evan, lindsay, nina, elena and esther

Rexburg medical center,

I wrote you a poem to tell you how I feel about you.



You left us waiting waiting waiting
Hours went by at each appointment, Nina got so tired, and Evan missed his classes
I think it's shady shady shady
I still don't know why that nurse took 45 minutes to fill out Nina's immunization record
Now my trust in you is fading fading fading
Will you ever be courteous to your patients and respect their time?
My faith in rexburg business ethic is ever jading, waxing and waning
With the time I wasted there with you I could have organized boxes of type for our letterpress, made batches of brownies, or played the itsy bitsy spider a million more times with Nina



I've left you for the midwives at Seasons Women's Clinic, where I went for my pregnancy with Nina. They'll have us well taken care of and back at home in under an hour without fail.

Disappointed but happy with the midwives again,
Lindsay

Labels: lindsay, pregnancy

This awesome so-cal photographer Amelia Lyon apparently has ties in Haiti, and/or she just goes there a lot. She volunteered there after their earthquake hit. Click on the link below and take a second to internalize some of the pictures she took. They're stunning. Coupled with the commentary they are just really moving. One of the images is of triplets born right after the earthquake. Here I am expecting a single baby and I have more medical attention/food/shelter than some dream of ever having. I didn't do anything to qualify for/deserve this standard of living. Why me? This media helped me appreciate what I almost always have the tendency to take for granted. I also feel like man we really ought to create some type of emergency supply for our family.

Click here!

GIRL!!!


We saw her yawn! Can you believe it? This is the view from under her chin looking up.

This is one foot of her tiny just under a pound 12 inch body

Shortly after leaving the doctor's office with the news of our new baby girl, I sent out a text message. I wanted it to be suspenseful. So I just sent "It's a !" out. When people were begging for it I was going to follow it up with "it's a girl!" (jk that's a bit dramatic and cruel, and we're really not on begging terms with people) But when I didn't get anywhere near the expected reaction, if any reaction, I realized Evan must have foiled my plan and already informed everyone. haha So much for suspense. That is, except for US! This was exciting!!! Not to mention, it was AWESOME to be in and out of an appointment in under one hour (I switched prego doctors back to the midwives who delivered Nina. The doctor I've been visiting the last 3 months asks for just too much of your time. Our last visit there was 2.5 hours, 90% waiting)

We were at the ultrasound appointment at 9 this morning. As soon as the reader was scanning my tummy and the screen was up, Nina was glued to the screen! Although she couldn't possibly understand what all this meant, it FELT like she did by her reaction. When we told her that's a baby (on the screen) and then to add to her confusion pointed to my stomach, she just got wide eyed and stared more animated than ever at the screen. That made it really fun for us, to have another person there with Evan and I to see how this family is growing.

The nurse took shot after shot to document little fetus essentials. One of the first things we saw was the sole of her foot. Around image 15 we actually saw her yawning, very very very cute! Great measurements, perfect heartbeat. Still by the 20th or so image the nurse hadn't told us what 'she' was - boy or girl. She even said "I THINK I know what this baby is but I don't want to lead you on and upset you if I'm wrong". Upset us?! I told the nurse I'd rather be in on the suspense and later find out she was wrong. Her being wrong wouldn't change who this little baby is, only the timing of when we'd find out. She said she suspected it's a girl. The last two or three images confirmed it.

Thus far into the pregnancy we've only struck on one fateful boy name, which we hope to one day use. This little girl will need her own name. We're at a loss. There's still a lot of time till August 1st though. Maybe it'll dawn on us the way Nina's did - I didn't read it in a book, or a magazine, or from movie credits. I was falling asleep one night about 6 months into the pregnancy and suddenly the image of a little girl entered in my mind and I knew her name was Nina. I think we included it in our girl name voter on this blog. Whether that was (it is now) Nina's name or not we didn't yet know, but when Nina arrived, it fit. Chances are we'll find this girl's name some other way. But she is special. She yawned for us! We couldn't be more excited to watch her grow!!

Nina and I spent a while meowing back and forth the other day last week. It's been a daily thing since then. It was the first time she tried it (that I could clearly tell)!! We were looking at a cat postcard we made. After I meowed she looked up at me and tried to form the sound. It wasn't perfect but soooo good! She did it a bunch of times. Then we were reading a book about a rabbit and she meowed at the rabbit. haha I don't know how to explain to her that rabbits don't make noise. She'll figure it out.

That same day I was thinking about what Nina and I could do next with our time. Then I remembered my idea to make postcards together for us to send to her when we're in NY/Boston next month. The idea is that she'll receive one postcard from us for every day that we're gone. So that's 11 postcards. I don't know if she'll automatically remember us when grandma shows it to her but maybe she will! Maybe she'll remember when we made it together, even though her motor skills are lacking and I did most of the work :) The important thing is she was there with me.

This last weekend was a breath of fresh air and a very welcome change of pace for all of us. We drove down to utah for a letterpress and poster design workshop at the University of Utah in SLC. I wish I had more pieces to show for it. They pushed us to create posters with spontaneity. Try to get a message or agenda to the audience simply and powerfully. Not my forte. My right brain needed a lot of warming up. We used lino blocks, pressure printing, movable type, zinc type, and any other techniques available. It took me way out of my comfort zone and I think it was a creativity milestone for me. The U of U has an incredible letterpress get up – it’s the largest in the country. At least 20 letter presses, all shapes and sizes. Tens of thousands of movable wood and metal type. We were so lucky to play with it all. You can see all the pictures here.

Evan’s cousin Katie was sooooo kind and watched Nina for the whole day. We got a taste of what it will be like to be away from Nina for the ELEVEN days out east while she is with our moms in seattle/tacoma. The day was hard for me in that way. I can only imagine how I’ll feel two or three days into our trip east. By the time we pulled up to Katie’s driveway after the day of letterpress we were both flying out of the car and giddy to see her. She did sooo well for being apart a whole day and acted like we had just been out to the store for a few minutes.

On this trip we got to stay with Katie Spencer and Eva for one night and with Evan’s cousins Jenny and Steve the other night. I really enjoyed getting to know Jenny and Steve better. Evan and I went on walks (doesn’t happen on icy/snowy Rexburg sidewalks – not stroller friendly), we averted a car disaster, went to the mall, and ate Indian at the Bombay house in Provo which brought me back to my mission. Ahhhhhhh What a great weekend. I don't think there are better 15 month old travelers than Nina. Not that I've met at least.

At the workshop we were two of 15 participants, and two awesome teachers including David Wolske. Here is the BYU-I peeps show & tell : *names may be altered for discretion


James

Adam

Serafina

Blake

The place






Making stuff


Clean up action

I don’t know if I can really say how happy it makes me that march is here. There are now like 6 inches of GRASS fringing our giant-mass-of-snow-lawn. I can’t remember the last time I saw grass there. Rexburg’s winters are mind numbingly long (my first summer here saw snow on June 14th), but the summers are free and fun. We’re still under a cold sky of winter grey and surrounded by mounds of snow in every direction but it's melting!!! (at least for the moment)

We enjoyed the bit of sun and visited Evan on campus today:



March means we’re only a month away from a trip to ny and boston! We can’t wait to see Suvi and the Niemans and other friends! We can’t wait to explore new places!!

March 2nd (yesterday) was Nina's 15 month birthday!! She said hi and baby. In a much more lucid and natural way than usual. Talking is right around the corner. She's such a funny kid!! It's fun to talk and reason and kind of relate with her. All the things she's been soaking up the last 15 months are taking form in the way she acts and the things she does. One thing I think is interesting is her love of bags, belts, shoes, scarves, hats, bracelets, etc. Most of you know I'm not the girliest accessorizer, so where did Nina learn it? She finds ways to adorn herself on her own. Like those colored ring tower toys that most kids have - those aren't stackable rings, she discovered that they are actually bracelets. Evan's pencil pouch is a purse that she carries around. She does this all on her own. It's an interesting contrast to her less delicate and dainty tendencies. I sort of butchered her hair a week ago while we were skyping with Evan's mom on her birthday- my first attempt at cutting Nina's bangs to get them out of her eyes.


A couple of pictures Evan's cousin Jenny took this weekend. You can see Nina's new bangs and her cyndi lauper hair do.

March also means I’m in my second trimester, and a month closer to meeting the second kid in this family. (for those of you who don't know yet – yes we’re actually expecting!) A month closer to seeing Nina be an older SISTER! Hahaa I can’t wait. The first trimester is over with its relentless cloud of nausea and fatigue. I feel so much better than I did two or three weeks ago.

This baby is due August 1st, a week after Evan graduates on July 23rd - another looong-awaited event that we are a month closer to. Evan just registered for his last semester of classes yesterday!!