The right time.

We really like our new ward here in Indiana. Everyone was very friendly from the beginning and the members seem really strong. Our first week there, I noticed that we were the only young couple without kids. Normally, you have at least a few couples that are newlyweds or young married couples that haven't taken that step yet. Not in this ward. Everyone, even couples our age have like 3-5 kids already! It's crazy! I met this really nice sister that looked like she was around my age. We were having a nice conversation and she was talking about her husband's schooling and such and then she said something about her kids. I was like, "You have kids?" She has 3 already and she is my age! Don't get me wrong, there is nothing wrong with having a lot of children and I think everyone should reproduce as they see fit. We plan to have our children fairly close together because of Kevin's age. I understand. The reason it made me feel uncomfortable was that later that day, another member (seeing that I was pregnant) asked me how many children I had. I replied that this would be my first. She then asked if we were newlyweds. I replied that we will be married 5 years this year. She had a surprised look on her face and she said something about "starting later." I suddenly felt really uncomfortable like I was somehow weird for waiting to start a family. I know it is not uncommon to have children within the first year of marriage, but I thought it was also common to wait a few years until you are ready. This is not the first time someone has said something or questioned me about our reproduction plans. In another ward, someone asked me if I had a reason for not having children yet. Before I could even say anything, she started this whole speech about how women these days think schooling is more important than a family and that there is no good reason to wait if you are a happily married couple. I kinda brushed it off, cause I knew what was right for us, but I wonder how many couples have been harassed about this. I have had several friends that have had trouble conceiving. Kevin and I had a problem with this as well. Though it was solved fairly quickly, I became more sensitive to the fact that you can't always control how and when you have children. I wish people would be more sensitive to the fact that not everyone gets pregnant right away. You never know someone else's circumstances. It's none of your business anyway! If someone wants to wait, or doesn't even want children, it's between them and the Lord.  I hope that no one ever decides to have children because everyone else is doing it or because they think they have to. When we got married I was only 19 (technically 18 on the day). I was not ready to have kids yet. I wanted to finish school and figure out what we were doing first. It just didn't feel right. It wasn't until last year that we really felt like it was finally right. We prayed about it, and found that it was the right time to start trying. Wow, sorry for the speech! I just wish I had at least one childless friend here so I didn't feel so out of place.

On second thought...........

First of all, thank you all for your kind words and sympathy over my last post. I am happy to report that my back is MUCH better. I am able to sleep and get around just fine lately. The doctor said that it was probably a mixture of problems all combining together to make my life miserable. He said the best thing to do is to try and strengthen that side of my back so the next growth spurt won't throw it out of whack again. Hopefully as she gets more cramped in there, she won't be able to move as much and she will stop kicking that pinched nerve! I just got a pregnancy yoga dvd that I am going to try. I really feel guilty for complaining because as unbearable as it was, I know others have had much worse pregnancies than mine. At least it only lasted a couple weeks! (knock on wood)

Secondly, we really liked the idea of the vintage circus look that I showed in an earlier post. It wouldn't really be that hard to do, it just would be more expensive and time consuming. We were at Babies R Us yesterday and looked through some of the bedding just to see what they had. I really hadn't liked most of their bedding, but there was one that we both saw and kinda liked. Then we learned that it was already on clearance and was going to be marked down an extra 50% this weekend. They could also reserve one for us if we wanted to wait until it was marked down. So basically, the set started at like $120 and will be marked down to around $50. Plus, all of the accessories like matching baskets, lamps, etc. were going to be marked down too. As much as I love our original plan, this would be much easier and cheaper. Not only is that set marked down, but the Linens-N-Things across the street is going out of business and they are having a blowout. We could get curtains just like the ones in the picture for about $10 and a bunch of other stuff for dirt cheap. Hooray for cheap stuff!!! Now if we could just settle on some furniture, we would be set. Maybe we can find a furniture store that is going out of business...........

You can't really tell from the picture, but it is pink and cocoa colored. It really is pretty bright in real life. 

To make things even more complicated, as I was opening yet another box from the basement, (I don't think we will ever fully unpack from the move, we just have too much stuff!) I discovered a bunch of baby stuff that I forgot I had that totally clashes with what we had decided on. See, when we lived in California, I worked at Deseret Book for a couple years. At some point, they carried a line of children's room decorations that I thought were really cute. They were being discontinued and were 90% off so I bought everything they had thinking I could someday use it in a nursery. I'm not sure what made me do that since at the time I had absolutely no interest in having children. Maybe we will use it for the next baby or try to blend it in with what we have. Until then, I am trying to at least start the nursery while I am still in my second trimester.

24 weeks (6 months?)

It's always a little confusing explaining how many months along you are. Technically, 24 weeks would be 6 months of 4 weeks each. The problem is, months don't usually have 28 days so each month is longer than 4 weeks. If you really want to be correct, isn't a pregnancy of 40 weeks really 10 months? So I guess I am 6 months but still have 4 more to go. Either way, I'm more than half way there! I gained about 5 pounds since the last update which really did a number on my back. 5 pounds doesn't really sound like that much, but when it is all in the front, it really screws things up. All together, I have gained about 15 pounds so far which is a huge deal for me considering I only weighed 95 pounds to begin with. Because of my pre-existing back problems, I am doomed to have an uncomfortable next few months. I was pretty much down for 2 whole weeks this last month because anytime I did anything (or didn't do anything) I would get severe muscle spasms (kinda like a painful charlie horse that you can't massage out and lasts for 30 mins. at a time) in my back. It was so bad, I couldn't sleep and go anywhere public for fear I would have an episode in the middle of the grocery store and someone would think I was in labor. I like to think I have a pretty high pain tolerance, but all I could do during each episode is cry and wait for it to be over. Tylenol Extra Strength only works for about an hour and heat pads do nothing. Massage and exercise just make it worse. I finally got a blessing from Kevin which at least helped me finally get some sleep. I'm sure he was getting tired of me waking him up with my moaning and crying. I have an appointment with my new doctor on Monday where I hope to find out what is going on. It isn't sciatica like I originally thought and each time I have an episode, it now causes me to have a Braxton Hicks contraction. Pregnancy sure is crazy! On the lighter side, she is kicking harder and harder and never seems to stop. We have started to read and sing to her just for fun. She pretty much hates it when I sing cause it is probably really loud. She kicks like crazy whenever I do. Kevin has been telling her stories from his childhood each night. It's so cute and I am learning a lot about his childhood I never knew. He is so darling!

In other news, Kevin finally got to meet one of his drum idols this week as he was in charge of a film and photo shoot featuring Ringo Star. He got front row seats to the show afterward also. A couple years ago, we got 5th row seats to the Paul McCartney concert. So thats 2 Beatles down.......

We also went to a Weird Al Yankovic show cause he is also an endorser and got to hang out with the band afterward. That show was by far the most nerds I have seen together in one room since we went to the Star Wars Convention 3 years ago. But that's another story......... Anyway, he was really nice. 

We spent our 4th of July with new friends at an outdoor concert the night before and set off our own fireworks the night of. I love that professional grade fireworks are legal here! Just look at the ones we set off ourselves:

Baby stuff.

So here is what we are thinking for the baby's room. It's a little different, but we think it will turn out cute. Basically, we want to do a sort of vintage circus/carnival theme. Not with scary clowns or obnoxious balloons, but with lots of stripes and hand painted furniture. Sort of "Dumbo"- like. We will decorate with vintage carousels and figurines and we are thinking of making a "big top" window dressing. We don't want to take it too far and do EVERYTHING circus-like. We just like the idea of the bright, vintage furniture and classic feel. We will see. It will probably be a while before it is finished (or even started!)