The results are in...

I had my 20wk ultrasound on Monday the 11th and a regular OB appt on Tuesday. I know I said I'd blog pretty quickly afterward, but well, it was quite a long wk and so was this past wk.
First off, we are having a……… GIRL!!! I Still have a due date around the end of Dec.
My ultrasound here was pretty extensive. They do very in-depth u/s here since we are on an island. The tech brought me back and told me they’d get Matt when it was time for the gender verification, and it would be 45-50mins before that happened! I had no clue it was going to be this in-depth until then. It was neat to see everything in so much detail. The tech had to get me to roll on my sides a few times b/c the baby wasn’t in a good position for some of the pictures (spine, heart) they were trying to get. Ended up having to have another tech come in to get a good profile pic of the 4 chambers of the heart b/c the first tech’s arm was so tired! This lil girl just didn’t want to cooperate! They knew the heart looked fine and everything was like it should be, but they have to get good enough pics for the radiologist and OB to see. After we finished that and brought Matt back, the first lady was busting at the seams to tell us, but the second tech hadn’t even looked yet. Once she got a look they told us they saw ‘girl parts’!
After everything was finished, they were trying to go back through for some reason, and couldn’t find my name on the list. There had been some sort of glitch w/ the computer and my u/s got put under someone elses name and social. So when you see the pics that why there is no name at the top. They had to mark it out and I just cropped it out as well. We still don’t know what happened, b/c as soon as I can into the room, the tech verified all my info, so my name was pulled up at that point. It’s a new machine and system, so they figured it was a bug or something was just different w/ the program or something. Who knows. Luckily the person (another OB patient) who’s name my u/s was under hadn’t been in yet, so we didn’t have to worry about the pics getting mixed up, but if they couldn’t get the name’s switched they were going to have to do the whole scan over again. No big deal, but luckily we didn’t have to.
I got called that afternoon and was asked to come back in b/c the radiologist wasn’t happy w/ some of the u/s pics and wanted some better ones. I figured it was the heart and spine pics, but it ended up being the legs and such. So I went back in that afternoon and they got those done. I guess they still aren’t happy w/ them b/c at my OB appt the next day I found out I have to go back in again. So I go Sept 3rd for another u/s. Hopefully this time this lil girl will cooperate better. The measurements they did Mon morning put the baby weighing about 14.2oz, which is a lil smaller than the last OB I saw was thinking. The midwife I saw a couple of wks ago figured (based on the length and size then, no measurements) the baby would be a lb or so by this u/s. But I know u/s can be off, since a few days before Max was born they were saying he was only 7lbs 14 oz give or take. Lol we know THAT was wrong. The crown to rump measurement of this lil girl was a lil over 5.5inches. According to the midwife she’s pretty long, but since they can’t really measure the total, we don’t know how long for sure. Just know she seems to have long legs (uh-oh!) We figure she’ll probably be about the same size or bigger than her brother when she’s born. Everyone has already been calling her the Bionic Baby b/c of how hard she’s been kicking. I’ve already been able to see my belly jump when she kicks and moves about for 2-3wks now.
Everything looked good and Baby girl seems to be fine and healthy which is the most important info of all. The estimated due date based on those measurements is Dec 25, but I don’t think they will change my due date since it’s only 3 days difference. But she’ll come when she wants to, just like Max. Matt just says she WILL be born before Jan 1 (taxes). But being our kids, I’m sure she’s probably got a stubborn streak, so she’ll come when she’s ready, whether it be Dec or Jan.

Lol, as some can probably tell, I just cut and pasted all that from the email I sent out. It's so much to retype!! But i did want to add a few things. Max was sick that wk, then Matt was sick tha wkend, and somehow I managed to stay in the clear. I'm still in amazement. So that made for a long week, plus Matt's work week just seemed at odds and his days seemed to run late. He ended up getting his trip out to Iwakuni (mainland Japan) switched from the first wk in Sept, to this wk, so he'd be home for the u/s on the 3rd. So he's been in Iwakuni all wk this wk, hopefully flying home tomorrow. He left Tuesday morning and actually pretty much finished all he needed to do that first day, day and a half. He got volunteered for some kinda for evacuation training, and ended up riding on a bus for 4-5hrs down to Sasebo navy base, stayed over night at the temp lodging, and then they rode back on the bus, for an even longer time (b/c of some miscommunications and set backs) to Iwakuni. The main thing that happened on that trip was shopping lol. It was mostly spouses that were part of the training, but they needed some marines too, so he was volunteered. All the spouses spend yesterday afternoon shopping out in town (apparently there is alots of shopping near the base) and part of the miscommunication today was a side trip for more shopping, that was apparently supposedly authorized, but after an hr of driving towards the area, it was found out that it wasn't authorized, so once that got straightened out they started heading to Iwakuni. So Matt has enjoyed riding on a bus for the past two days. I think it's the longest he's been in a vehicle since we flew out here! Oh well, at least he got to see more of Japan. I think next time he has to go out there, Max and I will try to go along as well. We didn't know that we could the first time he went, and this time was very last minute.
Another update: Max has used the potty 6times now (wahoo!!), is starting to say ppl's names, esp kids at daycare, and has learned how much fun it is to remove the 80wipes that are in each container of wipes...he riped open 5 packages....he had the sticker parts that you open stuck all over his PJ's when I found him...along with every diaper out and all those wipes everywhere...it looked like it has snowed...in Okinawa...
Oh! Almost forgot! Brought him to the dr when he was sick and found out that he is 33.5inches tall and was 28lbs, 9oz. of course that was a wk ago, so i'm sure he's a few ounces different now.

Well, thats it for now. Hopefully I'll get a chance to post again soon.

Gotta Support my Habit

Well, it's been a while since I've posted an update, so I reckon theres a lot to cover. We had a Professional dinner for Matt's unit we attended on July 15th. We had a good time but it was long and the food was so-so. It was fun to get dressed up and meet people though. We finally made it up to the aquarium during the time that Okinawa was celebrating the Ocean Festival. That was a lot of fun, but a LOT of people and a lot of driving time. It's about an hr or so north of here (less if we could drive faster lol). It took us about 1.5 or so hrs to get up there and we managed to snag some of the last parking there at the park/aquarium. We were meeting some friends up there and they were about 30mins behind us or so, and had to park at a satellite lot and get shuttled in. The aquarium was great but there were so many people we really didn't get to see everything very well or at all. There were some thigns we just by passed because of the amt of people crowding around. Thats ok though, we bought annual passes for Matt and I (max is free!) as we know we'll be going up there several more times in the next yr. This aquarium is huge, 4 floors! They have several Whale Sharks in a tank that goes up all 4 stories. Those suckers are huge! FYI the pic up there is a whale shark. They have lots of hands on areas and tons to do and see. After we went through the aquarium we met up w/ our friends and hung out at the festival. I'm learning that apparently festivals here are different then home. I expected some rides and games and such, but there were just tons and tons of food vendors, a concert stage and fireworks. And they shoot some fireworks off during the day. A lil odd, but cool to see the smoke make designs. They had an hr long fireworks and laser light/fire show put to music that was pretty night. We left after the first intermission b/c Max was so tired and we wanted to try and beat the traffic. yea...that didn't work...we left at 830...we were still sitting on the rd in front of the parking garage at 930...

But we did get to watch the entire fireworks show :) It took us 4 hrs to get home. 3 hrs of that was just getting back to the expressway. Which should have taken about 1/2 hr-45mins. Once you get on the expressway, it's freedom! I felt like we were going sooooo fast. We can drive 80km/hr...which is like 60mph. I felt like we were flying though. it's a big difference when the fastest your normally driving is about 37mph. So, yea, it was nearly 1am when we arrived home. But we had a great time and enjoyed hanging out with our friends. Ended up going into the ER the 22nd just to get some pains and funky sensations checked out, after being advised by two friends that are nurses. I figured the ER wouldn't be of much help, but they did at least get me a next day appt at OB to further assess things. Which i'm glad happened b/c I was able to meet a great midwife at OB that I'm going to try and get my next appts with so I can get to know her better and possibly have her as a requested person for delivery. She did an ultrasound on me that day and made sure everything was good to go, which made me feel a lot better. She also printed out several pictures just for me. She's a very personable and knowledgeable lady that I'm very impressed by. She looked to see if we could tell the gender, but baby was sleeping and relaxing the whole time and would only give us a profile view. She did remark about how long the baby was. She said it was a very long baby and that she wouldn't be surprised if at my 20wk u/s (this coming Mon Aug 11!!) the baby was already a lb or so. Which, if baby is, means this baby has a lil bit of a head start on Max. He was 1lb 2oz at 22wks gestation. Oh, that brings me to another thing. I had to go get yet another glucose test done as well and I passed it w/ flying colors. Hopefully they'll just all agree that I just have big babies. I know I'll still probably have to get it done again at the normal time (24wks) though. The midwife agreed w/ me about the big baby thing too.

My friend and I had a family day that we had to plan and get put back together (Long story i'm NOT getting into on here) on the 25th. That was a stressful and pain in the butt thing. not just b/c of planning, but b/c of other issues w/in all of it. But it happened, though only our families, another assistant's family and the CO's wife showed up. oh well.

Had another pedicure at a mommies day out too. Those are so great! Worth the money!

So as some heard, Max's crib got recalled a mo or so ago so I've been going through the process of getting that all figured out. Finally got that straight and got everything done with it, now we're just waiting for the co to get the paperwork, hardware and get a check cut and sent out to us. We went ahead and bought a new crib last week for the baby. We were going to wait til later, but found out the furniture store (only place to buy an american crib) wasn't going to carry the one we wanted after they sold all they had in stock. They had a good amt in stock, but it's there top selling crib so we decided to go ahead and get it. The company that makes it can't keep up w/ the demand for all the places it supplies, so AAFES (exchange and furniture store) is getting cut. I ordered a new stroller earlier in July, from a place called stollerdepot.com and was very impressed and pleasantly surprised by them. I ended up changing my order b/c the color I wanted became backordered. The co let me know immediately and I was able to easily change the color, get a $5 discount that was offered on that color and have it shipped out the day I changed the order. The Almost best part ---- they only charge $10 to ship to APO/FPO addresses right now b/c they have free shipping in the states. The BEST part ----they shipped it last wed, the 30th of July, and we received it Mon the 4th of Aug. How AWESOME is that! I have never received ANYTHING that quick! They are excellent customer service as well! So i highly recommend them! They have decent prices and great offers.

We had a get together are our great friend's the Yabut's house on saturday, and that was so much fun! We were busy cooking and gettin stuff ready most afternoon, but it was well worth it. We had TONS of food. I can't believe how much stuff they had made already and they we made after we got there. We had Yakisoba, Korean Ribs, Choc. Fondue, Corn on the Cob, Several dips, desserts, and other sides. I can't even rememeber everything we had! Matt and Max are STILL eating on leftovers that we brought home. What was supposed to be a simple cook out for our family and theres, ended up being more of a fancy, extremely plentiful meal w/ 15-20ppl.

So this wk, I have been a shop-a-holic. I've always known about japanupdate.com but never really did much perusing or anything. We found one of our cars on there when we first got here, but i haven't really looked much since then. Well, this wk, I've made up for it. I've been contacting ppl on there all wk about numerous things, everything from maternity clothes, swings, jumperoos, lamps, etc. I originally went there to see if anyone posted about having a jumperoo for sale. picked it up today : ) a Fisher price rainforest one in great condition. Purchased some maternity clothes yesterday, a shirt the day before, and I'm still going. Lol, Matt is threatening to ban me from the internet. but hey, how can you beat 6 shirts and a pair of pants for $10?? Especially being that these are MATERNITY, which most ppl know is expensive to by new. It's been difficult to find clothes here on the island, so i do alot of online shopping, but i get tired of paying shipping and waiting forever to my stuff (ok, not forever, but a wk or 2). The jumperoo i got today was used by one baby, for a coupla months. And I got a great deal on it. Esp since new they are between 70-80$ plus shipping. We have a jumper, but it's the one that hangs in the doorway, and our door frames here are a lot narrower and not as deep, so I don't think it'll work well.

So, like the title says, I gotta support my habit, so i've been posting ads up there for various clothing articles that I never wear or can't wear, ball/cocktail dresses, the jumper, and soon I'll have some toys posted. So hopefully I can get this stuff sold. haha, then Matt can't say much.

lol, actually, he told me earlier that recovering alcoholics don't put themselves in bars...so i shouldn't continue to peruse...but i gotta see what everyone's got and what they are selling for, so I know what to sell my stuff for...it's a vicious cycle, but a fun one :)

So the most exciting news to report, my 20 wk ultrasound is scheduled for Monday morning, so hopefully we'll know the baby's gender then. Just gotta eat some ice and drink some soda before I go in. Gotta make sure this baby is awake this time! No sleeping during the test!

Well, i'm sure I'll post on monday, so I'll let everyone know what we find out!

oh, lol, as you can see we got Max a potty this month. Just wanted him to get familar with it. Well, he decided he wanted to sit on it one day while I was blow drying my hair, and ever since, if asked to go potty, he RUNS to the bathroom all excited! He's gone on teh potty 3x all ready!! I can't believe it! We haven't done anything as far as training, just ask him if he wants to go potty several times a day and go goes and sits on it and picks out a book to look at! We look at books (he has a basket full next to the potty now) while he sits, and after 5-7mins he decides he's done. lol, but the 3x hes used the potty we praise him and give him treats (after hand washing of course lol) and he knows his potty gets dumped in the big potty and he loves to flush the toliet! So he's excited about it, and go super excited the other day when I bought him underwear lol, like he knew exactly what they were for. He opened the pack in the car and had them all in his lap and then was back there squealing and holding them up and going crazy! it was hilarious!! I wish I had a picture of him riding around w/ teh underwear in his lap and him holding it up to his head squealing!! Probably in a wk or so, i'll put them on him and see about getting him trained to know when he has to go. Wish us luck!

oh, haha, i keep forgetting stuff, the pic of Max w/ the green popsicle, was his first popsicle, and he loved it! they are made form fruit juice and slow melting, so great for kiddos! He didn't know it was going to be so cold though and stuck the thing in the mouth and then made the greatest face! it was great!