The Waiting Game

With our due date on August 8th, we're really just playing the waiting game at this point. I've been having small contractions and such, which are good signs my body's getting ready for the big day, whenever that may be. I personally won't be surprised if Raleigh (pronounced like Sir Walter Raleigh - yeah, for now, that's the official nickname, based of off his middle name "Herald" sort of - at least the first three letters kind of match!) It's pretty crazy because there are several girls in the ward with due dates very close to mine, and they've already had their babies by this point. Raleigh's taking his time though, but my OBGYN said that he's welcome to come at any time now since at this point he's completely developed.

Sir Walter Raleigh - English poet and explorer, among other things. We just liked the name - but maybe we should just upgrade it to Sir Paul Herald Risk IV?

I've been feeling pretty much like a whale lately, since in total I've gained probably about 40 pounds with this pregnancy (I have a feeling he's probably gonna be bigger than a 6 pound baby.) It's very difficult and takes me about 30 seconds just to try and roll over in bed now. When things drop on the floor, I generally think of it as gone forever - it's rarely worth it to try and pick it up again. The other week I was in the grocery store with my hands full of stuff, trying to fine Paul and the cart, when I dropped something. A nearby lady stopped with her cart and offered to pick it up for me - I assured her I could do it - and did, taking my sweet, sweet time to do it from a very strange angle. Random strangers also ask me when I'm due all the time, and I think our ward at church is hedging bets as to whether we'll be in church this upcoming Sunday or at the hospital.

People keep asking us if we're ready for this lil' guy to come. There's really not too much of a good answer for that - we realize this will definitely be changing our lives drastically, but we're excited and have all the basics at least. One thing I will say is that we have a decent amount of clothes for him at this point, but since they were all free (and we're grateful for that!) I haven't gotten to pick out very many that I really specifically like - and he doesn't really have Sunday clothes, which are in my opinion the cutest thing for little boys (otherwise seems like boys clothes are pretty boring.) I'm sure at some second hand shop we'll be able to find him a cute baby suit and suspenders or whatever other hip stuff they have available for little boys these days.

I'm sure someone will have a perfect suit in Raleigh's size.

Paul got some cavities filled this past week, which was not his favorite (I am still very happy that I've never had a cavity except for one in a baby tooth, and therefore I've never gone through that ordeal.) He's had at least one of the cavities for a long time though, so we're pretty glad to have that taken care of. We also got a used window unit air conditioner a couple weeks ago, which has literally saved my life - it's been in the 90's for most days lately, and even though the unit is really only enough to cool off our bedroom, that's all it really needs to do. Super props to Paul (and our home teachers) for being willing to install it. I need to give credit where credit is due - Paul has been stupendously helpful all throughout this pregnancy, and has helped make everything go as smoothly as possible. It's extremely, extremely nice to have his support and help all the time. Seriously, don't know what I'd do without him (I also wouldn't be pregnant without him, but since he's pulling his "weight" in the relationship although mine's more literal it only serves to bring us closer together, haha.) Despite the fact that I haven't been wearing my wedding ring for about a month and a half now because of swollen pregnancy fingers, I'm exceedingly grateful for him (sorry for the sappiness) and I'm so excited to see him be the great dad I know he will be.

Paul and I went up the canyon to Provo river last week because I start going stir crazy if I've been in the apartment for too long without doing something fun. We dipped our feet in the freezing cold water and were just sitting by the bank when we saw a small critter across the way, swimming around in the water. He eventually made his way over to where we were sitting, and came very close to where we were sitting - we could see his cute little face that looked just like a ferret. He hung out around us for about a half hour, getting really quite close. We just watched people on tubes ride by, and I lamented that tubing would be pretty impossible for me at this point since there's no way I'd be able to hoist myself back up onto one if I fell off. After some research, we're pretty sure it was a mink that we saw. I don't know why anyone would want a mink coat when live minks are so adorable.

You can kind of see the mink's head peeking up from the water underneath the bridge.

This is pretty much exactly what he looked like. I couldn't even handle how cute he was.

Can't even deal.

Anyway, things are going great, and hopefully by the time I next write a blog post it will be all about Raleigh and our adventures with him. I'm still doing homemaking interviews and reading various books for my internship, and Paul's still working for BYU IT, which has been going well. Here's a picture of a rainbow we saw from our apartment one day. Looking forward to great things to come!