Coaxing Cami

So, I am starting to understand what women mean by the last month feeling like forever! I was happy-go-lucky until about 2 weeks ago. I hit this last month and I am just ready for this baby to come out! :) It's hard sharing a body with a little person who just keeps getting bigger and bigger and my side effects just feel more intense. I am super tired most of the day, which I can handle with a good nap. It's the swelling that I most hate. My ankles and feet are just huge and I can now picture what my poor ankles would look like if I were a 300 lb woman. It's not pretty. My hands swell a little here and there, and my face is puffy in the morning. I keep a good attitude about 80% of the time though. It's just when I look down at my huge ankles I think: man, I wish baby would come!

So, I figure I haven't given her good enough reasons for coming out yet and that's why she's stalling. (It could also have something to do with my due date being March 29th and being a first baby....but I'd like to think not) So, I've decided to list a few reasons that she may want to join us in the outside world:

1. Your mom and dad are pretty darn COOL!! I promise to teach you everything I know and learn the other things that I need to teach you. Your dad is so fun and happy. He knows how to do all sorts of things and he's dying to have a buddy to take with him to BYU football games.

2. The world may be crazy but it's a fun place to be in! We'll protect you from any harm and show you the fun things in life. Utah is a beautiful state with lots of fun outdoorsy stuff to do. I promise we'll spend a lot of time outside playing.

3. You have AMAZING aunts, uncles, grandmas, grandpas, and cousins just WAITING to be your buddy and to love you! You already have a whole crowd of INSTANT FRIENDS. Pretty lucky girl!

4. You're coming at the start of the BEST time of the year! Spring and Summer, here we come! You'll love it and I'm sure your dad is going to have you involved in his gardening projects.

5. You're born into the gospel of Jesus Christ! We'll teach you all about your Savior and how much He loves you!

Those are just a start, Cami. Bryan and I LOVE YOU SOOOO MUCH already and can't wait to meet you! So, whenever you're ready, we're ready to get your life started in a great direction.

Until then, we'll wait patiently....well, somewhat :).

Surrounded By Love

February was the month of Baby Showers. My friend, Beth Nelson, threw me a baby shower on February 20th and my sisters-in-law and mother-in-law threw me one on February 27th. I have to say that I'm always a little nervous with having parties thrown for me because I wonder who will be able to come and who will want to come and support me. It's a silly thing to worry about, but it always gets my nerves going.

I had alot of close friends show up for the friends baby shower and two carloads of family who came all the way from New Mexico to show their love and support. And that doesn't even include all of my new family from the Bryner side who came to support Bryan and I in our new family! Wow, all I can say is that I am so very blessed. We have so many people who already love this baby girl and have supported us SOOOO much throughout this pregnancy. I am so grateful to know that we will not be raising this little girl alone, but that we have friends and family who will be there to help us along the way.

I am overwhelmed by the love shown to us, especially through these two celebrations. I have posted pictures below of all the great family and friends we had there. And all the family and friends who weren't there, thank you so much for your support and love too!!

We love you all and want to say a great big THANK YOU for your love and kindness to our family!!

February 27th Family Baby Shower

This picture turned out dark, but I wanted to post anyway!
The New Mexico crowd all on the couch! and my great Bryner fam!
Grandma French listened to my last post and answered by including CHOCOLATE in her gift to me!! Thanks Grandma!!

February 20th--Friend Baby Shower

Mary and me (I'm 35 weeks pregnant in all of these pictures, by the way)
Beth is the one who organized and threw us the baby shower! Thanks again, Beth!!
My friend, Dora, and my very round belly :)
New friends from our current ward. I'm excited to get to know them better!
and my YW friends from our last ward! I miss being around all of these girls!

Reverting Back to the Beginning

I've noticed a trend the last few weeks of this trimester: I'm reverting back to old ways. I am taking naps as often as I did in my first trimester and my cravings have definitely come back with a vengeance! Chocolate is the culprit right now for me. I crave chocolate all the time!!

I want a GREAT BIG CHOCOLATE CAKE like this:

and this (Red Velvet is always a winner)

but I'd settle for just a nice big slice of this:

But I am also well aware that I am at the edge of my weight allowance for pregnancy (Dr. said 25 to 35 and I'm trying my hardest to obey), so I try substitution chocolate that is low-fat, low-sugar.

Currently, we have Fudgesickles (no fat, 40 cal)

and dark chocolate Mousse Temptations (60 cal, no sugar)

and Cocoa Puffs (fortified whole grain cereal, can't be too bad for me!)

These substitutions work for the most part, but I still have the image of chocolate cake in the back of my mind. And, on a trip to the grocery store, I broke down a little and we also have Dove chocolates in the fridge....

And these delicious Chocolate covered Fudge Graham Cracker cookies (for only $1.00! Not low fat and not sugar free)

Yep, I'm a total Chocoholic right now, but I've been surprisingly dilligent in not obeying my sugar cravings. I have an occasional cup of Cocoa Puffs or a Dove chocolate, but I have not broken down and devoured a cake. Devilish cravings!! I can't wait for baby to be here and get back to my normal healthy eating!! Ah, the joys of pregnancy!

Preparing For Baby

With less than 7 weeks left until baby Bryner comes we are feeling much more prepared. We have done our research, budgeted for baby expenses, and bought most of the essentials we'll need for the first little while. We still have a long way to go, but we're feeling much more prepared. (I keep telling Bryan that we need diapers!!!)

Here are some of the preparations we've made so far. (We're just down to the little details now! Yay!)

Bryan and I successfully assembled the stroller. We have a "travel system". Car seat, check!

Here's the crib and the Cherry Blossom quilt we went with. We also got appliques to put on the walls. (little cherry blossom flowers and dragon flies) It turned out super cute!

Here's a good shot of the nursery. We also have a queen size bed in this room. It's our nursery/guest room since we only have two rooms in the town home. It works great though!

Our pretty crib! Bryan and I assembled it. I'm very happy with the great quality! It'll last through all of our kids :) (I'm not sure how many that will be!)

Okay, I became "crafty" lately and made this sign. Well, we bought all the wood from a craft store and I painted the whole thing and glittered her name.

We have a lot of names that we like, but finally decided on Camdyn (Cami) Elizabeth Bryner.

Bryan and I also made these signs. Bryan routed and sanded down the wood and I painted the signs. It was fun working together to decorate Cami's room. These turned out great!

Here are some close ups of the pictures. I am quite pleased with how they turned out!

This was the first sign I made. Bryan routed the wood and I painted it. Pretty good for our first craft!

And we've managed to buy some clothes. We still have a way to go on the wardrobe. (It's hard to know what to get! I don't know what size she'll be to start out!) It's a start! She'll at least have something to wear, but no diapers....we'll have to work on that!

She's going to be very girly and pink :). We can't wait!

Attitude Adjustment

This morning was a rough one for me pregnancy-wise. I woke up very tired, sore, and emotional. I took a shower and took a short nap before I had to get ready for 11 am church in the hopes that it would help to fix my sour mood, but it didn't really and I got ready and went with Bryan to church.

During this pregnancy so far I have felt like this is something that I can handle and that things in my body were changing, yes, but that they were things that weren't much more than an annoyance. I've kept my spirits up and have enjoyed every Dr. visits, hearing baby girl's heart beat, and feeling her rambunctious movements in my belly. But today my spirits were low as I thought: pregnancy is hard! It is hard to deal with all the changes and especially as she is growing SO rapidly now and I am having more side effects like swelling and heartburn. Today I was asking myself and Heavenly Father: how am I going to handle the next 9 weeks? It's just going to get harder from here and Labor and Delivery is well on its way.

So, this was my state of mind going into church today. I did, however, kneel down and pray to get out of my bad attitude and that I would be able to meet new people at church. I was still very exhausted, but decided that I needed church today more than ever. Amanda, who lives two town homes over from us with her husband and daughter, gave a talk today on Faith. She talked about how she was blessed with her first little girl and then a year later her and her husband decided it was time to have another baby. She got pregnant soon after, but miscarried within a few months. Then again that fall they tried again, got pregnant, and miscarried a second time. They tried another time just this winter, got pregnant, and miscarried for a third time and this time she was hospitalized for complications. All through her talk and her experiences she talked about how she prayed and kept faith. God told her everything would be okay. She talked about the scripture in Alma that says that if you even have just a desire to have faith that it is a good starting point for building faith in Christ.

This talk hit me (and I was crying my eyes out during church!) because I realized that in all my thoughts this morning I was lacking in Faith. I was thinking of finishing this pregnancy alone and how hard it would be for ME to do it and deal with all the changes. I neglected to remember that I have been provided with a Savior who understands all the joys and sorrows I am feeling. It was the perfect reminder today that I need to have faith that God does have a plan for our little family and that He never wants us to feel alone in ANYTHING we do.

I am grateful for Amanda's willingness to share such personal and sorrowful experiences in order to show how faith can lead us out of even our darkest moments. I am grateful for a small answer to my prayer today that helped me to realign my perspective and realize how blessed I am for little baby girl. I truly can do all things through my Savior Jesus Christ!

She likes to Move it, Move it!

Little girl is so SUPER active lately!! Usually she moves and kicks around when I'm sitting down or laying down to rest. Yesterday she started her kicking around 4 pm and didn't stop squirming until after Bryan's basketball game was over at 8 pm. Four hours of constant movement!! What is up with that?

I am beginning to think that she is dancing to her own little beat or that's she's having her own disco party in my belly. And she loves to sit HIGH up just under my ribs. Luckily, my ribs haven't been too sore lately though!

She does love to kick and punch when I go to sleep. She also loves to wake me up in the morning to a few side jabs. I think she's ready for breakfast at that point. I usually wake up a little more sore than when I went to sleep. I try to tell her we're on the same team, but I don't think she understands the whole "team" aspect just yet.

We've got a very active little girl on our hands. I can only imagine what a little squirmer she'll be when she gets here!