Nesting... sorta.

Today marks the 31st week of pregnancy and well I'm ready to nest! BUuuut, I cannot. So, what I'm doing is planning out my nesting. Haha! I opted to wait and purchase furniture and everything baby related in the states, basically because it affords options outside of AAFES. We have 2 weeks and 4 days remaining here in Germany and I've been searching high and low for the perfect furniture for the babe! Trouble is, though, I'll find something I love online and it's usually both "out of stock online" and "unavailable in stores", meaning I'm screwed.

So far we've purchased the infant carrier and that's about it!

I also have a few projects from Pinterest (of course) I really would like to complete for the nursery. Ahhh, well it'll wait and I'll have "fun" getting everything done in a short period of time, after 36 weeks of pregnancy. Haha... "fun". I'm just so anxious to start and finish! Bah but I'm stuck waiting!

Two months.....

It's been almost two months since my last post. I wasn't really feeling like I had anything blog-worthy to write about so I kept all the happenings in our life to myself. Looking back I see quite a bit has happened since the 6th of April.
We jumped right into some travels London on the 7th and then straight onto Rome until the 12th.
Kevin was supposed to be deferring a school in the states but wound up the Sgt Major wasn't on board with that choice. So Kevin left for Fort Benning around the 22nd. He will actually be graduating today from ALC. He made the Commandant's List! Woot woot, I'm so proud of him. The last two months have been hectic though now that I'm really thinking about it.

After the travels and Kevin left, we finally got our orders. We will be heading to Fort Riley, KS. At first our report date was in October but we wouldn't have enough time to get the babe's passport and other documents in time to report. So after some back and forth between myself and a host of people we are being allowed to leave Germany in a short 3 weeks from today. Our daughter will be born in the US. I came to realize that nothing will be ideal. You see I'll be flying a mere 4 days before my no-fly date and be without our furniture and car until September. Super right? But it's our plan!

I've been busy scheduling our Unaccompanied Baggage and Household Goods shipments, made flight arrangements (which was literally an all day affair), had a few more doctor appointments and so far so good. Today marks 30 weeks!! I can't believe it. It's really flown by and time will surely not be slowing down any time soon with our next PCS!

Maybe it won't be another 2 months before my next post??

Guess we were right!!

Yesterday at 19 weeks we confirmed our hunch.. she's a girl!!

So far I'm most excited to be able to replace "the babe"or the less affectionate pronoun "it" (always used lovingly) with "she" and "her"!!

We are very excited.

I've been busy:

{source}

So cute I could just die!

{source}

These are definitely in my.. I mean my daughter's future:

{source}

Amazing

A few nights ago, the hubs and I were laying in bed about to go to sleep. We were getting some cuddles in (awwww, aren't we sweet? Anyway..) and the hubs put his hand on my tummy, he wanted some cuddle time in with the babe. After a few moments we felt the babe move and jab! It was amazing!

I've been waiting for the first flutters but nothing concrete until that moment. I think it's particularly amazing that we got to experience it together, the hubs and I. The first time he felt the babe move was the first time I felt it also! I'm also really excited since this pregnancy has been so calm and uneventful, it's nice to be reminded that I've gained 6 pounds for something; that there's a baby in there!! A not-so-fun side affect of these new more powerful movements is soreness; this new using my uterus as a bunching bag does not feel so great.

Thursday we head back to Landstuhl for our Anatomy Scan. I'm hoping the babe will cooperate and we can determine the gender!!

Making Moves

We are still waiting for our next assignment but our window of opportunity for travel is twindling and quickly! So, we started planning and researching some trips. Originally I was hoping to get to a cruise (Rome, Sicily, Greece, Crete, Turkey) but the Commander had other plans for that timeframe apparently. Booo on the Commander! But it worked out, here's what we have lined up:

LONDON

{source}

We are headed to beautiful London the first weekend in April (yeah, that's about a a week away, eeek)!! 

We return home for about a day, wash some clothes and we're off again:

ROME

{source}

After a quick stop at home we're off to explore Rome.

I'm excited to explore each of these cities. But, I'm far more overwhelmed by Rome than I am London. So anyone with tips or information I should know about Rome (or either place really) let me know!!

After our excursion to Paris, where we "winged" the sites we've decided we would prefer tours. We enjoyed seeing the Eiffel Tower and the Arc De Triomphe but we don't know anything about them. We want to learn something about the Vatican and Trevi Fountain. I don't want to just say that I've "seen" them. For London I've already found a great Hop-on Hop-Off Bus tour. I've found one for Rome, but I'm far less confident about it than I am the one I found for London- so if you've taken a tour let me know! How much time do you need at the Vatican and the Coliseum?

Thanks for any tips you have for us Friends!

Reality Check!

You all know how I've been babbling on incessantly over this impending PCS. You remember, how irritated I am that we don't have any information, that I'm pregnant (and the world revolves around my pregnancy), blahblahblah....

I was driving to Ramstein on Saturday (to see 21 Jump Street with the hubs, HILARIOUS, btw) and it occurred to me this whole process really hasn't been as bad as I have been making it out to be. I am right now 17 weeks and 3 days preggo (4 months). The General was here the beginning of February. We were told last week that DEROS in the Company should be changing very soon and we should hopefully have orders by my birthday (which is about a month away). So really, for everyone to have new DEROS and new assignments in about a two month period is not so horrible. Especially when you consider it's the Government we're talking about here.

So here's to hoping we get what we want, and in a timely fashion! I have this feeling that everything is going to be just fine!

Holy Hormones Batman!!

Today I am 16 weeks and 5 days pregnant. The rage-y (aka b*t%hy) hormones have kicked in- full throttle. The last few days have been rough. There have been a few occassions where having my husband in the same room as me was just too much: "you're bugging me." For no good reason. I'm just irritated. It's not fair and 90% of the time I recognize that this is happening to me. I work hard to give my husband a heads up "I'm really cranky right now" and from that point forward my goal is to speak as little as possible, as I don't want to be a hormonal pain in his backside. Sincerely. It's not funny being the Bickering-McBickerson's!

Today I had my third appointment with the midwife. I did not care for this lady in the least. I felt rushed. I have been having a tough time breathing. After walking or just randomly when I'm sitting on the couch or at the table completing homework. There are times I can literally not fill my lungs filling all the way, but when it does happen, its like heaven! I was explaining this to the midwife and she was like "breathing troubles are physiological." Ok... thanks. That's extremely unhelpful. I told her well, I was asthmatic as an infant (like bad, numerous hospital stays, ect) she was still unimpressed. Well lady, I'm just attempting to give you information you decide what's helpful and what isn't; silly me I thought a history of pulmonary distress is relevant. Then it continued... she was using the doppler to check the babe's heart rate and couldn't find it. This happened last month too... so I start getting concerned. Why does my babe HATE the doppler? She goes for the ultrasound and is completely stingy with it. She wouldn't angle it so I could see (I get this is simply to find the heartbeat but hell if you're doing it you might as well share with Mom, right?!), she found the heartbeat and then was like ok, 155 beats. My husband chimes in: Can we get a picture or.... Midwife: No there's a lot of people.

She sucks. Yes there were a lot of people. I opted for the Centering Group. I figured it would be a good way to meet some other peeps going through the same thing, around the same time. Well, instead it's just a disorganized-overpopulated room of hormones, and my 15 mins with the doc is even more hurried than usual. So far, I'm not a fan of the centering group, just for your future reference.

Has anyone else tried centering? How'd you like it?

At least we saw and heard the babes little heart chugging away! I have already had people tell me it's a Girl, (which is my instinct as well), what do you guys think??!