A Must Read for All the Moms

"Dear Lord my Shepherd,

I am a mother.
You have called me to assist you in
Shepherding a few dear lambs of the flock.

Their value is without price.
My abilities are imperfect.

Teach me to care for them as you care for us all.

I read the pattern of your perfect care
In the words of King David,
Royal shepherd of Palestine.

Help me to follow your lead."

This is a beautiful book of poems based on the twenty-third Psalm and written with mothers in mind. Anyone who is, will be or has a mother should read it! It is so sweet.

Do you ever sleep in there?!

A lot to write about...where to begin.
I'm over the hill! Past the halfway mark of pregnancy, that is. 21 Weeks today. It really has flown by but at the same time I feel like I still have a LONG way to go. September seems so far away. I feel like this is all I talk about...sorry. All you mommies out there probably understand though. What's more exciting to talk about than your kids? Besides, he is seriously on my mind 24/7 so if I don't talk about it, I drive myself nuts! Ever since that first night I felt him wiggling he really has not stopped and it's just getting more and more powerful and frequent. Don't get me wrong, it's definitely fun to know he's exercising in there but man! He's got me thinking, Do you ever sleep?! He wiggles when I'm hungry, he wiggles when I'm full, he wiggles when I'm watching TV, napping, sleeping, walking...
The Riggin side of the family will be pleased to know how active he is. I'm sure a sport of some kind is in this kid's future!
Yesterday I worked a kind of weird shift 12-4pm and I brought snacks but I didn't get to eat lunch until I got home and I guess by then you could call it dinner. He kicked straight out at me the whole drive home. And as I was sitting there thinking, I know you're hungry I'm hurrying! I got this image of him crying in there because he's hungry. That made me feel a bit like a monster... :( Kellen always tells me I need to eat more. Now I feel guilty when I don't. I have gained a whopping 7 lbs so far. The doctor says that's fine considering my little frame. But I should start gaining more starting about....NOW. A pound a week, I believe, for the last 20 weeks. For a grand total of 25-35 lbs. I'm shooting for 30, right in the middle. Not too little, not too much. But I'm really not counting or keeping track. I just eat when I'm hungry and stop when I'm full. I try to eat good things but lets be honest fat and sugar taste the best. They sneak in there. :D

So, in other news: the answer is Yes. We are moving back to Utah. Most of our family and friends already know that but I don't think either of us had come out and said it publicly yet. We came out here with the plan to be down in LA for Kellen's schooling by this time but stuff happened, plans changed. Kellen got some school done here at Fresno Pacific but after taking this semester to really think it all through, we decided Utah is the cheapest, fastest way to get Kellen done and moving on. So that is where we will go. Was it a waste of time to be out here? We don't think so. I mean, like I said, our original plan was very different than what ended up happening due to finances and the school in LA closing. But all in all, we have really enjoyed spending this time in a different environment and being near my family for a change. It's been a good experience. But now we have our own family to consider and we just need to move toward our future in the most efficient way possible. I'm excited and sad. The same way I felt when we left Utah. I'm mostly going to miss my family. It's been so great to be near my three bestest friends, Mommy, Liz and Hadley. I will miss them so much. And I'm not sure how I'll feel about finishing out my pregnancy and having baby boy without them to help me. That will be rough. But we are both feeling optimistic about the move! It will be good.

My mom and Liz are throwing together a baby shower for me before I leave! Here's the cute invite Liz made, she did such a great job! (Even though it took Costco's photo center three times to print them right...)

I am so happy! It'll will mostly be great to get all my buddies here in Fresno together before we leave. And if you did not get an invite in the mail do not fret! Like I said it's been last minute so I'm sure we forgot some people or maybe just didn't have the addresses. But seriously DON'T BE SHY if you are in the Fresno area and would like to come, COME! All the info is above.
It will be so great to see everyone one last time. :) But....I can't lie...I also had fun registering for baby stuff! :) Is that tacky to say? Sorry...I like presents! I'm excited to have all kinds of little boy things to play with! lol I had heard about Diapers.com and so I went on there to check it out and they actually have a lot of great stuff at good prices so I decided to register there as well as the traditional Babies R Us. I figured since we are moving it would actually be easier for people to get stuff off Diapers.com since they can just mail it straight to us in Utah. And they had this cool thing you can register for called Diapers for a Year. It's where people can just pay for a gift certificate and we can buy diapers with it! I thought that would be the best present ever, since we'll be needing a lot of them for the next 2-3 years!
Anyways. Signing off for today. Time to be productive.

Just a little scare.

We had a little scare yesterday.
2 paramedics,
1 ambulance ride,
4 hours in the ER,
and 1 IV later
baby and I are doing fine.
Poor Kellen got the world's worst phone call from my manager while I was at work telling him that they had to call 911 because I collapsed. I'm not sure which one of us looked worse when I was pulled out of the back of the ambulance at the hospital and he was waiting for me. Scary day. But all things considered it turned out pretty good. The doctor said I'm not drinking enough water and I need to take more breaks at work. He said since I'm petite and pregnant, blood pools in my legs more easily and if I don't sit down every now and then my blood pressure will drop way down, which is probably what happened. So that made me feel kinda dumb. :/ Seems like something I should have been doing anyways. So now I'm resting all day under the strict care of Dr. Husband. And he is strict! He keeps my fluids replenished, keeps me eating and makes sure I am not doing anything too tiring. Love him. :)

What am I? Part II

Today we had our second ultrasound!!! And here's the verdict:

Can you guess? Lol

My dad and Liz both guessed it! They win! We are so excited and it makes it so special to be able to think we have a son in there! Not just a questionable fetus...lol
Here are the great snap shots the ultrasound tech got for us:

His sweet little profile :)

A front face shot

His cute little feet

And last but not least his tell tale little you-know-what! haha Sorry if that's gross but I think it's cute! ;)
Turns out he's a shy and flexible little guy. She really had to poke and prod at him to get him to uncurl. She said his brain and organs look good and like they are working properly. One little hiccup, she said there's a little mass in the muscle of his left ventricle but that it's pretty common and she's never seen that turn into a problem. His heart rate was 157 exactly...again! That was exactly what it was the first time. So he's consistent. After all the measurements she said I'm actually about 19 Weeks, which is 4 days ahead of where we thought I was. So that's good. That moves the due date up to September 1 which I am ok with! Heck, let's make it August! lol

Kellen Turned the Big 25

Kellen is now a quarter of a century old! For his birthday we went to Big Hat Days in Old Town Clovis with John, Liz and Hadley which was very fun. It was a nice warm day! I love spring weather in Fresno...if only it lasted. Here's a few snap shots:

The boys with their JUMBO CORN DOGS
The real man's corn dog...


Later Liz and I worked on a delicious dinner of Fillet Mignon, Parmesan Risotto and Asparagus. And at the request of Birthday Boy, my mom made him a Birthday Apple Pie!

Happy Birthday Sweet Kellen!