Happy Birthday Miles!

Here is the long awaited birth story, only 3 weeks later (oops). Also I apologize again for TMI... I'm going to try and recount the day moment by moment. I will start by saying that it was probably the most emotionally draining day of my entire life. There were no rainbows and fluffy bunnies... It was freakin rough.
September 5th 2012
We got the call from the hospital at 11:45 pm on the 4th. The nurse told us to be there by 1:30. So we woke up got out of bed, woke the moms up, gathered the hospital bags and loaded them in the car. We took Deezul outside to pee one last time, and tried to make sure that we had everything we would need.  Thinking back, I should have eaten something. We had dinner at 6:30, but I was so worried about not making it there by 1:30 that stopping for food wasn't even in my thoughts. Lesson learned.

1:30- Arrived at Labor & Delivery. We were told we would be in room 8. The midwife took Rye and I back so we could get settled before our moms came back. We entered the room with our bags, took one last belly picture and talked while I put on the awesomely horrid gown about how excited we were and how exciting the day was going to be.

2 am- I was laid down and given my IV. The moms joined us and we settled in for a long night/day. My nurse asked to go over my birth plan with me so she knew what expectations I had.

I have ALWAYS said that the most important thing to me was a healthy baby and delivery. So while I did have a birth plan, I saw it as more of a dream list... knowing that it would be naive to think I wouldn't have to sway from it at all. Here were the basics-

• Pain med free
• Delayed cord cutting
• Skin to skin right away
• Calm lighting 
• limited monitoring 
• External monitoring preferred
• Avoid C-section

We will revisit that plan at the end of the post. 

2:20am- I had a foley bulb placed to help dilate my cervix manually. 

2:20-6ish- Contractions continued but were light enough I just had to do a little breathing. They just felt like bad menstrual cramps. We watched Princess and the frog and other movies I had packed. Riley and both our moms found places to crash out and get a few more hours of sleep. I was in and out, never fully getting to sleep. 

7AM- I was checked. The midwife said I was at 4cm still 80%. The foley bulb came out and she talked to me about breaking my water to really get things going. This is something I had wanted to avoid, but it wasn't UBER important to me. I agreed that we get the show on the road. Holy crap, that hurt. I was told it doesn't really hurt... ya well it did for me! She told me from this point on they expected me to progress approx 1 cm an hour, give or take. 

Contractions got real after my water was broken. I started having to breath and focus during these. The tiles above me had fish carved into them. So each contraction I would count the bubbles on the tiles until the contraction was over. This worked. I was able to breath through them, no big deal. 

8:30AM- Miles started showing the first signs of distress. His heart rate would drop after each contraction. I lay in the bed, trying to focus on breathing through contractions but also worrying that each contraction brought the possibility of Miles heart rate dropping again. 

10AM- Nurse made a bet with me that I would give birth before lunch and would finally be able to eat. The Midwife checked me, I had only progressed to 5cm. The worrying thing was that I had lost my focus during contractions because everyone was buzzing around trying to keep Miles out of distress. Every contraction everyone stared at the monitor. She told me that at this point if I wanted to avoid a C-section she highly recommended I get an epidural so that my body relaxed as much as possible, and hopefully would relax Miles as well. 

She left so we could talk about it. I had a meltdown. I felt like I was handling labor like a champ. I was breathing and felt like I was doing ok. I mean I wasn't singing or anything but I was doing ok. This was the one HUGE thing I had planned to avoid, and it felt like it was being ripped away from me. The second she had walked out to let us decide, my focus was COMPLETELY gone... and I was suddenly in a lot of pain with every contraction. Rye and I talked through it, I already knew my answer would be yes. I was worrying already about Miles, and would do anything to try and ensure that he not be put under any more stress than he had to. Crying and in pain I looked to Riley, tears in his eyes and a look that I don't see on his face often... He was having a tough time. I'm usually the strong one in our relationship. When things get hard, I put on a brave face. So when I am the opposite of tough, he struggles to have to sit and watch, unable to do anything about it. We had a few tear filled moments before the doc came in to stick a huge needle in my back. After having what felt like acid being injected into my back I was laid back down and put back on the monitors. 

At this point they decided that since I could not feel anything that they would put in an internal monitor so they could up my pitocin level to get things moving. The worlds most glorious nurse came in with two otter pops and let me enjoy some heaven on earth! 

10-5- My contractions continued, we continued to watch Miles HR drop drastically with every contraction. multiple times they would start to lose his HR and they would have to quickly flip me to one side or the other to try and get his HR back up. Rather than relaxing I was worried, really worried. It didn't seem normal the amount of distress he was in. I kept praying that when she came to check me at 5 that I would be close to done so we could get him out of there. At about 4 it was just Riley, Shaunci and I in the room we were talking when suddenly we lost Miles HR almost completely. I watched the horror on Rileys face as he threw himself over me to reach the nurses button to push it. not a second later we had the nurse run into our room... This was NOT turning out to be the magical event I was hoping for. At this time I was put on oxygen (I don't remember what this was for)

5PM- Midwife came in to check me. We were hoping I would at least be at an 8. She checked me, double checked with the nurse what I had been at 10, and then looked at me grimly to inform me that in 7 hours, I had not progressed at all. Normally this would not be a problem, they would just let me labor it out. But our little guy was already not doing well, So she was getting worried. He was falling into distress more often and they were worried that the cord was wrapped around his neck. She ordered that they put a catheter into my uterus to refill it with liquid so that hopefully the cord wouldn't be so tight. She told me at this point she would have to turn me over to the OB's because if I didn't progress by 7PM I would need to do a C-Section, or Miles would be in trouble. I asked for ice chips, but was denied since they all thought I'd be going in for surgery in a short time.

At this point there was a lot of praying going on. I came to the conclusion that if I had not progressed when they came back that I was supposed to have a C-Section. I had 2 hours to come to terms with this and be totally ok with this outcome. The closer the clock got to 7, the more convinced I was that the doc would come in and tell me I had not progressed. They had to take me off the pitocin during this time to try and keep Miles stable. Which meant any contractions I was having were all me. according to the monitor they were not strong enough to cause progression. Which mean I would still be at 5 cm and would be going in for a C-section. 

6pm- I started shivering uncontrollably. They took my temp, I usually run a little cold 97.4 to be exact. At this time I was up to 99

7:30PM- The doc finally rolled in to check me. He looked uneasy and asked the nurse twice what I had been at before. At this point the suspense was killing me, he looked dumbfounded. So I asked the question that everyone was thinking "Did it shrink?!" He looked at me startled and said "No, actually you are at an 8 now, and 100% effaced." WHAT?!?! we had progression!!! 

The nurse checked my monitors at this point and found that one of them was not reading correctly which is why it looked as though the contractions were not strong enough to cause progression. I felt hopeful at this point. I was almost there. And I was going to avoid surgery! My temp at this point was up at 100.4

8:45 pm- The doc came back in to check. I was 10cm and 100%... I was ready to push whenever! We started preparing to start the pushing process. My temp at this point was 101.0. They realized at this point that at some time during the day I had gotten an infection. I would need some tylenol before pushing. The nurse told me she was worried about giving it to me orally cause I would likely throw it up while pushing, and that she wanted to administer it the uhhhh other way. I quickly bartered with her that if she would allow me some ice chips that I would allow her to put tylenol where the sun don't shine. That ice was totally worth it. 

9:05PM- I started pushing, I announced to the room that I was not doing this for more than an hour, and I fully intended on giving birth by 10:05. Pushing is tough, so tough that I made myself dry heave at one point. I probably would have thrown up had I had ANYTHING in my stomach! I pushed like a freaking champ. I didn't care if I crapped on the table, I was going to get that kid out of there! Because of my temperature I was told that he would have to be checked out by the pediatricians and if he had the infection he would have to be taken to the NICU right after birth.

10:00pm- I told everyone that I only had 5 minutes on my clock left and I better get to it. The next part is kind of a blur to me. It had just been the 2 nurses in with us, but all of a sudden about 5 doctors came in followed by 13 more. Something had happened with Miles and they needed to get him out NOW. They were prepping the OR for an emergency C-Section for me but said we'd give it one last ditch effort. I was given the choice of the vacuum or the forceps. I chose the vacuum, I was told we had 3 pushes to get him out or I would be wheeled into the OR. I already had been told by the nurses that I had torn... I'd be damned if I was going to tear AND have to go in for surgery. I was going to push like crazy and I WOULD get him out in those 3 pushes

10:14PM- Almost there

10:16PM- Out popped my little cone headed alien child, cord snuggly around his neck. The cord was cut and he was walked to the other side of the room so they could check him out and make sure he was ok. 

I was in shock. And not the "Oh my gosh I'm a mom and he's amazing" kind of shock. Nope this was the "My body just went through a trauma and I am trying to cope" kind of shock. My shivering continued. I knew that my baby was a few feet away, but honestly couldn't even think about him. I felt awful. something did not feel right. I heard from the other side of the room that he was 8'4 and my mom saying something about how he received a B on his apgar (I think he got 8 out of 10). I did not feel like a champion. I felt like I was laying on the mat with Muhammad Ali prancing above my head. They started on my stitches which took nearly an hour and a half

I was told that I was going to be able to get skin to skin for a few minutes before he would be taken to the NICU, and that Rye would be able to go with him to the NICU. 

I held my baby boy on my chest, I tried to enjoy the moment... and it felt wrong to have to TRY and enjoy that moment. My shoulders were screaming in pain from hours of having to hold them in weird positions trying to keep Miles out of distress. I was shivering an abnormal amount. When I was done holding him, I let the grandma's and Shaunci get a chance. I remember watching them hold my son, and wondering what was wrong with me that I was willing to let him go when I JUST got him. 

11:30 -ish Shaunci and our moms got ready to head out, Riley was heading down to the NICU so the excitement would soon be over. Rye was told that I would be RIGHT down to my room and I would meet him there. The room emptied and soon it was just the nurse and I. She checked my temp again, it was up to 102. I kind of blacked out and when I woke back up she was hooking me back up to another bag of fluids and putting in another catheter. She told me that after my fever spiked, my blood pressure dropped from 120/70 down to 90/50 and my pulse jumped up to 130 while I was asleep. This meant the infection was worse than they thought. I would be kept in the room longer to try and get rid of it as quickly as possible. 

3AM- I was finally done with the infection, and was able to be wheeled down to my room. She opened the door and there was Riley and Miles. And all the love and affection I had some how been cheated out of came pouring out. He was amazing! I felt a wave of relief that I wasn't cold hearted right after birth.. I was just REALLY sick. Pretty much dying (do you hear my over dramatic tone there?)

I asked Rye how long they had been waiting for me. The poor guy informed me that there was another really sick baby in the NICU so he was not able to accompany Miles. They sent him to my room to wait. That was at like 12. Miles showed up 5 minutes before I did... And Rye was not given an update on either of us that entire time. All he knew was that his wife was upstairs sick, and his son was down the hall being assessed. I would have lost my freaking mind if I was him!

So if you look back up to my birth plan. I think the ONLY thing I was able to accomplish on there was that I wanted to be able to give birth vaginally.. and I only BARELY made it out with that one intact!

The Anticipation

These blog posts have been half written for the last 3 weeks... I apologize for that. they are super long and I'm sure contain too much information for most people. I'm using this more for journalistic purposes... So stay with me kids!

Thursday Aug 30~ My appt at the midwives went well, They did my only cervical check of the pregnancy. I was dilated to nearly 2cm and 50% effaced. They did a sweep HOPING it would throw me into labor in the next 24 hours so that Riley would JUST be arriving in time for the birth. My midwife wanted to set Tuesday as an induction date ONLY because Rye would be home for such a short time she wanted to make sure he was here for it. My plan this entire pregnancy was to avoid being induced and to go all natural (no drugs or interventions). The first one kind of went out the window when I learned Riley would be able to come home for my due date. In my mind the worst thing would be for Rye to be here, and STILL miss the birth of his son. OR just be here for a day after. I wanted him to have as much bonding time as possible. So I made the decision along with the midwife that being induced would be a good plan for us. I was still determined to evict this child on my own and was going to do EVERYTHING in my power to get him out before they induced me!

Friday Aug 31~ I got up early, primped, did my hair and make up and anxiously awaited 9 am so I could drive over the the Honolulu airport and pick up my husband. I hadn't seen him in 12 weeks, and instantly we fell right back where we left off. This is one of my favorite things about our relationship, there is hardly an adjustment period when he returns. My mom arrived a few hours later, after picking her up we ran over to do packet pick up for one of the 2 races Riley was going to be running on his R&R. After a few more errands we headed back home to kind of relax for the remainder of the day. The eviction process would begin first thing in the morning!

Saturday Sept 1~ We started the day and weekend with a hike up to the Mokapu'u lighthouse. We went at a normal pace... ok maybe slightly slower than my normal pace, but still not super duper slow! We only stopped a handful of times for me to catch my breath, or breath through a contraction. My mom had never done this hike so it was nice to feel like I wasn't wasting her entire trip on baby stuff... I know if I went to Hawaii on Vaca I would want to do a few fun things! The rest of the day was pretty much spent relaxing since they were both still pretty jet lagged...

Riley and my mom at the halfway point

I made it to the top! 

My mom at the top. Doesn't she look fantastic, she has lost over 40 lbs in like 6 months!

Sunday Sept 2nd~ This day started EARLY. We set alarms for 4AM and were out the door by 4:30. We arrived at the race location about 30 minutes prior to race time. Rye got his chip and lined up for the start. He had asked me a few weeks before he came back to go by him a new black running shirt, and with my Silhouette use the iron on transfer material and make him a Jaxon WILL Wynn shirt. Since as you all know, Jaxon is out of remission and back in the battle. The shirt turned out awesome... But Rye won't run in it again because I didn't get the right shirt material so this one causes nipple chafage (NO GOOD!) After the run we headed home, worked on some stuff around the house, and ended the day with a nice walk with Deezul down to the beach. My mom was still super jet lagged and ended up crashing on the couch at about 7-ish.

Monday Sept 3~DUE DATE!!! I was hoping and praying that Miles would make his debut. I wanted nothing more than to be interrupted in whatever we were doing by my water suddenly breaking (you know, movie style.) Rye and I woke up at 5 AM. The plan had been for him to go pick up his mom by himself, however after not seeing me for 12 weeks... He didn't want to leave me again (That is my explanation at least). When we got the text that his mom had landed we headed out to go get her. We picked her up and on the way back to the house we tried to get breakfast at like 5 places that weren't open either due to the time or the holiday.. So we settled for McDonalds(Lame RIGHT!) We got back to the house and all got ready for a day at North Shore. We piled in the car and drove the nice scenic route to North Shore. By the time we got up there it was lunch time. We found one of the many little shacks and grabbed some grub. The coconut macadamia nut shrimp was FANTASTIC! We ran into a family there that my mom noticed one of the daughters was wearing a Lehi High shirt, so she started a conversation. Most were from Lehi, the others were from St George (It's a small world I tell ya!) Now fed I was happy enough I could enjoy the beach. My mom and Rye went out snorkeling while Shellee and I fought the current with our rafts closer to shore. Sad to say there was NO BABY on this Labor day.

Tuesday Sept 4th~ Induction day! I was told to call the hospital at 7am and receive a time to come in and be induced. So naturally I woke up at like 5:30, took my straightener downstairs and curled my hair in the downstairs bathroom while chatting with my mom and staring at the clock. 7 rolled around and I called the hospital, I was told that I would have to wait until the afternoon and call back again. I was then asked a bunch of questions, upon my answering I was told I should come in to be checked out. So around 9 we headed over to the hospital just to be checked out and make sure that my water had not broken. We waited for a bit, were taken back, I was checked out and told I was Dilated to a good 2 and was now 80% effaced, but NOT leaking fluid. I was sent home with instructions from the midwife to call every 2 hours and see if they had a bed for me. At 7pm the nurse on call called me and asked if I wanted to be put on the middle of the night list JUST INCASE a bed became available. She told me it was highly unlikely as they were crazy busy, but that crazier things had happened. Of course! However Rye and I are very rational and knew that we would not be getting a call to go have a baby. We all went to bed after I apologized to everyone for wasting the entire day pretty much sitting on the couch WAITING for a call that never came. 8:30 we were asleep... At 11:45pm my phone rang.

UNO!

1 week left! That's it!!! I'm 39 weeks, woohoo!!!! I only have to hold on a few more days and then Rye will be able to be here for the debut of MR G. These past 2 weeks have been a lot of "Oh no is this it?!" So let's get on with it, here is the random list of stuff you probably don't care about, but It'll be nice for me to have it written down for later!

• Weight- I'm up 15 lbs from my original- yup I'm pretty awesome. This means I'm 25 up from my lowest (end of 1st tri because of sickness)
• Swelling- As long as I'm not on my feet for hours and hours at a time, I really don't swell that much!
• I get up between 2-6 times throughout the night for bathroom breaks. 
• Stretch marks- We're not going to talk about this. they are there. However the expensive stuff I have to prevent or minimize seem to be minimizing as much as possible :)
• Contractions- I didn't realize that I would be having the super fun cramps that every girl is so familiar with... As far as real contractions... I get 1 or 2 a day at this point. Some days I do have an hour or so with more, but nothing serious.
• Appetite- This is back with a vengeance since I was sick for so long I think my body felt cheated of the whole "eating for two" thing.
• Exhaustion- I cannot go a day without a nap. On top of that I have to sit down and rest after about an hour of doing anything. 
• Nesting- Yup I fully believe in the powers of nesting. Usually late at night I get this burst of energy and urge to clean everything! 
• Deezul- is needy as ever! He has been so clingy it makes me worry that I'm about to go into labor at any moment. 
• Waddle- Yup, I waddle and I'll admit it! But I waddle worse when I have to pee really bad.. other than that I do ok.
• Dreams- You should see what goes on in my mind during the night... Holy cow, it's pretty insane and messed up most nights! 

The full moon is coming up on Friday... So lets pray that the old wives tale is correct and Miles will make his debut on Friday! Stay tuned for that one! 

Crazy to think that soon I will be doing Post baby weight loss posts. I am pretty excited about the things that are to come! So here we are, my 39 week picture!

4AM Sprite Craving

For the first time in weeks yesterday I got a soda, and since it had been so long the burning was almost a new sensation. So after having the one, I decided that a 2 liter wasn't a terrible idea(keep in mind this is NOT a normal occurrence). SO GLAD I did this, because it is 4 in the morning and I woke up NEEDING a soda. I love when I crave something that is so simple to give in to! Not like my other cravings that just go unsatisfied. I have been craving ice cream for about 2 weeks now. But I don't want to be THAT pregnant girl that walks into a cold stone by myself... Even I would judge me. And last night I did finally get wings after craving them for a good 3 weeks.

Yesterday was one of those days when you have a bunch of errands to run and have to purchase a lot... and you feel like you were just out throwing money around. Not easy for me to do! however I now feel confident that I have almost everything I need for when Miles makes his debut. Rye's parents just ordered us the carseat we wanted last night so I just have to wait for that to show up, I ordered the crib yesterday. Since we are on an Island it will be here in 2-3 weeks. Which is totally fine since for the first few weeks he'll be in our room (ONLY until he is sleeping 4 hours at a time... that's the plan). My mom is making all the nursery bedding and the curtains (SO excited for that. My mom can sew!) We picked out the material when I was in Utah, and I kind of explained what I was thinking, showed her a few pictures and she ran with it. I can't wait to get that here so I can put up a gabillion pictures!

Have I said yet that I am grateful that it is August! So much happens this month. Including our 6th anniversary. Of course we will end this month with Rye getting to come home for a very short trip to see his favorite girl, and so we can welcome our little guy here together. He'll only be here for 2 weeks, then he will return to finish his deployment. But I am beyond grateful that they are allowing him to be here.

Well now that my sierra mist is nearly gone, I'm going to try and get another hour of sleep before getting up for the first day of preschool.

32 Weeks :)

So here is my 2 week update, I understand that I didn't update for 30 weeks, but I DID get pictures taken so I didn't do my typical against the wall pic.

Here is my bullet list of random pregnancy crap :)

• None of my regular shirts fit. When I wear one late at night while working on projects I'm rocking the "White Trash Belly" as Rye calls it.
• My magic stretch mark stuff ran out... So yes I have fallen victim (I have to go get some more, and SOON!)
• Deezul doesn't hate my belly QUITE as much.
• Deezul is NOT a fan of noisy baby toys
• Running was starting to cause pain. However I talked to the midwife, and she explained what it was and that I just needed to wear my stupid pregnancy support belt... Very well.
• Nesting has kicked in, I'm working on about a billion projects for the nursery trying to get them all done!
• Morning sickness has been threatening return this week, Let's hope it changes it's mind!
• I have to go do the 3 hour Gestational Diabetes test in the morning, So I have to finish eating to start my fast in an hour (BOOO)
• This kid is running out of growing room, I can feel when I wake up and can tell that he hit a growth spurt over night.
• Miles is in a position that puts strain on my nerve, so at times my right leg goes numb (makes sleeping oh so fun!)
• Heartburn is out of control (thank goodness for chocolate milk)
• No swelling still (I've been careful to control this as best I can)
• I've decided that pregnant women use FAR more toilet paper because of decreased bladder size (Thank goodness for costco!)

Alright so here's my 32 week picture, I feel pretty big, we will have to wait and see how much more I can grow within the next 8 weeks :)

Running out of Time

I haven't blogged lately cause I was out of town, so this will be my little catch up.

There is not enough time left until Miles gets here. I have a list about a mile long of projects that need to be done... So luckily I am working less hours right now and should hopefully be able to complete a lot of them.

I'm home from my trip (THANK GOODNESS!). It was so nice to see so many friends and all my family, but at the same time, It's easier to adjust to Riley being deployed when you are home and can get into a routine.

The wedding in Northern California was absolutely GORGEOUS, I feel so incredibly blessed that I was able to be there for it, and was able to capture the moments for Kaitlyn and Daniel. I flew in on Wednesday, and until Sunday (the day after the wedding) we went non-stop. So while I was planning on finding a church building and going, I crashed ALL DAY! my feet were swollen at that point (not terribly but enough that I knew to put my feet up for a day). I did nothing but sleep the entire day, It was exactly what my body needed!

I flew out the next morning and headed to Utah. The turbulence was so awful that when I finally got off the plane I had to find a bathroom and puke (fun start to a trip). My mom picked me up and we went straight to Joann fabric and found the fabrics I want to use for the nursery.

My week was filled with good food, lots of loved ones harassing my belly, more smiles and laughter than I can count, and a very sweaty Sav (seriously 100 degrees pretty much the whole week).

I was able to meet BOTH of my newest nephews that I hadn't been able to see yet. Rafe who is now 9 months old. Seriously this kid is fantastic! I may have accidentally let him smash his head about 30 seconds into our first meeting, but I guess he forgave me because he pretty much loves me! He's not a fan of laying still while you change his diaper though... it must feel like such a vulnerable position to be placed in though, I'd probably thrash and wiggle the whole time too. Teagan, who is now 6 months is freakin adorable! He has little michelin man rolls all down his arms and legs and is wearing 12 month clothes already! He was such a happy and content baby the whole shower. He just sat wherever you put him and just giggled. Seriously I absolutely LOVE all 4 of my nephews, and cannot wait to supply them all with a cousin to play with, Especially Rafe and Teagan who will be close in age with Miles.

I was able to get Maternity pictures done. and CANNOT wait to see them. We were losing light quickly, and didn't get too many shots in, but from what I saw already they are fantastic. We drove the Alpine loop through AF canyon (most gorgeous drive ever!). It made me sad though, I had never driven the whole loop without Riley. We have SOOO many memories in that canyon, and it was so nice to drive through and remember what an amazing place it is.

Saturday was a CRAZY day! We started the day out early, for the AF canyon 5k. I had a big group there doing it with me, My mom, Dad, Stepmom, Father in Law, Lauren and Candace. I was worried some might back out, but no one did!

My father in law and Lauren stayed with me for the 3 miles, Lauren took off about a half mile from the finish (GO HER!) while I had to slow down cause I had a pain that I wasn't sure if it was normal or baby related, so I walked. Curt stayed with me the whole time and we finished together running across the finish! I was the only one that had ever done a race, and I think they were all pretty proud of themselves! My father in law even mentioned to Riley that he would think about training for a half marathon, Riley's response to me about it "And so it begins!"

I will update with pregnancy stats when I get my maternity pictures from Lauren OR sunday or monday I'll take a quick 31 week shot. but until then, here are just a few from the race :)

Oh Oh Oh! The best part of the whole story, So at packet pick up they couldn't find my number. They had my packet, just could not locate my number. So they gave me the run around and sent me to like 3 different tables before FINALLY assigning me a new number. However they didn't have anymore green numbers, Green = 5k Blue = Half marathon. So I was given a blue number, no big deal. The morning of the race, they kept making a big deal about how we were at the 5k start, and if you had a blue number "YOU MISSED IT!" I just let them continue to point stares at me and think I was stupid. But as I crossed the finish line they handed me a finishers medal. I thought nothing of it, I've done plenty of races where the 5k and half-ers all get finisher medals. It wasn't until later that I realized that no one else that ran the 5k had a medal... They saw my blue number and assumed. You know what they say about assuming :)

The "Incident"

Very few times in my life have I been so upset in my life. If we are friends on Facebook than you probably saw something regarding me getting in a wreck, Well HERE is the story.

I was home getting Deezul stuff together for his stay at the puppy resort, I loaded everything in the car. accidentally FORGOT the keys inside, so while I grabbed them I also grabbed my NSYNC CD to listen to in the car. I started the car, and waited for the car to drive up the street, only to realized they were only inching along and they pulled into a house before mine anyway.

All settled in we rolled down the windows for Dee's enjoyment and enjoyed the awesomeness of "bye bye bye"... we pulled up to the 1st stop light and the Marines in the golf cart next to us clearly enjoyed my music choice...

Driving past the mini mart on base I was going 5 under the speed limit cause there are a lot of pedestrian's and cross walks. I pass the last crosswalk and am about to pass the last little turn in area for the mini mart I'm basically ENTERING the opening... The idiot coming the other way decides to try and stomp on the gas to beat me through the intersection. I slam on the brakes (instantly getting the worst charlie horse of my life), Deezul flies forward into the dash, and the front right bumper slams into his back passenger side.

He stops in the parking lot he so badly needed to speed into, I pull into the next little inlet and breath. Poor Deezul is so shaken up he immediately starts gagging and throwing up. I console him for a sec and make sure he's ok other than being freaked the eff out. I get my ID and the vehicle papers and head over to assess the situation.

The douche gets out, gets pissed about his car... doesn't even BOTHER to ask if I'm ok, or ya know... apologize... he just stands there staring at his car (keep in mind this man is clearly older than me and you would think he would have taken at least some responsibility for the situation) I make sure that he is ok, and then call the police on base to report the incident. They show up after what seems like forever, and for the first time someone asks ME how i'm doing. Until that moment I hadn't even thought about myself, my first instinct when it happened was to secure Deezul so he wouldn't be hurt, AFTER I was worried that Dee was upset and possibly injured, Then I was worried that this man who had caused the whole thing might be hurt. But after thinking about it... I felt fine. I still had a pretty wicked charlie horse, but overall didn't hurt anywhere.

I informed the officers that I felt fine, They immediately called an ambulance (In case I wasn't embarrassed about the situation enough already). They tell me that because I'm so far along pregnant I have to get checked out (no argument from me).

The Douche then recounts his harrowing tale of what HE thinks happens. "Oh, Uh well I was waiting to turn, and really didn't want to wait and she was further back, she was just going A LOT faster than I thought" to which I replied "I was going 5 UNDER the speed limit before I slammed on my brakes" (Insert his embarrassed face here). They go through a million questions and determine that HE was at fault (no duh). The ambulance shows up and the circus begins.

They come over and try to get me to lay down (keep in mind i've been standing perfectly fine this whole time). They then determine I am not completely broken and ask a series of questions about my pregnancy... They then take my blood pressure and asked how it compares to my normal... it was right on par. They ask if my stomach hurts at ALL... no. After 5 minutes they decide that I am ok and do not need to ride in the ambulance. The one guy seems convinced I'm perfectly fine and calls it in... He's then informed that because I am nearly 7 months pregnant, I HAVE to go to the hospital and get checked out. He tells me and makes me promise to go, I tell him I will call labor and delivery and see what they want me to do. satisfied he leaves.

We stand outside for eternity in the HOT sun filling out paperwork (I have an awesome sunburn to prove it.

I finally get to leave and continue to take Deezul to the puppy resort. He's shaken up and doesn't seem as elated to be in the car anymore. After, I call labor and delivery and inform them of the situation. They flip out and insist I come in immediately.

I have an emotional breakdown. My husband JUST left, so now I'm heading into the hospital 7 months pregnant and alone. I'm upset, at the entire situation. If I hadn't left the keys, if I HADN'T gotten the CD, if I hadn't waited for the car I had. If the light had been green... If Deezul threw a fit and we didn't get to leave at the exact second we did.... I would have missed this entire thing.

I then spend the rest of the evening in labor and delivery. I was hooked up to the fetal monitoring for hours while they tracked his heart rate (perfect) they took 9 or 10 vials of blood to test for pretty much everything (perfect), they did an ultrasound to make sure my placenta hadn't ruptured and that Miles had plenty of fluid (way perfect!), They had the contraction tracker thing on me... to monitor my LACK of contractions (perfect), they got out the awesome pap smear tools and checked all that fun stuff (perfect)... They start talking about how the trauma to my stomach bla bla bla... there was NO trauma to my stomach, yet no one would listen. The seatbelt didn't even hit against it. Even with all the tests proving what my instincts had already told me, they were apprehensive (which is their job)

Needless to say it was a LOOOONG night, I was finally released and drove home to FINALLY pack. Miles has been kicking like crazy, which is oh so reassuring. Had that crash been ANY worse, things could have ended a lot differently. I am grateful for the way things did turn out. And it was nice to get to listen to Miles heartbeat for a few hours... it's a comforting sound :)

28 Weeks

I was about to take my picture and wasn't expecting to see any change at all... I have felt like I haven't really grown in the last 4 weeks.... well I have.

So here's whats going on with only 10-12 weeks left... wow that sounds crazy, that is all I have left with this pregnancy.

• I developed an awful cold overnight last night... and even though my midwife told me that taking nyquil once or twice wouldn't do any harm... I regretted taking any about 10 minutes after... It was probably one of the worst nights of my life. I woke up at LEAST once an hour dying of thirst, worst cotton mouth I have ever had. By the end of the night I was convinced that we needed to head to the hospital... So glad I am past that
• Morning sickness is officially GONE!!!! (knock on wood) It only took nearly 7 months, but I am not longer sick.
• Miles makes my stomach move so much it looks like a water bed... It's a little creepy (in an AWESOME way)
• Miles likes Soul music
• I am gaining weight steadily

So here are the 28 week pictures. These sadly are the last pictures that Rye will be taking... from here on out, it's just me and my tripod. Oh and the pictures that I will be doing with Lauren in Utah.

Oh speaking of pictures... guess who got a new lens for her camera... THIS GIRL! I am pretty freaking excited. I cannot wait to use it at the wedding this next weekend. 

Ok, here we go! Oh and keep in mind I am EXTREMELY miserably sick, I have been trying to fight this cold with every type of superfood I could... Here's to hoping that I will feel better in the morning!

Ugh 3 Hour Test Here I Come

So I took the 1 hour glucose test, and assumed all would be well and normal. I eat healthy and exercise so I figured I wouldn't have any problems!

However at my midwife appointment yesterday they said my levels for glucose was 140, which is THE LINE for having to do the 3 hour test. So now I have to do the 3 hour Glucose screening to find out about gestational diabetes.

IF I have it, which I don't think I do, but time will tell. I would be ok with that. It would be the first hiccup in this amazing journey, and would simply require being careful about food choices(which I already am)...

So on top of everything going on in the next handful of days I have to find time to fast for 12 hours and then sit on a bench at the lab on base and wait.............. sometimes I wish there were more time... This being one of those times.

Stubborn Child

I awoke this morning excited! The day had arrived that I would get to see Miles in 3D. I remember my sister in law getting her 3D ultrasound with Jaxon, And It was crazy how he ACTUALLY looked like his ultrasound picture.

We had planned on leaving base by 7:30AM to make it to Aiea by 8am. I made the mistake of not protesting when Riley took the keys to drive. I always forget how stressed I get when he drives and we have to be somewhere, you know Church, Dr appts, The dolphin show at the sea life park. We are on base driving the 2 miles from our house to the front gate, he is driving 5 under... took us 6 minutes with no red lights and no traffic to make it to the front gate. THEN he needed me to run inside and grab him a drink. Surprisingly we were only 6 minutes late to our appt.

I laid on the table, ready to see my little guys face... and here is all I got.

For seriously 30 minutes, we poked and poked trying to get him to move his dang hands! No dice, We moved me from side to side, poked him had me stand up and wiggle. Finally she had me stand at the end of the bed and bend over and just stand there for a good 3 minutes... And then we had a little more luck.

So without further ado, here is my stubborn child.

Ya, he just needs to fatten up for about 13 more weeks and then he is all mine to squish!

He was getting really irritated at all the poking and started punching and kicking really freaking hard! And then he would make this pissed look... Not the cutest face but it was funny only cause he would make it every time we would poke him.

He's still definitely a boy! Thank goodness, after all the prep work we have done it would be hard to make the switch from a room filled with boy stuff, to a room of girl stuff...

After the ultrasound we headed to home depot to get the stuff for a DIY diaper sprayer for Miles room. That will make doing cloth diapering a real option for me. Then we tried out this pub & pizza place downtown. I bought a groupon from them a month or two ago, So lunch cost us nothing, and was pretty good. And I don't know why but my legs are KILLING me today. It feels like I had charlie horses all night and am recovering today. So I was more than grateful to be home and be able to put my feet up. I'm now chillin in Rye's home gym while he works out and Deezul stands at the top of the staircase staring down like there is someone or something there... He's too weird.

So that's pretty much it for today! Till next time!

My Cloth Diaper Stash(so far)

So the other night I was in Miles' room organizing and going through clothes, just trying to consolidate all the gift bags and shopping bags into a few bins. I then decided to organize my diapers on my changing table as much as possible before I get the containers I need for the table.

So I brought my whole stash onto the ground with me to do a quick inventory of what I have, and then put them away in a somewhat clean looking way. Holy cow... I have a lot more than I thought I did. 

I've been only buying diapers when they are on a really good sale online. Because of that, I have been able to keep my cost very low, and get a variety of brands to try out! This being said, let me just show you the magnitude of how many I really have. 

Ya when my last 2 arrive today in the mail I will have 31 total... And my total cost thus far has been $300. I'm pretty proud, especially since I have 12 BumGenius 4.0's that I only paid $140 for, they usually cost $203 for that many. 

Anyway, another post to come VERY shortly, we have our big 3D ultrasound this morning. It's about 2 weeks sooner than I originally planned on getting it done, but we wanted Riley to be able to be there. I'm excited to see the little guy and get to kind of see what he actually looks like! 

Memorial Day Weekend & 26 Weeks

Let's smash a few posts all into one, shall we. p.s. I'm halfway through writing this and it's long... I am SO sorry... I will add pictures, I promise!

Memorial Day weekend! To a military family there are few words that bring more happiness than "Ninety-Six"meaning a 96 hour weekend or 4-day weekend... I mean obviously leave, liberty, homecoming all top it. But few others ignite the same excitement as this one. This will be our last 96 together for a while so we wanted to make sure it was lived to the fullest. I went into work on the Monday before and just thought I would double check and make sure that I ACTUALLY had that Friday off work. I normally only work Mon-Thurs, but with events and other things at work, it seems like at least 2-3 Fridays a month I end up working for some reason. My boss informed me that we had a staff meeting that day at like noon, so I would need to come in just for a bit. There are only 4 girls total in my office, and we all get along great so I have no problem with staff meetings. I was just a little bummed that I had to work while Riley would be off.

Friday morning arrived and I had my long weekend to-do list ready to go! I was accounting for an hour- 1 1/2 TOPS for the meeting and had a list a mile long of things that had to get done with Rye getting ready to leave so soon. We went out and got breakfast and then headed back home to get started. Riley asked (very nicely I might add) that we spend a little time that morning trying to organize the garage. See when we moved in, Riley left the next day. I did not want to live with boxes surrounding me, so I gladly left everything that was not an essential out in the garage to wait for his return. We started a little after 9 with pandora blaring through the house from my phone hooked up to our sound system. Propped the inside garage door open so Deezul could wander in and out, and got to work. I let Rye know that I HAD to stop at 11 to shower for my work meeting. We powered through for 2 hours, 11 o'clock hit... I tried to quit and go shower, but somehow Rye convinced me to just go a few minutes longer, cause we were almost at a good stopping point. 11:20 hit and I started stressing and told him we were done and had to shower. I hurried and showered, got dressed, and then sat and waited on the couch for Rye to get dressed to drive me to my meeting. He took his sweet time.. as usual. The entire drive over I was probably telling him how late I was and how I said I would be there at 11:30 and I really hope they weren't irritated with me... bla. bla. bla.

He dropped me off with a kiss and said he'd see me in an hour, and I headed inside.

Little did I know that the girls in my office had planned a surprise baby shower and invited all of my preschooler's and their mama's to it. Since I teach a "mommy and me" preschool, I know all the mom's very well. we have all become pretty good friends over the past year. Almost all of them are moving to new duty stations over the summer and I am EXTREMELY sad about this. After preschool graduation, chances are slim that I will ever see them again. It was so sweet of these girls to want to come together and celebrate with me. A lot of them have known me since pregnancy number 1. And one of them has known me since right before the fertility treatment started. She shared in my anxiousness of the testing, The joy of knowing that we were both "normal enough to procreate", The excitement of getting pregnant... The tragedy of losing that baby, and then returning the next week to a classroom full of small kids. She stood there when mom's would make ignorant comments about how I shouldn't try for kids, and I should be grateful I didn't have any yet... and then she would quietly "tell them off" in the most polite way, and make it very clear that was not a subject that should be discussed in preschool. I am going to miss her.

Wow, sorry I got a little side tracked. Any-who, The baby shower was amazing. I seriously have some amazing people in my life. It's nice to be reminded occasionally that people actually DO care about me more than I think they do. I found out that Riley had been in on this whole thing and had been secretly texting one of the girls at my work all week about it. I never caught on!

After that we headed over to the barracks to pick up 2 of the guys before going to check out some deals at pearl harbor. If you remember right, I worked enough overtime hours while Riley was in California to get me a mac (to replace my 2nd or 3rd broken laptop in 2 years, seriously I am convinced that pc's are not made to last.) I also worked enough to be able to get Rye a tablet. We had been discussing a few different brands, but when I went to purchase my mac the guy was selling us on all the cool ways you can "share" with an iPad and mac... We both then decided that an iPad would be best, but Rye wanted to wait until memorial day to see if they had any good deals. I gave him crap ALL month saying that it's apple and wouldn't have a big "sale"... He shut me right up. The iPad 3 was recently released. Which means that the iPad 2 is MUCH cheaper than it was just a few weeks ago when I wanted to make the purchase. While at pearl harbor we checked them out and ended up getting him one for $100 cheaper than it had been a week prior. It felt good to finally make a long awaited and planned out purchase... but it was still hard swiping the card for that amount of money. So now we are both cool kids with Apple products :)

Saturday- I told Rye we HAD to complete some of our to-do list that was neglected due to a super long baby shower I had not planned on when making our weekend schedule. Our good friend Jon joined us that day for our adventure of registering for a baby. We first stopped at a running store for Riley to pick up his packet for his half marathon. Then hurried over to babies-R-us to get registering over with. 2 1/2 hours later we were just about done. That store is intimidating. Being a first time mom, you may have an idea of what you think you need... but let's get real here... I don't know what I'm doing (Shhh don't tell anyone). While at BRU we were looking through the strollers and realized that they had brought in a shipment of the Bob strollers. They usually only sell them online, I got an e-mail earlier in the week that they were having a blowout sale on "last year's model" seriously they were more than $100 off. I was ECSTATIC! usually you have to order online and HOPE they ship to Hawaii.. I told Rye that we might be making yet another big purchase cause it was just to great to pass up! He then gave me the whole "we JUST spent a lot of money last night, maybe if we hadn't bought the iPad we could get that". So at that point I'm feeling like a terrible mother for spending money before seeing this awesome deal. He tells me he thinks they will have them all weekend and we will think about it and most likely be coming back for one before the weekend is over. We head home where I work on extracting music and pictures from my broken laptops hard drive and move them to an external hard drive. Rye leaves to go with one of the guys to get a car part, and leaves me with Jon at the house... telling me he'll only be gone for a little bit.

3 hours later I'm starting to worry just a bit. I text him, and get a reply that the boys wanted food and that he would be home in just a min. An hour later I'm in the kitchen doing dishes and in rolls a Bob stroller with 3 of the guys with it. Apparently they had been planning on going in together and buying me this stroller for months and Rye tipped them off about the sale. I was completely stunned and shocked. I'm not a screeching girl when it comes to surprises... I mostly feel humbled when I am surprised by something like this. I turn bright red and usually just stand there in complete awe of the situation. Wondering what I have done to deserve such amazing people in my life. So I hope the boys were not disappointed in my reaction. It seriously was the most unexpected and possibly one of the sweetest things anyone has ever done for me in my life. Grateful is the only word I can use to describe my feelings on the entire thing!

Sunday morning 3:30 am, I get out of bed and make breakfast for Rye who I let sleep in till 4. We were on the road by 4:20 and parked in Honolulu by 4:50. Race was set to start at 5:30 Rye did a quick warm up and right before heading over to the start line told me that breakfast was a bad idea... and he should not have eaten what he did... I felt awful hoping that he would still hit his goal of a new personal record.

The lights of the lead car starting out.

Rye in the first group of the pack, This included half marathon, 10k and 5 mile runners. So some took off faster than others.

And here he comes!

Kind of an awkward picture. But him just after he finished.

 So Riley had a goal of shaving over 12 minutes off his previous best time. He didn't hit that, however he DID shave nearly 5 minutes off (which is still amazing!) He began telling me how he did everything wrong. He changed up his entire routine, from dinner the night before (normally a pizza carb load) to breakfast the morning of (usually we have something light, like a smoothie... NOT a massive egg sandwich) This next picture is his "I'm really disappointed that I didn't hit my goal" face... He at first wanted me to delete this picture... but it says too much about the post race "regret" that can happen after you have a race that just didn't go right.

 Don't feel sorry for him. If you zoom in on this picture you will see that he still placed number 53 overall for the half marathon, out of 850-something runners. Poor Rye. 6 months ago his only goal was to be in the top 100, He destroyed that! He told me later that he had been fighting "The Wall" the ENTIRE race. Anyone that is a runner knows how dreaded "the wall" is, and can imagine how bad it would suck to run 13.1 miles while fighting the wall the entire time. Not fun.

So we then went home, I at this point was feeling like I was coming down with something. It felt like the flu, with the body aches and the stuffiness. I was PRAYING it was not the flu. But decided to play it safe and let the girl in nursery with me know that I would not be at church. I seriously spent the entire day doing nothing but pretty much sleeping.

And by Monday morning I felt fine! I am not sure if it was a small version of the flu that has been going around, OR if it was just from a complete lack of sleep.. either way I was glad to be back to normal!

Monday we decided we were head up to north shore, and then stop by Costco on our way home for some more bottled water. We went to Waimea Bay beach, got in the water and not a minute later Riley had already spotted a huge sea turtle only a few feet away from us feeding on the coral. After a good hour in the water we made our way back into shore. Not more than 3 minutes after hitting shore did we hear a couple talking about the dolphins. We looked out and spotted (MAYBE 20 feet from where we had just been swimming) 20 spinner dolphins playing and jumping. We spent the next hour just simply enjoying the show of these amazing creatures "playing". For lunch we drove into Halewia for some mexican food at the only decent Mexican place on the island. Cholo's. By this time, Rye (who turned down my 50spf sunscreen at the beach) was pretty red! We decided it was time to start back towards home. Only to find out that costco is closed on Memorial day, So stopping there was a complete waste of time!

And that was pretty much our entire 96 in a nutshell... I'm getting freaking tired so I am going to hurry and wrap this up with my 26 week update!

I am no longer sick..well maybe 2 days out of 2 weeks, which is a HUGE improvement! like I said before I would gladly throw up everyday for the whole nine months for this kiddo. However I am grateful that I may get some relief for the last 3 months.

He kicks constantly, which I love... grow baby grow!

I'm knocking things over with my belly now, even though I feel huge I don't feel THAT big... whoops.

back pain is getting worse by the day.

I believe I am up 1 lb from my starting weight! but after my insatiable appetite today, It's probably a bit higher. Overall I am still doing ok gaining wise, and am trying to make the healthiest choices when possible.

So here is my 26 week picture! This is one of my new maternity dresses that I ordered. I think they are both adorable and I'm in love! I feel huge but don't know if I look much bigger than I did 2 weeks ago... Who knows. However this is the first picture I have taken in the morning time. I'm usually quite a lot bigger by the evening.

Cloth Diapering

Yea, you read that right... I'm a weirdo.

I have had interest in cloth diapering since probably around the time we started trying for kids (2007). However at the time I knew nothing. I assumed I would have to go through a diapering service to do such a thing and then would it REALLY be cost efficient to cloth diaper. I'm not really the "go green" type, So it has to prove worth while money wise for me to make a "green" decision. Riley shot that idea down right away, said it was gross and he wouldn't do it and bla bla bla. So I dropped it, for a while.

Nearly 2 years ago my friend from middle/high school gave birth to twin girls. To save money (A LOT of money) she decided to cloth diaper. I've been reading her blog since she was pregnant, and it made me want to look more into the modern cloth diapering options. I would read her blog posts about using cloth and would root for her when she was having a tough time, and get so excited when she would post a tips or stash post. So that I could see first hand what was and wasn't working for someone that I knew personally, not some stranger on the Internet getting paid to do a review.

When I first found out I was pregnant back in August I mentioned to Rye that I was still thinking about cloth diapering. Went over a few of the options on HOW to do it, and then gave him the price rundown. If we potty train at 2 1/2 years (I could be dreaming) then for the 30 months IN diapers it would cost between $40-$72 a month for diapers which adds up to $1200-$2160 spent in diapers alone. However I can build an AMAZING cloth diaper stash for well under $400 and then be set for and children we have. Laying out the numbers for him was ALL it took and he was game. So I started my research and felt SO unprepared and under educated. I spent hours upon hours reading or watching reviews. We had a deal that we wouldn't buy ANYTHING baby until I was 12 weeks (which didn't happen). After my mourning period I got back into the game (fertility appts and such) and decided I should still try to gain as much cloth diapering knowledge as I could before I became pregnant again.

So here I am, 6 months pregnant and feeling ready for the challenge. I want to say I have 20-ish diapers and so far my cost is at $200. I've been watching the online sales and every time one strikes I buy 2-3 diapers. I am hoping to have a stash around 30 diapers (plus a stash for newborn) Which means I'm almost there, then I only have to worry about the newborn stash. I'm holding out for a big purchase of the "best of the best" I keep hoping they will go on sale, but if not I have an amazon gift card waiting in the wings ready to help me make the cloth diaper purchase I am most excited about.

Riley will be installing our diaper sprayer either this weekend or next, Cause I want to make sure it's done before he leaves. He also has to move OUR washer and dryer into the new house and move the ones that belong in housing out to the garage. We bought our fancy front loaders 3 years ago and it has the sanitize setting on it (which was another reason Rye decided to go along with this). Rye has been a champ about this, the man has never changed a diaper in his life, and yet is is totally game to do cloth diapering. I am hoping that when he gets home from deployment he will follow through and learn how to change diapers like a pro, I'm sure he's so looking forward to that.

I'll take pictures and post my "stash" in the nearish future. It'll be interesting to see how well it works vs my expectations of the entire thing. Overall though, I am excited. The money we don't spend on diapers can go towards other things (you know like race entry fees)... Speaking of, Rye has a half marathon this weekend, so I will be blogging about that this next week!

24 Weeks

I have been meaning to blog for the past week about SOOO many things. But with Riley being home (and with our days together dwindling) I have been focused on the more important things in life. So since it is early in the morning and Rye is out for a nice long run I will attempt to catch up on a few blog posts.

24 Weeks


If you go by the 4-week increments I am 6 months pregnant... I don't think I am quite counting it like that. I real have about 12 more days till I'm REALLY 6 months pregnant. But Riley is definitely taking advantage of the 6 month or more parking spot.

It seems strange to me that I am so far along. People (some that I am not super fond of) are starting to ask the "How much longer?!" question. Do people not understand that just because you are poking out, it does not mean your water may break at any second. I was walking in church from sacrament to nursery, and Miles had just kicked in a very awkward spot. I had my hand on my stomach and someone stops and asks me if I'm having a contraction.... um no, I sure hope not. I have a few months left.

Here is the random bullet list of pregnancy crap pertaining to the last 2 weeks!

• Miles can be felt kicking from the outside. And a few times I have been able to watch my stomach jump, that is a pretty cool thing.
• He kicked my bladder so hard and fast during church the other day I had NO warning and almost peed a little. 
• Still feeling Nasues but I have not puked in over a week now! Although yesterday almost ruined that.
• I HAVE to sleep with a pillow between my legs now or the pain is so bad I wake up more times than I already do. 
• At my big ultrasound almost 2 weeks ago he was measuring at 1 lb 1 oz, So I know he is much bigger at this point... probably pushing 2 lbs soon.
• My skin is STARTING to get a little itchy. So I'm even more careful about using my skin care stuff.
• I am still down 1 pound from my starting weight... which means after losing 10 from morning sickness I have gained 9. With approx 15 weeks to go, I am ok with this :)
• I am still running. I ran a 5k about a week ago, and my Midwife cleared me to run the 5k in Utah next month. She just suggested I take it slow due to the altitude change. 
• Still not really craving much... Or I am and I just know that just because I'm pregnant doesn't mean I can eat anything... So I am TRYING very hard to replace my cravings with a healthier option. Guava has been a constant... I can't get enough of the guava smoothies at jamba.
• Miles is a fan of the blues. Rye didn't believe me until we were in a little coffee shop waiting for our sandwiches and listening to this extremely talented guy sing the blues, and Miles went CRAZY. 
• I'm still doing everything I would normally do. We started unpacking the house and hanging things up, and of course I was up on the little ladder placing things where I wanted them on the wall. I still do any and all chores (I have no choice, he's deploying very soon, I don't really get the chance to milk this pregnancy) However, my belly is making reaching the faucet on the sink a little bit more difficult now... Oh the plights of a short girl. 
• My back aches, ALL the time. I'm starting to be able to control it a little bit more. 

I could seriously go on and on with this list but I'll spare you all. So here is my 24 week pictures, as you can see we have upgrade from the painters tape on the wall. We have unpacked enough that there is now enough things on the wall to help the camera focus. And for the next few weeks Rye is home and able to take the picture for me!

Halftime!

I made it! I am over the halfway hump. I'm in the second half of my 40 weeks of pregnancy.

I have been dreading this week since September, when I miscarried. I was originally due this last week. I thought it was going to be extremely hard. It wasn't! I think that was due to a few different things, Including the fact that this week Miles started kicking, A LOT! I've been so ecstatic and just cherishing every moment that I have with Miles that I haven't found myself dwelling on what this week would have brought us.

So here is my big halftime stats update!

Weight: I was originally down 10lbs, as of this morning I am now only down 7lbs... So -7... not bad for halfway. My midwife says i should be up 20 in the end, which means i have about 17 lbs left to go at this point.. we'll see how that pans out!

Morning Sickness: Still going strong on this one. I don't puke everyday anymore... it's down to every other day at this point.

Cravings: Still not many cravings... this week I've been craving chocolate a little more than normal, but it's easy to curb that with just a little chocolate milk. It's an awesome substitute for something that is not super great for you. Rice is still the only thing that has remained a "staple" I don't really crave it, but it's a safe bet for when i'm not feeling so great!

Clothes: I don't really fit into almost any of my normal clothes... So I'm mostly in maternity clothes now. I still don't feel like I look pregnant on the everyday, everyone pretty much just looks at me with judgmental eyes.

Riley will be home soon-ish and we will get hard at work on the nursery... I just have to try to convince him to paint the nursery for me... He's not so keen on the idea right now, so wish me luck on this one!

This morning I was laying in bed with Deezul, he was snoring away so I grabbed the laptop to look up some preschool stuff. So I'm laying in bed, chilling on pinterest, listening to Dee's snores, when all of a sudden... My laptop moved.... yup. Miles kicked hard enough to cause movement outside :)

Alright in case you care enough (or you're Riley and and are checking up to see how i'm doing from far away) Here is the halfway picture

20 Weeks

I feel pretty big :) I don't know if I look any bigger than I did on my 18 week pictures... I don't know, I'll have to compare.

Happy halfway!!!

Holy Cow!

I am SO glad that this last week is over! It was a nightmare, and after all is said and done, all I can do is take a break and put my feet up. Here is the complete break down to the big move.

Day 1: Went to pick up the moving truck, got back to our house, Kyle helped Rye fill the truck with all the really heavy stuff. I ordered pizza and we cheered to a happy occasion.

Day 2:
6:45- left base in the full moving truck to try and find the weigh station (to get reimbursed we had to weigh any and all truck loads)
7:20- Pull over in tears, Tell Rye over the phone how frustrated I am, completely lost and running behind schedule
7:30- Weigh the truck
8- pick up keys to the house (find out the AC is broken.... rest of week is spent unloading heavy things into a house that is 85 degrees)
8:30-Have to be at work to teach preschool
noon-Rye picks me up, I find out he emptied the truck. We take it back to the house and attempt to fill it on our own. Kyle stops by and helps. Boys then find out they have to be to work at 3 for a formation. (truck must be returned by 4:30)
2:30- Take truck to get weighed.
3-I start to unload truck alone while Rye is at work.
3:30- I pull something in my growing stomach and cannot lift another heavy thing.
5-Riley gets home, realized i did not empty as much of the truck as he was hoping (his frustration starts)
5:15- I tell him he is putting a damper on the mood and needs to get out of his bad mood
5:16-I'm told I AM the reason for his bad mood, and he just found out he is leaving for __ weeks in the morning.
5:16:30- Hormonal tears start flowing.
15 minutes of silence
5:31-6-Riley wants to know where the heck the cheesecake I promised is. We go pick up said cheesecake
6-7-Unload the truck of pretty much everything
7:10- Riley asks me to help him move furniture
7:11-7:15- I go on a mini rampage wondering WHY none of the Marines are at our house unloading furniture and why the HECK the pregnant woman is left to do it.
7:16-Rye admits he never texted any of the guys. Cause it's their last night before they all leave.(big mistake)
7:17-8:30- Unloading furniture while Hormonal fit #2 kicks in. Upset with husband for not asking, and EVERYONE else for not offering when they KNEW what we were doing.
8:30- Kyle shows up to move dresser upstairs.

Day 3- Entire day is spent finding all of Rye's gear, and getting it all packed. He has to report in the early afternoon but doesn't leave till extremely late. evening is spent in the car waiting for him to depart, eating dinner and then falling asleep in the back while Jon sleeps in the drivers seat.

Day 4- Meeting at Pearl Harbor in the morning, Internet guy shows up right after that. I take the day to rest due to hurting myself on day 2.

Day 5 &6 -  is spent on back and forth trips from the old to new house. With car loads of the "little stuff. as well as cleaning.

Day 7(today)- Woke up at 5am, headed to the old place to finish the last few things. Then headed to work. Got a call at work from the AC guy wanting to come look at it. Left work, headed home... 2 hours later he tells me he HAS the new unit but i have to call and reschedule another day for them to come install it. Hormonal watery eyes follow. I return the keys to our old house, and get myself a freaking BANANA SPLIT.

Seriously, I have never been so exhausted in my life. I am dehydrated and thus retaining water like crazy. I feel huge all around (not happy about that) plus the heat makes me feel all sticky and nasty. my ankles/feet/hands/ wrists are so swollen...

And despite ALL that, i decided to man up and just take my 18 week pictures... UGH. I have lovely moving hair, I threw on some mascara and eyeliner for ya. even put a shirt on over my tank top(with this heat i probably sweat through it before these were taken.

Hopefully by next time i will look better. HA.

Without Riley here, i have to use my tripod, and therefor must put something on these boring white walls for the camera to focus on so i can use the self timer... Ugh having a boy to do this is SO much easier.

Seriously, it's freakin HOT in this house! Like i said, not feeling very attractive this week... I think tomorrow i should actually get ready, since i don't have moving crap to do before work... maybe you'll get better pictures tomorrow... cause these are NOT the 18 week ones i want to look at forever. I'm downing the water right now, just praying that i will quit retaining a bit.