the nurses had me start to push to see how it would go. Luckily the epidural was still strong enough that I only felt pressure the whole time of pushing. They found that I was pushing a little too well so they had me stop for awhile to wait for the midwife to come. Eventually she made it and I started pushing again. Finally at 11:42 am, Eli was placed on my stomach. (Side note: he didn't come out posterior so somewhere along the way he had turned.) I started bawling as I touched his face not believing that he was finally here. They cut the cord, cleaned him, checked him, and placed him on my chest for some skin to skin time. They had to give me some pitocin at the end because they thought I might've started to hemorrhage. Also I did tear a little and they had to give me a small episiotomy because I had started to tear the wrong way. But all was well with my little boy in my arms :) We stayed in the hospital until Sunday morning when we got to bring our little bundle home.

I was able to start breastfeeding right away which was wonderful and I continued to breastfeed until Tuesday this week. I realized that it would be best for me physically and emotionally if we switched to formula. I was a little sad to stop because that was something I looked forward to but things have been a lot better since then so I know that this was the right thing for us :) I didn't have too many complications with the epidural except I got a spinal headache. They had to fix it by doing a blood patch (basically another epidural except they put your own blood into your spine instead of anesthesia) which is pretty much the worst thing ever for someone who has a phobia of needles. Even though the experience didn't happen exactly as I had hoped for in my birth preferences, I am ok with it. Unexpected things like him being posterior happen and maybe I can do it all natural next time. I know that things worked out this time in the way they needed to for him to come in his own way.

We are overjoyed to be parents and we are SO grateful for all of the love and support we have felt from our family and friends. Our ward has especially been wonderful in helping us adjust to this new life. Thank you! Well there will be lots more updates from now on! Hopefully I'll be able to keep up with them :)

P.S. If anyone is interested in hypnobirthing, I would HIGHLY recommend it, even if you aren't planning on going natural. Our doula Fiona teaches a wonderful class! Check her out at www.ihypnobirth.com :)

Summer update

Hi everyone!

I decided that I shouldn't wait too long to update everyone so that this post can stay relatively short :)

Things are going great for us! We just celebrated Fourth of July and along with that, Adam's 26th birthday :) I really wanted to make it special for him so most of it we (me and our friends Steven and Kayla) kept it a secret from him. It made it fun to have him try and guess what we were planning on doing. I was excited and only hoped being pregnant wouldn't get in the way too much. So the night of the 3rd we went camping up Hobble Creek canyon with our friends as well as Kayla's brother and his wife. It was fun staying up playing games and just talking. And miraculously I slept well! I was worried about sleeping on an air mattress but I slept great :) After we woke up, we went back home to make a proper gigantic breakfast with waffles, hashbrowns, eggs, bacon, etc. It was delicious :) Then we played the new Ticket To Ride Europe game I got Adam as a present for a bit before heading over to Kayla's brother's apartment complex to go swimming.

Boy did that feel nice! It was amazing to have my big belly feel weightless and it was great to cool off. I DEFINITELY want to go swimming more often for the rest of the pregnancy :) Then we went to dinner at Red Robin so Adam could get his free birthday burger before we headed to Stadium of Fire!

This was very cool because in both of our time at BYU, neither of us had been inside BYU's football stadium. Journey was headlining which made us even more excited because we knew quite a few of their songs. The fireworks were fun and the baby kicked to the beat of the music (maybe he'll be a drummer? haha). Walking to and from the stadium wasn't fun but I survived :) We ended the night with yummy ice cream cake!

Overall a great day and Adam thoroughly enjoyed his birthday :)

In other updates!
Adam has been working lots this summer which will be great for when the baby comes. Boy does he have A LOT on his plate. He has been helping his boss at BYU Online with a research paper she is working on, working on creating a new Humanities of Asia online course for his master's project, working on his prospectus for his project, and he just started co-teaching a BYU class about technology for education majors! All of this he does while taking excellent care of me running to the store to get certain foods I'm craving, helping me clean the house, and practicing our Hypnobirthing relaxation exercises. He is so amazing :) And as if I don't have enough to gloat about, he just found out that he just got chosen for a panel at an educational conference in Seattle next year!!! He will be presenting the work that he has been doing for his master's project :) This is a huge honor and will be an awesome resume builder. The professor that he is working with also said that she wants to turn this project into a paper to be published! For those who don't know, presenting at a conference and co-authoring a published paper are big things in academia :)

As for me (and baby boy as well), we're doing well. I am just continuing to work part time and prepare for baby's arrival. Third trimester is in full swing and it's hard to believe he could come in as little as a month! I'm adjusting to the changes in my body as much as I can which involves lots of putting my feet up and baths. We've been practicing the techniques we learned in our Hypnobirthing class a lot which has really helped with my anxiety as well as Braxton Hicks contractions. I can tell that my body is being trained and its easier every time to fully relax and get in that "zone" :) Baby is healthy and loves to kick and move. It's amazing how much he's grown!

We've now gotten to the point where we're going to prenatal appointments every other week. At our last appointment, I actually scheduled the rest of my appointments up to the due date! We've also got some of the big things like a car seat, stroller, pack and play, and a swing, which are all haphazard in our second bedroom. All of this is a bit surreal :)

We are enjoying our summer and so looking forward to meeting our son :)

<3 Ashley

Our exciting news!

For those of you who don't check Facebook, we've announced that we are expecting our first baby this August!

We are both very excited and nervous about this next stage in our lives but we are looking forward to it. I am so grateful for Heavenly Father blessing us with this little angel that we get to look after. And I know that because of this we will additionally be blessed with guidance every step of this journey. 

I have been feeling pretty good, or as good as the first trimester can feel haha. I have been feeling quite a bit of nausea which has made eating hard. Although I know of many other women that have had it much worse than I do, so I try to count my blessings. I am looking forward to the days when I won't sleep until 11 am or fall asleep on the couch at 8 pm haha. I've heard more energy will come in the second trimester and I'm nearly there!

Adam is also feeling good and taking very good care of me. He has been keeping up on the housework better than I have and still finds time to be a graduate student. He also feels thoroughly successful when I come home from work saying whatever he made for dinner smells good :) As I'm sure with all new dads, it took him awhile to have the reality sink in (it still fully hasn't for both of us I think), but going to our first appointment did help immensely. There we got to see our little one for the first time and hear the heartbeat!

The midwife ended up doing the ultrasound a second time to get a better measurement of the baby and that time we saw it way better! We could see the full profile with baby's head and little feet! Sadly, that came so unexpectedly that we didn't think to take out our phones for a second picture. Oh well, we will see the baby again :) We also took a video to record the sound of the heartbeat. When I played it later for Adam, he said it sounded like a washing machine. And as I type this, our neighbors' machine is going and he is totally right haha. We are very excited for our next appointment to see how our little one has grown since I have noticed a bit of outward belly growth (probably only noticeable to me but I'm still excited!).

In other news, Adam finished up his first semester in graduate school VERY strongly with a 4.0! I'm so proud of him! Especially since finals week landed right when we found out I was pregnant haha but he stayed focused :) We had a wonderful white Christmas which was made wonderful by my sister Jessica coming to stay with us!

 I hadn't spent a Christmas with her since Adam and I got married 3 years ago so it was quite exciting. We had a great time with her although I wish the early pregnancy symptoms hadn't landed right during her visit. Plus our car was having troubles too xP But we made the most of it by traveling to Salt Lake City a few times, going to visit Manti, playing in the snow, and doing a few fun things around Provo :) I am so glad that she was able to come join us and make Christmas even more special.

Well that is all for now! I know we'll have plenty of more updates coming soon ;) and I will try harder at staying on top of them!

<3
Ashley