Amy's Adventures at BYU: August 23, 2020 Family Update

Hi family,

We hope everyone is doing well. Here is the last update from us before we become a family of three!

The plan is that we will be going into the hospital on Tuesday evening around 6:30 pm to begin ripening my cervix, and then they will start me on Pitocin the next morning. We are excited to meet our little girl and finally see and hold her after these many months of waiting! My parents are planning to drive out to spend a few days with us once we are discharged from the hospital (since the current policy is that I can have only one designated person with me and no visitors, although people can come look through the window from the outside of the hospital). We are excited to have them come out, and we are looking forward to having Cheryl with us starting on Labor Day weekend. We actually had a short visit from my parents this past week; they came to move my little brother Josh into his dorm room at Helaman Halls since that's a tradition they like to do when their kids start college. Josh is super excited to be a college student and we are loving all the time we get to spend with him!

After our Balaich reunion in Colorado, we spent a few days at Bear Lake with my family (4 of the 7 kids came). We had a blast and enjoyed lots of lake time, shakes, burgers and french fries, and played fun games like One Night Werewolf, Psych and What Do You Meme. That was our last big trip for the summer.

Nathan has been working on his research team every day, usually from 8 or 9 am until at least 4 pm, so he gets good hours and has stayed really busy. They even took a trip down to a power plant last week and did a lot of hands-on work there (I don't understand what they do very well - you'll have to ask him if you want more details). :) Meanwhile, I try to stay busy at home by indulging my nesting instincts and deep cleaning every random thing I can think of. Nathan has been helping me and it's been nice to get our house ready and cleaned for the new baby.

I got tested for COVID today (I'm not sick, it's just hospital policy for women to get tested before delivery), so we will be self-isolating until we check into the hospital so that I don't risk getting exposed to the virus in the interim. Hopefully even though we're stuck at home, we'll be able to do some fun things during our last few days just the two of us. :)

Nathan is signed up to take the GRE on September 26, so he will be studying for that along with looking into Chemical Engineering graduate programs that he wants to apply to. Most places have December or January as the deadline, so it will be a busy semester for him getting all those applications in, doing his classwork, and being a new dad. He is amazing and definitely up to the challenge! He takes great care of me and I know he'll do the same for our baby girl.

I think that's about all from us. We will definitely keep you all posted on how things are going in the hospital. It'll be a big week for us, so we appreciate all the prayers and positivity you can send our way! ♥

Love,

Amy and Nathan

Us on a hike we went on while at Bear Lake