Productive Day

I'll be the first to admit (and Kahili will be the first to agree) that I have been soooo LAZY this whole first trimester. I have been lucky enough not to throw up at all but I have definitely been nauseous and very exhausted. My last semester of colleges off to a good start and I will graduate in less than 3 months! However, the next milestone I am looking forward to is finishing my first trimester. That will be in about 2 weeks so I'm very excited.

Anyways, this post is supposed to be about the productive day I had today because I was very proud of myself :) First off, I went to both my classes (though this is not uncommon- I have only missed 3 total classes this whole semester and I have 17.5 credits!). After class, I got home and decided I would make dinner tonight so I head to the store. Kahili mentioned meatloaf earlier this week and I hadn't made it since last year so that's what I decided to make. It turned out great and we ate it with rice:

But wait, there's more! Not only did I make dinner, I made a cheesecake! My grandma and uncle used to make this cheesecake all the time when we would come over for Sunday dinners. I have always loved it and just got the recipe so I decided to try it out. We are going to the BYU Men's Volleyball game tonight with some friends and then we will come home and try it out. Here's what it looks like:

Our camera is currently out of order so I took these pictures with my phone. Sorry for the bad quality :(

It would be Selfish of Me...

...not to mention my appreciation of these people who have kept me healthy during my volleyball career and continue who to help me:

Gaye Merrill

This woman was like a mother to me during my stay at BYU. She was a mentor, athletic trainer, and more, she was my friend. I spent so much time in the training room with her by my side and she was always encouraging. During practice, I would race her so I could shag the ball before her. When I had a rough day, I would go in to the training room and we would talk. Gaye always knew how to comfort me. When she was in tons of pain and going through chemotherapy last year around this time, we had a long talk. She knew how much pain my back was causing me and she said, "Brooke, I think it's time for you to be done playing volleyball." I wasn't ready to be done. Selfishly, I replied, "Why Gaye? Why do some of us have to go through so much pain?" Little did I know Gaye was putting on a stronger face than I ever could have thought. She passed away about 3 months after this conversation. I never got to tell her how much she meant to me. I never said goodbye.

Lincoln Clifford

"Cliff" has been my chiropractor for the past 4 years while I have been playing at BYU. I have seen him almost every week for the past 4 years and he is always able to relieve some of my back pain, even if its just for a little while. He takes my arrogance and laughs at it. WHat I mean by that is, I know my body. almost TOO well. Every time I go to Clifford, I say something like this, "My SI is out on my left side." haha. He would just laugh and tell me go lay face down, always he same thing. Then there were the times I would come in and say, "Cliff, it's something weird. Different..." Cliff would always figure it out.

Vivian

This is one of the sweetest women I have ever met. Vivian is the BYU Massage Therapist and works at the school about 3 days a week. Her daughter Stephanie comes in with her on Tuesdays and she is wonderful as well. What I love about Vivian is that she is so personable. She wants to know what is wrong but she also has been doing it so long that she explained to me that she needs to loosen up all the muscles around the area in order for the massage to be effective. She has helped me so much. Since I am done playing, I no longer have the privilege of going to see Vivian every week at school. When I went in to visit her last week and told her I was pregnant, she suggested I come to her house to get a massage for really cheap. She gave me a one hour, full body relaxation massage for $20! She's amazing and it felt so good!

I definitely know I would not have been able to play volleyball for as long as I did without these wonderful people in my life. I am so grateful for their support and "magic healing hands".

What to do...

Well, the pains of pregnancy have already started...and I'm only 10 weeks!

Kahili and I went in for my first appointment with Dr. Judd last week and he is awesome! He is Catholic and originally from LA, close to my house. He is super nice and took lots of time to get to now us, which I really appreciated. When I asked him about back pain, this is what he said, "Women who don't normally have back pain, get back pain during pregnancy. Women who already have back problems get worse and worse and WORSE." great, just great.

So last Tuesday, my back started acting up. Every couple steps with my right leg, I get a sharp pain in my sacrum on the right side and I almost feel like my leg is going to go out.

I heard about some pregnancy pillows that help with back and hip problems so I got online and found this, Boppy Total Body Pillow. Kahili and I went to Target and got it. It originally came with this cover on it:

But, I just so happen to have this wonderfully talented aunt who can make ANYTHING! I took the pillow over to her house on Sunday and we made this:

I LOVE it! It's great because the brown side is soft flannel and will be perfect for Winter and the green hawaiian print fabric will be great for the Summer. I've used it for a week now and I love it! It's so comfy! Auntie Lynn and I are going to be working on projects every week so I'll post pictures of our progress :)

The Rumors are TRUE...

I am getting fatter.... and it's not just because I'm done with volleyball.

I'm PREGNANT!

My lovely husband has been dying to tell EVERYONE he knows but i wanted to wait until the first ultrasound which I had today.

So there you have it, we're having baby.

(head is on the right side and the little hand looks like its coming out of the neck haha)

Stats:

Due Date: August 22, 2011

Heart Beat: 187 bpm

Length: I think the nurse said about 1.5 in long

The gummy bear (that's what the nurse called our baby) measured big so our original due dates was August 24th but has now been moved up to the 22nd. I have also been craving spicy food non-stop so my aunt told me that means the baby will be on time. :) I hope so!