My 7 mile long catch up post, cross that off the list!

We're having a baby in about two seconds! That's what it feels like at least. Not physically though (don't get excited yet), just in every other way. We've been such busy bees getting "ready", although as "ready" as we now are (crib it set up, bathroom is sparkling, baby clothes are washed and put away etc.) I don't know if a couple is ever really ready for what is in store.
Anyway- here's a quick recap on what has been going on over here these past 7 weeks since I last blogged.

Mckay's good friend Andy & his wife came and spent the last week of August with us. They've been friends forever and it was fun to see them reunited and having so much fun. Andy & Kaylynn went to the city during the week but the weekend they were here we packed in Atlantic City & Philadelphia IN ONE DAY. It was crazy. The guys went to open casting calls in Atlantic City for the Amazing Race and then "on the way home" we stopped in Philadelphia to see the sights. It was a very busy, but fun day. By the end I was pretty drained and when we went to get Philly Cheesesteaks for dinner (my first one!) I ordered from Pat's instead of Gino's and it was not as good as Mckay's (he ordered from Gino's). That turned me into a cranky, tired, pregnant lady. To add insult to injury, I spilled on my belly, which happens a lot. But it's great when you're not at home and you have to walk around looking like a slob; a cranky, tired, pregnant lady slob that is.

We got back to Darien on Friday night and Saturday Mckay had class until 5pm. At 8pm we drove six hours to Rochester, NY with Andy & Kaylynn to see the church history sites. It was my first time in the Sacred Grove & surrounding areas and it was lovely. Minus the mosquitoes that went to town on my legs. Then we went solo for a few days and drove up into Canada! That was awesome. We stayed on the 17th floor of a hotel right next to Niagara Falls & the views were amazing. Niagara has never been a place I've had any desire to go to, but it absolutely blew my mind. It was gorgeous and we spent so much time just staring that that incredible water and walking along the falls. Weather was perfect & I took about 1,000 pictures. We can't wait to go back (we're pretty sure in a few years our little buddy would love to ride on Maid of the Mist!).

Look at that water! It makes me want to jump in. A little.

We've spent many a night with our dear friends and their three baby girls watching BYU games. That has been really fun, as we miss having them next door. We love a little Jensen time! And Mckay just adores their oldest, Tillie. I swear if she only knew how much he loved her she could probably get him to do just about anything. One day he'll make a great Daddy to little girls!

On September 17th we celebrated our 3 year anniversary! We ate dinner at a delicious little restaurant, Match, in South Norwalk. It was a fantastic meal & a perfect night (except maybe the waiter who was a chatterbox, I'm glad we could share our special night with him... ahem.). Sitting across a table from Mckay with good food in between us generally makes me an extremely happy & content lady but this night- this night was just special. We talked about how fast 3 years have gone, but also about how it feels like we've known each other for 13. And all the while, I could feel our little guy squirming inside of me. It makes me teary-eyed to type this! Life has been so good to us. We couldn't be more blessed, and that intense love that I felt for him on our wedding day has only multiplied in the years since we've been married. I can't even imagine what adding our own little baby to the mix is going to do.

After dinner picture. Mmmm, I love him!

Just a few days after our anniversary we flew to Utah for a very quick, 3-day trip to catch up with family. While we were there we relaxed a little, but mostly drove all over to different family things and spent time with our favorite people. It was really great. My Mom threw me a wonderful baby shower and so many of my McAffee family came, as well as good friends from high school & college, neighbors and ward members. This is the picture we took at the end, of just some of the family members. It was fun to catch up, have people rub my belly (I really don't hate it, at all.), eat my Mom's amazing, delicious food & talk babies with everyone. While I was doing baby shower festivities, Mckay golfed with my Dad (27 holes in two days) and then ran down South to meet up with his brother for the BYU game. We were reunited on Sunday and said goodbye to the Craven clan over In N Out. I love this picture of my & my Dad, (although I wish my iPhone wouldn't have been on such a weird setting)-he's gonna be a good Grandpa soon!

That same Sunday was also sweet Delma Lou Dunn's 93rd birthday! Look at that happy smile! This is Mckay's grandma and we both love her so much. She is probably the sweetest soul I've ever met (really) and such a good woman. She sends out monthly, MONTHLY, newsletters to all of her children & grandchildren that have birthdays, anniversaries, announcements  family business etc. & she always includes stories from her and her late husband's life together as well as her wishes for us to be good and choose the right. We love to visit her any chance we get. She's looks more like 83 & acts more like 53 & we were thrilled to spend some time with her on her birthday. (Oh, and that's Mckay's brother Jared, who always lets us crash at his house. We like him a lot too.)

The weekend after we got home from Utah we spent two days in New Jersey (9/27-28) to watch SVU play football! It was almost uncomfortably warm but I was happy to soak up some vitamin D and Mckay was happy to get his yearly fill of Knight's football. He gave the pre-game speech, I wish I would have been there, but that was man time & it probably would have been weird for an 8-mo pregnant lady to be in the locker room with them. Look how content he is!

On October 12th we went Apple Picking! It's one of my very favorite New England autumn traditions. The men were probably mostly appeasing us, but they came along and smiled & even picked all the apples while the girls watched babies. The three of us (each holding a baby at most any given minute) were quite a spectacle & drew a lot of comments, especially when we would explain that the twin babies were Lizzy's and I would shift baby Clara to reveal my own baby arriving in a few weeks! It was great. Tillie & the husbands picked us some yummy apples, we ate crepes and apple cider doughnuts, watched Tillie play in the corn pit, and held babies in the glorious autumn sunshine. 

(10/18-20) Next thing I know, at 35 weeks pregnant, I'm on a plane to Houston to see the Dunn side of the family! I was really nervous, and almost backed out because I didn't want to risk having my baby in TX. But I am so glad I went because we had a blast. We caught a BYU game (so convenient when these family trips always seem to align perfectly with BYU's playing schedule, right?!) and tailgated with a bunch of the family for a few hours before. That was fun and yummy. BYU won & it really was an amazing game. (Mckay with two of our nieces, Savannah & Alyssa, dancing to the Biebs at our tailgate, complete with RV.)

Besides the football game, we got to spend some wonderful time with Mckay's sister, her husband & their 4 daughters who let us stay at their house, my wonderful sisters in-law threw me a sweet little baby shower, we met two nieces and nephew we'd never met before, we enjoyed a Dunn family Sunday dinner together, we ate too much food,  Mckay hung out with his nephews that he doesn't see enough &  then we were headed back to CT early Monday morning (thankfully baby stayed in my belly)!

We got home & I declare we've hit our travel limit for the year so now we occupy our time with getting ready for baby! Lots to buy & set up... like the crib! What a milestone, to set up a crib for your first child. It was fun & sweet and after it was all set up we kind of just stared at it in awe and held each other for a little bit. My huge belly is constant reminder (like we need one) of this baby boy, but imaging him in his crib is just wild & wonderful to us!

IKEA for a few items for the nursery... where my 31 year old husband reverts to a 7, 17, 27 year old (I don't think the child side of him ever really went away!). He makes me laugh... & we love Ikea.

We installed the carseat last weekend!!! Not as easy as it looks, but after a few read-throughs of the directions and pulling & tugging on the base to try and figure out if it was actually stable (?) we have a regulation carseat ready to go! Although we still want someone to check it for us and make sure we did it right...

(11/3) Last Sunday of teaching our sweet primary class! This is missing two kids! They've been a challenge over the last two years but they make us laugh every Sunday and we love them! This last Sunday (I wore a long black dress to church with a skinny gold belt over my belly) one of the boys said to me, "Your belly is so big you can barely even see your belt!" haha! I will certainly miss these kiddos! And I'm also thankful for a break:)

And lastly, Mckay took this picture of me at my last appointment. I'm a few days shy of 38 weeks here! That is one huge belly! As far as the whole pregnancy thing is going- it's been great! I've felt good and slept well and really don't have any complaints. I'm starting to notice some "practice-labor" stuff- surges (as they're called in Hypnobirthing), some sciatica and other nerve pain, pubic symphasis irritation (to put it mildly), lightening (he's dropped!), all that good stuff. It just gets me excited for meeting our baby! The countdown is really on... 14 days until the EDD!

I have a constant to-do list going, but this morning I packed our birth center bag & we have now hit the any-day-now part of waiting. Although I'm beside myself with excitement to meet him, I'm not going crazy yet. We want him to come when he is ready (although 11-12-13 WOULD be such a cool birthday!) & I want us to enjoy these last few days or weeks of it being just the two of us. 

Signing off with my last post (likely) before I become Mommy Nicki! 

XO

Beautiful

{From YouTube}:
New York City Ballet presents NEW BEGINNINGS on September 12, 2013. Filmed at sunrise on the 57th floor of 4WTC in lower Manhattan, this short film captures an extraordinary and moving performance of Christopher Wheeldon's After the Rain. It is a testament to the resilience of the human spirit, and a tribute to the future of the city that New York City Ballet calls home. 

Just thought this was too beautiful to keep to myself.

McAffee Family Reunion

July 26-31, 2013

Portland, Oregon

We spent five full days in beautiful Oregon! 

I was happy to be able to finally bring Mckay to a family reunion, we've been married almost three years and there were so many members of my family who hadn't ever met Mckay! So weird. So we decided that it was time, plus, Portland is just a fun destination which made it all the more alluring.

We arrived late Friday night and finally got into bed around 2am. We spent the next two days "camping" (the Craven/Dunn family rented a cabin) on coast at Pacific City Beach. It was windy and colder than we bargained for, but still so much fun. We explored the tide pools, cooked & ate food together, sat around in camp chairs and visited, swam in the pool, and had a campfire every night. The scenery couldn't have been more beautiful, Oregon is so green and pretty! We visited Pacific City, Tillamook, Portland, Astoria and Seaside while we were there and every place was as breathtaking as the last. Green, lush and gorgeous!

I honestly love camping, a lot. But pregnant Nicki really appreciated a cabin with an air mattress.

The family with cute Grandpa McAffee.

After the reunion ended, our clan stuck around for some extra family time together, which was so great. We went to the Air Museum nearby in honor of my cute little brother who wants to be a pilot.  Somehow, I ended up 1,000 feet in the air in a bi-plane!!! I was torn between loving it, and praying that we'd land safely and in one piece. After about five minutes in the air I was able to relax and enjoy the incredible views.  My favorite thing the pilot pointed out was the pattern the wind made in the fields, talk about the beauty of the earth!

Mckay, Dad, Kenna & Trevor rented dune buggies for a few hours and had a blast driving way too fast (the owner accidentally had the "performance" key in, as opposed to the "practice" key, so they were able to drive these things as if they actually knew what the were doing... the boys loved it. Kenna, not so much. I heard she just did a lot of screaming, "Slow down!")

We did some "enjoy nature" time. I was hungry so that didn't last too long, but the views were pretty.

We spent a day and a night up North in Astoria so that the boys + Kenna could go salmon fishing.  This was an activity I was sad to miss out on, as I really do love ocean fishing, but some activities don't lend themselves to pregnancy very well. Plus, these guys were up at 4am and Mom and I got to sleep in and shop. They were the only 4 on the boat and each caught their limit and were back before lunch time! Such accomplished fishers. Mckay was happy to be back on solid land. My uncle grilled their catch that evening and we enjoyed a five-star meal together in their backyard back in Portland.

I'm told that the small fish my Dad caught put up quite a fight, they were all shocked to see it was such a little guy (who got to go back). Trevor caught the biggest one! 

We also went to the gorgeous Multnomah Falls, hiked a few miles up couldn't make it all the way to the top due to time constraints, bummer. 

Mckay & I ended our trip with an incredible dinner at Departure, a restaurant atop the Nines Hotel in downtown Portland.  We enjoyed our dinner 15 stories up on the roof top, and it was amazing. I found out while in Portland that I passed my boards and am officially an RN, so we decided to celebrate accordingly and were not disappointed.

Unfortunately, there's so much more we did that I didn't capture. 

Reuniting with my favorite cousins after too many years.

Meeting their wives & babies for the first time.

Shopping with my Mom, Aunt & cousin.

Golf for Mckay, Dad & my Uncle Ivan.

The best ice cream from Tillamook.

The maybe even better best ice cream from Salt N Straw.

McAffee group picture.

Mckay and I's day in downtown Portland, a place I would never want to live, I've never seen more bums or more meth-heads in my entire life. 

Fantastic and cheap lunch at the food trucks.

Relaxing time at Uncle Ivan/Aunt Shaunna's house.

We really loved the area (minus downtown) and we really, really loved the company. 

We'll be together at Christmas, +1 tiny, new addition, which is so exciting. Can't wait!

bump progression

For the record, baby is growing!

The day we found out I was pregnant!

Week 10

Week 12

Week 14

Week 16 

-I remember we were headed out to see a movie and I got dressed and was so shocked that I had a belly! It was the funniest thing, I made Mckay take a picture because I thought I looked SOOOO pregnant. Which is funny to me now, because I hardly look bloated compared to the soccer ball I'm carrying out in front these days.

The big half-way mark!

Week 22

Yesterday- Week 24.

Some notes:

Now that I'm not nauseous 24-7 I feel great & I'm loving pregnancy. I didn't feel 100% back to my normal self until about 20 weeks, which was a real disappointment after counting on week 14 to be my magic nausea-be-gone week. However; that yucky time is becoming a distant memory with every kick and move I feel.

I sleep great, I ordered a ridiculous horse-shoe shaped body pillow that I'm obsessed with. Poor Mckay gets about 1/3 of our Queen bed, but I had a bad back/neck before pregnancy and this has done wonders for waking up pain free. 

Of course I'm wearing maternity clothes. I could probably squeeze into some of my old ones but I don't to stretch them out, so I stick to the very small selection of maternity clothes I do have. Mckay got me a belly band to wear with  my normal pants/shorts which I think is just the funniest thing, but I have worn it more than I thought I would, what's one more layer in this stifling heat?

We both feel and see movement all the time. It's pretty special and every time I feel baby move it never ceases to amaze me. Our bodies are so incredible and I am just filled with gratitude and love for our little one.

No food cravings at all this pregnancy. I loved watermelon when I was nauseous but I think that was just because it was cold and had lots of water in it. I've never had the I need this NOW experience I hear about.

We found out that the baby is a BOY! 

We weren't planning on finding out the gender, but at our anatomy scan we had a bit of a language barrier with our sweet tech & she let slip the gender.

So now we are definitely planning on a little guy come November! We were both convinced it was a girl, and the news really shocked us. It definitely took a few hours to adjust our minds (I don't know why we were so set on it being a girl!) to that piece of information... but we are so thrilled (and a little scared) to have a little Mckay Jr. running around.

Now, I was apprehensive to have a 3D scan, in fact, I was totally against it. Mostly because I think the babies always look freaky in them... but look at our sweet little guy! I think he is the handsomest 1lb.+ baby I've ever laid eyes on. We're pretty sure that's my nose and Mckay's mouth but we'll have to see if he looks anything like that when he comes out.  For now, we just drool over the 7 ultrasound pictures we have up on our fridge and attempt to "get ready" for this baby to arrive... 16 more weeks!

Florence

Six years ago, in between semesters in college, I took a job as a Certified Nursing Assistant (CNA) at an assisted living center in Logan, Utah.  It was not glamorous or high-paying, and no one got the jealous sparkle in their eye when I told them what I was doing... "Gross, I don't know how you wipe old people butts all day long!" was a {rude} comment I grew accustomed to hearing.  And although I experienced maybe more than my fair share of less then appetizing situations, the inspiration that seemingly "came out of no where" really changed my life.  I worked there for a few months and left with increased compassion, a bigger heart, a deeper love for an incredible generation, and new life goal: to become a Registered Nurse. I also gathered quite the collection of stories; funny, sad, heart-wrenching, spiritual, gross and scary.  It was the best job I ever had, and it set me on a path that I never doubted was the right one for me.

College, internships, moving across the country, marriage, travel and pregnancy happened in those last six years but in May I was pinned with the rest of my class as a Registered Nurse.

And oh boy, words can hardly express how wonderful that felt.

The history of the pinning ceremony actually dates back to the Crusades of the 12th century, when new monks would come to serve the ill of the Hospital of St. John the Baptist and take an oath to serve the sick & injured. They were presented with a cross, the symbol of Christianity, and vowed a vow dedication.  Over the years, the cross became of coat of arms and has since morphed into an emblem of each nursing program.  The modern ceremony is also heavily influenced by Florence Nightingale  as each student is given a white candle that is lit from the main, burning candle to represent "the Mother of Nursing" and signify the passing of the flame to each new nurse.  We are also presented with a pin from our instructor- symbolically a cross to bear, to show a nurse’s dedication to his/her patients, to advocate for the patient and to serve “long after others have given up hope and gone home”. 
Together, we recite the nursing pledge, blow out our candles and leave the ceremony "registered nurses" (of course we don't talk about the looming NCLEX we need to pass).
It's a beautiful ceremony and very emotional.  

Our Florence Nightingale candle & beautiful flowers.
Getting pinned by one of my favorite professors, big grin! She whispered in my ear when she hugged me, "I hear you have a little secret." It was cute, and a fun moment to be receiving my pin and confirming our happy news of a baby coming our way.

My very best friend for those two incredibly intense years of school, Joy.  Her name suits her perfectly, she is an amazing person, I could go on for days about her special qualities, having 'joy' only scrapes the surface.

And this picture! I cannot even look at it without all sorts of emotions welling up inside of me.  My greatest supporters & three of the people I love very best.  I couldn't have done it without them, I guess I probably could have done it without them, but then again I could live a life without them, and it just wouldn't really be any life at all.  Same with this experience, they were my biggest cheerleaders and it just wouldn't mean as much to me if I didn't have them to share it with.

Love that pin!

I could go on & on about how wonderful this experience of nursing school was (& it truly was, I loved nearly every second of it) and how incredible and dedicated my instructors were (I will owe them forever, for being so invested in me) and how blessed I am for this opportunity, and so many others (Heavenly Father is so good to us).  But I can't, I have to study for the boards :]

On pregnancy

Today I am 15 weeks pregnant, and what an accomplishment that feels like!

We found out we (correction: I. Mckay's pet peeve is when husbands and wives are both pregnant. But I think he's learning that husbands and wives are both pregnant) were pregnant on a Saturday in March. It was the best. We cried and were giddy and kind of just sat there for about an hour with these feelings of awe pouring out of us, it felt surreal and exciting and wonderful and strange.  

Then around six weeks I started to feel some mild nausea. It was uncomfortable but bearable, and not really an inconvenience.  In all my primi-gravida naivety I thought, "This isn't awesome, but totally manageable.  I can totally do this, and do it with a good attitude." And then week 7 hit. And all of a sudden I actually kind of wanted to be put out of misery. I was intensely nauseous all the live-long day. And around week 9 I started throwing up, and getting even sicker at night. All this while somehow managing to keep my eyeballs above the shark infested waters of nursing school.

Everything went to the dogs. My house especially took a beating. It was disgusting. Mckay was in massive amounts of trouble when he actually invited our home teachers over immediately after church one Sunday to a home that looked like wild hyenas had made camp. This wasn't just my-house-is-fairly-clean-but-I'll apologize-and-pretend-it's-disgusting-because- it's-normally-sparkling-and-aromatherapy-ized, this was dirty clothes strewn about, moving boxes, piles of junk, food on the floor, dishes in the sink dirty. It was so bad they actually excused themselves for a minute so we could "tidy up" and I could try and cool my burning red cheeks. 

I didn't cook. I didn't clean. I literally did not grocery shop for over six weeks. I went to class (sometimes) and then came home and got right into bed and Mckay would bring me food that I would try and eat (in bed) and then I'd fall asleep. Or cry and then fall asleep. Or watch "Call the Midwife" and fall asleep.

It really felt like it would never end. As horrible as this is to admit, some days it was incredibly difficult to be happy & grateful. Some days I wondered what the heck we'd been thinking.  Other days were so sweet and even through the nausea and misery there were only tender feelings and happy emotions- like when Mckay would be speeding down I-95 and then hit the breaksand say, "Woah, I better slow down, I'm gonna be a Dad!" or when he'd talk to our little blueberry sized embryo through my softening tummy. Or one morning when my Mom sent us our first teeny-tiny baby outfit with little elephants on it and I thought my heart would burst. 

The weeks slowly but eventually passed, the nausea lifted, and pregnancy amnesia set in because now I think this whole things is practically perfect in every way.

I even did (ahem, attempted) a prenatal yoga video today... and the deep breathing at the beginning felt so good and relaxing that it made me sleepy and then I had to do some pose where my hands were reaching up and I'm squatting down (awkward tree?) and I was like this.is.not.relaxing.only.uncomfortable. So 7 minutes into it I quit and took a nap. But I gave myself a break because I haven't done a stitch of exercise since becoming pregnant. That's on my to-do list. I also threw my only organic, increased fruits & veggies, lean protein, no sugar/white flour pre-pregnancy, pregnancy diet idea out the window reaaaal quick. Because when only grilled cheese sandwiches and watermelon sound good, I only eat grilled cheese sandwiches and watermelon. 

Ch-ch-ch-changes:
There's actually a bitty-bump now which I kind of love.  
I'm still waiting on the super-thick gorgeous hair that is rumored to come, so far I haven't been the recipient of that pregnancy blessing. 
Ever increasing bust size. Some call it curse but I can't for the life of me figure out why.
Fatigue that hits like a ton of bricks (especially when I attempt yoga or house cleaning or reading).
Some pimples, which are as unwelcome now as they were at 15.
Aversions; no salteens, Crest toothepaste, gingerale, teddy grahams or spinach ever again please.  

Things are good. We {three} are very happy.

Our beautiful, talented and smart child at 9 weeks. Look at those cute arm buds!