My Decade in Review

So, seeing as this past decade is the first one that I can clearly remember I thought I should remember my last 10 years. . .through a blog post: )

2000


-My youngest brother, Sawyer, was born
-My grandfather passed away
-I started 8th grade
-Went to State History Fair with my video

2001


-I got contacts! And then freaked out the first time I put them in at home because I did not want to touch my eye. . .
-I started high school and with it, early morning seminary
-I turned 14 and started going to stake dances
-I made the unwise decision to get my hair permed. . .and then let my stylist talk me into getting short layers. It was not a flattering look.

2002


-Went to Gatlinburg, TN with my high school choir
-My 4th year of girls camp
-I started taking Duel Enrollment classes through Valencia Community College
-Pioneer Trek youth conference. Hard but great. Had some great testimony building experiences.
-Spent a week on Jekyll Island with my family. And when I say family I mean family. Aunts, Uncles, cousins, grandparents. . .everyone. . .all in one house

2003


-I turned 16! But that day was kinda of a bummer because I got sick. . .lame, lame, lame
-My first girls camp as a YCL (youth camp leader). I had so much fun!
-I went to EFY for the first time and had a blast.
-I auditioned for, and was accepted to, the Osceola County School for the Arts as a music major
-After years of waiting I finally got braces. In fact I remember what day I went to the orthodontist to get them, September 22.

2004


-Started my senior year of high school, yahoo!
-I was the pianist for 2 of my high schools choirs
-I unsuccessfully ran for Student Body President. . .which I'm still not too happy about b/c the girl who won ended up not doing any of the things she said she would.
-Served as secretary for National Honor Society
-Took some classes at VCC
-Kind of dated a guy from my ward that I didn't really want to date. Which is why we only went on 5 dates in 5 months. . .
-My favorite year of EFY ever - Stand in the Light!

2005


-My 7th, and final, year of girls camp
-I turned 18 and finally got my drivers license
-Ummm. . .oh yeah, I graduated from high school! I was really not that sad to leave.
-Got my first job at Build-a-Bear Workshop where best friends are made; )
-Spent an awkward week at EFY. . .at 18 I was older than most of the guys I met aside from the counselors.
-Started school at BYU-Idaho, and was severely homesick. But a great time of personal growth despite that fact.

2006


-After much prayer I decided to stay in Florida and go to school here instead of returning to Rexburg and then. . .
-I met Bevan
-I fell in love this goofy, amazing guy from my singles ward and we got engaged on December 5

2007


-Bevan & I were sealed in the Orlando Florida Temple
-Had lots of fun camping. Best camping trip was when we went up to Georgia for a long weekend.
-School, school, and more school

2008


-I finally finished my AA degree. Thank goodness!
-I turned 21. . .not a very eventful birthday. All we did was go to Olive Garden for dinner. . .and I had a final exam on my birthday.
-Our friends Eric and Alisha got married
-Traveled to lots of springs around Florida and learned that I would much rather camp in an RV

2009


-After years of wishing and hoping I was finally picked as an extra in the Indiana Jones Stunt show. Lame I know but I've wanted to do that since I was a kid.
-My brother went on a mission but had to come home for knee surgery a few months after getting in the mission field. Bummer. At least he will be able to go back soon!
-Bevan and I bought our first house, very exciting. No more apartments for us!
-Ummm, oh yeah, I became pregnant with our first kid:)
-And the best thing that happened in 2009 was the birth of Carson

All in all, not a bad decade if I do say so myself. I'm amazed at how fast it went by - some of these things feel like they just happend yesterday.

Finally writing about Carson...

Carson Avery Bigler was born on November 12, 2009 at 4:47pm and weighed 6lbs 10oz and was 20 inches long.

Luckily labor wasn't too long - about 8 hours, although the time seemed to pass by really fast.
I had a scheduled induction so I had to be at Winnie Palmer Hospital at 4am! It was so hard to sleep the night before knowing that I was going to be meeting my baby the next day - it was like a little kid on Christmas Eve! : )

Here's a quick timeline of what happened:
4am - arrived at hospital & checked in
6:30am - The doctor came in and broke my water. I was already nearly 4cm dilated at that point.

8:30am: Because my contractions weren't very strong and not coming at regular intervals, I was started on the lowest dose of Pitocin possible to see if that would give my contractions the "kick start" they needed.

10:45am: Holy Painful Contractions!!! The Pitocin did it's job and my contractions got closer together and stronger. I tried laboring on the birthing ball for a while and that helped . . . at first. Thank goodness I had Bevan there - he was a HUGE help and support to me. Without me telling him he knew just what I needed during my contractions - someone to hold me close (well, as close as you can get while on the birthing ball). My contractions became so intense that I started to lose it - I just broke down in tears and kept saying "I don't know if I can do this!" (I hadn't had an epidural so I was really feeling the full force of the contractions). I know it was hard for Bevan to see me like that and to know that there wasn't really anything he could do to help ease my pain.
At this point I asked my nurse to check me because if I had progressed enough I wanted to tough it out and forgo the epidural. I was 7cm! So I decided to continue without the pain meds and labor in the tub. Well, that did not last long. I think I only stayed in the tub 5-10 minutes before I wanted out. I was freezing cold and the warm water did nothing to help my contractions.
It was at this point that I said, "I want an epidural...now!"
I must say, the anethesiologist got to my room pretty quickly - she was there in 5 minutes: )

12:45pm - Ahhh. . .I got my epidural and felt much, much better. And you know what? I am totally OK with the fact that I did not deliver the baby "naturally". Honestly, if I had continued without the epidural I don't think I would have had sufficient energy to push Carson out. I pushed myself to the limit physical, mentally, and emotionally. I was actually able to take a quick nap after having my epidural!

1:30pm - I'm 10cm! Wow, those last three went quickly. And the most wonderful thing is that I did not feel anything: ) It was kinda fun the hear Bevan say as he looked at the monitor, "Wow, that last one was intense!" and to be totally oblivious to the fact that I had just had a contraction.

2:30pm - Start pusing! I was kinda excited to get to this point because I could actually do something now to help get Carson here. But holy cow, the epidural does nothing for the pressure you feel as you push - which I had no idea about.
So, after about 2 hours of pusing our sweet baby boy made his entrance into the world.


I just have to say how awesome Bevan was during this whole thing. I am so incredibly blessed to have him as my husband. He held my leg for me while I was pushing instead of standing up by my head and he witnessed the birth of our son. It has been amazing to watch him become a father - to see the change that has taken place. He is so sweet with Carson and always wants to check on him while he sleeps to make sure he is doing ok. He is a great daddy: )

9 days from due date and still no baby. . .

Yep . . . still pregnant.

And while I'm ok with that, because that means he just has more time to grow, I'm on edge here! Especially because my doctor had me thinking I was going to have this baby a week and a half ago. From what she said we were expecting a Halloween baby *sigh* but I guess it was not to be.

I had an ultrasound almost 2 weeks ago (at 37 weeks) to check on the baby's growth - that was fun. The ultrasound tech had a hard time getting a good profile pic of him because he's taking up so much room in there. She ended up getting a couple of good ones for me:)


Bevan took a belly pic of me on Wednesday but I haven't uploaded it to the computer yet so I guess you all will just have to make due with my 36 weeks pic ;)


Because I have some wonderfully amazing people in my ward I had two baby showers! I'm serving in the YW program right now as the Beehive advisor and the leaders and girls gave me a baby shower. I actually forgot to take pictures at that one *oops*.

Some friends from my ward, Julianne & Amy, also gave me a baby shower. Thanks to Amy I did get some pics from the shower:) It was a lot of fun and I got some really fantastic stuff. Now I just need a baby so that I can use it all!

Bevan's parents were got us a glider/ottomon for the baby's room! That will be soooo nice for feeding him . . . and just cuddling with him;)

I thought I'd throw this one in here for fun - Bevan is pretty amused that I can use my belly as a table/shelf when I eat. I'm actually pretty amused by it too!

Big News

I had my 35 week appointment last Thursday and to my great surprise (and the doctor's) I was 2cm dilated and 80% effaced! I guess being dilated isn't a big deal because some women can go around 2cm dilated for about a month before they go into labor. What really surprised us was that I am nearly 100% effaced. So now I have to "take it easy", whatever that means. Dr. White is wanting me to get to 37 weeks (which thankfully is only a week away) because then I will be full term. My next appointment is this Friday and we're having an ultrasound too b/c Dr. White wants to get an idea of how big our little man is.
The doctor, along with everyone else I talk to, will be very surprised if I make past the end of the month without having this baby. When she (Dr. White) told me that he will more likely than not be here 2-3 weeks before his due date I was really shocked. I was just not prepared mentally for the idea that, as of this week, the baby will probably be here in a week or two. I feel like I still have so much to do! But I guess no matter how much preparation you put into the arrival of the baby you are never truly prepared.
Bevan's been telling me for weeks that he felt really strongly that the baby was going to come early but I kept thinking, "NO way!" I mean this is my first baby! But I guess the Lord, and our son, have other things in mind. I can tell that he's really cramped in there by the way he is moving. I mean, his little limbs are poking out all over the place (which is very weird and cool at the same time). And every time he moves his little feet my ribs get a good jab.
So, to bring this rambling post to a close. . .baby will be here sooner than expected so we are getting everything ready. Carseat is installed in the car and hospital bag is mostly packed and ready to go at a moments notice.

It's been a long, long time...

Wow...so it's been a while since I've updated the ol' blog...I really should get better about that, what with a baby coming and all:)

Although, to be quite honest, there has not been a whole lot going on - which is kinda sad. Especially for someone like me who is easily bored and always looking for something to do.


Bevan and I started working in the temple one Saturday a month back in August. I've really enjoyed being able to spend pretty much the entire day there - I'll miss working there once the baby comes.
Bevan got a new calling in church - a few Sunday's back. He was released from being 1st Counselor in the Young Men's program and is now serving as Ward Executive Secretary. He's looking forward to the change/challenge. And I have now become a Sunday morning widow, haha. He leaves for Bishopric meeting at 7:30am and he doesn't leave church until about 4:30pm. Oh well. Getting ready for church will be an interesting adventure once the little guy gets here...hopefully I won't get to church too late...
A few weekends ago Bevan and I took one of our last big, long trips to a Florida spring before the baby gets here (as my delievery date gets closer we're cutting back our travel so that we're never too far away from the hospital). We went to Peacock Springs and Troy Springs, which are both north of Gainsville. Eric and Alisha Famularo came along with us too. Even though I didn't swim I still had a lot of fun and took lots of really cool pictures.


My delivery date is only a short 6 weeks away - crazy! Bevan and I are going to be attending a 5-week childbirth class that starts tonight. That should be an interesting experience - for the both of us. I'm not too sure what to expect from it, aside from seeing some videos of actual births. But I'm sure it will be beneficial for the both of us once the big day comes.Me about a week ago at 32 weeks pregnant!

And I promise I will be better about updating the blog:)

Pregnant Naomi

I finally have a baby bump! Actually I've had it for a few weeks now but I'm just now getting around to posting pics of it...I know, I've been slacking:)

When we took this pic I was 20 weeks & 5 days...now I'm 22 weeks & 6 days. We're trying to take belly shots every 2 weeks or so - we actually took some new ones last night but they're still on the camera.
Bevan's parents gave us a crib that they've had for years and we set that up in the baby's room last night - that was exciting. I can't wait to start painting and decorating his room! I've decided I want to have an ocean theme. I'm going to try and paint a mural on one of the walls of a reef with turtles and fish and all kinds of other stuff...kind of like the reef on Finding Nemo. Actually, that is how I want that wall to look - like the reef that Nemo and his dad live in. Anyways, it should be a fun project. Don't worry, I'm planning on getting help with it...I don't think I trust my artistic abilities enough to attempt something like that on my own:)
The little guy is getting bigger and stronger all the time - I can feel him move a lot! I was so excited the first time I felt him move (or realized that it was him that I was feeling moving around in there). 4 months until he gets here! Gosh, that's really not that far away. . .

We're having a boy!

We found out on July 1 that we are having a little boy and I could not be more excited! I was secretly hoping that the baby was a boy:) I will say though that Bevan and I were not too surprised when the ultra-sound tech told us. We both have felt from the very beginning of my pregnancy that we would be having a boy. So. . . baby boy Bigler is doing good. He has a good, strong heart rate and is right on track as far as growth and weight are concerned - which makes us happy. Now I can start planning on how to decorate his nursery! We've already started looking at baby names. We've narrowed it down to about 4 names but won't pick one until we actually meet the little guy and see what name fits him best.