Graduation

We both officially GRADUATED!!! I graduated from BYU with a Bachelor of Science in Nursing and Scotty graduated from UVU with a Bachelor of Science in Technology Management with an emphasis in Building Construction (whew, that's a mouth full). I remember a time when I thought the time would never come. Yet here it is, and I can't believe how fast time flies. We both worked hard to finish up our last semesters. I finished all my clinical hours and feel so blessed for the experience that I had at Primary Children's. It is so weird to think that we're not starting up another semester in a few days, but it feels good! It was hard to leave Provo for both of us. We both have many, many cherished memories and created so many great friendships. But we are excited to start a new stage in life and bring our sweet little babe into the world.

BYU and UVU don't have Commencement in December so we didn't get to walk which was a little disappointing. All my nursing class walked in the August Commencement but it was during the week of our family cruise so I missed it. I still wanted a picture with a cap and gown so I borrowed my friend's and snapped a few shots.

Scotty didn't care about the cap and gown but I made him take a picture anyways...

 I am so grateful for the wonderful education that we were both able to receive. My time at BYU has taught me so many lessons. The nursing program was very challenging and at times I would lay in bed at night with my alarm set between 4:45 or 5 am and think, "Why in the world am I doing this? Why didn't I pick an easier major and finish sooner?" But I know that I'm meant to be a nurse and that Heavenly Father pathed the way and helped me each step of the way. I love caring for people and am excited to start this profession sometime after the baby is born. I know I've said it on here before but I am so grateful for all the friendships that I have created in the nursing program. Some of them have become my closest friends and will miss them dearly...

 Carly, me, and Whit + Calvin

I'm sure going to miss these two!!!



Thanksgiving Break/Moving/Baby Showers

We had a very busy Thanksgiving Break. Our weekend before Thanksgiving was busy with packing up all of our stuff and cleaning the apartment. We decided to have Scotty drive all of our stuff to California and then fly to Boise to meet up with us. That way we could move out of our apartment by December to save a month of rent. For the first couple weeks in December we were able to live in Scotty's uncle's basement apartment he has in Provo. Moving was a lot of work but luckily my family was in Provo to help us. For those who don't know, we recently moved to El Dorado Hills, CA which is about 30 minutes east of Sacramento. This is where Scotty is from and we moved there to pursue a career in the construction industry. His parents have a separate little pool house next door that they built originally for his grandparents to live in when they got older. They have since passed away and one of Scott's brother and his family has lived there before as well. When his brother lived here they added on another room which is perfect with a babe on the way. We are grateful that it was available to live in as we are starting this new stage in life. We are finally all unpacked and organized and are working hard on the nursery now. It feels good to finally to be done with all the moving. It was really hard doing all that packing, lifting, bending, etc. in the last trimester. There were many times that I'm sure I over exerted myself and paid for it later with lots of back pain. But we made it and all is good!

This was my reality for a few weeks, yikes!...

Once we got to Boise we had a good time relaxing and spending time with my family. My mom's good friend threw me a baby shower while we were in town. It was super fun and both her and my mom did such a great job and worked hard to throw me a beautiful shower. I am terrible at taking pictures and wish I would have taken more but here are a couple before the guests arrived...

When we got back to Provo, my cousins and friends threw me another great shower. Becca, Ashley, Kim, Sara, and Laura all contributed to make it come together. I was so impressed and so grateful for them. It was so fun to have a shower with close friends and family. Look at how adorable everything was...

I am so blessed to have such amazing friends, all of these girls at my shower are the reason it was hard to leave Provo. I wish I could sit and blame pregnancy hormones on the number of times I cried before I left, but I can't because it's completely from leaving all these incredible friends and family. I love you all!!

Busy, busy...

I am super behind on so many blog posts, some of which include:

-Finishing up clinicals

-Baby showers

-Thanksgiving Break

-Packing/Moving

-Growing a baby

BUT, we are super busy finishing up a million things so we can graduate in a week, so those will have to wait!

However, I will leave you with a little comic relief by showing you my Holiday look-a-like (at least this is what I tell Scotty all the time lol)...

 27w 3d...

 29w 4d...

 31w...

Isn't the resemblance uncanning? :)

100!

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100 days till my due date! I don't know why, but this day seems monumental to me in my pregnancy timeline. I love that I am now only double digits away from when my little girl will be here. Here are a few things that have been happening lately that I want to remember:

-I finally got COMPLETE relief from my nausea/vomiting between my 20th and 21st week. I was so grateful for this because I had seriously given into the idea that I was going to feel like crap the whole time. So this was a great surprise.

-Along those same lines, I had a great experience that increased my testimony of the power of the Priesthood and that Heavenly Father is watching over me. I started my clinical hours when I was around 18 weeks and was still having bad days and throwing up. I was bawling the night before my first clinical shift because I had no clue how I was going to handle the stress of learning everything and having a good experience when I was still feeling like crap and throwing up randomly. Scotty gave me a Priesthood blessing that night and even though the next morning was early with little sleep (which is a bad combination for nausea in the first place), it was the best that I had felt in almost 4 months! I was seriously so shocked and so grateful. Although I continued to feel sick for a couple more weeks, as I already said, I can honestly say that I have never felt nauseous or had any impulse to throw up while at the hospital. This has been such a blessing in my life and definitely a tender mercy from the Lord. I'm grateful for my husband and that he is a worthy Priesthood holder.

-In the last few weeks I have seen the most change in my growing belly. I'm feeling pretty comfortable overall but some days I feel some pain that comes along with all of that growing and stretching.

-I am starting to have lots of lower back/sciatic back pain. I am carrying this baby really low which I'm sure is contributing, along with my terrible posture. Thank goodness for a husband who rubs my back, pregnancy pillows, and heat packs.

-She has gotten so much stronger! It's no longer little "gas bubbles" or cute little kicks. Some of her kicks are so strong that it startles me and I can see my belly move through my clothes. It's also no longer just kicks but I can feel her move around and change positions, it is the most bizarre feeling! I'm sure this is only the beginning.

-We started registering and it was pretty overwhelming. I soon learned that we have no clue what we are doing. haha. As we are staring at this huge wall of baby supplies at Babies R Us, I don't know what half the things are and if we really need them. There are way too many options out there that just confuse me. Take bottles for example. Why are there so many different types and sizes? I thought nipples for bottles were a one-size fits all, do you really need to get new nipples for each age group? And same thing with pacifiers?? What if I buy newborn diapers and my baby is huge and doesn't even fit in them? Breast pumps: why are they so expensive??? And the list goes on and on. Has anybody seen that episode of Friends when Rachel has her baby shower?? That is how I felt when we left. I have read lots on pregnancy but now I think it's time to start learning about how to actually take care of the baby. :) I figure billions of moms have figured it out just fine, so I will too. Big thanks to all the moms out there that I have started picking their brains, I'm sure I'll continue to have lots of questions. :)

-I'm starting to get more ideas for a nursery. I am doing a pink, grey, and white nursery.

-Last but not least of updates, I think we have officially decided on a name:

Brooklyn Nicole Martin

(Brooklyn just because we both love it and Nicole because it's my middle name)


She is going to be here before we know it! :)

Did I Mention?

That Scotty and I are in our last semesters of school??? And we couldn't be anymore excited about it. We are both struggling with keeping up our motivation being so close to the end so it's a good thing we are only a month and a half away. Life has been pretty busy around here and the semester has seemed to fly by. On the one hand I love that, but on the other it makes me sad. I'm so ready to be done with school but am not sure how ready I am to give up the young, married-student lifestyle especially with having so many friends and family around. I get really sad thinking about leaving our life in Provo. But enough talk about moving. For my capstone semester I have a preceptor nurse who I go to work with for the semester, kind of like an internship. I have to do 210 hours which ends up being 17 1/2, 12-hour shifts. I am doing my clinical at Primary Children's Medical Center up in Salt Lake and have had a really good experience so far. The days are extremely long because I have to get up by 5:15am, leave by 5:45 in order to get to the hospital by 6:45am, do a  12 hour shift (which is usually longer) and don't get home till between 8:30-9pm. So although I am learning a lot and am grateful for the experience I have had so far, I am ready to be done. I have done 11 1/2 shifts so far, so I only have 6 more to go! Anyways, just thought I would do a quick update on our lives. Our baby girl is also staying busy growing good and strong...here's a bump picture from last week...

Growing...

This belly of mine has definitely been growing rapidly the last couple of weeks. Currently looking for a good pregnancy pillow to help get a more comfortable nights sleep...any good recommendations???

Chicago & Indy

This past weekend we were super lucky to be able to go to Chicago and Indianapolis. For the past couple of years Scotty has been dying to get out to Indy to watch one of his buddies play in the NFL but lets be honest, it was never exactly in our "college student budget." BUT, my brother just got a job for Southwest Airlines and so we got hooked up with some airline buddy-passes. Flying for free makes going on trips a lot easier! :) When we found out we were getting these passes, this was the trip that we really wanted to make. Not only could we go to the game but Scott's brother and his wife recently moved to Chicago so we could go visit them and tour the city. 

Highlights of the trip included: Getting Chicago-style pizza at Giordanos, watching our Cougs win, getting breakfast at Ann Sathers, exploring downtown Chicago and Magnificent Mile, going to Navy Pier, spending time in Indy with our friends, and going to the game. It was a very fun trip and was hard to come back to regular life!

 The game was SO much fun!!

 Wish this guy was in uniform though!!

Labor Day

I totally forgot I had these pictures. For Labor Day, Scotty and I went up to Park City with Ash, Casey, Kim, and Craig. We walked around main street, got some lunch, and did a little shopping. Very fun! Then that night we went to a BBQ at Sam and Allison's (failed at getting any pictures). It was a fun holiday with friends!

20 Weeks!

I am officially 20 weeks tomorrow and halfway done with this pregnancy!! I am stoked to be at the halfway mark. We had our 20 week ultrasound today and everything looked great and healthy with our baby girl. It is so crazy to see how much she has grown. She currently weighs around 13 ounces, almost a pound, so she is still really tiny! She is between 10-12 inches long. She was measuring a couple days ahead of her due date but they decided to still keep it February 7th. I have started to feel a little better. I still get nauseous more often then I would like at this point but I'm just planning on it never going completely away. I haven't had to use any Zofran for a couple weeks though, so it's definitely an improvement. I still get tired pretty easily which makes 12-hour shifts at the hospital challenging at times. But other than that, I'm feeling good and am loving that I'm finally starting to show more and can tell when she is moving and growing. Hopefully she will get more consistent in her movements so Scotty can feel her, he's getting pretty impatient! :) We love our little girl more than words can say  and we hope this second half flies by! 

Here she is again...

 LOVE her little fingers...

 Alright, here's an updated picture of "the bump"...this was taken on Saturday before the BYU football game so it's a couple days old but I'm pretty sure you wouldn't be able to see a difference :)

3 Year Anniversary!

We recently celebrated our 3 year anniversary! I still can't believe how fast time flies! On our actual anniversary we were really busy starting our semesters and getting my little brother situated but we went out to dinner that night. Then on Friday we spent a night up in Park City. We stayed at the Marriott and they were so nice to us. They knew we were celebrating our anniversary so they tried to upgrade us to a suite but unfortunately they were all booked but they did give us access to the concierge lounge and brought up chocolate covered strawberries for dessert. We had a fun and relaxing time getting away for the night. I really wanted to go get a pedicure so I convinced Scotty that it was fine for a guy to get one too! :) He felt really awkward and uncomfortable at first but I know he ended up loving it!! We then went to Cheesecake Factory for dinner. I am so grateful for my marriage and couldn't imagine my life without my wonderful husband. Can't wait for what our next year of marriage will bring!!

IT'S A GIRL!!!

We found out at an early ultrasound at 16 weeks that we were expecting a little GIRL!! We are sooo excited!! We both thought it was a girl pretty much the whole time so we were excited to have our guesses confirmed. It was so fun to see our little girl again. I could sit and watch her on ultrasound all day long, I can't wait for our big 20 week ultrasound coming up. She was moving around like a crazy woman during the ultrasound. It took a little bit for the ultrasound tech to pin her down for a good picture because she was moving so much-she must have loved the cinnamon toast I had for breakfast. But we got a great picture and there is no question that she is a girl! :) 

Here are the most recent pictures we have of our little princess...

I love her profile and seeing how much she has grown!

 No boy parts here!

 One of her cute little feet...

It is SO FUN to shop for her!! I have been having some serious issues and have to take Scotty with me (who gives me a limit every time) or else I would probably buy everything in the stores. When we were in Boise my mom started giving me some of the stock of clothes that she has already bought...she will definitely be spoiled from all of her grandparents!

When we came home from our cruise, we were excited to see this little surprise from my parents on the counter...

She left the receipt in case we needed to exchange the bib for a pink one which it looks like we will! She will definitely be a cougar fan! :) 

I am still not feeling the best but am having more "good" days so I'm hopeful that complete relief really is right around the corner. I have started to feel her move this past week which I love!   I can't wait till her kicks are stronger so Scotty can feel them too. I also feel like I am growing rapidly these days and can see/feel a difference everyday. Thanks for all your love and support during this exciting time in our lives, we really appreciate it!