Because he was jealous of all my ultrasounds

Growing up without health insurance, Nic has always had a no ambulance rule. Meaning that say he completely shattered his ankle racing motocross, he would refuse the ambulance because he didn't want to get stuck with the bill. I, however, do not abide by that rule, which is why the ambulance transported him to American Fork hospital this morning, not me. I wasn't about to be stuck in traffic with a husband writhing in pain--send me some paramedics!

The stupid part is that after an ambulance ride, x-rays, CAT scan, ultrasound, blood tests and A LOT of morphine, they still can't tell us what caused his severe abdominal pain. We have a suspicion that it's his gallbladder, even though the ultrasound didn't show any stones. So six-ish hours later we got sent home with Lortab and some well wishes.

It's frustrating because A) I've never seen anyone in that much pain, which had to have been caused by something wrong and B) What in the world are we supposed to do if it happens again? Go back to the ER and hit him up with more morphine?

On Monday we're going to Nic's primary care physician who will hopefully refer us to a specialist who will take some more time to figure out the problem. Does anyone out there have experience will gallbladder problems? He's already had his appendix out, so we know it's not that...

This also proves that I will never in my life be sicker than Nic. I'm growing a person here and he up and gets hauled off to the hospital. How do I compete with that?

Non-baby related

Nic finished the bodywork and painting on another car this week. This one is a 1972 BMW and it is ORANGE. With all these cars he's painting, the Landcruiser he builds for me is going to be uh-maze-ing. Right Nic?

Baby Norah!

There it is: Proof that Baby Norah is a girl! Or at least that's what our doctor told us this morning; I guess we'll just have to take his word for it because really, that doesn't look like anything to me, boy or girl.

I have my 20 week appointment at the hospital next Monday where apparently I'll be subjected to all sorts of poking and prodding and will have a better ultrasound--which will hopefully confirm baby's gender beyond an 80 percent chance. But according to my doctor today: "That's either a girl...or a boy with a really embarrassing pee-pee."

It's nice to finally have some info on this thing growing inside of me. I still haven't felt her moving around in there yet, but many of you know that I'm not exactly dying to feel something kicking. in. my. insides. Kinda weirds me out still, I'm not going to lie.

Other fun facts:

• I thought I was over the nausea until I had to leave work early and didn't quite make it home before I had to pull off the road and throw up. So now I've hurled at work, home, and on the side of the road. Maybe next will be the grocery store?
• I haven't had anymore breakdowns and have generally been quite happy. Nic really did throw away that book I was reading.
  
• Not so fun to find out was that I've gained seven pounds over the last month. I wasn't too concerned until my doctor told me to try to lay off the carbs. Nice. I don't think you can ever win; at my appointment in January I had lost three pounds and that wasn't so great either.
  
• Nic claims to not have a gender preference and is excited about having a girl; I am excited to go shopping!

Not recommended reading

Pregnancy breakdown No. 1 has come and gone and I blame a book. Truthfully, the most surprising thing about my little episode on Tuesday was that it hasn't happened sooner. I can't tell you how afraid we have always been of Pregnant Erin and how excited we were to find that she's actually a pretty nice person (who just likes to sleep a lot). Who knew?

Trouble came, however, when I started reading this book:

If I could sum up what I got out of the first couple of chapters, it would be this:

1. Having a baby is like throwing a grenade into your once-happy marriage.
2. Nic and I will never understand each other's needs.
3. Happiness as we know it is about to come to an end.
4. Nic is going to act like a giant douche.

As I read scenarios about couple after couple hating their new lives as parents, I could literally feel my heart pounding out of my chest. That's why when Nic came home an hour or so later than he said, it was all over: This was the start of us never being happy again. He didn't want to come home because we're having a baby and men don't understand babies and he's never going to understand me. Who would want to come home to a tired, pregnant wife anyway? Men don't really want babies. And so on and so forth.

Are you starting to see why Nic confiscated this book? He came home to me sitting on the floor in tears informing him that I was freaking out and can't have a baby. And that's when he calmly reminded me how undouche-like he is and that he was taking my book. It was one of the shortest crises I've ever had.

When I told Nic I was writing about this, his declaration again was: "I'm not like the guys in that book, dammit!" Totally true. I'm lucky to have someone who can find me crying on the floor and make it okay. He'll still laugh about it though, which is one of the reasons I like him so much.

Oh, and if anyone wants a good alternative to Babyproofing Your Marriage, read Heather Armstrong's It Sucked, and Then I Cried. Or watch "Away We Go." Both address the same sort of issues; neither make you want to rethink any important life decisions.

Folk Dance Quilt: Completed

A few months back, Alissa somehow lead me to discover this quilt pattern. Mostly, I just loved the fabrics of the original, but then opted to not spend the money to buy the quilt kit. Luckily, my mother-in-law has an entire room of fabric (seriously, it's a whole bedroom) that for some lovely reason she keeps stocked with material and lets me pillage whenever I please. So this is my version:

I must be liking quilting more because I have now finished two entire quilts--without making Nic contribute at all.

If baby is a girl, then this is going in the nursery. If baby is a boy, I'll have to raid the fabric room for some less-flowery material. We'll hopefully know soon: Feb. 1 is my next ultrasound.

Bitchin' Camero

It's amazing how fast a car can be restored when you're not the one paying for it. It took Nic about a year to get the body work and paint done on his Coronet; for a client's Camero it took him roughly a month. Here's some before and after pictures that had me oohing and awwing.

I don't know how he has the patience, vision, and skill to turn this:

Into this:

How fantastic are those stripes? He did SUCH an amazing job. I mean, he cut out and replaced entire sections of metal. Who does that?

I like him so much.

Christmas and some additional info

We spent Christmas Eve and the next morning in Provo with my family and then made our way up to the Stewart's for Christmas dinner. At our various family Christmas parties we told our news to anyone who didn't know. Apparently I had a lot of people convinced that I never wanted kids. It's not that I never wanted them, just not until recently.

Alissa sent baby a Christmas present, and while the dogs think they look delicious, I cannot get over the fact that I have baby toys. For a real live baby to play with. I don't know if I can sufficiently say how crazy that seems to me. I mean, besides my pants getting tighter and feeling yucky all the time, there is so far no tangible evidence to suggest that we are really going to be parents in June. But there are occasionally little things, like these toys, where I think ho-lee-crap, we're having a baby! We seriously couldn't be happier.

And since I've been pretty scarce with any details, here's a little recap of the past few months for those who are interested:

• I found out I was pregnant in October when I went in to have surgery on my wrist. They sent me home after my prego test came back positive.
  
• I didn't break the news to Nic in any sort of creative way. I called him in the hospital parking lot and told him I didn't have the surgery because of the pregnancy test. His response: "Are you shitting me?" To which I answered: "No, I'm not shitting you!!!" This is possibly one of my favorite conversations that we've ever had; you just have to imagine the two of us ecstatically cursing during one of the most life-changing exchanges we've ever had.
• My mom was supposed to pick me up after my surgery, so I called her at work to let her know there was no need. That's when I told her the news over the phone while she was at work. I'm really not good at telling people about this.
• Josh and Jess were in town right after I found out, but we were still too nervous to tell anyone. Sorry guys, I told you I'm not good at this.
• I told Alissa after she picked me up from the airport in California. And if anyone needs someone who knows how to treat a pregnant lady, Alissa is your woman.
  
• Nic eventually told some of his family members, but the majority of people didn't know until December after we had an ultrasound and saw that everything was going well.

I just started my second trimester and I think I'm starting to feel better. For a while there I was super nauseous all the time. I managed to only actually throw up twice: once at my desk at work and once at home. Now the main thing is that I'm just tired all the time. If you didn't know I was pregnant, you wouldn't be able to tell--but that doesn't stop me from feeling rotund all of the time.

Nic has been amazing and has taken good care of me. I think he's worried that I'm going to be disappointed if baby turns out to be a boy...right now I refer to baby as Baby Norah, because, well, I want a little Norah. But we also have a boy name, so I promise I'm happy either way. Shopping for girl stuff if just so much more fun.

All of this is to say that we really truly are thrilled and excited. I could do without this whole pregnancy thing, but we're looking forward to the baby part. So hopefully my lack of enthusiasm about this part hasn't given anybody the wrong idea about how happy we are overall. The end.