Seth Jeffery Carter

Our baby boy, Seth Jeffery Carter, was born on November 23, 2013.  Unfortunately, he wasn't due until April 24, 2014.  He was born at 12:58 a.m. weighing 33 grams (1.16 ounces) and was 5 inches long.

 The last pregnancy photo I got, 2 days before he was born (18 weeks).

 The only photo we got of him.

 His tiny hand prints.
It was hard to get good ones because his bones were so soft I didn't want them to push hard to keep trying for better ones.  I placed the dime for size comparison.

The molds of his little hands and feet

I wish I could look forward to him arriving in the next couple of months so I could hold him and love him, but for now, all I get to do is hope that I can know him in the next life.

The latest and greatest

Jeff and I found out we were expecting another baby on Christmas morning.  We announced it to our families on Valentine's Day and have told only a few of our friends until now.  But today we found out we are going to have another little boy!  Landon and this baby (nameless for who knows how long because boy names are hard!) will be about 2 weeks away from being 2 years apart which I think (read:  I hope) will be so fun for all of us.  I'm excited for Landon to get a little brother.

August

Our month has been super busy which is one of the reasons for the lack of updates on here.

We started out the month with a pinewood derby contest at BYU. Jeff made a car for my nephew a few months ago and re-did it a bit for this one so he could race it. It did really well and won the "Best of Show" and took 8th place out of 28 cars so he did pretty well. I thought it was really fun to go to (it was my first one to see that I can remember) and I was proud of Jeff for doing such a great job. After that we headed up to Morgan for a Carter reunion for some good times.

The next week we spent every day packing and cleaning and preparing to move. We moved on the 15th and are so grateful for all the help we received from family and friends since I wasn't much good. We had a baby shower that same afternoon with my side of the family and it was so great to see everyone. I had another baby shower with the Carter side of the family the following week. We are blessed to have so much support from both sides of our families and appreciate everything we received to help us prepare to welcome Landon.

Since I am still working in Provo we have been staying at Carter's during the week so my commute is not so horrendous. Jeff takes me down to work a couple of days a week which I love--it's better having his company and it's nice that I don't have to drive. I didn't think it would be that big of a deal to commute for a few weeks but I have to be honest, it's wearing me down pretty good. It is really hard spreading our lives over 90 miles of Utah (work in Provo, sleep in Centerville during the week, live in Ogden on the weekends). I basically feel like we have no home but it's been nice to still have something to do during the days...I would have gone insane if I was just home all day every day.

I also celebrated my birthday on the 20th. I don't get that into birthdays--to me it's just another day of the year--so I worked the day of my birthday but Jeff took me out to dinner that night, my mom took us out to dinner the night before and Carter's took us out that weekend. All in all it was a good birthday.

I am now 1.5 weeks away from my due date. I had Jeff take a new picture today so we can document it and I look severely massive, yuck! I feel pretty good, just large and ready to have him. My feet swell so it feels like I have bruises all over my feet all the time. I get sick a couple of times a week still and pray that it doesn't continue after I have him. But I've been blessed still the same--my BP is great, my weight gain is perfect (even though I feel it's too high...but I had lost a pound at my last appointment so that was good), and I am still up and moving around. Can't complain at all about that.

The most exciting thing that has happened to us this month, though, is that Jeff got an internship! We waited all Spring/Summer for him to get one but no one was hiring. Then this week he was offered 3! This is a huge deal for us because it has been the only thing holding him back from graduating so now with this he will officially graduate from BYU in December (yeah!) The one he decided to take is in Salt Lake (so now he'll have the long commute which I feel so bad about). It is working for a place called BD Medical that designs medical equipment and there is a possibility at the end of the internship that it could turn into something permanent. One was in New York which I think would have been so great to live there for a short time but it didn't pay enough to even cover our rent so we opted not to do that one.

Life is good.

I'm Counting Down

It's been a little while since I've posted any of those 'oh-so-fun' pregnancy photos. I'm really only doing it for documenting purposes because I'm now to the stage where I feel huge and very not cute. Oh well, I'm sure most women go through that. This was me last week at 33 weeks.

As I get closer and closer to having this little guy, I've been thinking about the whole experience. In my head I've basically been making lists of things that I will/will not miss about it. I might have some to add at a later point that I can't think of right now but here are my thoughts.

Things I WILL miss about being pregnant:
-The excitement and anticipation of welcoming Landon into our family
-Feeling him move inside me

Things I will NOT miss about being pregnant:
-Not having the will or feel like doing anything after work (this went away after the first trimester thank goodness because I hated coming home from work and laying down for hours--luckily Jeff was in school all the time so it was ok)
-Not sleeping (I know this will continue after the baby is born but at least then I'll have a cute little thing to look at whereas right now it's just annoying
-Having to go to the bathroom way more than anyone should, especially at night when I'm trying to sleep
-Worrying if anything I am doing/eating will hurt the baby
-Gross taste in my mouth which also means that most of the time nothing sounds good to eat
-Nausea & Thowing up
-Gaining weight / Not fitting into any cute clothes
-Getting worn-out or out of breath fast
-Not being able to do things I would normally not have to worry about (lifting heavy things, etc)
-Heartburn

I went to my doctor appointment last week and everything looks great. My weight gain is perfect, I'm measuring where I should be, Landon's heartbeat is good, and he's positioned right.

24 weeks

I went to my 24-week appointment this past week and everything looks great. My weight gain is right where it should be (though I still feel bigger than I should be. I think we've decided on a name for our little guy which I'm happy about because I didn't want to be trying to decide in the hospital still. The horrid sickness I endured the first few months has, for the most part, subsided and I only feel really sick 1-2 times a week now. I wish it would go away completely but I'll take anything over feeling that way 24/7. He gets really active in the morning when I'm at work and again in the evening. It's getting more difficult to sleep but at least we have the air-conditioners installed in our apartment this week so it's nice to not deal with the heat. Here is a picture of me right now.

I absolutely love it!

Jeff had a furniture design class this semester in which he had to design and build to completion some form of furniture. Most people chose tables or bookshelves (I would have too because they're less intimidating) but Jeff decided to build our baby crib. He worked so hard on it and I absolutely LOVE how it turned out, he just amazes me. So for your viewing pleasure, here are a couple of pictures of the finished product. The mattress can be raised higher for when the baby is younger or lower as shown in the pictures. He even made it so it comes apart and is compact which will be nice with us having to move soon and it can be converted into a toddler bed and a twin size bed when the time comes.

We're having a....

It seems as though the overwhelming consensus on what we are going to be having is a girl. We are actually going to be welcoming a baby boy into our family! We are so excited to finally know so we can start deciding on names (any suggestions would be helpful at this point) and buying things. I think it will be so fun to have a little Jeff running around. I wanted to post a pic of the ultrasound but the picture quality is pretty bad so I'll forgo that idea.

Also, this is more for my records than anything but for anyone who cares, this is a photo of me at 20 weeks. It was taken on Wednesday and I swear I've grown about 6" since then so I look bigger now than in the picture (in my opinion) but it'll show in the pictures I post from New York next week.

March - September

This year will be one full of changes for us, and we’re excited for all of them. In a nutshell, here’s our month-by-month log of some of the good things that are happening.

• March: Jeff is going on a trip to Austin, TX; we will hopefully find out where he will be going on his summer internship; Jeff turns one year older

• April: Jeff finishes up his last semester of classes at BYU (yeah!!!)

• May: Most likely Jeff will move and he will start his internship (depending on where/what it is I will most likely stay put and keep working through the summer…I can’t stand the thought of not having anything to do during the days…though I can’t stand the thought of not being with Jeff for an entire summer either, we’ll keep you posted on this one)

• June/July: Jeff will be busy working and looking for a job, hopefully we will finalize something and know where we will be living post-graduation

• August: Jeff will officially graduate; I will turn one year older; possibly move to wherever we're going to end up (if not this month then next)
  

• September: WE’RE HAVING A BABY!!!! And couldn't be more excited about it!