Non-stress?

Why is it called a non-stress test when they only do it when you're stressed?

I've been pretty sick for the past week and a half. My family shares everything - even the stomach flu. And that's miserable enough, but worse when you're 9 months pregnant! Yesterday, for the fifth day out of the last eight, I couldn't keep anything down. After being at work for a while, I noticed that the baby wasn't moving like she usually does. Little Laverne & Shirley is really quite active. So I focused for an hour and only felt her move once.

My doctor sent me to the hospital for a non-stress test. Luckily, I work with my brothers, and Barry drove me to the hospital. Brad dropped Lottie off at his mom's and met us there. They strapped the monitors on me and I waited. We heard the strong heartbeat immediately, and it continued throughout the test.

So, they sent me home with a lovely prescription for the nausea. And when they say that it may cause drowsiness, they are right. I slept almost through the whole night last night, for the first time in a long time.

Now I just have to focus on getting better so I can actually deliver a baby. I was almost hoping they would just induce me yesterday while I was there, but they won't do that while you're sick as long as the baby's okay. Now it's back to waiting. I'm scheduled to be induced on Wednesday if I don't have the baby before then.

By popular demand...

So, here are a couple new pictures of Lottie. I didn't take many pictures during August or yet in September, so they aren't the most recent.

We went swimming on the 24th of July with Debbie and Ainsleigh. Lottie has a lot of hair, but normally it just lays flat doing nothing. However, put a little sunscreen in it and you get...

Whenever we do Lottie's laundry, she likes to help. Mostly she helps by crawling into her empty basket. But if you put the clothes from the washer onto the door of the dryer, she

will push them in for you.

And to prove she's growing up so fast, we were waiting for Uncle Patrick and Aunt Katie to get home one night and she just had to sit in my seat and learn to drive. A minute later when she grabbed my phone and held it up to her ear with one hand still on the wheel, I knew we were in trouble.

I'm trying to upload a video, but it seems to be having issues. I'll work on that and get it posted too.

Maybe pregnancy insomnia is sort of a good thing. If I could actually sleep at night, I don't think I'd ever post. 4 a.m. seems to be a good time for me to blog. Two more weeks, then I get "baby's not sleeping" insomnia. Don't think that will be as conducive for blogging though.

Seriously, so proud

Last year, just before Lottie was born, Brad walked in the graduation ceremony at BYU. He wasn't officially a graduate, because he still had his 200 hour internship to complete, but he walked, planning on completing his internship over the summer and having his diploma mailed.

Well, ask anyone who's done it, but an internship while working full-time to support a family is no easy task.

It's already taken him longer to complete his classes than usual because he had to work full-time. He's put so much effort into taking care of me and Lottie that his own personal interests have been put second. There are so many things that he wants to accomplish, but there just seems to be no time.

His work schedule isn't the easiest. And when he's home, he seems to spend all of his time on his own "honey-do" list. I've never had to make one for him, he just gets things done. Of course, top on the list is spending all the time he can with Lottie. I swear, if it wasn't for him that girl wouldn't be as smart as she is. She loves to play and walk and go up and down the stairs, and he is the one who never fails to have the energy to do it with her - even after a full day of work standing for eight hours straight.

Add to all of that the internship. This summer (only a year after planned...) he finally finished his internship with Select Health. Part of that was to complete a journal of activities. So many people (myself included) would probably have just done the hours, whipped something together to get just a passing grade, and submitted it. But Brad put a lot of time into actually turning in a journal he could be proud of. Enough to get an "A."

And yesterday, his diploma was mailed. He is officially a college graduate. Sure, he may have picked the wrong University to attend (Go Utes!) but he did it. He didn't let anything stop him, and that makes me so proud of him.

I was talking to my mom one day, and she shared with me what she worries about with her children. Each of us has different struggles. One thing she said was that she didn't worry about my family financially because she was sure that Brad would do whatever it took to make sure that we were cared for. I don't doubt that either.

I'm so glad that he has the drive to finish what he starts. He truly can teach our children by example. I don't ever have to worry that they'll do something they see their daddy do, because I would be proud to have my children do exactly what their daddy does.

And so fitting that he finished classes and walked right before his first child was born, and actually has the diploma now just before child #2. So really, we could just pretend these pictures were taken now... since we both still look the same!

*Disclaimer - I just couldn't resist one stab at BYU... But while we all know that the U of U is a much better school, I am still quite excited that BYU beat Oklahoma. I even cheered for them and explained to my sister why it was so exciting that they won that game.