Her room is getting pretty!!

So I finally got her crib cleared out and put her bedding set up. The pattern that we picked out is Lambs and Ivy "Sweet as a Daisy". It is pretty purple and green with butterflies, lady bugs, and daisies. Here is her crib with the mobile attached. I don't have the sheets on yet because I still have to wash them. I also have to tie on the bumper and fluff the bed skirt but I will do that once we take the mattress out of the plastic. Here is the mobile. The pink blanket in the background was a gift from Susan, who is the wife of Brad's XO on the boat. She is a fabulous quilter; she made the blanket out of a pretty Hawaiian fabric and fuzzy purple fur. The dogs love it so it has their seal of approval. Now I just have to make sure that they know this is a baby blanket and not a puppy blanket. Here is a close up of the comforter. This is the side of the crib showing the bumper on top, then the mattress in the plastic, then the crib skirt.
More to come later...

Nope - not today!!!

Brad did not get his wish of having a Leap Day Baby but he will get the Leap Year Baby. My dr's appt went okay today. I am 3 cm and still 60% effaced. She is still head down and in position. Any day now as I am now 7 days from my due date. I am hoping that she will come early or on time and not decide she really likes it in there and wait it out until they force her out.

Anyway, Happy Leap Day to all those whose birthday was today!!!

Big Belly Pics

Okay, so are you wondering what is happening with the baby??? We are doing fine. Nope, she is not her yet and yup, I am getting much bigger. I thought I would grace this lovely blog with some updated pictures. I did forget to take some pictures so it is a pretty big leap from Week 31 and Week 32 to Week 37 and Week 38. What can you do when you are this preggo and your hubby is never around??? I thought I would start holding my belly for some reason, I think my thought was the week 37 shirt is a non maternity shirt so it doesn't fit real well for this sort of shot.Anyway, I did not think that missing those weeks would really make that big of a difference but as Brad told me last night, "You got a big ole' belly lady". For those who are wondering if my belly button has dissapeared, the answer is yes. I will not be posting the pictures of it because I think it is just gross and weird looking. I just hope it goes back to normal after she pops out.

I had a dr's appt last Wed, 2/20, and found out that I was 2 cms dilated, 60% efaced and she is at -2. My next appointment is tomorrow morning so we will see if I have made any progress. I hope that I have because I have been having Braxton Hicks contractions pretty regularly. But who knows. I will have a Leap Day update because Brad really want's her to make her debut tommorrow. I don't think that will happen but we will see.

She has a room!!

So here are some pictures of the nursery as we have worked on getting it ready for the little one's arrival. This is before we started clearing things into the attic.
Can you find the little rascal in this picture??? The dogs love their resting place in this room. We will see how this will work after kiddo comes. Once we got the room cleared out we brought up the dresser that was my grandmothers for all her little clothes. Then we built the crib that Grandma and Grandpa Staha bought for us (rather for their granddaughter). Yes, I know that she is going to have a hard time sleeping there with all that stuff in the crib with her. I will have to find a place for it once we get the changing table put together and get her clothes in the dresser.

Here is Brad putting together the changing table. In the background, you can see everything piled into the crib to give us some working room. And yes, that is a TV on the dresser. No, it will not stay in the room for her to watch, but this room will serve as our guest room so we left it in here for them. It will eventually go into the office once we get a place to put it in that room.

Here is the changing table all put together. I have to find some storage baskets to put on the shelves to hold all the stuff. I found some great ones online, but we can't have them shipped for some reason so I have to look on the island for some that will work.

More pictures to come of the bedding set and the rest of her nursery. I will also post pics of the stroller and play yard.

Brad's 1st Underway

Brad recently went on his first at-sea ride on the USS Columbus (as in, Ohio; Brad's regular boat is the USS Columbia, as in South Carolina/Missouri/Illinois). His boat wanted him to get some experience on a working boat while his submarine is in the shipyard being fixed up. The USS Columbus has recently come out of the shipyard receiving the same upgrades as Brad's boat is receiving right now. He went along for a two week ride so that he could get his engineering qualifications completed. Here are some pictures of the day he left and then when he came back.Here we are early in the morning dropping Brad off at the pier. The big black thing with the yellow crane in front is the sail of the submarine. Luckily my sister had just come in to visit us so I did not have to go through this for the first time alone while eight months pregnant and very emotional. Here she is with her brother-in-law before he went in to the big briney deep. You can see more of the sail in the background. After we dropped him off, Missy and I went off to see Hawaii and do touristy things. We headed back to Pearl Harbor in the afternoon to see his boat actually leave for the underway.
Here is the boat from the other side of the harbor. It is kind of hard to see but the submarine is in the middle of the picture with what looks to be a crane coming out of the sail. The sail is the big black thing that sticks out of the water when the boat is surfaced. It is the place that the periscope comes out and also it is the place that people come out to look out when they are on the surface. Missy and I went over to Hickam Air Force Base to the officer's club to watch the boat actually leave the harbor. I can't tell you how magnificant of a sight this really is. The anticipation is killer because the boat was delayed and there was not really a good place to see since they were doing construction. But when they actually pulled by it was a pretty awesome sight. There was a police escort because it is pretty hard to see in the water. The police also did not want us taking any pictures so this was as close as I could get. There were a few sailors standing up in the sail waving to us. No, Brad was not one of them. He did get to be one of them on a trip back into the harbor during the deployment but I was not there to capture the sight.
Here is a little closer on once the boat had passed. It was such a sight against the sunset. There were a few other wives that were out there with us as we watched them leave. Not as many as I thought there would be but this was a short underway.
We watched them for a long while. The two boats on the side of the submarine are the police escorts. I am not sure how far out they escorted the submarine because we left once we could not see the boat anymore.

We both survived the time apart. Since my sister was in town, it was a little easier because I did not come home to an empty house right away. We had lots of activities planned to keep my mind off of separation. After a few days, my sister left and I still had some activities planned to keep me busy. I also recovered from her visit by just chilling out on the couch. By the time I started to miss Brad, he sent me an email. We were able to communicate via email quite a bit. I had sent some letters that I had prewritten him to help him get through the time, but I did not expect any communication back from him so this was a nice surprise. He also was able to call me one evening while they were surfaced. We only had a few more days left apart when I received another call from him. He was back in port for a few hours if I wanted to come see him. Heck yeah, I hopped in the car and headed down. FYI - this is definately not the norm, so please don't expect that this is the kind of communication I will receive in future outings. I was actually prepared not to hear from him at all for the time he was away. We will see how much communication we get to have on future trips. Anyway, the time flew by and before I knew it he was back in port ready to be picked up. Well, so I thought. Here is the boat at the pier. This is a little better picture where you can see the whole submarine. Okay you can only see the very top part of it, but there are not many people that get to see the whole boat unless it is in the shipyard drydock like Brad's boat is. We actually got to see the USS Columbia in its entirity but unfortunately they would not let me take pictures of it. There is a whole lot of boat that you are not really seeing. You are just seeing the roof top to compare to a multi-story building. I picked Brad up from his first underway and we finally got home around 9pm. I am very happy to have him home for now. He will not be going out again until after the baby comes. The next time will be harder but we will survive and learn to cherish the time we have when Brad is at home.

Vow Renewal Pictures

We finally received the pictures from our Anniversary Vow Renewal Ceremony. Here we are at Waialae Beach Park, a free place that is pretty remote and hidden from the general public. We did not have any crowds of people to worry about getting in our pictures.

This is the minister who performed our ceremony.

This is the minister and his wife singing a Hawaiian song for us as an added bonus to our ceremony.

Here we are receiving the Hawaiian blessing.

We then took some cool pictures of the two of us on the beach. The water is really cold, if you were wondering. It is about 11:00 in the morning, too.


This is my favorite family picture so far. I wanted to capture this moment forever.

4D Ultrasound - 32 Weeks

We had a 4D ultrasound yesterday. It was so very cool. It was like having a little window into my belly watching our little one. I can now stop wondering what she is doing in there. Here are a few pics. Here is what we first saw and the way most of her movie debut went. For some reason she is playing with her toes and resting her foot on top of her head. She was very obstinate and would not move her hand or foot away from her face so we could get a good look at her. So the technician had me get up and shake her to try and move her around. Yes, I was told to shake my baby. I did the "Twist" dance move with ultrasound goo on my belly. Quite an interesting experience. She did move her limbs for a little while.

Here she is posing for us. You would think that by her right eye would be her right hand but I think it is still her foot.
There is a smile at the camera. "Okay I will be good and give you some pretty pictures of me even though I am all squished up in here with nothing but my toes to play with."
" Mmmm, speaking of my toes, yummy toes." We watched her grab her toes and shove all 5 of them into her mouth. I am not sure what this means when she is born so we will have to see. I am glad we live in Hawaii because I have a feeling it is going to be hard to keep socks on her little feet.
Here is a great picture that the technician cleaned up for us. This was the most amazing experience. She did doctor the photo up a little bit by removing the placenta and the umbilical cord that was blocking some of her face. We watched as she spun the image around every dimension and removed the shadows and extra stuff in the way of the picture.
So here is a clue that we have a smart and sassy baby coming into our lives. Here is the Hawaiian Shakra hand position that she is throwing to the camera. I think we will have to get a baby surf board for this one.
The technician gave us some information on how she was doing. She said that there is a lot of fluid in her little sac, which is a good thing. The baby is laying head down on my left side facing my back. We got some pictures with her squishing her nose up against the wall so she is not really using all of her space very well. She is cuddling up against my back. She has both hands and feet up by her head. Lastly she is definitely still a girl. I can't wait to see her in real life but for now this is the next best thing. We will see how much she plays with her feet as she grows.

I am 32 weeks now so we are about 2 months away but in reality she can come in as little as one month. She is definitely getting heavier. My walking is definitely a waddle and I am having some difficulty breathing at times. She is still moving around like crazy.

I have a baby shower to go to today for a friend who is due a few days after me. Her husband is on the boat with Brad. It has been nice having her around because we compare what is going on each week. She is having a boy. It was kind of funny when we found out what we were having; we each were hoping for the opposite of what we are having. Funny how life works out. We both are very happy with what we are having. It will be a match made in heaven and we now have built in play dates. It is very comforting to know that someone else is going to be going through exactly what I am at the exact same time, especially once they are born. Yes, I know that there are babies born each day but none more close to us than this. Now we just have to see who will be born first.

Alright, I have to go do laundry so I have something to wear today.

Update - I know you have been waiting for them

So I have been remiss in my blogging since we moved into the house. There are many excuses that I can give but I won't. I will just pick up where I left off.

31 Weeks -

I have definitely grown over this pregnancy. Here are some pictures that I have taken. I have not taken pictures each week like I had wanted, but you can still see the progress. I have kept my weight gain to a minimum but I have a feeling that I will start to gain weight pretty rapidly in the last few weeks of this journey.

So the front view has not changed too much from what I can tell. Yes, I did grow out of the striped shirt. It was not a maternity shirt so I am amazed it lasted as long as it did.
Here is the side view and yes there is some major change seen here.
Here is a picture of my belly. The shirt I am wearing did not really show the true size of the baby incubator. Yup, there is a place to rest a plate, and yes, the belly has gotten in the way a lot. I have a nice bruise on my ribs from where I tried to dodge the belly and hit my side instead. I can only imagine how much bigger it is going to get.

I had a dr's appt on Monday that went really well. I am measuring right on track and baby is about 3 1/2 to 4 pounds. She is sitting head down and on my left side. She is definitely a hula dancer because she is moving pretty much all the time. I feel these really weird rolling sensations and sometimes she kicks so hard I think she is making a break for it through my getting-to-be-non-existent belly button. You know you are blessed to be a baby incubator when you lose your belly button. Brad has been making fun of this fun pregnancy trait for a few weeks now. It is really weird looking and I really hope that it returns to the nice inny that it was before. The baby had hiccups a few days ago. Truly a neat but weird experience. I can understand why people get annoyed with them when they happen. It is really a rhythmic thumping that is not as hard as a kick and definitely not as random. They did not last too long, but I have read that they can occur pretty regularly and for long periods of time. I can't believe that I only have about 8 weeks left.

We did the labor and delivery tour at the hospital. We saw the rooms baby will be born in and then the rooms that we will stay in for the duration of our stay in the hospital. Very nice and very large. Some of these rooms are big enough to have about 20 people along with the medical teams needed. There are some rooms that have whirlpool tubs and others with showers. There is no nursery, so once baby comes out she will be with us. We will all get special bracelets and baby will get an ankle monitor to wear as she will be in house arrest for all the trouble she caused me during her incubation.

Now is the time that we are getting down to the wire getting all the accoutrements ready for the little one. Do you know how much stuff a little one needs??? And on top of that, have you seen all the extra crap that is marketed as being a true necessity??? I am pretty sure that neither Brad nor I had some of these things and we turned out just fine. Some things will be nice to have because of technology, but some things are just ridiculous. For example, I am loving the video monitoring systems that are out. We will be able to see what baby is doing via a night vision camera and TV. Two friends of ours have a system that they love. I am going to be one of those voyeuristic parents that likes to watch their kid sleep, but I will do it from afar so as not to wake baby up. Yes, I will watch her up close but I hope not to wake her up by opening her door all the time. I think this is a great advance in technology that is well worth it. One thing that we will not be spending the money on is a vibrating mattress. What baby really needs this feature that pretty much doubles the cost of the mattress? Are we really going to raise our baby with this feature that years ago cost a quarter in a motel??? No I don't think we need that. The list of money grubbing contraptions that you really don't need goes on.

Okay enough about the little one that is not here yet. We do have two other kiddos that run the house right now. Here are some pictures of the girls newest napping place. Ruby was helping me unpack the linen closet this past weekend. The girls love blankies like no other dog I have ever had. I don't know what it is but you can pretty much cover them up with anything, even a dry washcloth and they will curl up and be quite content. So below here she is in the linen closet. She is up on the second shelf from the bottom. She had to climb her little way up the shelf with the help of the stuff below and then crouch down to get in between the shelves. It took her about 2 seconds to get comfy and relax.

I actually walked away for a few minutes and I came back to see that she had taught her sister how to use the linen closet as well. Rika being a taller dog did not stay as long as Ruby. Rika would rather be on the recliner in the other room, but she doesn't like to share with Ruby so that forces Ruby into the closet. Crazy little dogs!!!

Other than that everything is going really well here in Hawaii. We are getting pretty much settled and finding places for the things that we need to and actually purging those items that we don't need. There is still a storage issue but for the most part we know how we are going to handle them. I have some more pictures that I want to share but that will have to wait for another day.

Pretty pictures of a pretty ugly day

Here are some pretty cool pictures that I took on New Year's Eve. The weather over the holiday break was pretty rainy as it is the rainy winter here. I took Brad to work because I needed some work done to my car. On the way to work I noticed that the waterfalls were in the mountains. On my way home, I decided to stop and take some pictures. For anyone who knows me, I love waterfalls. Whenever we go hiking in the mountains, I will try to find a trail that has a waterfall on it. When it rains here whether really hard for a long period of time or for shorter rains over several days, there are waterfalls that appear in the Ko'olau Mountains on our side of the island. This mountain range is the one that runs up the center of the island. Brad crosses them everyday through the tunnel. They are really neat because the east side looks completely different from the west side. The East side is very jagged and has a lot of hard coves and inclines, while the west side is more of a gradual incline and rolling hills. This is due to the winds and the rains. These were all taken on the H-3 going towards Pearl Harbor away from our house. Yes, this means that I made an extra trip through the tunnel to get these pictures.



The mountains are very lush and green right now because of all the rain. The picture below is of Brad and I, in my signature pose, at Turtle Bay Resort on the North Shore on New Year's Day. My sister gave me a massage gift certificate for Christmas and I thought it would be a great way to start the new year, birth year.

We headed north on Kamehameha Highway for the day. We stopped at a shrimp truck and had lunch, then went to the resort to relax. It was very peaceful. The waves were much bigger than I have seen them before, and we were not even at the true north shore. I enjoyed my massage and Brad did too; I thought I would treat him since he would have just waited around for me otherwise. Afterward, he took advantage of the steam room and showers. I felt that it was best for me not to hard boil my incubating egg so I just waited for him in the outdoor lanai that faced out onto the ocean. Thank you very much Missy for the great relaxing present!!!

Mele Kalikimaka

Merry Christmas from Hawaii!! Here are some pictures of Santa at the end of his tour around the world after a very long night. He and the Mrs enjoy a very nice vacation here in paradise.




We have been MIA from blogging since our last post. Sorry if I caused any worry to anyone and thank you for those who questioned our whereabouts. We are doing great. Since moving in to the house, it has been hard to stop and rest. We have been very busy getting unpacked and settled. Brad's work has picked up pace and they are pushing to get the boat back into the water. Anyway, we wake up to beautiful blue skies and warm weather. The temperature is a toasty 74 degrees. I hope everyone else is staying warm and toasty wherever you are. I will update some more soon. Wishing everyone a happy holiday! Mele Kalikimaka!