I am just posting some of my thoughts... without pictures- the pictures and some more detail for certain events (James' 2nd bday, moving to our new home, sightseeing in Oregon, etc.) will come later- right now I just want to jot down a few thoughts:
1. Moving to Oregon- I can't believe it, but we have been in Oregon for about a month! Physically, I was 31/32 weeks pregnant and it was a lot easier than I thought it would be. Emotionally I thought it was going to be a lot harder than it has actually been- I thought it would be hard to be here all by ourselves with NO family close, but thankfully it has been fine. There are times when I definitely get sad though- sometimes it feels like time freezes and I am just staring at James look into my eyes or play with his toys, and I feel this overwhelming love for him and then I immediately wish that his grandparents (both sides) could be there right at that moment to experience that moment with us... that gets me sad.
2. Dental School- Right now Matt is going almost done with his 4th week of dental school. He is in a 6 week term right now and then Fall term will start (which is longer). I prepared myself for Matt being gone from 7 am - 8 pm and then studying after James goes to bed, but it unexpectedly has not been that bad. He typically wakes up at 6:30 am and is out the door by 7 am, and then most days he comes home about 6:30. From 6:30 - 8:30 he eats, plays with James and then we put James to bed. From 8:30 - 9:00 he usually has his down time and we spend time just talking and then from 9:00 - 10:00 he studies. I really love this routine because he spends a lot more time with us than I thought he would be able to. He has taken 2 tests already and has done AMAZING! I am so grateful for his wonderful memory- he has always been blessed to be able to remember things easily and usually by the first time, so that is definitely coming in handy. He does warn me that Fall term is known to be harder, so I am preparing myself for less time with him.
3. James growing up- James is growing up so fast in so many ways. He had his 2nd birthday and was looking forward to it weeks in advance. All he said he wanted was "cake" and "a bike". He was spoiled by his grandparents and his two favorite toys are DEFINITELY his bike and his Cars Race track. He started getting on his bike and saying "James bike school (pause) miss you"- which translates into " I am going to ride my bike to school. I will miss you mom". Matt rides his bike to school everyday so I think our little James wants to be just like daddy. As you can tell from that story, his speech is constantly improving and he strings along a lot of words (typically anywhere from 3 - 6 words), but all of his sentences still don't make complete sense grammatically. He did pretty well with the transition of Matt going to school- the first week was REALLY hard on him- he would say "James miss dad" about 5 times a day. Since then he has adjusted and now only says that when he is in trouble or when we walk out of our home to meet him when Matt rides his bike home. James recently is going through a weird sleep phase- we aren't sure if he is scared of the dark or just not wanting to go to sleep, but for the past 3 days we have reverted back to the "cry for mom until I go to sleep" phase- today he did well and only cried for 30 seconds, but it is so random and weird that he has done this- he has been the easiest boy to put down for a nap for 10 months+, but yesterday it took him an hour and a half to go to sleep for his daytime nap... weird.
4. Meeting people in the ward- I really truly love our ward. So many people have gone out of their way to do nice acts of service for us (give us a fan so we can survive in this 95 degree weather without AC, give us two twin mattresses) and there are a lot of people who are in our same boat- dental school students with kids and without. Matt has really made some good friends who sometimes (when its not too hot) come to our house to watch football with him. There aren't many boys James' exact age, but there are LOTS that are a little older (like 3 yrs old) or a little younger (like 18-20 months), so I am looking forward to really getting to know the moms as time progresses. We have been able to have people over for dinner and have already made some really good friendships, so I hope that everything continues to go this way.
5. Living on a strict budget- ..... IS HARD!!! With moving into a new home, a baby girl on the way, and holidays around the corner, there are so many things that I want to make/buy for the house/family, but the material and all of the supplies cost money! I love the satisfaction that I get from knowing that I am being prudent with our money and staying within budget, but it is so hard to pass up on adorable decoration ideas/clothing projects/ baby nursery accessories. I figure that its ok though- I have a list of everything I want to make and as we have the money for it, I will slowly check each thing off of my list... it just may take years to complete!
6. Pregnancy- Both pregnancies (James and this baby) have basically been the same up until the 3rd trimester. With James, I wasn't hormonal at all. With this baby, I wasn't hormonal... until the third trimester. Every time I am in sacrament, I cry. I cry at the littlest things and its weird because typically in my life I have been able to hold back tears, but with these hormones, I know when I am about to cry and I CANT DO A THING TO STOP THEM!! And I know that it is the hormones because in my mind I am rationally thinking, "this is so silly Stephanie- don't cry" but I can't help it! Another difference is the sleep deprivation- I can't sleep because if I lay on my right side for more than 5 minutes a nerve in my hip feels like it is getting pinched and if I lay on my left side for more than an hour my muscles feel REALLY pulled. So I typically wake up a ton throughout the night and have to stand up until my nerve in my hip stops hurting and my muscles stop aching... then I lay down and do it all again. Another difference is with this pregnancy I am getting contractions galore- I am 35 and 1/2 weeks pregnant and no matter how much water I drink, walking or resting I do, I usually get about 12 contractions (painless thankfully) a day, whereas with James I only started getting contractions AFTER my due date has passed. The last difference I really notice is leg cramping and nerve pinching- I ALWAYS have a cramp in my right calf and haven't found anything to get rid of it, and I randomly get a pinched nerve sensation (usually around my hips and inner thigh) that completely debilitates me for a few seconds. I guess I had it really nice with James- with this pregnancy I am ready to be done with being pregnant but not completely ready to be a mom of 2.
7. Homemaker- I LOVE LOVE LOVE making my home feel nice- I love sewing things for my home, cleaning it (besides doing dishes because our dishwasher has been broken for 2+ weeks), making decorations for it- being a homemaker brings me a satisfaction that I searched and searched for while going to school but wasn't able to find. I love walking into our home feeling good to say, "this is my home". I love it!
