New Blog!!!

Ok, I"ve been toying with this idea for awhile now, and I"ve finally done it. I've got a new blog, themed around my love for cooking and experimenting with new recipes. Here's the url: http://elythra.wordpress.com/ I fully intend to switch over to this as my main blog, though I will still update all on random happenings here, with Jonathan and Chris. Let me know what you think!

Jonathan David...and TMI. :)

Ok, it's been nearly one month since Jonathan David was born. He's adorable, exhausting, and wonderful. Labor was insanely difficult, but we got through it, without drugs. (Not my choice, but labor progressed too quickly for me to be able to have anything.) He was born, after three hours of active labor, at 4:48 am, weighing 7 lbs. 2 oz, and being 19.75 in. long. He's now about 8 1/2 lbs, and longer, though I don't know how much. He's a very skinny baby, and apparently much smaller than almost anyone else's baby that we've encountered, at least according to the other mothers. :) "He's so tiny!" and "That's a brand new baby!" comments follow him whenever we go out, to which I want to reply, (in good humor of course) "He's baby-sized! They're supposed to be tiny!" Anyway, we are loving having him home, and learning to take care of him.

Warning, what follows is a bit coarse and uncouth.

On another note, I've discovered what exactly women are going for in respects to their breasts. Whether they're wishing for these, or actually go for implants to get them, they want postpartum, nursing breasts. Enlarged past normal size, rounded out with swelling, and quite solidly firm. Women, it's not worth it! They are incredibly uncomfortable until your body adjusts, and they get in the way, catching more food and generally not really fitting right. Thankfully, for those having second thoughts, they do go back to normal size, or nearly, after finished nursing...or so I'm told. Anyway, ladies, learn to love what you have got, and you'll be much happier in the end. :)

MMM...

Chris is an awesome husband. This morning, while I slept, he got up and made breakfast for us. He made eggs, and pancakes seasoned with nutmeg, cinnamon, pumpkin spice, vanilla, and filled with walnuts, topped with whipped cream and strawberries. DELICIOUS! Chris is such a good cook! Plus, he had a mug of my favorite (decaf) breakfast tea waiting for me when he woke me up. Yay!

Well, I'm officially at full term today. Baby could be born anytime in the next month. For those of you confused, full term is different from 9 months, because if every month had exactly four weeks, there would really be 13 months in a year. I'm past 9 months, but I am at 38 weeks, which is full term (38-42). Yeah. Confusing, I know. Anyway, I don't really look any different than the last picture posted, so we'll leave it at that. I'll let everyone know when Baby is born, and post lots of pictures then. Any day now!

Flashback....

Hi all!
So I got my hair cut again. I walked into the hair salon with pictures of me from high school, and said "Cut it like this." It's nice for the summer, and it's finally super simple. As in, I can wet it down and it will be fine for the rest of the day (granted I don't take a nap or anything on wet hair...then I have to start over). Chris took some shots of me with my new haircut, and I thought I'd share the one photo that actually shows my belly as well...I'm now at 9 months!

Hospital visit. (lots of details, be warned.)

Well, Chris and I had an unexpectedly crazy day yesterday. During the night, I thought my water broke. I'm only 32 weeks along, so this is not good news at this point. We stayed up for another hour to see if contractions would start and to be sure baby was still moving and ok. Nothing happened (baby was fine), so we decided to go back to bed and call my new doctor in the morning. He told us to go to the hospital to have some tests done, basically to make sure my water hadn't broken, so we packed a quick bag and left. Turns out it wasn't my water breaking (big relief!) but I was having contractions five minutes apart...just so small that I didn't really even feel them. I was also 1 cm dilated, and baby was in position for birth. They gave me a shot to stop the contractions, but that didn't work, so I had to have an IV put in my hand, as well as take a muscle relaxant pill. That worked, for the most part, so we got to go home about 8 pm, with a prescription for the muscle relaxant pill in case the contractions came back. We got to the hospital about 12:30, so it was a very long day...
I'm not on bed rest, but I am supposed to "take it easy". This means I'm basically on bed rest, except I can still get up and get a drink, instead of making Chris do the little things. He's doing pretty much everything anyway, which is sweet, but I don't want to overtax him either. That's all for now!

We've moved!

Hi all! I'm blogging from our new apartment in Lincoln, NE. It's way nicer than the one we had in Vermillion, though the office is a bit smaller....that's ok though, we have a third room now, and a much larger kitchen/living room. We even have a balcony now, on which we will soon be placing a new gas grill. (Lincoln has a ban on charcoal grills within city limits which "forced" us to upgrade grills...we just haven't purchased the new one yet.)
That's all for now, as I should probably keep unpacking, or be social with our family, or something. :)

New Haircut.

So I got a new haircut, and I really like it. It's nice and light, but I still have length...well, sort of, anyway!

We have an apartment! Chris and I signed the lease yesterday. I'm spending part of today packing up things that we don't need for daily use (my books, extra linens, etc.) to prepare for the move. Here's a link to see what we've rented. We signed for the "2 bedroom with den". If you click on the "HI/LO" links on the floor plan you can see the rooms. The den is bigger than it looks.

http://www.rentcip.com/NorthridgeHeights/floorplans2b.asp#996

Winding down.

Well, the opera is finished, as is my recital. Both went reasonably well, and I'm glad to have each in the past. My days are much more relaxed now, almost to the point of boredom, (though I still have too many projects and things to do to be truly bored), and I am enjoying the break.

I began packing yesterday for our big move in May. We picked up boxes from the local liquor store this afternoon for more packing, and, consequently, Chris' car is full of all sorts of boxes. It's rather funny to look in the windows, really, as there's such a variety to the boxes that we really don't look very good. The guy at the liquor store laughingly said that we should tell our new neighbors as we're moving in that all the boxes are from our own collection and that we saved them from all the liquor we drink. While funny, probably not the best idea....

We are driving down to Lincoln, NE, on Friday to scope out apartments and hopefully have one nailed down by the end of the weekend. I've been setting up appointments with different places for the past couple days and Saturday is pretty full, to the point that we're packing a lunch to eat in the car in case we don't have any other time to eat. Hopefully, we'll be able to stop for lunch though, as we'll probably need the break eventually.

I'm avoiding homework tonight. I don't really have a deadline, other than the end of the semester, but I really should hand it in this week. The problem is, the work is just busy work, and I know it's going to take at least 2 hours once I begin. Because of this, I don't want to begin it at this time of night. I am justifying not doing it by saying that I"m going to stop now and get some chores and packing done, and do the homework tomorrow during my long afternoon break. Yeah, that sounds good. :)

That's all for now.

P.S. Baby and Chris are doing great. Baby is kicking like crazy, and Chris likes to watch him shake my stomach with his kicks. I don't mind this, as long as Baby doesn't kick a nerve, or my bladder!

Nerves.

Well, it's the morning of my recital, and I have to say, I'm a little nervous. I haven't looked over my music again, mainly because I'm not looking for any confirmation that I've forgotten a line. I just finished cleaning up the living room, and the whole apartment needs to be vacuumed before my family arrives, and I need to do the dishes as well. I'm waiting for the shower, so I can continue to get ready, and so I almost feel like I'm stuck in limbo. There are menial chores to do, but otherwise I'm alone with my thoughts. Yay for that. :) I'm sure the recital will go well, and I'm sure that when it's all over, very little of this will matter, but it's hard to rely on a thought like that when it's not over yet. Yes, I do get nervous before performances, but you wouldn't be able to tell by looking at my face. Usually, you can tell by conversation, if you ask the right questions, but I decided not to wait for questions like "Are you nervous?" and just say, yes. I know it'll be fine, I know no one (except my professors) will know when I make a mistake, so it's like not making one, but I am still nervous.
After all of that, I am not really sure how to wrap this up. It is a beautiful day outside, and I am really looking forward to seeing my family again, so it should be a good day regardless. Wish me luck!

I'm back!

Ok, so I've been back for a week, but at least I'm blogging again. One week from today, my recital takes place, and I"m somewhat more ready for it, though I've still got a ways to go...I'm goin got go study for it next. I've got a concert tonight as well, the last official concert of my college career, supposedly, though we're doing a Vivaldi's Gloria concert, (I think with the Sioux City Symphony? Maybe?) in about 3 weeks to a month. We haven't started working on that yet though, so that'll be what choir consists of for the next however many rehearsals till that concert. But I digress.
It's weird. Once my recital's over, and the opera is over the week following, most of my schoolwork will be done. Yes, I have other classes, but those two events have been taking up the bulk of my rehearsal time, and I don't know what I'm going to be doing after that. Probably packing for our move.
Well, I should probably go study for the recital. I've got 4 1/2 songs left to memorize...that's down from 10, but still.

Going off the grid.

Today I leave for choir tour. Not that you probably would have seen a post anyway, but this is to let everyone know that I'll be unavailable for contact by any way except phone until Wednesday evening. Feel free to call me if you wish, though I may not answer immediately, as I'll have a crazy schedule over the next few days.

Talk to you soon!

It's a Boy!

This one shows he's a boy!

This is his face...remember, the ultrasound mostly just picks up bones, not skin...

These are his big feet...he apparently takes after his dad! :)

Top view, head and knees to feet.

His arms, hands in little fists.

You can see, or maybe you can, that he is all there and very healthy. He was moving a lot during the ultrasound, so we weren't able to get a good full body shot, but that's alright. Yes, we have a name, no we're not saying...yet... :)

Warning: Recital Looms Closer.

Yeah, so today I have to study for my recital a ton. It's in about a month, and I'm still learning my pieces...which is to say I"m not even comfortable enough with them to perform them in class, let alone for a grade as a performance. A month would be a long time, if it weren't for the fact that spring break is in the middle of it, with choir tour and then easter taking that time up. So I've got about two weeks before we leave, and then about a week when we get back....scary. I plan to spend most of the afternoon working on translations and notes. I'm posting here so I don't put it off and actually get work done....because, hey, even after all that, a month is a long time! :)

Well, for all of my loyal readers out there who thought I gave up on posting, I'm back! Actually, you've all probably just figured out that you should check back once a month or so....I should be better at this by now!

Anyway, I found some more great pictures that I want to post, but I feel I've deprived you all so long of an actual update that I should do that first. So, here it is.

It hit me last night that I've got about a month until my recital, and I'm still learning notes on some, (read, most) of my pieces. Because of this, I actually chose to go to bed at a reasonable time so that I could get up and go to school before my first class and practice. I meet with my accompanist today to practice immediately after my first class, and I always feel terrible if I show up unprepared and she is, so I'm going to work for most of an hour to rehearse, so I can be ready. My first class is at 11 am, so as soon as I finish this post and pack a lunch, I"m on my way to school.

In other news, Baby is growing, and definitely kicking hard now, especially at night and during choir practice. (I think the loudness of rehearsal is getting through and Baby is protesting at being woken up, as I don't notice movement in the mornings and can only assume Baby is sleeping then.) We find out what sex the baby is next week, and I will take comments on this post if you all want to know. However, if anyone protests, I'll just have to figure out how to tell those that want to know individually.....since I probably should do that anyway. :) This is all dependant on Baby being cooperative for the ultrasound and sitting so the doctor can see, of course.

Ok, I really need to get to school to practice, so here are my pictures I wanted to load. I found them in a group on facebook called "Everytime you write parallel fifths, Bach kills a kitten." I am not a member, and yes, it is very much a music major joke. I still like the pictures though.

Updates and pictures.

Ok, well, I think it's probably time for some updates. I've been on break from school, which has been somewhat of a blessing and a curse. I've gotten next to no work done, which was one of my goals for break, but the reason has been that I've been either sick or exhausted for most of break, partly due to my being pregnant. I finally figured out why I was so tired, and I've been doing better the past two days, but it was pretty ridiculous for awhile there. (I would sleep in till 11 or 11:30, then oftentimes take an afternoon nap.) The reason for me being so tired was because I'd lost all appetite for any food, not because I was nauseous, but just because I wasn't ever hungry, and so my body didn't get enough to keep everything going great and keep me awake at the same time...rather dumb on my part. I've started eating at regular intervals whether I'm hungry or not, though I still can't bring myself to eat much of anything even then. At least I'm staying awake now.
Also because of this craziness, I've now lost over 20 pounds. I'm supposed to be putting on about a pound a week now, but clearly that's not happening. Oh well. I suppose that should turn around soon enough. The weird thing is that some of my clothes are too big now, like my jeans, and I got rid of all my belts because they'd stopped fitting...I'm not used to having this kind of problem!
In other news, school starts Thursday, and I need to do some homework at least to prove I didn't waste my whole break, so now I'll probably be cramming for my last few days free. The good news is that I found a shortcut (totally legal and not breaking any school rules here) on the internet where I don't have to do forty pages of translating a public domain song...I finally found a legitamate translation. I can mostly read the german, since the words are simple, but I was having a very difficult time fitting the words to the music. Now I just have to get the translation approved by my profs at the end of the week, and I can finish thatwhole weird project.
Also this week I have my first real doctor's appointment for the baby. It should be nice to get some questions off the table and see how big "Jellybean" has grown. (We nicknamed the baby jellybean, because that's the size and shape it was at the first ultrasound, and it kind of stuck. Oh well, it's cute, and if it's a girl, we'll probably keep calling her that...if it's a boy, well, we're not that mean...)
Finally, I was bored tonight and I decided to edit another picture. I've posted the original first, so that you can see the difference. It's my sister Susan, for anyone who doesn't know, and I only changed her eyes. Click on the pictures for a really good look.