Our baby boy is here! Carson Joshua Lyman was born August 11 at 11:38 am (that’s 8/11/11 at 11:38 – cool, huh?). He weighed 8 pounds 1 ounce and measured 20 inches long. We’re so proud of our healthy, happy baby! He’s an angel, and we feel so blessed to have him as part of our family.
Welcome, Carson!
Lately I’ve been feeling a little stressed and busy. It’s been a fun, action-packed month of July with vacations and an awesome work conference. I’ve gotten to spend time with family and friends and it’s been great. But coming out of it all, I feel like I have so much to do: normal laundry and cleaning, getting the house back in order, collecting baby gear, getting things ready for the latest addition to our family, wrapping up projects at work, other to-do items. For a few days, I was really overwhelmed. (And it doesn’t make it easier to accomplish my to-do list when I’m so tired coming home from work that I just want to lay down and do nothing.)
This evening our house was hot, and BYU has faster Internet that we do, so Josh and I brought our computers and some things to work on and headed up to campus. I was tired and whiny, but after a frosty and fries (yum yum) and once we got settled in a study room, I started tackling my to-do list.
After a little bit, I looked around and realized that I was on BYU campus in a study room, somewhere I hadn’t been in a while, and it reminded me of being a student. Those days of papers and tests and studying and deadlines. Then I took a second look at what I was doing: writing thank-you cards for generous baby shower gifts from family and friends. Sitting next to my best friend in the world. Getting ready to be a mom. Wow, how easy, fun, and carefree compared to studying for finals!
I really enjoyed being a student and going to college, but I think if my college self could look ahead to me right now, I’d be jealous and excited. Me with an awesome job I love and free evenings. With no homework. And with an amazing miraculous blessing about to enter my life, just around the corner.
So remembering my past tonight helped me enjoy the now just a little bit more. It’s so easy for me to get caught up in dreaming about and waiting for the future. Sometimes I think I forget that this current now I’m in is the future I once looked forward to more than anything. I think I need to stop and enjoy the now more often.
So getting close now! 35 weeks, with just 5 weeks to go. I’m getting bigger…
Yep, look at that baby grow! (I probably should have picked a different shirt to take these pregnancy pictures in, but oh well.) Notice my finger has swollen out of my wedding ring; sad, huh?
I’m still feeling, overall, pretty good! Well, pretty big and more and more uncomfortable, truthfully. It’s harder to move, walk, sit, sleep…but I’m surviving. Also, I lucked out with a maternity clothes sale at the Gap, and I found an on-sale maternity swimsuit, so clothes-wise, things have been great! And swimming (aka, standing/sitting in a pool) feels so good when you’re 9 months pregnant. Especially in the summer.
Baby preparations are going well. We’ve had some really wonderful baby showers from family and coworkers (thank you, everyone!) and we’re collecting things for the baby’s room (my favorite of which are baby books). We’re shopping around for a few more essentials…like a car seat. But that’s next on the list. I’ll have to post pictures of the baby’s room soon.
And the baby himself is doing great! At my last appointment, the doctor said he weighed almost 6 pounds and his head was down. The baby moves a lot still, though I can tell he’s getting cramped as he kicks less and squrims and stretches more. And Josh and I have started to notice that he gets the hiccups. It’s still all fun to feel and watch. :)
I’ve made it to month 8! Now I’m 31 weeks pregnant and here’s how I look:
And I’m still feeling pretty good! I’ve heard horror stories about being pregnant in the summer, but so far it hasn’t been bad at all. That’s probably because we’ve had a nice, wet, cold spring, and I have yet to make it to the hottest part of summer or pregnancy, but no complaints from me about the weather so far.
I am starting to feel ever more big and ever more uncomfortable… yesterday I tried to do a good Saturday cleaning like I’ve always done, but I completely ran out of steam halfway through. Too much bending over, I guess! Josh had to step in and finish the kitchen floor.
The baby is doing great, and it’s so fun to feel him kick…well, most of the time. Sometimes he likes to kind of camp up by my ribs, and that’s not so comfortable. But still, I feel like I could just stare at my belly popping all day long, and it would never get boring. :)