Holy Guacamole!

As promised, a post about Dave the drummer and some pictures!  Dave's new employer has a band, called Running with Scissors.  Their drummer moved several months ago, and they asked Dave to join them for a performance at the high school in Mesquite.  Last Thursday they played for the high school's tailgate party before their first football game of the year.  Here are a couple of pictures of the event:

 Setting up and doing sound checks.

 Dave doing his thing!

 The whole group performing.

Part of the fan club.

There were several (about 5) little girls who were dancing right in front of the stage for much of the performance.  Occasionally they would climb up on the stage and have to be pulled down by their parents.  It was cute!

Overall the performance was good.  I thought Dave sounded wonderful, considering he only had about a week to practice with the band after not playing the drums for 4 years!  Good job, babe!

Belly Reflections

Almost from the first moment that I knew I was pregnant, I looked forward to feeling our baby move.  I mean, I was really excited about the idea!  And for the past 3-ish weeks since my morning sickness stopped, I've seen it as the next sign that this pregnancy is real and is continuing to be healthy.  I know that you don't have to feel your baby move for everything to be totally normal.  But still, I started to think, "Maybe I am just getting fat, and getting over a 3-month bout of bulimia."

No, honestly, I am sure that I have felt the baby moving as far back as 6 weeks ago (around 14 weeks).  I read up a bunch on feeling baby movements, and all of the things said I'd feel gas or feathery feelings.  So I've been waiting for those kinds of feelings.  In the mean time, I started feeling things that were more like muscle twitches in my abdomen.  At first it was not very often at all, just an occasional twitch.  Which made it seem likely that it really was just a muscle twitch.  I mean, my abdomen was going through some changes (Hello, uterus!), and I knew that my ligaments were all getting ready to stretch out, which means that muscles are not supported like they used to be.  So it made sense.

However, like I said, I have been looking forward to feeling the baby like crazy!  So I said, "This is just a muscle twitch.  BUT...I'll remember this and if that ends up being what my baby feels like, I'll know that it was really movement."  Yeah, I'm no dummy.

Fast forward about 3 weeks, and I started feeling these "muscle twitches" much more often.  At this point I was like, "I will bet that this is the baby."  But I had no proof.  They were still pretty light feelings.  They did not feel like they had any more power behind them than the first few twitches had.  And I thought, "If this is the baby, wouldn't they be getting stronger?"  So I again put off a certain diagnosis.  I said, "I am pretty sure this is the baby, but I might be wrong.  I am not going to officially say that I've felt the baby move."  Because a false official statement like that would ruin my reputation.  :D

So, this last week I felt another one of those twitches, and there was a lot of force behind it, and I knew that I had felt my baby.  And then I felt it again.  And again!  I am suddenly feeling it very frequently.  Dave joined a band when we moved to Mesquite (Deserves its own post!), and I went to watch them practice last night.  When they first started playing, the baby went crazy!  She was moving around a lot.  I had earplugs in, since we were in a small basement and the music was really loud.  And I kept thinking, "Maybe the music is too loud for her!  Too bad I can't protect her ears too."  And then I realized that her ears are protected by her placenta, my uterus, and my skin.  Yeah, her ears were fine.  It's just probably the loudest things she's ever heard so even though it wasn't too loud for her she reacted pretty strongly.

All of these movements were only felt on the inside.  I've had my hand over my belly during lots of these, and never felt anything that way.  Until today!  I was sitting working at my computer and felt a pretty strong bump.  I put my hand right where I had felt it and kind of pressed a little, and she bumped it again in that spot.  I totally felt it with my hand!  I pressed around with my hand some more and felt her one more time.  I am in love!

I'm sure that a blow-by-blow of my awakening to the reality of fetal movement was thrilling for you to read, and just what you wanted today!  But just in case you didn't get your fill on the topic, please comment and let me know what it was like for you when you first felt life inside you.  Or let me know if you have any questions about it...Since I'm now an expert!

Just "The Bump"...And Firsts

If you thought the last post was going to be pictures of me all over Pahrump displaying my baby bump, you were probably disappointed.  And the last thing that I want to do is disappoint my readers.  So here is the first picture ever of my pregnant belly, at 19 weeks.

It's not much to look at.  But I hope this satisfies the curious.

These last two weeks have been full of firsts. I went to my first baby blessing in the Gravett family!  Dave's brother Mike and his wife Jac had us all out to Nebraska to see our nephew Avram blessed.  We also visited Winter Quarters for the first time, which was awesome.  I love church historic sites and their visitors' centers!

Proof that Dave was there, holding Avram.

The whole family together.  I have a bump here too, at 17 weeks.

Dave also had a farewell from the first real job he had out of law school.  The people he worked with at the courthouse in Pahrump were all really great, and they will be missed.

Dave and Melissa: They say, "You're in a LOT of trouble!!" to each other any time they see each other.

In case you can't see what they're holding up,  here's a close-up.  Jello made to look like drug court urine samples.

And here is Dave drinking the disgusting stuff!  (Actually, it was really tasty!  Pineapple!)

 

Another picture with the whole gang and the sign they made for us:

 

We also found out for the first time what gender our baby is.  We have just moved, though, and I'm sure that our new doctor will want to do another ultrasound.  So it's probably not the last time that we'll be told what we're having.

Oh, you want to find out now what we're having?  :D  It's a girl!!!!

And here's the real view of the belly, since I know you weren't satisfied with the one at the top of the post:

Pahrump-A-Bump-Bump

Well, the time has finally come for Dave and me to move on from our home in Pahrump.  That's right, we're moving!  Dave got a new job at a civil law firm in Mesquite, Nevada.  It's on the Nevada/Arizona border.  Dave was interviewed on a Friday (2.5 weeks ago), offered the job Saturday (the next day), accepted the job on the Tuesday after that, we left for a vacation to Nebraska on Wednesday (the next day), and didn't get home until Monday (a week ago). We moved most of our things into our new apartment this last Saturday.  So basically, we did most of the moving preparations in 4 days! I never want to move this fast again!

The last few things we have to do are clean the old apartment (all that's really left is the kitchen and the garage) and have the carpet cleaned.  Then we'll come back in 1.5 weeks to have the walk through with the property manager and we'll officially be moved out.  I am glad that I could have this time to clean while Dave completes his last couple days of work.  It's nice to be moving only 2 hours away instead of several states away so that we have this option to take our time cleaning after our stuff is moved out.

Our ward members have been so nice to help us with things we've needed during this move.  One family came and helped me pack up the moving truck while Dave was at work on Friday.  I could never have done it myself and it would have been very difficult or impossible for me and Dave to do it ourselves later that night (besides the fact that I am 18 weeks pregnant, there was stuff that took 3-4 people to lift into the truck).  There are also a couple of families that brought us meals yesterday and today since all of our dishes are in Mesquite.  And we are sleeping on a borrowed air mattress!  It's a little crazy staying in an apartment that is basically empty, but it just makes me that much more excited to move to Mesquite and enjoy all of my belongings again!

It is interesting to look back at the time that we spent here in Pahrump.  When we first got here, we were so excited about Dave's new job as Judge Lane's law clerk.  We were excited to get to know people in our ward.  And really, the people in our ward are salt of the earth people.  When we think about Pahrump in the future, it will be the ward members that we miss, as well as a few of Dave's co-workers.  We are excited for the new job and for being closer to family in Utah, but it will be difficult to find another ward like the one we've had here.

When we get to Mesquite, I'll find my camera cord and post a few pictures from Dave's farewell party at work.  I'll also post my first belly picture!