Introducing...

Our newest CEO...

Claire Elizabeth Orton

June 19, 2012 11:41 am

5lbs 6oz 18 inches

She is tiny, and beautiful and sleeps like an angel.
More details to follow

Placebos, Quilts & Waterparks

We’ve been keeping busy while in Utah which has facilitated in having this pregnancy fly by.

I was entered into a study at the University of Utah (ALPS Study, Antenatal Late Preterm Steroids) to see if giving the Betamethasone steroid for lung maturation is still beneficial if given to a pregnant patient after 34 weeks. I was given the real shot with Drew so there is a 50% chance that I got it again. But there is also a 50% chance I got the placebo. Which would just be a pain in the rear (literally)— however, on the plus side we got about 300 diapers. The story gets a little weirder when I say I got the second half of the shot in a mall parking lot. The shot is split into two doses 24 hours apart, so when I told the study nurse that I was driving an hour to the hospital she said she would meet me halfway the next day… halfway happened to be outside a Dillard’s. I leaned over her passenger seat with my pants slightly lowered and 2 minutes later was on my way with a nice big package of diapers. Remember: Spencer’s completing an unpaid internship. Desperate times call for desperate measures. 

In other news, I completed a quilt that I have been working on. My first quilt actually. I feel bad I never made one for Drew, but I think it was harder for me to get excited about his birth, being unsure if the abdominal cerclage would work or not. I definitely had a lot more down time before I had Drew (16 weeks of bedrest to be exact), but either way managed to finish the quilt. I did it with a lot of help from my friend Lindsey. As in, every single snip and stitch was supervised. Thank you Linds. I love the fabric and think it is perfect for a little summer baby.

We have been enjoying the desert heat by staying cool at Seven Peaks. I think the last time I went I was maybe 8 or 9. The wave pool seemed huge and dangerous and the waterslides seemed tall and petrifying. Flash forward 15 years and I definitely didn’t feel that way when we walked in last week. It’s nice to have a Pass of all Passes for $10 because we didn’t feel bad leaving after only a few hours. Drew loved the lazy river and the little Tadpole pool. I loved being fat and not caring about being in a swimsuit.

Ithaca: Year One

Spencer has just completed his first year of law school. I don't know who is more relieved, him or me.
It will be nice to have him around more often over the summer to help out when we have two babes.
We have loved getting to know Ithaca, the people that live here and everything else about our first year at Cornell.
This year we hiked a lot of waterfalls.
Hit and killed two squirrels.
Tried a lot of local food joints.
Discovered Purity's Almond Joyous ice cream.
Ate a lot of Thai food.
Learned about the world of midwives, and that I am not a suitable candidate to have one.
Became avid recyclers and cut out Styrofoam use after being reprimanded.
Fell in love with Wegmans.

     and those are just the things I can think of right now.

This year a Chipotle and BJ's were built in Ithaca. Who knows what other advancements will take place in our next two years.

We ended the school year with a lot of packing and cleaning. Spencer ended it with 14 hour school days. There is only so much you can do at 33 weeks pregnant so we had a lot of great help from friends. We put all of our belongings in storage for the summer and trekked west for a summer internship... to Utah of all places. We just can't seem to stay away. Spencer will be interning with the Utah 4th District office (whatever that is)... He successfully lured me out here on the fact that Dr. Draper would be able to perform another c-section for me. We have already had a reunion appointment and are anxiously awaiting the arrival of our little miss.

I finally have been given reign over Spencer's laptop while he is at work which I was hoping would mean a lot more blogging (or blog stalking), but we are unfortunately without internet for the summer. So we will see how often we blog about summer festivities.

We are without a car and internet for 9 weeks... we really have trekked out here, embracing the entire pioneer lifestyle.

Here is the last picture I took in our old apartment before we left. Drew passed out on the floor of his bedroom.