Happy New Year

Because I am exhausted and would rather be doing ANYTHING but cleaning and packing. And we don't have pictures yet...

How far along: 36 weeks!

Maternity clothes? Yep. But even the jeans are not so comfortable anymore.

Stretch marks? A few on my tummy. I can't see them unless I perform incredible pregnant acrobatics... And I know you don't want to see that. I have some on my legs too.

Sleep: Its all I want to do.

Best moment this week: Reaching 36 weeks. And getting a move-in date for our new house.

Movement: He is hurting me. He has his feet in my ribs and I can feel him drag them across my tummy. He also gets the hiccups a lot and I can feel those too!

Food cravings: Dr. Pepper still. Otter pops. Gatorade.

Gender: Still a boy I hope. I just took off the tags and washed all his clothes through 3 months!

Labor signs: Lots of Braxton Hicks. Mostly 10-25 minutes apart. They're starting to hurt and its hard to breathe when I get them. It feels like he dropped too.

Belly button in or out? Out and its so ugly! I can't wait for it to go back in.

What I miss: Sleeping on my tummy and being able to bend over.

What I am looking forward to: Moving and having this baby!

Weekly wisdom: Its mostly advice for myself... STOP PUTTING STUFF OFF. You'll regret it!

Milestones: I'm finally in my 9th month. And I guess he can be considered full term now.

We're moving!

Zach and I went to the housing office today after calling and calling for 2 weeks without being able to reach anyone. Luckily we went in because I guess they had a wrong phone number for us and had been calling us for a few days. When we got there we asked about our application and the girl told us they had something available for us on the 26th of January. I freaked out a little bit but we told her we had to move in before that because of my due date and she was able to shuffle some stuff around and find us a place we could move into after the 8th. So we went and signed a few papers and made an appointment to sign our lease and walk through our new place. We're moving in anytime after January 11! It is such a relief to have that taken care of, and to know that we won't be scrambling to extend our lease or find something else. Hopefully the move goes smoothly and Nathan waits a little longer to come out so we have time to get everything ready. Right now we have a feeling that he might try to make his debut a little early. I've been having a lot of nausea and the braxton hicks contractions are starting to hurt and come a lot more frequently. Bean has also dropped a little bit, and I'm definitely feeling like he might come any time now. Zach is convinced he's coming in the next week or so. I'm just praying he stays in until after we get the keys to the new place since we have a lot to do to get ready for the move.

I have some pictures to put up, and some more to write about, but tonight I am absolutely exhausted so you'll have to wait a little while for those. I hope everyone had fun over Christmas!

I have pictures (:

This picture is from 31 weeks and 2 days!

The rest of these are from 33 weeks and 1 day!

From the front...

And a bare belly picture because I'm so happy I got this far without stretch marks all over! I'm just waiting until the morning I wake up with a road map on my tummy (:

8 Weeks to go!

Hey everyone! Its been a little bit since I have updated and I am trying to be a little better at this updating thing. I have a few pictures to post, but I'm going to have to wait until Zach gets home to put those up since I'm updating from his computer (thanks to the stupid virus that ruined my computer). We'll take a new one tonight and post it along with whatever I have that you haven't seen (:

Last week we had a little bit of a scare and early on Thanksgiving morning Zach and I had to go into labor and delivery. I had been up all night (an unfortunate new hobby of mine...) and around 3:45 had noticed some braxton hicks contractions that just kept coming. I drank water, laid on my left side and went to the bathroom but they just kept coming. After I had 8 I decided to call and the nurses in L&D told me I should come in to be checked, so we went. We got there around 5:30 and they hooked me up to the monitors and had me drink lots of water while they made sure everything was ok. After about 30 minutes of being on the monitors they did a quick internal exam to make sure I wasn't actually progressing and they sent us home with instructions to come back if they became painful or my water broke. Luckily everything was fine though.

Today I went in today for my 32 week checkup and got my test results from the blood work I had done at 28 weeks and everything was fine. I asked about the position of the baby since he was breech at all the ultrasounds I have had so far, and when I should start to worry about it. The dr checked to see if she could feel him and figure out what his position was. She poked around and told me that as far as she could tell he was head down. I was happy to hear that since I have been worried that he wouldn't turn. Hopefully he stays that way and doesn't turn himself back upright, but we'll see. If he hasn't turned by my next appointment at 36 weeks then we'll start talking about other options to get him ready. The dr also told me the results from my last ultrasound, that he looks great and measured in the 77th percentile that week! I can't believe he's so big! He should be measuring about 4 lbs right now, but if he is still up there in the 77th percentile he might be a little bigger than that. Hopefully he doesn't get too big! I'm so happy to know that everything is going well in there though.

I'll post later tonight or tomorrow with some more pictures! We love and miss you all!

10 weeks to go!

Hello everyone! Sorry it has been so long since I've updated. When we got home from Ohio Zach and I were exhausted from making the drive in only 2 days and we were both still trying to fight off a cold or something. Ever since we got back I have just been exhausted and my body doesn't want to adjust to a normal sleep schedule. Unfortunately thanks to my shrinking bladder and heartburn that seems to be triggered by every. single. food. I am finding it harder and harder to sleep through the night, and I get my best sleeping done after Zach has left for work and I can take over the whole bed. This results in me sleeping almost the entire day and getting absolutely nothing done. This weekend Zach and I helped out at a friend's garage sale and we got up around 6:30 on Saturday and I made it to 4 and then napped for about an hour. We went to bed early that night and I got up around 9:30 Sunday. Hopefully I can keep up with this trend, because its so much easier. I won't be surprised if I fall back into sleeping all day though, I'm just as tired as I was in my first trimester... Maybe even more so. 

I had my glucose tolerance test a few days after we got home from Ohio. Surprisingly, aside from how bored we were sitting there for an hour, it wasn't so bad. The drink was like a melted popsicle or one of those little hugs drinks. It made me a little nauseous, but nothing horrible. We were just so bored because I had to wait an hour between drinking the glucola and having my blood drawn. My numbers were fine though, and we aren't worried about gestational diabetes. The next week was my 28 week appointment and I made a mistake about the time and showed up almost 30 minutes late so I had to reschedule for the next week. I swear I am absolutely losing my mind because I was so completely sure that my appointment was at 10:45, but it had been scheduled for 10:20. So when I finally got in for my appointment I mentioned how I had called in October about being exposed to 5th disease and was curious about what I should do because it can be dangerous if you contract it during your pregnancy. The dr. seemed to have no clue what I was talking about. She ended up having me go downstairs to the lab and give them some blood to see if I had been exposed to it before and had me schedule another ultrasound to make sure everything was OK with the baby. Last Monday we had the ultrasound and although we haven't heard the results of the bloodwork yet the ultrasound tech told us everything looks great with the baby and I'm "on track to having a 7 or 8 pound baby!" Now I'm not so sure about the 8 lbs idea, but I'm thankful to know he is doing ok in there. He was so active that it took her twice as long as normal to get his measurements, and he actually had his feet up over his head with his legs in front of his face. We got some pictures, but they are so blurry from him moving around that its hard to tell what is what! He has some pretty big feet, and he was 3 lbs 1 oz when she measured him! 

So everything is looking good with the baby so far! It feels like its flying by so fast! I can't believe I am less than 10 weeks away from my due date and we'll be meeting him soon!! Zach and I decided we are going to move when our lease is up. We have talked about it for a while and been back and forth with our decision many times, but we finally went to the base housing office and turned in our application. We'll be hearing back in the next few weeks what they have available and hopefully we'll be able to move in about mid-January. It is really close to my due date, which is why we changed our minds about it so much, but after getting home with all the baby stuff and setting up the crib and carseat/stroller we decided we would ALL be much better off if we got a bigger place where we all can have enough room. I think thats about all I have for now. Hopefully when Zach gets home I can get him to take a new belly picture to post on here! 

We love and miss you all!

Belly Pictures!

Here's a belly picture from when Zach and I were in Ohio. I think I was about 25 weeks in this picture...

This is a picture from the Marine Corps Ball. I was around 27 weeks.

And here is one from the side (:

Thats all I have right now. I went to the Dr. today and everything looks fine. I'll post a real update tomorrow!

OHIO!

So we made it home to Ohio on Sunday and have just been relaxing and enjoying it so far. We have lots of plans to see family and friends but if anyone else out there wants to get together just let me know! We'll be here for another week and a half (:

How far along: 24 weeks

Maternity clothes? Yep. All the time. I just got a whole bunch of new ones yesterday at the mall with Karen (: I can still wear some of my shirts and sweatpants though.

Stretch marks? A few. None on my belly though. Zach has been rubbing cream on my belly at night though.

Sleep: Surprisingly I'm back on a much normal sleep schedule. I've been waking up before noon every day.

Best moment this week: Coming home and seeing everyone!

Movement: I'm feeling  a lot more on the outside. And seeing a lot more on the outside.

Food cravings: Cici's Pizza and cake

Gender: Boy

Labor signs: None

Belly button in or out? Its totally starting to pop out ):

What I miss: Sushi. Being able to wear my wedding rings every day. 

What I am looking forward to: Going to the football game Friday, seeing my family this weekend and eating baby shower cake.

Weekly wisdom: I got nothin

Milestones: As of this week Bean has a higher chance of surviving outside of my belly if (God forbid) he is born early.

21 weeks and some change!

How far along: 21 weeks and 4 (?) days

Maternity clothes? I can wear a lot of my old shirts, and some of my old pants/shorts if I rubberband the button... Its a stretch with the pants though. I like my fatty pants though. They are super comfy (: And the shirts make my belly look bigger!

Stretch marks? Not yet. Thank God!

Sleep: I sleep really late during the day because I'm having trouble sleeping at night and getting to sleep at bedtime.

Best moment this week: Watching my tummy move with the baby

Movement: Plenty (:

Food cravings: Dr. Pepper, FaveREDS starburst. I'm getting really exciting for the food we get to eat in Ohio though!

Gender: Its a boy!

Labor signs: Nope. I have had some BH but nothing serious. Hopefully it stays that way.

Belly button in or out? In. But Zach doesn't miss a chance to tell me it is changing. He says he can see the bottom of it. Booo!

What I miss: Feeling good. And not being tired, nauseous, headachey. And sushi. 

What I am looking forward to: Baby-wise: Getting bigger. Life-wise: Going home for a few weeks!

Weekly wisdom: The naval hospital is a pain in the butt.

Milestones: I'm past the halfway mark! He's growing so fast!

I've been pestering Zach to take a new belly picture, so I'll get him to do that and post a new picture up here by tomorrow night! 2 weeks until we are on our way home!!!

This thing!

So before I get into my little update let me say that this thing is so confusing! If you notice, I changed my background-layout thing and I swear to you it took me over an hour. Its not like I actually made it myself either. I found a website that has super adorable background-layouts and all I had to do was copy and paste the code into a box like the directions told me. Still took me over an hour. And don't even ask me how long it takes me to post pictures. My last update with the 4 DIFFERENT PICTURES took me almost 20 minutes. There are some things that don't mesh well with me and technology is one of them. I'm lost when it comes to this stuff! 

BUT! I have another update for you all. Jaws are probably dropping as you all read this. THREE updates in one week? And PICTURES too? It must be a mistake. No. Its not. And here's another picture to prove it! Hopefully this is a sign of good things to come (:

There he is! (And he's still a he!) This picture was taken yesterday at my ultrasound. Let me say: this boy LOVES the camera. He let the tech get all of her measurements and was great about showing EVERYTHING off. He had his little legs wide open and kept on flashing his goods so he could be sure we knew. He gave us some adorable little poses and waved his arms and legs arounda ton! Everything looks great! He's growing so much. They couldn't measure his length this visit, but the tech estimated him to be about 11 oz and she said he was probably about the size of a banana. She also told me I have an anterior placenta (its between my tummy and the baby) so the placenta is absorbing a bunch of kicks, but I am absolutely still feeling plenty! Over the past few days Zach has been able to feel them too, which I think makes him a little more excited about the baby. Up until now it has been a little hard to believe that I was actually pregnant, but now with my growing belly and the kicky little guy who has taken up residence in there, there is no doubt for either of us!

So everything is going well and I can't wait to come home for a while. I've been counting down all summer long! Its so hot and dry here. It will defnitely be a nice change to see some clouds and rain. I'm praying that I'll have to wear pants and a jacket. I never in my life thought I would feel that way...! We'll have lots of pictures and hopefully plenty of belly to show you all when we're home! Let me know if you want to get together while we're in town! I would love to see as many people as possible!

<3

Pictures!

Here is the first picture we took! I think its around 5 weeks or so?

And another at about 12 weeks!

This one is from 19 weeks!

And here is the most recent picture! 20 weeks, taken last night. (Sorry about the shadow!)

20 weeks!

As of this week I am halfway through! I can't believe it has already been 20 weeks, and that I still have 20 to go! I feel like it won't be that long and at the same time I feel like it will be the longest weeks of my life! Luckily we'll be on our way home in about 3 weeks, and we'll be in Ohio in almost 4. I can't wait to see everyone and to get in some nice (hopefully) cool, rainy Ohio weather (:

I know I said I would update this more often, but I'm still pretty sick usually. I still want to sleep a lot, although I am having more difficulty getting to sleep at night. It probably has to do with the fact that nighttime is the time when our little bean is the most active. He gets really crazy from about 11 until 3. We're finally feeling kicks on the outside and I'm getting plenty of punches on the inside too. Last night I was laying awake and he was kicking around and I felt 2 really strong kicks that I was SURE Zach would be able to feel so I yelled at him and woke him up and sure enough he felt a few big ones too! I was so excited I couldn't sleep for another 45 minutes.

I have an ultrasound tomorrow at the hospital so they can check him out and make sure he's growing like he should be. If we hadn't gone elsewhere for the gender ultrasound we would be finding out the gender, and hopefully the only gender thing we hear is that he is (still) a boy!

I have a belly picture to post on here but I'm not sure how to work my laptop with the digital camera so I'll save that for later tonight when Zach gets home from work. I'm finally sporting a little bit of a baby belly instead of looking like I ate too much cake and I am VERY excited to share that with everyone! I'm definitely not fitting into my clothes anymore, which is more depressing than I expected, but I'm just so happy to be showing that I don't care if I have to buy new clothes!

Thats about all I can think of for now. Hopefully I'll start feeling better soon so the drive home won't be so miserable. And I can update this thing more often!

<3

Updates...

I really need to get better at updating this! I promise to start writing at least once a week (:

SO. Zach was in the field from when I was about 15w until I was 16w. And we had talked about finding out the sex and whether or not we wanted to wait until the u/s at the hospital or if we wanted to have an elective u/s at a facility near where we live. The Saturday after Zach came home I woke up and told him I really wanted to call the place and find out when they had appointments available because I just couldn't wait! So we called and made an appointment for that night at 8:15. We had planned to go up to the mall near the u/s place and find some new jeans (mine don't fit me anymore!) and have dinner before we went to have the u/s, but the minute I set foot into the mall I started feeling really sick (there are so many smells in the mall) and so we ended up just driving around and eating pretzels until my appointment time. Zach was being really great about everything, but I felt horrible. We drove to the u/s place a little early so I could use the restroom and walk around a little bit before my appointment and when I got out of the car I felt much better. When it was time for our u/s we went into a room with a HUGE screen taking up the entire wall and got to see the bean on the big screen while the tech tried to find the goods. This baby is ALL leg. Seriously, I didn't think it was possible to have such long legs when you're so little! When the tech. found what she was looking for, I think Zach knew before she even said anything... bean was a boy! He had been telling me the whole time that he thought it was a boy and he was right! Needless to say we were both pleased! Zach gets a little boy and I (finally) get to start shopping for little blue and green onesies! 

The next Monday I had a dr appointment and Zach ended up having a surprise day off work. I was planning on going to my appointment alone and letting him get some sleep, but I was having (another) sick day so Zach had to get ready and drive me to my appointment. Everything went well, I'm gaining the weight back that I lost in the first trimester, which is good! And we got to hear bean's heart. After the dr finished they sent me downstairs to have a few vials of blood drawn for the Quad Screen test and then I went and scheduled my big u/s with radiology. Unfortunately the time they want me to come in to have the u/s done conflicts with work for Zach ): Luckily I'll get pictures to bring him! And we got to find out bean's gender early, so he won't be missing out on that!

All in all everything is going well. I still want to sleep all the time. And I am still dealing with a lot of nausea and vomiting, but I'm not losing any weight. I'm still on the medicine to help with that, but sometimes there's nothing I can do about it. Hopefully it lets up soon... I'm ready to feel good again!

We're planning to come home in October. We're driving because we have to bring Max with us, so we'll be leaving at the end of September and making a stop at the family reunion in Tennessee. Then after that we'll be heading up to Cincinnati for a few weeks!! I am so excited I cannot wait! I have a lot of stuff to do between now and then, but I'll do anything to get to come home. I really miss having my family and friends around, and California is too hot and dry!

Well, thats all I have for now. I'll update again soon (: We miss and love you all!

15 weeks

I thought I should update everyone on what has been happening since our first appointment a few weeks ago, since it seems like a lot has been going on! 

I last saw the Dr. at 12w 4d and we got to see the baby, hear the heartbeat and found out that everything with bean looked good! Which was great news because I had been having some horrible morning sickness and lots of trouble getting food in my tummy and keeping it there. Well it turns out that between my registration appt and my first OB appointment (a period of about 4 and a half weeks) I had lost almost 10 lbs. and because of this the Dr. gave me a prescription for Zofran to help out and give me some relief. After I got on the Zofran I noticed a big change and was able to eat and get up and do things around the house, which has been such a help! 

So for a few weeks I was taking my Zofran and everything was looking up until I came to the last few tabs last Friday and needed a refill. I call the hospital and find out that I can't refill my prescription until Aug. 12 and somewhere between the Dr. and the pharmacy my prescription got messed up and they only gave me 15 of the 30 tabs I was supposed to have. Ugh! So I just decided to wait it out and try some OTC nausea meds the Dr. recommended. 

After we rounded up everything and I gave them all a try I realized that I had no choice but to wait until Monday morning and call the Dr. I had a particularly rough weekend and I was getting to the point where I could barely get in and out of bed or change my clothes without getting sick and I started to notice a pain in my right side/back. After trying all day Sunday to eat and rest, I woke up around 6 from a nap and the pain in my side had gotten worse and I couldn't get out of bed without getting sick. I told Zach what I was feeling and decided that I needed to go to the ER. So he helped me change my clothes and got me ready to go and we left around 6:45. 

After I got checked in we had to wait around for a triage nurse to assess me, and I was asked to give a urine sample and they drew a couple of vials of blood and sent me back out to the waiting room. After they finally had a room open up they put me in a bed and hooked me up to an IV for fluids and nausea medicine, and took another vial of blood. The Dr. came in and explained that he wanted to do an ultrasound to check the baby and to look at my gallbladder, liver and kidney to make sure everything looked OK. 

The baby was kicking and swimming around in there, thankfully, and was completley oblivious to what was happening on the outside. So he went ahead and checked my guts out, which he said looked fine. After he finished up the ultrasound he left to check out my labs and make sure everything else checked out and then he came back and reminded me to drink lots of water and advised us to come back if the pain got any worse, I experienced any bleeding, or if I became unable to tolerate any kind of food or drink. He then sent us on our way with a new prescription for Zofran and some tylenol. 

So after being back on the Zofran for a few days I have noticed a big difference (again). I had a bad day yesterday, and had some vomiting early and lots of all day nausea, which made eating and feeling good for the rest of the day impossible, but so far everything looks ok. 

That pretty much brings it all up to date. I have another OB appointment on August 17, and I believe I will be scheduling the BIG ultrasound for sometime around 2o weeks! Hopefully we won't have to wait much longer... We're getting very antsy! 

I'll try to keep updating on a more regular basis, and I'll post a belly picture up here soon... I'm finally starting to look a little pregnant and not just a little chubby (: 

How far along: 15 weeks

Maternity clothes? I'm still in my normal clothes. I can't button my jeans anymore though, so that belly band has been saving my life! I bought my first maternity article of clothing last night though!!

Stretch marks? Not on my belly yet. On my chest though.

Sleep: I sleep as often as I can! 

Best moment this week: Seeing bean on the surprise u/s and starting to feel some flutters!

Movement: I just started to feel some flutters and things I think might be the bean!!

Food cravings: Panera last night. Dill Havarti. Not much.

Gender: Unknown ):

Labor signs: NO!

Belly button in or out? In. And its pretty far in, I would be surprised if it popped out all the way

What I miss: Not throwing up. Being able to stand/sneeze/laugh without the stretchy pain!

What I am looking forward to: Finding out the gender! And feeling more movement

Weekly wisdom: Drink lots and lots of water. And not to push it.

Milestones: Flutters? Its kind of a quiet time for now. I think we can find out the gender anytime now though.

It's a BABY!

This is our first post, but I figured I would start off with something good... It's a baby! With tiny little legs and arms and the biggest head ever! But wonderful regardless. We just got home from my first OB appointment about an hour ago, and I'm still in shock. I can't believe there's a baby in there! It's unbelievable. I'm just so excited! It's such a relief to finally see and hear everything! We'll mail some pictures as soon as we can get copies made. Here's a picture of one of the pictures though. We love and miss you guys! Enjoy (: