7 Months Preggo

This weekend, I will officially be 7 months pregnant (on July 3, I will have exactly 2 more months left). I now have doctor visits every 2 weeks. During the last visit, my doctor did an ultrasound and we discovered the baby was breech frank (meaning it was head up, feet by head). During this visit, however, the baby had turned to the normal head-down, feet up, position. You would think I would have felt such a movement?? I am so glad she turned on her own, hopefully for the last time! And everything else is great too. I am feeling more pregnant and uncomfortable. It's almost impossible to paint my own toenails. I have to sneeze with my legs crossed (sorry, TMI). And I need a nap most days. But thankfully, my face and feet haven't started swelling too much like they did last time. Not yet anyway :)

I am curious, who of you have had/considered a natural birth? I hesitated posting about this because usually when I tell people I want to try to go natural, people either ask, "WHY??" like I'm some masochist, or say, "good luck," like it's an impossible undertaking that has never been done before.

Let's just say I have my reasons. I have been considering going natural since before I was even pregnant with this baby. I got to see my sister go thru almost all of it last month and it would be an amazing experience to try to do it myself. With Mariah, it was far from natural: I was induced and had an epidural. This time around I will try to be patient and let the baby come on her own and see how far I can get without any meds.

Any natural birth advice for me??

Couponing: Week 6

It has been about a month and a half since I joined the couponing craze. I think I'm getting better at it. Here is my loot for this week so far:



-5 Fuze low-calorie drinks
-2 Schick razors
-2 Dove Men Care body/face washes
-2 Dove Men Care deodorants
-1 John Frieda shampoo
-1 John Frieda conditioner
-1 box RepHresh tampons
-1 bottle Palmolive dish soap

Total retail value: $75.68 (with tax, it is $82.68)
Total paid out of pocket: $1.74!!

I figured out that CVS ExtraCare Bucks can be counted toward tax, so on each transaction I used as many coupons as would get me under $1, and I paid the difference with pocket change.

Who else out there is coupling??

- Posted from my iPhone

Happy Fathers Day 2011

Here's a little message from Mariah to her daddy on Fathers Day:

Happy Fathers Day Brian! We love you ☺

Bye Bye Disneyland!

Sadly, this was the last week that our passes worked at Disneyland before the summer season. We won't be going back till the middle of August! We tried to make to most of it. We saw World of Color for one last time. And even braved the long lines for the new Little Mermaid ride. 

My friend Paige and I even took an extra trip on Monday to say our final goodbyes.

I'm kind of glad we can't go this summer. Once school is out, the parks get ridiculously crowded and the weather will only get hotter! Not the best combination for a prego like me.

Mariah goes thru withdrawals every day. She even sometimes mentions Disneyland in her prayers :)

Mariah Test Drives Cars

Because I constantly drag Mariah to stores for my new couponing craze, I like to reward her sometimes with some kid fun. This week I went to Albertsons and got FREE barbecue sauce (I actually made $0.12 from each after coupons). 

After Albertsons, Mariah and I went next door to Toys R Us. We looked at nearly EVERY toy in the store, including all the awesome Power Wheels cars. Mariah had to test drive every single one. I always wanted one of these when I was little. If only we had a yard, I would totally buy one for Mariah and live vicariously thru her :)

Iowa Trip

Well, as some of you may know, I went to Iowa for the first 2 weeks in May to help my sister La Donna while the Forsgrens bring their third baby into the world. We had lots of fun: Mariah and Piper {not quite} getting along, sightseeing Decorah, and of course, waiting for baby!

Here are some picture highlights of the trip:

New Hair Cut!

Yes, it's true. I had some 3rd trimester frumpiness going on. I need a change. Thanks Jamie for the haircut!

More Couponing!

Just wanted to share my couponing for the week:

Trip 1: Walgreens




-2 Gillette body washes
-2 Gillette deodorants
-1 good Gillette razor
-6 disposable Bic razors
-2 Sobe life waters
-1 Coppertone sunscreen
-4 Comet cleaners

V according to B

This is a sidewalk rendition of me that Brian just drew (I'm holding my belly). :)

Opinions?


- Posted from my iPhone

Update on Mariah's Waking

Thank you all SOOO much for all the great suggestions on how to get Mariah to stay in her bed. We are already doing a lot of things like blacking out her windows, having a good bedtime routine, and she usually goes to bed about 8:00pm.

We decided to try the putting-her-back-in-bed method, as I think it would go best with her temperament. I'm kind of scared to put any sort of doorknob lock on her door because I don't want to freak her out if she can't get out of her room. If this method doesn't work, we might consider using a gate (but who knows, she might be too clever/big for those now)

Yesterday was our first day we both committed to putting Mariah back in her bed until a more respectable time (fingers crossed for 7:00pm!).

Here are how our mornings have gone so far:

HELP: Mariah the Early Riser

Mariah has been coming into our room in the morning ever since we switched her from the crib to a twin bed about a month ago. It was so cute! Wake-up time used to be 7:00-7:30am. Then it slowly creeped to 6:00-6:30. But before even that?? That's just cruel. This morning she came in our bed at 4:45 this morning totally awake!

Come on experienced moms, what do I do to get my 7:00 wake-up time back??