24 days til D-Day...or maybe 19 days....

I know, I know, it's been quite a while since I've updated up here. Please don't hurt me! We've been busy and I don't always feel like I have something blog-worthy to post. That and I procrastinate. I find too many other things I need/want to do. Sometimes I just plain don't feel like updating. No offense to anyone, it's not b/c i don't want anyone to know whats going, i just don't feel like typing it all up and thinking and whatnot. I have a lot less energy these days and since my iron is low, that just adds to the fatigue. I am taking iron supplements, but i am forgetful, so sometimes i miss one or two or ten. So, i haven't updated since sometime in Sept I believe, so that means Halloween and some drs appts are tidbits of info to write about. My dr appts have been going well. The one I had Sept 17, my fundal height was measuring 9days ahead, and then my appt on the 12th, it was 11 days ahead. No reason for the midwife to check on anything b/c you can be +/- 2wks and be 'normal'. And you have to measure off at least twice for them to be concerned. With measuring ahead or behind, there may or may not be reason for concern. There are many reasons to measure ahead or behind. I'm no longing measuring ahead, at least as of my last appt, last wed the 26th. At that appt I was measuring at 34wks b/c the baby has dropped down and is engaged. Great to hear, but makes for one sore mama. I feel like a barbie doll that's had her legs popped off several times. I found some other very interesting and good news at this past appt. As of that appt I was a fingertip dilated (i'll take what i can get!) and 75% effaced, so things are moving in the right direction. Here is the interesting news: the midwife was able to get a good feel of the baby, and she said she was already 7lbs, give or take a few oz!!!!!!! And she is LONG! I know the ladies will probably get this better, hopefully they can explain it better to everyone else. Since the baby is engaged, basically, only her shoulders are above my pelvic opening. So her shoulders are waaayyy down a lil below what ppl consider their hips, and then her back curves with my side (she likes to hang out in my right side) and then her butt is at the TOP of my belly. So her back is super long. Who knows how long her legs are!! I'm thinking she may be longer than Max was at birth, but who knows. I've just been in awe ever since that appt. Max probably weighed about the same at this time, but no one had a clue, so it's weird to think and know that this one is so big already. I'm not too concerned over delivery, if she's growing at the normal rate of around 1/2 lb a wk, that puts her about 9 1/2 lbs at delivery. However, my midwife is concerned, and doesn't want me to go past the 23rd (i'm 39wks on the 21st). That's the earliest she is on duty on L&D when I'm 39wks and if the baby is here by then we may end w/ an induction. I'm really hoping it doesn't come to that though. As for right now we're walking a lot and i'm taking Evening primrose oil, doing squats, and whatever else i can think of/find to possibly help get her here before then. I have my next appt tomorrow, so i'll find out if any of it is helping at least. I still can't believe how long this girl is! Back to appts though: Baby girl's heart rate has been great at every appt and all seems to be going smoothly. In Sept the midwife did mention a possible induction at 39wks if the baby was looking like she was going to be big like her brother. I still feel like she's going to be early, but who knows. So back to the low iron stuff last time they were checked (about 2wks ago) they were pretty low. 8.8 i believe he said, normal is 12 (back in sept mine was 10.4, so i was borderline). So i have to take the iron pills and add high iron stuff to my diet. At my last appt my MW told me that if it doesn't go up they may have to give me pitocin after birth to help w/ bleeding. Just the small amt that you bleed is a lot when your anemic. So I'm downing the pills and eating my shrimp, trail mix, etc.

So on to Halloween. It...wasn't that great. Max was cute as can be in his UPS costume (What Can Brown do For YOU!). We had a Halloween kids festival on the 30th at the Surfside club on Camp Kinser (camp where Matt works) that we went to. Last minute I found out I was supposed to work at it, so most of the time we were there i was busy working a booth. Which sucked. I didn't get to have fun w/ Max and Matt and spend time with them. I did get some pictures thank goodness, but i really would have rather been hanging out with them, especially since Matt was on the range all that wk, so he was leaving at 230am and not getting home til 5 or later most nights. He'd gotten out earlier that day for some reason, but all it did was screw up his last day on the range. Which is way Halloween itself wasn't that great. Matt was supposed to be out of there around lunch time. It doesn't take that long to qual and get everything done. However, the reason they got out earlier on thurs was b/c the SNCO on the range decided instead of doing everything they were supposed to do on thurs, they'd only do part and do the rest on friday. So they didn't even get done shooting til 3:45pm, so they didn't even leave til sometime after 4 (they had to have the barracks checked out, make sure all the areas were cleaned, etc), and the range is 1-1.5 hrs away. Plus they left when traffic is starting to pick up. So, the finally leave, they have to go down to kinser to turn in weapons before he can even come home. Oh, I almost forgot a couple of things: 1) trick or treating was from 6-9pm, and 2)Matt had Gate Sobriety duty that night as well, which meant he had duty from 830pm-500am. So I took Max by myself to go trick or treating. Which is a lil more difficult than it sounds since Max loves to watch everything and take off if he sees something interesting. So the constant pulling, tugging, lifting and carrying takes a toll. We went to a tower (apt bldg) on Camp Foster first b/c we knew some people who lived there. Most ppl didn't have signs up to signify whether or not they were participating. So we probably only went to 5-7 doors that ppl were actually answering. Then we went across the rd to the multiplexes. Similar problem there. Those participating were supposed to have there outside light on. Well there was probably 10-12 that had lights on, but only about 5 were actually answering and giving out candy. And it was nerve racking b/c they are basically right there on the street, so I worried Max would get away from me. Matt called when we were at the multi's and so we cut our trip short so we coudl go home and at least seem him for a few mins before he had to go back down to Kinser for duty. Yea, we saw him for all of 10mins before he had to leave. So, long day, and things not going the way they were supposed to didn't exactly leave me with a feeling of a great Halloween. I know Max had fun walking around and seeing everyone, and thats more of what counts. I just wish Matt could have been there. I didn't even get any pictures of Max trick or treating : ( I did get some good ones at that festival though as well as some at Max's daycare. They had a lil party on that friday and wore their costumes, played games and had some cake. All of these pics are posted in the web albums so check them out.

So another bit of excitement that happened that wk (what better time then when Matt is 1.5hrs away?) was that i had some cxts that monday, over 6 in an hr, so I went in to L &D as that is protocol. I wasn't too concerned with calling Matt at first b/c i didn't have any info to give him other than that I was going to get checked out. but I was told that word needed to be passed to him b/c if something was up, it was going to take him 1.5 hrs to get here from whenever he did get contacted. Plus everyone just thought he should know. I didn't want to worry him or get his range stuff messed up b/c it can be quite difficult to get on the range out here sometimes. Well, word went up the chain of command and a call was made to the range. Guess who never got the word though...i bet you'll never figure it out....Matt. No one at the range passed the word to him. So he had no clue. Not until he called at 530-6 to tell me he was on his way home. He asked if i was ok, and I said, hmm no one told you huh? Then he was like uh-oh..... So now we know if Matt is ever on the range again and there is any sort of problem, we're better off sending a pigeon to get the word to him. The range personnel decided it wasn't important enough or someone forgot or who knows. Either way, even though i wasn't concerned with him being called, the breakdown in communication didn't exactly leave me feeling very reassured. Funny thing is, he wasn't supposed to really have his cell phone out there, had it anyway just in case, but didn't have much of a signal. However, around 12 he had the feeling he should call. Unfortunately though he didn't get through b/c of the signal. I was leaving the hospital at that time but he would have let them know he needed to head home (He was already done shooting that day). All was fine by the way, just some random contractions.

So that's Halloween, on to Thanksgiving! Thanksgiving was great, though quite different than what we are used to. This is the first year that I've made the complete meal. We always had 3-4 different places to go to for Thanksgiving, when we were stateside, and I only had to make a dessert or a side dish. It was different not to have so much running around and traveling so much. I definitely miss going around and seeing all of our family. We do have a friend that is here from stateside and he spent Thanksgiving with us. Noe is a good friend of ours from Cherry Point, the 3 of us helped out at the Havelock Young Marines together. He has been here for several months w/ a det that was on the MEU. It's been great to hang out with him and it was really great to have him for Thanksgiving. He's in the same boat as us away from family, but he's also in a worse one. He's away from his wife who is due Feb 5th w/ their first child. So he's missed a lot the pregnancy and won't be getting home til pretty close to her due date if not after or (hopefully) a few wks before. Matt and Max picked him up Thanksgiving day and we ate our meal (yummy ham, homemade mac and cheese, corn on the cob, etc - yea not necessarily the traditional meal lol) and then went for a long walk that evening. That walk was killer. I didn't think i'd be able to move the next day. I could barely move that night! 1/2 mile to the park (a lot uphill), 1/2 mile in the park (all uphill), 1/2 mile home (part uphill), plus the 66 steps (6 sets of 11, believe me, i know) up to our apt. wow. We won't be doing that walk again, at least not anytime soon. Noe spent the night and then helped us put up our Christmas tree and decor on Friday. We all had a great time getting it put up, even though the boys joked and fussed/whined some (mostly Matthew) about it. He's always gotta mess about something. We went on another walk Friday evening and then Noe spent the night again. Saturday we got up and went to the holiday bazaar on base. That was pretty neat. Lots of vendors w/ Japanese goods and such. There were other booths and vendors set up as well. You could find so much stuff there. Ornaments, Bingata prints, Kimonos, furniture, Calligraphy, Sanshins (instrument), toys, etc. Afterwards we took Noe back to his barracks and then went to the exchange and then the commissary to get a few things. Had our nightly walk of course. Sunday we went to church and Max apparently thoroughly impressed the girl in the nursery because as soon as Matt dropped him off, he discovered the puzzles and he took them apart and did them like he'd seen them 100x and done them just as many. He loves puzzles and has mastered the wooden ones and is now doing the cardboard ones that have a frame/border around them. He really enjoys them. We only have one at home like that, but i finally found some more and he's getting those in his stocking at Christmas.

I almost forgot! The wkend before Thanksgiving, we decided to go to Neo Park, which is kind of a combo zoo/petting zoo/bird sanctuary. It's about an hr north from us. You probably won't find a place quite like this at home b/c of insurance. When you walk in, there are birds everywhere. There aren't cages or anything, just netting way way up and of course somewhere on the sides. They come right up to you, you can feed them and pet them. We walked through there, to the next habitat which had flamingos, then to a petting zoo area where Max got to sit on a huge tortoise. After that we got in these paddle boats that looked like swans and went around the lake/pond area. There were two islands that had lemurs on them and we also got to see more birds and some fish and turtles. The lemurs looked ready to jump in the boat when we went by. You can tell they are used to being fed. It was kinda deja vu because when i was pregnant w/ Max, we went to a zoo in FL and kayaked around a habitat and there were lemurs at that one too, and we were warned they may jump in the boat b/c they want to be fed. We always joked if i got bit, Max would be Lemur Boy and his middle name (that had to be an L) could me Lemur. We walked through the next habitat that had peacocks and such. We'd put Max in the stroller before getting there since we knew he was getting tired. When we got into that one, there were peacocks and some other birds following us, knowing we had food. Max had some crackers he was snacking on, and he decided to offer one to a peacock. Well, the peacock took it. And Max, exploded. He was thoroughly upset. Don't know if the peacock's quick reflexes scared him or if he was just showing the cracker to the thing and was mad that the peacock took it. Either way, it was hilarious (which sounds horrible). He was just so mad. If you go to the web album you can see pictures from there. There is a picture i took right before it happened, Max has 3 crackers sitting in his tray. Matt commented how greta it would hav ebeen to have an 'after' picture, but we were buys laughing and checking to make sure the peacock didn't get Max's finger when he took the cracker. We got to see lots of different birds as well as some monkeys, lemurs, porcupines and other animals and had a great time. I've heard the place has gone down hill some, but we still had a great time and have an annual pass, so I'm sure we'll check it out again.
Well, thats about all I can think of. We also had our USMC ball, during this time and you can see a few pics in the web album. It was the usual ball: Ceremony, Eating, goofing off and dancing. I have my next OB appt tomorrow (Fri) and then we are going on a tour down to Naha on Sat. So maybe I can add another post soon with some more info. I'll try to anyway :)