Pass the Steak

I adore my husband! He's so amazing and I don't know how I ended up getting to marry such a wonderful person. He always takes care of me more than I could ever expect, but this weekend he went ALL OUT. He spent most of Saturday deep cleaning our kitchen (he even pulled out the fridge and stove to clean underneath them) and he cleaned the rest of the condo too. Seriously, I've never seen such a clean kitchen and our condo looks so good. He spent the whole weekend waiting on me hand and foot, including cooking all my meals and cleaning up after me. I can't even explain how great it was.

Weirdest thing I found out this week is that I am a prego steak lover. Ben bought some really thin, lean, small steaks and cooked them on the grill yesterday and today and wow did they make my tummy happy. They were almost as satisfying as sushi which is nearly an impossible feat these days.

Tomorrow is our ultrasound so we'll give you the best update yet tomorrow! YAY!!!!

5 More Days Until the Ultrasound!!

We can hardly wait until our ultrasound!! It's been a long wait. On Monday we are telling EVERYBODY else though we've already told a couple of friends. I officially have a bit of a pooch that I can't suck in which is so weird! I still get morning sickness quite a bit but I do have moments of feeling better which is nice. Benny takes extra good care of me so I'll be able to get through the next few weeks. We are officially 11 weeks and 1 day along!

Ben officially has taken over the full responsibilities of his new job. The girl who used to be in that position is having her baby in a day or two! It's definitely a complex position - they planned 3 months to train him because it's so complex. Ben is really enjoying his new job and he's doing GREAT at it. I only have 8 more days left of school and I can hardly wait to be done!!

Sushi: God's Gift to a Prego Leslie

Apparently the 1.5 days of feeling decent were just a small reprieve but that's ok because we're gonna have a cute little baby at the end!! Good thing babies are so cute. We've found that I can't travel in a car (driving or as a passenger) for more than fifteen minutes without it igniting my upchuck reflex so unfortunately we won't be doing any trips for a while. I guess during the gas crisis is the perfect time to not be able to travel so I can't complain. Unfortunately the drive to Sandy is longer than 15 minutes so it's always an adventure when we attempt that, which we did yesterday and will be doing today and tomorrow. Yuck I don't even want to think about it. Unfortunately this also means I can't plan any trips home yet because I don't think I'd make it on the drive to the airport, much less the airplane ride so that's kind of sad.

Thursday night our friends the Newmans were in town so we ended up hanging out with them rather than getting sushi. I much preferred hanging out with them, but I was still really wanting sushi the next day. I told Ben that and weirdly enough somebody later brought in a platter of sushi to his work and he brought me some home!! Oh that was wonderful. I ate it ALL. Yum yum yum. I also discovered the Happy Sumo VIP club where they have certain nights where you can get half off a lot of their simpler rolls. Since I can't eat the more complicated rolls right now this is PERFECT so we are going to take full advantage!! Plus it's close so I'll be able to make it there without getting sick. I know, I get excited about a lot of simple things right now, but since I can't leave the house most of the time I'm learning to just enjoy the small things such as fabulous sushi.

We're so excited you get home today and we'll talk to you soon!!! Love you!!!

Uphill Swing!

This is Leslie! I am so, so, so, so bummed that I missed the family call from Peru!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I just barely missed it too. I miss you guys SOOOOOOOOOOOOOO much. I even called and left mom a whiny voice message saying you all better get home soon. I was hoping you might be on your way back when I called, though I think I remember you saying you weren't coming back until Sunday.

And now for the big announcement......da dada daaaaaa!!!!! Are you ready? I have felt good for 1.5 days now!! No joke! Yesterday morning I was really sick, but then I all of a sudden started feeling better and I even got our house cleaned. I haven't even had energy to fold the laundry I did a week and a half ago so this was big. Then last night I slept normal hours and I have felt great most of today (besides when I get hungry). We discovered Egos as a possible way for me to get protein and they have really worked well. I credit part of my feeling well to the deliciousness and protein in the yumminess of Egos. However, part of it I think may be the end of morning sickness. I read somewhere that the placenta takes over the role of the hormones at about this time which can mean a lessening of morning sickness. I'm hoping this is a permanent thing because I'm loving feeling more like myself. Plus being able to eat real food is a bonus.

Today I even decided to cook and I made some deviled eggs. I wanted to get Mom's recipe but since I couldn't call you I just tried one that I had ingredients for. It has some crumbled bacon in it so we'll see how they turn out! They're chilling in the fridge just waiting for me. Yum! Speaking of recipes, oh how I need recipes. I have been craving your bean and olive enchiladas Mom. Or the chicken with all the veggies on top. Or Papa's soup and bread - oh how I miss homemade bread!!! I miss Sunday dinners in general and any home cooking from my home. This is funny because I normally can't eat a lot so it shouldn't matter what I eat but I want my parents' homemade cooking. Poor Benny, when I was feeling really sick on Sunday I got so sad because I wanted to be home and have my mom and dad cook for me! Well, next time I get pregnant I am going to have you all come out here and help me watch this baby and help me cook so I can get through the first trimester again. I'm not joking so be prepared! Otherwise there's no way I'm going to be pregnant again. I don't think I can handle a kid and morning sickness. I know there are women who do it, but apparently I'm wimpier than most. I think my ever-volatile blood sugar plays a big part in the sickness being so bad though.

Tonight Benny and I are going out for sushi!! That is the one thing I can eat no matter how sick I am, though I am only allowed to eat rolls with cooked fish when pregnant. I know, random declaration, but thinking about food is making me hungry!

Last bit of news is kind of funny. Before Ben and I told his parents we were pregnant we took another pregnancy test just to make sure we were still pregnant. I know it's goofy but you just never know in the first trimester. I didn't think about hiding the box because I did the test in Ben's old bathroom which is in the basement and RARELY gets used by anybody but Ben. However, I guess somehow two of Ben's sisters ended up using it, saw the test in the trash, and figured out we're pregnant. Then they told another sister, and Ben told the last sister. SOOOOO, basically all of Ben's family knows we're pregnant besides his brother who I'm sure will find out soon enough. So much for keeping it a secret. Now let's just hope everything works out because otherwise that's a lot of people to tell that it didn't. I'll feel better about it after we see the heartbeat on the ultrasound. AAAAAHHHHH I can hardly wait!! We'll post the picture of it once we get it.

To answer your question on the phone message we do have some tentative names picked out but they're not set in stone. Once we know if it's a girl or boy we'll probably be more decisive. From what I have read they can tell the sex with certainty once a person is 20 weeks pregnant, which means we're half way there!

We can hardly wait for you to get home so HURRY and come BACK!!!!!!!!

First Doctor Appointment and Other Adventures!

Saturday we went to the Farmers' Market by our condo. We got a huge bag of English peas, snap peas, and stir-fry peas for $3. Yay for Farmers' Markets! Ben also bought some boiled peanuts - something he learned to like on his mission.

I have been writing in third person but it feels weird to write in third person so I'm going to start writing in first person and we'll just tell you who's writing. Today Leslie is writing! Ok, now for the rest of the exciting news...

Saturday night we went out with Ben's parents to dinner and a movie. Apparently my morning sickness is still in full force because after dinner we were sitting in the back of Ben's dad's truck and I started to feel REALLY sick. Ben asked me if I was ok, but since I feel nauseous all the time I thought I'd be fine. Well, all of a sudden I definitely wasn't as I started to puke in my purse. Well, ATTEMPTED to puke in my purse. It ended up all over my lap. GROSS!!! Gotta love pregnancy. Fortunately I hadn't eaten a ton at dinner so it wasn't as bad as it could've been. Everybody helped me get cleaned up and we still went to the movie and ended up having a very fun night. Aren't you glad I shared that story?

The BEST news is we had our first doctor appointment today!! We REALLY like our doctor (Cheryl Stults' dad recommended her). She seems very knowledgeable and has great bedside manner, which is nice because it helped me keep calm. She is part of the University of Utah network which is GREAT because it means that's where the baby will be delivered. Not only is this the closest hospital to the condo, it is also where the Primary Children's Hospital is, and that's where they take babies who have complications. Hopefully that won't be an issue, but it's nice to know that all possible resources and the best children's doctors in Utah will be at the hospital where the baby is delivered.

The doctor gave us a ton of useful information, did some tests, and gave me some prescriptions to help with my nausea that are safe to take while pregnant. One of the prescriptions is just a vitamin that has been studied for ages so I'm probably just going to use that one. It's so nice to have something to try because apparently I've been losing rather than gaining weight due to being so sick. Surprising since all I do is sleep, eat, study, and sleep some more. Before we left I had blood taken for tests. OH MY GOODNESS I'm surprised I have any blood left in my body! There were at least 7 good size vials of blood that they took. Benny was great and took me to and from the appointment and stayed with me through the whole thing. He is so good to me and takes care of me 24/7.

We have an ultrasound scheduled for July 28th. The doctor wanted it to be within this next week but it was the soonest opening so we'll have to wait 13 days. It seems like forever!! As long as everything looks ok on the ultrasound we will start telling all other family and friends after that ultrasound! The doctor felt my uterus and said it feels around 9-10 weeks which is good because I am officially 10 weeks today so it sounds like it's right on track. She said the due date as of right now is February 10th. We'll know a better estimate after the ultrasound, but I'm guessing February 1oth is right.

Concerning the condo we are going to be looking at appliances, getting bids, and really just getting everything going on the renovation. I've been so exhausted I haven't really been excited about starting the renovation yet since I have no energy. However, it's better to get it done now than when I'm uber pregnant so here we go! I may be sending you pictures of ideas. Love you and miss you and we're so excited for you to get back from Peru!

We Love the Babies!

The past couple days Leslie's had moments of quasi-normalness. She ate a FULL meal last night, which is the first time that's happened in a long time. She also took a shower and blow-dried her hair and didn't feel like she was going to pass out from it. Then she went out for a couple of hours and didn't end up feeling really sick because of it. Is it possible the morning sickness is nearing an end? Or is it just a side benefit from her staying at home all day every day and sleeping massive amounts? Either way it's been great to have moments of normalcy.

Last night we had an institute dinner/relationship seminar. For dinner we went to sit at a table that had a couple with a newborn baby. The mother of the baby said, "Be careful, the baby has pollen - if you get too close you'll get pregnant!" We thought that was a weird thing to say, but funnily enough both us and the other couple that sat at our table were pregnant, so maybe she meant to say if you sit at our table you have to be pregnant. Or maybe pregnant couples just gravitate towards babies. I'm going to guess the latter is correct!

We're at 9 weeks and 4 days! We have some pictures to post, but we've lost our camera cord to put the pictures on the internet so we'll try to get a new one today so we can post pictures!

Cafe Rio Onesy

Cafe Rio gave us a cute little onesy that says "Future Cafe Rio Manager" on it. So sweet! A couple people there know Leslie's pregnant because she quit her job there early due to being so sick. Leslie is so looking forward to the first trimester being over so she will start feeling better. She's officially 9 weeks and 2 days - the countdown is on!!

We're Officially 9 Weeks Pregnant!

We are officially 9 weeks pregnant today! That means we're only one week away from our first doctor's appointment! We feel like the wait for our first doctor's appointment has been soooooo long. Leslie's been having a hard time eating due to morning sickness so she hasn't gained any baby weight yet, but we've read that's pretty normal. Leslie's actually happy about it because it means she's still comfortable wearing all of her clothes!

We had a really fun fourth of July. We went with some of Ben's family to a condo up in Park City and had a BBQ and rode the Alpine Slide. We also got to ride the Park City roller coaster and that was SOOOOOOOOOO FUN!! WOW does it go FAST!! We skipped the fireworks because we'd seen some the previous night at the Real soccer game that were pretty good and Ben's allergies were going crazy.

Ben's dad came up with a new way to do the renovation on our condo that'll cost us A LOT less than the other way and will look better. That means we'll have some extra money to do some extra nice things in our place we wouldn't have been able to do otherwise. We are really excited to get the renovation done. We're guessing it'll take about 3 or 4 months to get the bulk of it done. Our place should look stunning by the time it's all done, and we'll have a nursery and a brand new kitchen/dining room!

Nothing else much to report! Ben's been really busy at work and Leslie sleeps half the day - literally. Both school and the first trimester will be over in 3 weeks so we are in the homestretch of both! Love you and miss you!!

SURPRISE We're PREGNANT!!

CONGRATULATIONS GRANDMA AND GRANDPA DREW YOU'RE GOING TO BE GRANDPARENTS AGAIN!! YAY!!!!!!! We are so, so, so, SOOOOOOOOO excited!!!! We made this site specifically for the Drew/Layman family (and extended relatives) so everybody can be part of our pregnancy. We are a little over 8 weeks along (see the countdown ticker below!). Our due date is around February 9th/10th but we will know for sure at our 1st doctor's appointment in 2 weeks. This is a bit of a secret for now. We are not telling anybody besides the grandparents for another month just to make sure there are no complications first. However, everything has gone smoothly so we're anticipating a full, happy pregnancy!

Since we love living downtown we are renovating our condo to make a nursery/den/guest bedroom. Ben and his dad are starting the renovation this Saturday! Everything is going really well for us! Ben is really enjoying his job at Cafe Rio and the challenge of being part of a rapidly growing company. He is doing really well at his job and Leslie is so impressed with how well he is balancing everything, including taking care of her! Leslie quit her job to help the first trimester go a little smoother and she is finishing up the last three classes of her 2nd bachelor's degree in Speech Language Pathology. As long as the funding goes through she will be doing a year long internship that focuses on therapy for children with autism starting in the middle of August. She will be starting her master's program next fall. We're not sure how that's going to work with a baby involved, but we felt that now was the perfect time to have a baby so we're sure things will work out! 

We're so excited to have a baby and we're looking forward to having you be part of his/her life! We love you BUNCHES!!!!