The Week of Halloween

I have been bamboozled.

Unfortunately, not all things pumpkin are delicious.  I made Zach one of his favorite dinners of chicken and rice on Monday and decided to treat myself to some pumpkin brownies.  Literally it is the same exact thing as those 3 ingredient pumpkin spice cookies, just with brownies.  All you do is add a can of pumpkin to a brownie mix.  I was so anxious to try them, but it took 15 extra minutes to bake them because my trusty toothpicks weren’t coming out clean.  After 40 minutes of cook time we busted out these bad boys.

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They look fudgy and perfect – am I right?  They were TER-RI-BLE.  Zach thought I was playing a practical joke on him.  Trust me – the joke was on me.  I spent 40 minutes of my life waiting on these that I can never EVER get back.

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Speaking of brownies…I’m back to brown.  Back to ma roots, actually.  My natural hair color!  I must admit that before this I wasn’t quite sure what my natural hair color looked like, but I am glad I found it.  I plan on staying here a while…

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Tuesday morning was my second growth scan.  Zach came with me for this one considering it will be the last ultrasound [I hope?] before we get to meet her.  Everything went well for the most part.  Baby girl is perfectly healthy – with the exception of her abdomen and femur are measuring a bit small.  The femur didn’t come to a surprise to anyone considering both of her parents are 5’3″ and she has no chance of being above average in height.  Other than those two things, everything is perfectly normal.

Wednesday morning I went on a little trail run with my sister-in-law Gina.  We met at the Centerville movie theater and went up and down the Legacy Parkway Trail.  It was nice to switch up running on the treadmill with running outside.  I only ran 2 miles [those hills are harder than I remember] but Gina kicked my trash and ran 4 while I walked the opposite direction to catch up to her.  We spent the last hour walking a few miles along the trail.  The leaves were falling and the temperature was perfect.  It felt amazing and it was so refreshing to have someone to jabber with to pass the time.  Everyone on the trail couldn’t help but stare at my giant belly.  Just three girls, hittin’ up the Legacy Trail.

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My doc let me know in the middle of the week that she wanted me to start doing stress tests each visit to monitor the babe.  The only thing that was stressed, however, was me.  Even though these tests are pretty common, I was so worried that something was wrong.  I didn’t sleep very well for a couple of days and was constantly thinking that I had already jacked my baby up.  She is not even here and I am a sucky, suckity suck suck parent.  Zach was not worried at all and cheered me up by making me a treasure hunt around the house with all my favorite things.  He basically rules my world and I don’t deserve him…

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As for work updates, I took on a really large project a couple of weeks ago and have been right in the thick of it this week.  I have been hired to design a 40,000 sq. foot corporate building for a company down south.  It has been so much fun and creating furniture and design concepts has been something I have missed.  Not that I don’t love graphic design, just that it has been so much fun to switch it up!  This week was mostly concepts for their new spaces.  I have seven spaces done.  Only ten more to go!

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Friday was my weekly OB visit.  No new updates other than I did this so-called stress test and all is well!  And it wasn’t that stressful at all.  It was actually quite reassuring.  My doctor warned me that if the test didn’t give good results that I would most likely have to deliver early.  That part stressed me out the most.  Good thing baby girl did her usual routine of bouncing off the walls of my insides and passed her test with flying colors!  So in she will stay for at least two more weeks.

That night we left a giant bucket of candy on the front porch for the trick-or-treaters and we drove up north for a costume party at a friend of Zach’s.  We didn’t dress up, because we are incredibly lame.  Actually, I did have a pretty good costume idea:  being pregnant was the perfect opportunity for me to be a giant blueberry so I was going to dress up as Violet Beauregarde and make Zach dress up as Charlie Bucket from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.  Zach wasn’t feeling it.  So we went to said party in our usual attire.  Afterwards we decided to catch a late movie at the AMC in Layton – Dracula.  Festive, right?  We’ve both been completely spoiled by the recliners at that theater.  No other movie theater compares in my opinion.

Saturday was perfect.  We slept in way too late, I went for a nice walk on the treadmill at our clubhouse, and we had a little lunch date down town.  Later in the afternoon we had a couples massage at my sister-in-law’s spa in Layton.  I called ahead and asked if we could do a couples massage – but requested that mine be a maternity version.  We literally went to the spa dressed in our pajamas [who wants to get oil all up in your nice clothes anyway?] looking homeless.

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It was amazing.  How have I waited this long to experience a maternity massage?!  Especially because Zach’s sister OWNS a spa.  I have had no excuse.  They had this special pillow with a hole cut out of it so I could lay on my stomach.  I haven’t laid on my stomach for over nine months, so the feeling was blissful.  Unfortunately, my child hated it.  She immediately went bonkers and wouldn’t quit, so I switched over to my side.

I made myself a promise that if the wee one isn’t here and by the time I am 40 weeks, I am getting another one of those bad boys.  Best 50 minutes of my pregnant life…

We ended our night with the Utah football game.  Even though we weren’t victorious, we both slept like babies that night.

I just had one request about when this baby would come – that she wouldn’t be born on Halloween.  So now that we have passed that milestone, she can come whenever she pleases!  I didn’t even put up my extensive Halloween decoration collection.  Not that I was being lazy or didn’t have the energy – but because I was terrified I would go into labor and then have to take a newborn home to a haunted house.  See that little white pumpkin on our porch?  That was the extent of our Halloween decorating this year.  We took my 37 week picture a little later than usual – on the actual evening of Halloween.

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Since I haven’t progressed over the last two weeks [even after my little scary/gross discovery last Tuesday] I feel more than ever like I might go 40 + weeks.  I’ve had a feeling since day one of being pregnant that I would most likely go over my due date, and to be honest, I am totally ok with that.  This pregnancy has been so easy.  I will be grateful and lucky to have her bake as long as possible at this point.  Now if I can just get my hands on one of those special pregnancy massage pillows…

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