Week 21 Image

Over the hump and on the way down! This week was a somewhat uneventful one (the way we like it most of the time) On Tuesday, our long-awaited doctor's appointment will be here. This means that we should know whether we're expecting a baby girl or a baby boy on Tuesday. We're both getting very excited about that. If you haven't yet... there's not much time to cast your vote on our gender poll!

There was a point, this last week, that I was pretty sure I was having a girl. It was nothing scientific... in fact, it was borderline gender discrimination. On Monday I started in a new softball league. I've had several weeks off from softball after the summer season ended. The first softball game was awful. Our team was beat pretty badly. Personally, I played horribly. I batted 0 for 4, had 2 or 3 fielding errors and overall, had a terrible game. I left that game thinking "this has got to be a girl... cause we're terrible at softball". Now I know that sounds bad... and I didn't mean it in an offensive way. It's just that in coed slow pitch softball, the men tend to be way better than the women. I'm all about women playing sports and competing at a high level. It's just that there are some things that men excel at more, just as there are things that women are much better at.

On Wednesday, in our second softball game of the season, baby and I played much better. My cute little niece Morgan is rooting for a girl. When I saw her on Saturday, I asked her if she was going to have a girl cousin or a boy cousin. She was quite insistent that she'd be having a girl cousin. I guess we'll see!


There's no hiding the growing belly anymore. I'm pretty sure people look at me and don't immediately guess I'm pregnant though. I imagine someday I'll move out of the awkward stage of "pudgy" and "pregnant". It is nice being a little smaller though... just because it makes it easier for me to stay active and do the things I want to do. Lastly, I think I've officially been plagued with what I've heard termed "pregnancy brain". It was my turn to teach in relief society today. I was getting excited about my lesson on provident living and felt ready to go. That is, I was ready until I looked at the announcement handout for the day and realized I had prepared the wrong lesson! (i had prepared September's Teaching for our Times lesson instead of August's) That's never happened to me before. Hopefully it won't happen again.

Moving Maddness

We're only a couple days away from the long awaited doctor's appointment. The excitement is certainly growing. On a similar note, I'm growing too :) I had to put in an order for polo shirts to wear at a User's Conference my work hosts each year. The conference is held at the end of September. I really struggled to decide what size to get... not knowing what kind of changes will take place in the next four weeks. How can a person predict something like that??

The one thing I do know is Baby Hansen is moving a lot! I feel the movements several times everyday. The most common time is after I finally drag myself out of bed in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom and I get back in bed. Falling asleep again is a challenge because the baby decides it would be a great time to move around and play. The feeling is like something I've never experienced before and can't really describe. I feel somewhat relieved when I feel the movements... because it helps me know the baby is still alive! I'm not going to lie... early on, the best part of going to the doctor's appointments was hearing the heartbeat (for the exact reason of knowing the baby was still alive). I guess it's easy to wonder when you can't see/feel anything that would confirm it. I feel a lot more relief now being able detect movements and other signs of life.

On an extremely positive note, I haven't had any additional painful charlie horse experiences. Certainly I'm grateful for that!

Week 20 Image - Halfway!!

This is a 20/20 situation... meaning 20 weeks down and 20 to go! My hope is that this experience will be much like serving a mission. The first half seems to go pretty slowly... then you hit the halfway point... and the next thing you know, you're going home. The second half of my mission flew by. Any words of advice on whether or not this will be the same? My instincts tell me a resounding "no"... but I'm still hopeful :)

I didn't have too many issues with headaches but I did meet a new "nemisis". We'll call him "Charlie". One morning last week I woke up to pursue my regular routine. I grabbed the tv remote, turned on Sportcenter, and slowly started to awaken myself and stretch out. I pointed my left foot in an attempt to continue stretching (taking me back to my ballet days). Except this time, the when I tried to release and subsequently flex my foot, it became apparent quite quickly that it was stuck. Pain shot up my leg and my foot wouldn't move. I've never felt a charlie horse quite like it. I let a shrill of pain out as I tried to manually force my foot back into its normal position with both hands. After several agonizing moments, my calf muscle stopped contracting and everything was back to normal. That's not to say I didn't experience the ill-effects later. For three days after the experience, my muscle was super sore and super tight. I'm still feeling some adverse effects from it now... many days later. Did any one else meet "Charlie" while they were pregnant? I don't intend to blame every ache and pain on pregnancy, but it is an easy explanation!

Besides Charlie, the week flew by and I'm still feeling great. We're down to single digits before we get to learn the gender of the baby. That means there's not much more time to place your guess in our poll! Don't delay! Act now! (Does this sound like an infomercial? If so, I think that's great... because I really like infomercials. I try to avoid them though as I am easily sucked in and find myself uncontrollably reaching for my phone and dialing the number to order whatever product is being promoted. Just ask me about my "ronco knives"). Seriously though, if you haven't voted, there's not much time left to do it.

Baby Hansen's first time wake boarding! (18.5 weeks pregnant)

As promised... I'm delivering a quick post about Baby Hansen's first wake boarding experience. To be honest, I'm pretty sure Baby Hansen loved it!! Now, I should point out that wake boarding was the one thing that my doctor advised that I really shouldn't do. He said the risk of falling/high impact crashes was a little too high. I should have known that I wouldn't be able to resist the temptation after spending a week up at Bear Lake. We went with my sister and Jeff to Delta several weeks ago and I did well to stay inside the boat and refrained from wake boarding. This time, the desire was just too much.

When we arrived at Bear Lake early Thursday morning, I asked Trent if he thought it would be okay to wake board. He said no. I agreed. Even though I agreed with him, it still wasn't easy to shake the desire to go. The freezing cold water should have been enough to deter me... but my brother's friend Cal had wetsuits we could borrow. After watching my brother wake board for the first time, I was really itching to go. I asked Cal for a wetsuit and put it on (those things aren't easy to put on... especially with a growing belly!) Although my mom was very opposed to me (and baby hansen) going wake boarding, I did my best to convince her that everything would be fine.

I said I would only go once, stay in the wake, take a short ride, and let go of the rope when I was done or if I felt it was too bumpy. Here's a little photojournalism to document the adventure:

Getting ready to take the plunge:

The water is freezing. Even with a wetsuit, it's very very cold.
I'm trying to catch my breath after the initial shock:
It took some true concentration to make sure the baby had an enjoyable, safe ride
It's hard to tell from this picture, but I was trying to get Morgan's attention and wave to her. Unfortunately, she was far too tired (taking a nap on my mom's lap) to acknowledge me

Bottom line... the baby loved wake boarding. One time wasn't enough... so we had to go again a little later. I did, however, resist the urge to go just "one more time" after the second time... because the water was really choppy and it seemed a little dangerous.

Week 19 Image

Wow... nearly half way. I'm discovering that the angle of the weekly picture makes all the difference. I don't feel like I've grown that much in the past week... although my clothes do continue to feel tighter. I'm going to have to invest in some new skirts or something for church. Today, I had to wear my skirt all the way up past my belly button just so it would fit. The length usually extends halfway down my calf muscle but today, it went just below the knees. Besides the slight discomfort of clothing and the occasional headache, I'm feeling great. Are headaches normal?


According to a website I found, baby Hansen is about the size of a mango. The average size for a baby at19 weeks pregnant is 8.5 ounces and 6 inches in length. Speaking of which, I could go for a 6 inch tuna sandwich from Subway right now!

Trent and I are getting excited to learn whether we'll be having a baby girl or a baby boy. Either way, we're absolutely thrilled. We have another 2+ weeks until we get to find out... so that gives you a little more time to place your guess in our gender poll, if you haven't done it yet! It looks like "boy" is currently ahead. I do think some people's guesses might be skewed by the fact that my brother has 3 daughters... and so it just seems logical that we'd have a boy.

We spend the week up at Bear Lake with the Sharp family. We had a terrific time. The baby even had its first wakeboarding experience! More details on the wakeboarding to come in a post later this week. Stay tuned!

Week 18 Image

They say black is a slimming color... but I beg to differ. I had a doctor's appointment on Wednesday. It was an interesting experience, to say the least. It sure did start off with a bang. When I stood on the scale... I had to get a second glance at the number that was registering. (*Note - I've never seen a scale register a number that large in my entire 26 years of existence). My eyes widened as I turned to the nurse and insisted their scale was malfunctioning. She smiled and told me that next time I ought to consider wearing my "light shoes". I looked down at my well used, burgundy Keens with the paper thin sole practically worn off and mumbled that "these are the lightest shoes I own." She suggested flip flops... but I'm thinking next time, I'll weigh in naked, just so I can shed all that clothing weight.


I've always known that pregnancy and weight gain go hand in hand. I guess I just didn't expect to wake up one morning and feel like I've grown significantly overnight. I thought it was supposed to be gradual... so much so that it would be hard to notice the slight changes over the days and weeks. I mean, if you compared week 35 to week 12, the change should be fairly blatant... but the changes week to week would be slight, or so I thought. If anything, I don't feel slight today.


I will say, on a positive note, that I'm still feeling really good. Perhaps if I start looking more pregnant, people at the BYU creamery won't shoot me such awful glares when I order the banana split... the most humongous thing they have on their menu. Surely it is enough ice cream/deliciousness to feed a small, starving nation (or at least 3 or 4 people). I mean, if I look pregnant, then instead of people thinking (and saying through their looks) that I'm a disgusting pig of a person, they'll be more considerate of my ice cream indulgence. After all, she is eating for two people. Who cares if the other person is only a half an ounce right now and she's eating 8 pounds of ice cream/toppings. The baby needs to grow, right?

That's it for week 18! If you haven't expressed your opinion through the gender poll on the right, be sure to do so. I originally had a different poll up... but discovered when it took you to the "results page", some borderline porn pictures would appear. As a result, I discontinued that poll. Moral of the story, if you haven't voted, please do :D

Until the next post!

Wind Storm

A couple days back, the wind was blowing like crazy. We had planned using our paint sprayer that evening, painting crown molding and a couple of doors. Our original intentions were to take the items outside and then spray them, so we wouldn't have to worry about the mess. With crazy high winds though, painting was out of the question.

Leave it to us to find something "safer" and more "conducive" in the tornado-like conditions. We decided it would be a perfect time for Trent to the roof of our two-story house and install a dish up there. The pictures don't do the conditions any justice... but I figured they should be posted regardless.
I should mention that this ladder was insanely heavy. Shortly after installing the dish and returning inside the safety of our home... we heard a huge crashing sound. The wind blew so hard that the heavy ladder fell... and collided with the ground. Luckily Trent wasn't still on the roof... cause I'm not sure I could have propped the ladder back up against the house.

Who needs to hold onto the ladder while ascending? Not a professional dish installer...
one hand carrying the dish, one carrying the tools.

A close look up top. It looks like he knows what he's doing.

From afar...

Although it's hard to tell... he's still up there.

Week 17 Image

Although the changes are taking place slowly (not necessarily a bad thing!)... they are certainly taking place. Because of the heat and the leather seats in my car, I've decided against jeans as of late. It's just too uncomfortable and sticky. I'm still feeling great and staying as active as possible. I did play soccer last week (limited time) but I'm still going back and forth on whether or not I should be playing. Mostly it's just nice to have something to do & look forward to, especially since softball season is over.

Trent & I started to do some work on our nursery. I'll post some pictures of our progress later on. If Trent has learned anything from our experience thus far, it's that he doesn't particularly enjoy working with me on stuff like that because I'm an uber-perfectionist. He'll say something isn't a huge deal and I'll tell him it is... and that our "baby" will want it to be perfect. We'll see how long it takes me to burn out that line of reasoning.

Another week, here I come!