Flying While Pregnant

I can't say I wasn't warned, but flying, and especially a long distance, was not super pleasant at 30 weeks along. (It wasn't pleasant back in November when I was 11 weeks along either, thanks to the nausea.) As I mentioned in my previous post, it took me and Nikki 17 hours with layovers and such to get home from the Bahamas. On the second leg of our journey, I whipped out my phone (on airplane mode, thankyouverymuch) and wrote the following, for your entertainment:

Well, we're up to the 13th person out of 53 total on this plane (including the pilot, co-pilot, and flight attendant) that have now used the lavatory. How do I know this you ask? Well, a picture is always worth a thousand words...

Yes, I merely had to reach out my pointer finger, with my elbow still bent in a 90 degree angle in order to touch said lavatory. As an added note to this story, let me inform you that the lavatory door does not close on its own anymore in this old, tiny plane. Would you like to know how many businessmen chose to leave the door ajar upon exiting the facilities? At least 5. No, thank you, but I do not wish to sit here in all my 7-months-pregnant glory on the very last row of a very small plane and smell the business you just performed in the lavatory. I will simply reach out and close the door myself, hoping you can feel my glare burning into your back as you return to your seat, Mr. Businessman.

Also, to the lovely couple sitting in front of me: thank you for reclining your seats 10 seconds into the flight. That is so thoughtful of you since I'm (as mentioned previously) 7 months pregnant and cannot recline my own seat, therefore leaving me trapped between you and the lavatory, without the use of the tray as there is not enough room back here for my belly AND the tray. Plus, I'm really glad you guys are now closer to me than the lavatory door because I most definitely wanted a close-up view of your frequent, and might I add noisy, make-out sessions. And yes, despite your nasty glares, I will continue to shuffle my playing cards as loudly as possible as a distraction from the miserable situation in which I have found myself. After all, if you had kept your seat in the full upright and locked position, my cards would not be right next to your precious ears.

Paradise Island

That's where I was this past week... On Paradise Island at the Atlantis Hotel in Nassau, Bahamas. Ever seen Holiday in the Sun? (good ol' Mary Kate and Ashley!) Well, that's where they stayed in that movie too.

This was my little sister's dream vacation and I got to tag along! It was just my mom and 2 of my 3 sisters and boy did we have fun. I didn't bring a camera because I figured they would all have theirs. I figured correctly. Every time we stopped to snap a photo, 3 cameras got pulled out and we had to pose for all of them. I just knew bringing a fourth would be overkill, and I can get the pictures later. But I did take some pics on my phone!

Here's one I snapped while laying by the pool on the last day there...

There were lots of super fancy yachts "parked" in the marina. I would seriously love to know what kind of people have boats like that and sail to the Bahamas. Amazing.

Just a pretty shot of the sunset with the hotel in the background...

I snapped this pic on the way back to the airport... I think it was a school. But I loved how colorful and fun all the buildings there are!

The Caribbean!!!! I can now say I've been in it!

Nikki, Katie and me in front of the Royal Towers! Can you see the arch in between the two towers? That's actually a suite, where one could stay, if one were to pay $40,000 a night. Yes, $40,000 PER NIGHT! Wow.

It was a good trip, but the 17 hour day I had of traveling home yesterday was not pleasant. We left our hotel at 10:30 am, which is 8:30 Utah time and I walked into my apartment just before 1:30 am, 3 flights and 4 airports later. Ugh. My hands and feet were so dang swollen! But they're slowly recovering.

Some of you might be jealous of the awesome tan I got. But that would be pointless because I didn't actually get a tan. I don't think I have ever been as pasty white in my entire life as I was going into this vacation. So I was loading on the sunscreen, knowing that the Caribbean sun is quite intense. Therefore, I pretty much just avoided deep frying myself.

While I was away, Eric sold his car. We are now a one car family. We have been talking about selling the car for awhile now so that we wouldn't have a car payment. But with the new addition coming so soon, we figured it was time to cut out the unnecessary expenses. He got a road bike last month and he's planning on using that to get to and from school until the weather turns bad again. Then I'll just drop him off and pick him up. It might be a little annoying at times, but with a little planning and coordination, we'll be fine. It feels SO good knowing that we are out of debt! I tried to get Eric to let me take a picture of him with the car, but he refused. Luckily I took a picture of it a few days ago in one of our awesome Spring snow storms and he happened to be in it :)

RIP, Veronica. You served us well and you will be missed. :(

Depression

I have felt a sense of depression lately, and most of it has to do with my spouse. Let's not jump to conclusions here, however, because he hasn't done anything intentionally to cause me to feel this way. Let me explain...

Depression is bound to happen when you step on the scale and realize that you have 11 weeks to go in your pregnancy, have already gained 25 pounds, and now weigh more than your husband. Awesome. (And no, I do not want to post a picture of myself, thank-you-very-much.)

Depression is when your husband RUINS your April Fools joke that you have been planning and scheming for WEEKS. Weeks, people! I even kept it all to myself this year, whereas normally I'm so excited about it that I tell everyone what I'm planning. Not this year. Let's back up and talk about mine and Eric's history regarding April Fools...

Eric and I had our first date/first kiss on April 3, 2008. (I can't believe it's been 3 years already, by the way!) Anyway, we had the date planned and knew what we were doing and I was so dang excited. I really, really liked this boy and despite my sister's best efforts, I was bound and determined to date Eric Bready. He was pretty excited too, because let's face it, I was a major catch! (And really good at deceiving boys into thinking I was something special.)

Well, two days before the date, I decided it would be fun to mess with him a little bit and sent him the following text message:

"I have some bad news... I don't think I'm going to be able to go on our date on Thursday :("

To which he responded:

"Oh, OK. Well do you want to reschedule?"

I was laughing at myself, knowing what I was going to write, but also debated sending the next text... Could he really handle it? Or would he get mad/offended? Well, if he can't take my sense of humor, we may as well know now before anyone gets in too deep:

"Actually, my missionary came home last week and he flew out here to surprise me and proposed. So I probably shouldn't go on a date with you."

Looooong pause:

"Oh wow. Well, congratulations I guess! That's exciting!"

Slight pause, enough to make him sweat a little:

"APRIL FOOLS!!!! Haha I'm SOOO excited for our date!!"

Then I sweat a little while I waited for his response:

"Haha oh man you got me good! I'm laughing pretty hard right now. But thank goodness we're still on because I'm really looking forward to it!"

He passed. And he thought I was funny. Score! (As a side note, these aren't word-for-word texts, although I wish I had saved them. But I have a pretty good memory so they have to be pretty darn close to what was actually said.)

We went on that date, and the rest is history. But now, every year, I try to get him on April Fools Day. But it's really hard because he's usually expecting something, and I get him every time. Neither of us remember what I did the past 2 years, but this year, I was going into early labor!

I thought it out. It was perfect timing since April Fools fell on a Friday this year and I was far enough along in my pregnancy that it was possible and believable... We would go on our normal Friday-night date and then probably come home late to watch a movie or some more 24 (we're on Season 2). He would think he made it through the day this year because it would be somewhere around 11 by the time we got home. Now, I couldn't just say, "Eric, I'm in labor," because that would be way too obvious. So... the water was going to have to break. I decided a balloon was my best option. Luckily the night before, Eric and some of his Chemistry TA friends played a prank on his old professor and it included balloons. So I snuck a couple and put them into my pocket. I practiced Friday morning after Eric had left for school, testing the amount of water and the amount of pressure I would need. The balloon wasn't going to break without some assistance, however, so I decided I would put on a baggy pair of sweatpants, and put my really sharp tweezers in my pocket. I'm ALWAYS cuddled up in a blanket so it was going to be super easy to pull the tweezers out of my pocket without him noticing and pop the balloon. Hysteria would obviously ensue because I was only 29 weeks and we hadn't purchased a carseat and oh-my-gosh-what-are-we-going-to-do?!!?!

But I didn't start there. Oh no. All week long I was complaining of weird "cramps" that were getting pretty painful. "Eric, they must just be Braxton Hicks or something." He agreed. "Eric, they're pretty bad today (Thursday), do you think I should call the doctor?" He thought everything was probably fine and that we didn't need to worry. Friday night we parked at the temple to go in a do a session and he asked if I wanted him to drop me off. "Yeah, that's probably a good idea. The contraction-y things were pretty bad when I was walking up to class this morning." He never thought anything of it.

We got home around 10:45, just as I had predicted. Eric went into the room to change his clothes, which usually takes awhile when he's in his Sunday clothes. I almost backed out, thinking again that I was being too mean. But instead, I immediately went into the bathroom to fill up the balloon. It took forever for the water to get warm (I didn't want freezing cold water exploding all over my... area) but I filled it up, tied it off and started heading to the toilet so I could hide it while I went to change my clothes. Just as I turned my back, Eric BARGED in and said, "What are you doing??"

He caught me. Red-handed with a blue balloon full of water. I looked at him and timidly said, "Nothing" with a huge grin on my face.

"Cooourt.... What are you doing?"

"GOING INTO LABOR DANG IT!!!" And then I may or may not have attacked him and hit him a million times and yelled at him for ruining my perfect joke.

See what I mean? Depression. I put a lot of thought into that and just as it was about to happen and my anticipation was killing me, he ruined it. We both laughed pretty hard still, and he did admit that it was a good plan. He thought it was pretty hilarious that I had been faking contractions for a whole week! But alas, I guess I'll have to wait until next year... Unfortunately, I don't think I'll ever be able to use going into labor as an April Fools joke now.