16 weeks!

I know it's been a while since we last posted a blog, so here we go again

Since Veteran's day not a lot has happened. We celebrated Thanksgiving by going to a friend's house for dinner. After Thanksgiving I worked on finishing my semester projects and ending the semester strong. My semester ended on December 12 and I have gotten 3 out of 4 grades back and they're all A's. The final one should be ready in a week or two.

This week, we had our 16 week appointment with a midwife and everything was going normally until she tried to find baby's heartbeat. Every time she got close, baby would kick the doppler machine and move away. After a few minutes, she gave up and went to get the ultrasound machine. She came back with another midwife and had her try to find it. Apparently by then the baby had gotten tired and wasn't moving around as much and she was able to find it after only a couple minutes, but she had to keep moving slightly to keep a hold on the heartbeat.

I have started to feel some movement and when the baby gets in just the right spot, Michael is able to feel it a little, too!

Our next appointment isn't until January 22, but it's the most exciting appointment (in my opinion): the ultrasound! We are planning on finding out the gender as long as the baby cooperates.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!

Veteran's Day

Well, not much has happened this week, until yesterday. Yesterday Michael was supposed to have the day off and we were going to head out to Babies'R'Us and Target to do some shopping/start the baby registry. Those plans went out the window as soon as the day started.

At 12 Am, Michael's pager goes off and he gets called in to work because a specific piece of gear went down and he needed to figure out what was wrong and fix it. By 4Am, the problem still wasn't fixed, but his supervisor told him to go home, get some sleep and be back by 10. He worked from 10-4, finally having success and fixing it. Meanwhile, I was off doing all the shopping by myself. I found a lot of things I would love to get for the baby and got myself a few maternity shirts and another pair of pants, but it just wasn't as much fun as it would have been with Michael there.

Many of you know that I get migraines from artificial scents (purfumes, etc). Well, I guess I spent a little too much time near all the smelly stuff at Babies'R'Us and Wal-mart, and by the time Michael got home I had a huge migraine on my hands. It got so bad that we ended up heading to the Tripler Emergency Room for some pain meds. They were able to give me some meds that were safe for the baby, but they made me extremely jittery and almost anxious. Before they would discharge me, they wanted to make sure the baby was doing well by checking the heartbeat. They had a hard time getting a solid read through the fetal doppler, they would find the heartbeat for a second or two, then lose it, so they decided they needed to do an ultrasound to get a firm positive that baby was doing well. We were able to see the head, body, and the little heart beating. Seeing our baby for the first time completely makes up for all the crap we went through the rest of the day.

10 Weeks

Well, I am officially 10 weeks pregnant and so far it hasn't been too bad. The morning sickness only lasted a week until I discovered that taking Prenatal Vitamins in the morning is a bad idea. They were causing the extreme nausea all day and once I started taking them at night, the nausea has all but disappeared. It still shows up occasionally, but now it's more of an annoyance than an actual problem.

My main complaint is the fatigue. No one tells you how tiring it is to grow a new human. I fall asleep at the drop of a hat now. Last week I fell asleep for about 20 minutes during my Flat Patternmaking class. Sad thing is, I didn't miss much. The teacher went through how to make the pattern for a roll collar during my nap and I woke up to her standing infront of me and my friend Caitlin, showing us the sample. Mrs. Zane gives me a concerned look and asks if I'm ok and continues to look at me funny throughout the rest of the class.

This week was our first prenatal appointment up at Tripler Army Medical Center. Unfortunately, there is nothing exciting to report. It was just a registration appointment and they didn't do anything, even listen to the baby's
heartbeat. The only thing they did was draw a ton of blood (8 vials!!) and I swear I had the worst lab tech they have. She went in at a funny angle and couldn't get a great flow, so she pumped it up and down as if she were looking for oil. My arm was sore for 2 day afterward. My next appointment is November 19 and I'm hoping ot have a much better results from it.

Between now and then is my birthday and Michael has something big planned, but he won't tell me what it is. I am not a patient person and have been trying to get him to tell me what all he has planned, but he won't. I guess I will just have to wait.

Let's try this again

Well, my first attempt at starting this blog didn't go very well, so let's start this thing again. Since our last post, a lot has happened. In February, I was finally able to join Michael in Beautiful Hawaii and start our married life together. We live in a nice house in a military housing community called Hale Moku (I'm not entirely sure what that means, but the house is pretty nice). We also found a great church here not too far from home, First Assembly of God, and started getting involved.



In March, we started attending Taekwondo classes at Oahu Taekwondo Center in Aiea and have been progressing fairly quickly through the ranks. Not a lot happened in April, but in May we celebrated Michael's 24th birthday. In June, we boarded a plane and went back to the mainland, stoppping in Washington to celebrate his sister's High School Graduation, then off to Wisconsin for our 2nd wedding reception/celebration of our marriage. The band was awesome and it was great to see people I haven't seen in a long time.



July was a rather big month with our first wedding anniversary, which we spent up at Turtle Bay Resort. It was amazing! The views up on the north shore of Oahu are breathtaking. A week later Michael was off to the mainland for 6 weeks of training in Georgia, but I was not able to join him. In Late August, I started back at school as a Fashion Technology major at Honolulu Community College. So far, I'm loving it!



Michael returned from Georgia in September and life returned to a normal routine, but with a few minor additions. We now are at church 2-3x a week rehearsing for the annual Christmas production. This year's production, titled A Baby Changes Everything, has been a lot of fun to work on. We still have a few more weeks to go before the production, but it is all coming together nicely.



A few weeks ago, after having some lab work done to check on my PCOS (PolyCystic Ovarian Syndrome) I noticed I wasn't feeling great, but I just brushed it off as stress related. The lab work came back normal (Praise God!!!), but things didn't feel normal. I went in for one more blood test and sure enough, that one was slightly abnormal. The final test I went in for was a blood pregnancy test and I am pleased to report, I am now 8 weeks pregnant with a child doctors told me I would never be able to concieve! God is Still working Miracles!!!!



So far, things seem to be going well and my first appointment is on November 4. I will try to keep this blog updated a lot better with everything related to the pregnancy and coming baby. Thank you all for your prayers and support!

Winter Fun

Well, I finally got around to posting an update. Michael arrived in Alaska late on December 13 and was able to stay through the holidays. It was nice to have some extra help with work duties, especially the dishes. (He is great with the kids, too) It was also great to be able to spend our first Christmas together in a winter wonderland. For the first couple weeks it was fairly mild weather and not too much extra snow :) We made plans to spend New Year's Eve in Anchorage and then fly up to Fairbanks to visit the Chena Hot Springs for a few days. Unfortunately, the week after Christmas, the weather got drastically colder and we went from 20* down to -30* in just a matter of days. Up in Fairbanks the temperature was between 50-60* below 0 the entire weekend we were up there. It was so cold, we decided to go into the Ice Museum to warm up. (it's kept at 20* above year round to keep the ice frozen) That Sunday, we boarded a train to take us back to Anchorage. Because it was so cold outside, the train was not allowed to go full speed (65 mph). Instead we could only go 45 mph max, turning our 10 hour train ride into 12.5-13. There were also parts of the track that constricted so much in the cold that it formed cracks between the rail segments and we had to be "walked" over the gap (we could only go about 5-10 mph over the cracks to prevent derailment) There was even one part where we ended up going onto a siding to go around a segment of track that had broken completely in the cold.

A few short days later, Michael left for sunny San Diego while I stayed in Alaska to pack and finish the last few weeks of my work duties. After three weeks of training, Michael left San Diego and headed to Honolulu, Hawaii to start work and get things ready for my arrival. Tuesday he met with housing and by Thursday he was moving into our new home!!

That last week I was busy. The movers came Monday. Tuesday I ran some errands and got my hair done. Wednesday I worked most of the day and tried to finish packing and cleaning. Thursday was Bible study in the morning and working the rest of the afternoon/evening. My last day of work was Friday and that night I went to a friend's house for dinner and we both went to a women's praise and worship night at church. At the end of the evening, the ladies all gathered around me and prayed for my trip and the new adventure waiting for me in Hawaii. It has been such a blessing to have all of them in my life these last two and a half years. After the event was over a few of us went out to a local grocery store with a little coffee shop to sit and chat for a little. I finally returned home around 1:30 am. Saturday was spent finishing my cleaning and packing and last minute errands and Sunday was my last day at my church. I was able to say "good-bye" to most of the friends I had made over the last few years and I managed not to cry in front of people. Around midnight, I said good-bye to Kat and Steve took me to the airport. 14 hours later, I landed in Honolulu and was reunited with my hubby. Now we start our new life as a married couple!