Pregnancy News

24 weeks

• How far along are you? 27 weeks (almost)
• Do you know the sex of the baby? Boy!
• Have you picked out names? Drumrooollllll.... His name is Sawyer Dustin Thatcher. Sawyer has been a favorite on the list our whole marriage. There was another name I was really liking but when I looked it up on the internet to check its popularity it was clearly rising...on the girl list. So weird. I don't feel like it's a girl name at all but I couldn't name our boy that and have him be this generation's version of the boy named Ashley.
• Movement: I started feeling him around 21 weeks. It is so weird. I feel like the description of butterflies/popping popcorn is not accurate at all. For me, it seriously feels like my internal organs are pulsing. You know when you smash a finger and it has its own heartbeat? That is how my bladder feels when little dude uses it as a punching bag. Yes, pulsing organs is a much better description.
• Belly button in or out? In but I don't know how much longer that's going to last.
• General Mood? Pretty good. Definitely tired but I feel like I've been tired ever since I hit my teenage years so I'm not sure that it's pregnancy related.
• Thoughts: I catch myself smiling when he wiggles now. I guess I'm feeling more affectionate. And then two seconds later I'm experiencing extreme anxiety about it all- everything we have left to do, actually raising a kid, going through labor and delivery. You guys, I'm terrified of labor and delivery. Utterly and completely terrified.
• Doctor Appointments: These are still pretty run of the mill. Babe's heartbeat is nice and strong. My numbers look good. All is well. This last appointment the nurse talked to me about the flu vaccine and TDAP shot. Usually I'm pretty indifferent to the flu vaccine. I've seen people that got the vaccine and then turned around to get the flu (though to clarify I am pro-vaccine in general..vaccines are good!). However, I figured I should do what I can to avoid sickness and help little man avoid sickness so I opted to get both shots. My body took the TDAP vaccine like a champ. The flu shot definitely left me with symptoms- body aches, fatigue, though nothing quite like the flu. The weirdest thing was my arm that I got the flu shot in was ticked. It was so sore and had a giant red swollen bump for days. Everything looks good now though. Up next: my glucose test. I'm kind of looking forward to trying the infamous drink.
• Baby: Baby has hair and can hear. He is longer than a ruler-about 13 inches and weighs a whopping 2 1/2 lbs. He apparently is comparable to the size of a head of lettuce. All of this according to the internet.
• Symptoms: Things are so much better than the first trimester I really can't complain. One symptom that hasn't been so fun is symphysis pubic dysfunction. I started experiencing that one around 21 weeks and even my doctor was surprised it started so early. It definitely makes walking hard (hello waddle), stairs are fun, and sleeping at night (particularly rolling over) is a chore. There's not much that can be done about it though so sucking it up it is. My shoes are also becoming limited in wearability. My feet have become too fat for at least half of them. Those that do fit, fit in the morning but by afternoon there's some definite spillage of feet flesh over the shoe's edge. 
• Cravings/Aversions/Eating: These change on a daily basis. Smells of foods seem to get me more than anything else right now. I've definitely been craving sugar but I don't feel like that's related to pregnancy. I've always had a sweet tooth. However, now if I want to eat a whole cake people are totally fine with it, no judgement (don't worry, I've actually not felt the need to eat a whole cake. I'm sure that would bring my nausea back). Pregnancy perk.

Life Lately

The most recent haps in our lives:


I finally caved and bought a body pillow during July. It worked wonders then. I now feel like I need four more to be comfortable. 

Dillon and I finally hiked Kanarra Falls together with a group of my co-workers. We didn't quite make it to the natural slide because of the weather but it was still fun.  This is literally the only hike that I like because there's shade and water and good scenery. It's pleasant even in the super heat of summer.

I was called to be this years Girls Camp director for our ward. These girls are seriously the most easy-going, low-maintenance, no-drama group I've ever known. They made camp easy and fun. The actual camping part was an adventure. The heat (surprise) and lack of sleep made for some angry body symptoms which I can only assume had a lot to do with growing a little human.

One of the ladies in the science department (and my good friend) miss Jami got married! This, of course, made for some picture opportunities. Although, I didn't manage to get one with the bride..

We found out what exactly was growing inside that belly of mine. I drank a ton of water per hospital instructions and then found out that actually isn't as necessary as they make it seem. 

And we're having a little man! This is how I decided to announce it. I felt creative and had some people tell me that they indeed had not seen this idea before. If you have, don't tell me. I prefer to live in my bubble of creativity as that doesn't happen that often.

The little man was in a funny position the whole ultrasound. He was basically spread eagle the whole time but had both arms curved around his face. The technician acted like that was no big deal but my doctor called me later that day to tell me that I needed to get another ultrasound because they needed face shots. Those ultrasounds are certainly not cheap and we have to pay for two now (though it was fun to see our guy twice) and now we have learned a lesson: Don't leave that first ultrasound until they have gotten all of the necessary shots INCLUDING the face. The umbilical cord was covering his face the second time but the technician managed to get what was needed. All looks well for our babe so far.

We made a trip to Delta for all of the summer family birthdays. The Millard County Fair was going on while we were there and one of the events that we hit up was a concert by the band VanLadyLove. I actually really liked their sound and their songs. Fingers are crossed that they make it big.

This pup of ours is now a permanent resident of Delta. We actually took her over the July 4th weekend. She was just having a hard time in our yard. No matter where we put her, she was getting into neighbors' yards, onto our roof, or into things in the yard (all of this while on a chain!). We decided it wasn't fair to her to shorten her chain so she could barely move (which was about the only option we had left) and so asked Dillon's dad if he would mind a new addition to the farm. We both hated the idea and I definitely felt like a pet-owner failure but once we saw her again in August we knew it was the right thing. She is so much calmer and loves the farm. She has plenty of space and other animals to interact with. 

Dillon turned 24! He actually picked out and ordered some new shirts for his birthday and then told me about it. Which was completely fine, I just felt like I didn't do my job as I wasn't involved at all in his birthday present. He's happy so I'm happy. The day of his birthday we went out to the driving range to hit a bucket of golf balls which basically turned into me watching Dillon because I had no clue what I was doing...and maybe I was a bit distracted watching the prairie dogs run around. 

Every year Dillon picks something different that he wants for his birthday treat. He has never asked for the same thing twice. This year he decided he wanted to go to the french bakery in town and get one of their cream puffs. These things are the size of your face! And mmmm, so good.

And school is back in full swing. I feel like I'm finally getting the hang of things this year. Although, I am currently sitting at home with my first illness of the year. Blast those petri dish students.

Pregnancy Update

I suppose it's about time I do the obligatory pregnancy posts. I really was planning on doing them before now, and more often, as I want to remember stuff. Life happened and this blog was neglected so this post is two pregnancy updates combined. I made my own questionnaire of sorts combining a bunch of others I found. It may change as time goes on.

I should mention also that Dillon has been the best ever during all of this. He is so good to me; sympathetic when I need it, helpful all of the time. I just love him.

1st trimester

About 12/13 weeks

• When did you find out you were pregnant? April 22, 2014
• When is your due date? December 29, 2014
• Who was with you when you found out? Nobody. Dillon had to go to a church youth activity and I decided to take the test while he was gone.
• Who was the first person you told? Dillon. Enjoy his reaction below. Although, I don't know why he seems so caught off guard. Results were quicker than expected? I love that he can't stop smiling.
• How did your parents react? We put the news in my mom's Mother's Day card. She giggled like a little girl and danced on the porch. My dad told us it was about time and then congratulations. I'll have to ask Dillon what his parents said, I don't really know except for the general congratulations from both of them.
• What was your first symptom? Feeling like someone took a mallet to my chest 24/7. 
• Belly button in or out? In
• General mood? Sick
• Thoughts: When I first saw the positive on the pregnancy test I seriously just thought, "No way." There wasn't a natural gush of lovey feelings for this tiny babe, mostly because it seemed unreal (it still does for the most part). The first trimester was rough. I remember thinking that everyone who says you forget how awful you feel is a dirty liar. 
• Doctor Appointments: The first appointment I had, I didn't really know what to expect. Everyone's seems to be different depending on which Doctor you go to. Dillon wasn't able to come to my first one with me and it just happened to be the most exciting. They pulled out the ultrasound machine and the doppler so I got to see and hear my little human. I think the doctor was feeling like he should put in some extra effort to make it a special experience since I came alone. He said in the cutest voice, "Look kiddo, there's your baby." It's hard to describe. I'm not naturally the most emotional person in situations like this so I just smiled. Everything looked good and baby was on track.
• Baby: I've been using two specific sites to track the baby's progress. According to them, by the end of the 1st trimester the baby was about the size of a peach and making all kinds of progress. Nervous system, fingernails, vocal cords, and all sorts of other stuff were in the works.
• Symptoms: Seriously, everything. It could have been much worse. I have a friend who is due about 10 days before me and the poor thing had to be hooked up to an IV because she couldn't keep anything down. I experienced the ones everyone thinks of as typical- definite morning sickness (more like ALL DAY nausea), vomiting, being tired, and already mentioned, an extremely sore chest area. A few things were ones that I didn't know were normal- I was so, so dizzy that it would wake me up from sleeping even though I was already lying down (this one was the hardest for me while I was still teaching). My body was producing so much extra saliva that I was gagging all of the time (this one is gone). I had an extremely gross aftertaste in my mouth all the time but especially after eating. It's described online as a metallic aftertaste, mine was more sour (this one is mostly gone). 
• Movement: Nothing
• Cravings/Aversions/Eating: Food pretty much sounded gross the whole first trimester but meat especially made me want to gag, particularly beef. I made Dillon eat his hamburger across the room from me because I couldn't handle the look and smell. During this time, I discovered and became grateful for easily throw-uppable foods. Carrots is not one of them. In fact, all raw vegetables instantly made me sick and run to the bathroom. So much for trying to eat healthy.

Now

• How far along are you? 19 weeks
• Do you know the sex of the baby? Not yet. We find out tomorrow!
• Have you picked out names? We have a list for either gender but haven't really landed on anything.
• Have you felt the baby move? Nope.
• Belly button in or out? In.
• General Mood? Irritable. Like, wow.
• Thoughts: I'm almost halfway there and it still doesn't feel real. I see my belly growing and hear the baby's heartbeat and it's just not quite feeling like reality. I'm guessing that will change once I feel Baby Thatcher move. 
• Doctor Appointments: These are pretty non-exciting. I don't know if Dillon and I are atypical or not but we don't really have any questions (mostly because we don't know what questions we should be asking) so the appointments last about 60 seconds.
• Baby: Baby is now the size of a mango and about 6 1/2 inches long. The waxy coating all over its skin has developed to keep it protected. Baby's cartilage is turning to bone. All sorts of exciting things.
• Symptoms: Thankfully, the 1st trimester ones have subsided. I'm currently in the easier stage. I am ridiculously hot all.the.time. Because of this I have the tendency to overheat really easily which makes me pretty sick. I've always run naturally warm (as in I like my house to hover around 68 degrees) but this is a whole new level. I basically hate being outside if it's hot at all. The dizziness has revisited but mostly just in the morning. It's not nearly as bad as it was.

**Dillon decided to buy this pool which was the best purchase of the summer. I basically wanted to swim every day to cool off but really didn't want to go to the local aquatic center. Running into your former students in your swimsuit is just..awkward. We have spent a few afternoons just lounging in this pool and it has been awesome.

• Movement: Still nothing.
• Cravings/Aversions/Eating: I still don't really crave meat but I can handle eating it now. If a food has too much melted cheese in it, it makes me gag. The idea of a grilled cheese sandwich is not appealing at all. I wouldn't really say I've had any consistent cravings but right now all I want in the world is Sour Patch Apples. The two places in Cedar that always have them...don't. I'm desperate enough that I'm considering ordering them online.

Anniversary Colorado Style

Dillon and I celebrated our 4th anniversary in June. Four years went by so fast! I've been so grateful every day that I was lucky enough to marry the perfect man for me.

As per tradition, we planned a trip centered around baseball and decided to also make it our anniversary trip. We've gone to Denver three times now to watch a Braves game. The first year we went, both of us assumed the other was going to make hotel reservations..and then it was the week before and neither of us had done anything. We started searching. Everything that was reasonable in Denver was completely booked. There were only openings in places where you were almost guaranteed to be shot or burgled. Seriously, the reviews were insane. We decided to branch out and stumbled upon the Columbine Inn that was in a little town just 25 minutes outside of Denver. The small town of Idaho Springs, Colorado enchanted us both and now we purposely stay there when we go.

Idaho Springs is a tiny town (about 1 square mile) in the Rocky Mountains. It's a picturesque small town tourist spot.

Main Street

One of the many mountain waterfalls

Dillon and I have our favorite spots we like to hit but this year we made reservations in a different place. This year we stayed at the Indian Hot Springs Resort. The resort has hot tub rooms that are fed directly by natural hot springs in the area. They also have underground mineral caves that are built right around the springs themselves. While checking in, we noticed a sign that proclaimed swimsuits were now optional in the mineral caves but the caves were divided by gender. Ew. Dillon joked that having the caves split by gender kind of defeated the purpose of hanging out in the water sans suit. Cheeky dude that one.

We actually couldn't hop in the caves or tubs because it would have boiled poor baby. But the resort also has a pool that is fed by the hot springs that is kept around a pleasant, but not too toasty, 90 degrees. We spent a good amount of time in that pool (with all suited up people, thank goodness).

Other than that difference in our usual experience, we made sure to hit up our favorite spots. First on the list was an awesome BBQ place that has great food and let's you sit outside to eat by the river. We ate there twice and probably would have repeated it more had we been in town longer.

We ate plenty of gelato while perusing the cute shops on main street, a few times.

We also made sure to eat at Tommy Knockers which is one of Dillon's favorites. We tried a new place (for us) that had delicious Mexican food. We made sure to buy some small souvenirs. Between all of that we relaxed in our room.

And the main reason for our trip, we attended the baseball game. The Braves won!

All in all a great trip and one that I'll be happy to repeat as often as we can throughout our marriage.

Let's Catch This Business Up

This post covers pretty much everything that has happened this year. I know. Five months of catch-up. But really, these highlights themselves didn't seem to qualify enough for their own post while I was still in school. Together they make a nice little blog entry though. 


Dillon and I, with the other science teachers, checked out the St. George Dinosaur Track Museum to see if it would work as part of our 8th grade field trip

During our fossil unit, the other science teachers and I decided to make bug candy that looked like amber fossils for the kiddos...300+ candies for the record. The meal worms were ordered food grade, nacho cheese flavored (so gross), just in case the students decided to actually eat them (most of them didn't).

The final product

I saw a woman at this year's USTA conference that seriously has to be Amy Farrah Fowler's long lost twin (and I discovered that trying to sneak pictures of strangers is prrreetttyy awkward).

Dillon and I celebrated Valentine's at home this year.

Mmmm...macarons. I found these babies on Etsy at
etsy.com/shop/ellemercedmacarons 

Flowers and M&M's from Dillon

Some bored teenagers thought it would be cool to shoot out our car window (and others over the course of about a week). Little did they know that that is our wrecked car that will be making it's way to the salvage yard soon so...whatevs. (Is it a little embarrassing that it's still sitting in front of our house? Maybe. What can I say? Not a top priority).

We celebrated my birthday. Dillon let me open my presents early.

We had no birthday wrapping stuff, so he just kept putting things
in this bag one at a time :)

Then we went down to St. George for glow-in-the-dark mini-golf and shopping.

Such a winner staying strong, holding those bags while standing in
Victoria's Secret.

And ended with my birthday "cake" and white hot chocolate from Starbucks. **Sidenote: So, remember how Rainbow Chip cake basically rocks my face?? They discontinued it! Like, gone. Seriously, I think I hate Betty Crocker. They replaced it with some Funfetti nonsense. Not the same folks. Not.the.same. The frosting is nowhere to be found except for on Ebay for obscene prices. In my totally deserved depression, I told Dillon that I just wanted a coconut cake donut for my birthday from this awesome donut shop in town. They closed the week of my birthday. Despair, I tell you! But Dillon found these at Starbucks and they were pretty rockin' too so, all was well.**

We traveled to Delta for a quick visit and I helped the niece and nephew create some slime. (This is the best and easiest-to-make slime I've come across--water, borax, and polyvinyl alcohol. You can totally order a Polyvinyl Alcohol slime kit through Amazon. I recommend it over any of the slime recipes that involve Elmer's glue).

The Britos came down to visit (which we loved!) and we decided to hit up the Children's Museum in St. George. It's completely free and so fun for little kids (and adults).

I made Dillon help me chaperon another school activity- the Science Olympiad. The bus ride = not awesome, but the kids had fun and we all learned a lot.

We found out we're pregnant! Which I have no picture for, except for the pregnancy test. I feel weird about posting it...mostly because we all know what had to go on that stick for the results to pop up. Am I the only one who thinks that? Someone please tell me whether or not it's weird! I apparently am not secure enough about it to have my own solid opinion.

My dad graduated with his Masters in Education. Go him!

We announced that we were pregnant. It was earlier than we were planning on but apparently no one told my brother to keep it a secret so he let all of Facebook know. I was also soooo sick that I had missed practically every other day of work that week so people were already suspicious.

As school whittled down a school talent show was held. A few of us teachers banded together and learned the dance from "What Does the Fox Say?" I only have pictures...no video but I'll bet it exists on social media somewhere.

And now summer is in full swing. I look around our house thinking how much it needs to be cleaned..and then I read instead. This one has been my latest. I actually liked it, which may be a bit morbid and probably makes me weird.