I saw the doctor yesterday and he said everything looked good, no change from the last good report he gave me two weeks ago. He gave me final clearance to go home!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We leave this afternoon for Chicago and then Michigan after that!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

No new posting for two weeks......not that that will surprise you, not much posting at all these days -- oops.

Merry Christmas!!

We posted pictures of our decorations and gifts at our Picasa web site.

We CAN'T WAIT for Friday when we start home!!!!!

Lillian's still hanging in there, we have a dr. appt on Thursday and will post a quick update after that.

I saw the dr. today and he said I am not dialated any more than before, between the three nurses that checked me at the hospital and him; two said I was at zero, one said I was at 1, and he was kind of inbetween. He said today that he would consider me 3/4 to 1. He said had Sunday not happened, he would not even mention today that I was "dialated", just marking it in my chart, but that number is so small its inconsequential if nothing else is happening.

I have not had any contractions since I left the hospital. He said she is measuring right at 30 weeks (which I will be on Friday) and that her heartbeat was great. He said her movement is great, she is moving around a lot and that if I were close to labor, she would be slowing down and settling down to prepare for birth.

He said there is currently no infection present, the prescription he gave me, might have kicked a bladder infection or sinus infection that was just starting and causing all this ruckus, but that nothing was present now so that was good.

He said he wants me on modified bedrest for now, which means no work (easy since I'm not working), no exercise and no lifting. Also, just doing what feels okay and resting when I feel tired. He did tell me that I can pull the "bedrest" card whenever I want. :-)

I asked about the shot being good for only one dose, and best within 7 days of delivery. He said yes, that is true and on Sunday he was thinking that was possible. But as of today he would say there is no way I will deliver within the next two weeks and he would be "extremely surprised" if I delivered in two or three weeks. He said if he hadn't been there himself Sunday/Monday he would not know anything unusual had happened, everything today looked excellent and apparently the happenings in the hospital were something strange that was stopped with the medication and has no indications of appearing again.

I asked about the travel to MI and Chicago and he asked if it would be more stress to go or not go as that was really the deciding factor at this point. He said he would go and if it was his daughter he would tell her to go, but as his patient he has to tell me "You're crazy."
He said to make sure and know where hospitals are in each location and how to get there. And of course, there is always a possibility I will have her while I am gone, but no more chance of that than he told me two weeks ago at my appointment!!!

He said that he wants to see me on the 28th (the day we fly out) to give me a "hopefully great" report, so I will know as I get on the plane, that everything was perfect a few hours before. Of course, there is always the possibility that I would be dialated at that point (although he finds that highly unlikely) and not be able to go, but at least we would have seen him right before we're scheduled to leave.

I am soooooooooooooooooo thrilled at all of this good news! It is definintly the result of all the people out there thinking about and praying for us, and we appreciate it SO much.

Now, I just ask that everyone pray that we do not have her while on vacation, and she waits until we are back here in Virginia.

Pray for LIlly (and us)

We spent the last 20 hours admitted to Labor and Delivery due to losing my "plug" and having slight contractions.

When we went in they said I was having regular contractions and was dialated to 1. They admitted me overnight and ran lots of tests. They took bloodwork and gave me lots of IV liquids. They gave me a round of three shots of Terbutaline to try to stop the contractions, and for the most part it seems to have worked so far. They gave me a shot of Betamethasone to develop her lungs faster in case she is born early.

I was realeased about lunch time to come back tomorrow morning and get another round of testing, a "non stress test" and another Betamethasone shot (you have to have two, 24 hours apart). I was also given a prescription to kill any infection that may or may not have a part in causing all of this.
We (R and I) are most concerned about the Betamethasone, as everything we can find online (from trusted sources) say the drug is given once in pregnancy (in two doses, 24 hours apart) when the doctor feels delivery is "expected" within 0-7 days, being most effective 24 hours from the first dose to 7 days from the last dose. It is not able to be repeated in a second (or third, or fourth) course as it used to be, because of undeterminded health effects to the mother and baby, so doctors are instructed to use it when they think birth is "expected" within 1 week.
I called my OB before going in and the L&D were in constant contact with him by phone. He came to see me at the hospital this morning, but we will not really know anything more defininte until I see him in his office on Wednesday afternoon. I am on bedrest until Wednesday at least.

I am 29 weeks and 2 days now and the earliest doc feels "comfortable" with is 34, but we're not sure we're going to make it that long. Just pray please.

Another (seemingly smaller) thing to pray about is that because of my bad veins (increased difficulty to find with pregnancy) and between taking blood, giving me shots and inserting IVs (and repeated attempts at all of these) they have "used up" my veins in all the normal and a little wierd places. Once you get a stick in one area the hospital won't do it in that same area for more than 72 hours, so if something comes up within the next three days, I get an IV in my foot and shots and bloodwork done in some other seemingly awful place.

Thanks, Stacey and Richard

The Elves are hard at work!!

http://www.elfyourself.com/?id=1156050039

The latest drama

Just to keep everyone up to date on my oh so normal pregnancy......here is the latest.

I have been having some lovely pregancy complications for the last week or two. Namely,
Contractions
Repeated Temporary Blindness with white twinkling lights
Numbness and Tingling in both hands

So...I've been in close contact with my ob this week, talking to him multiple times on the phone and in his office on Wednesday and again today. He did ten thousand (at least it felt like that) tests including blood and urine tests, blood pressure checks, baby fetal monitoring, baby measurements, neurological exams and of course more bloodwork.

He said the contractions would happen from here on out and were nothing to worry about. Just to call him if I "have more than 4 an hour, cuz then you're having a baby".

On Wednesday he told me he was going to set me up with an opthamologist and a neurologist to check on the "blackouts" and the hand numbness. I saw the ob this morning at 9am for a shot and follow up tests from Wednesday. Then at 1, I went to the neurologist and at 3:15 I went to the opthamologist.

The neurologist did a thourough neurological exam and used needles and electrodes up and down both arms to test for carpel tunnel. He said I do indeed have "severe carpel tunnel" in both wrists, so much so that he was surprised my hands, the right one especially, are still functioning. He prescribed a wrist splint for the right arm and gave me cortizone shots (NOT FUN AT ALL) in both wrists.

Yes, for the ones who are keeping track, this is over 50 needles now that I have had in my body TODAY ALONE.

He said I have a good, but not guarranteed chance of it going away after delivery. Most pregnancy carpel tunnel goes away within 1-2 weeks of delivery but because mine is so severe and hereditary (thanks Mom), he is not going to tell me that will happen for me.

My sight has been going completely going black, both eyes, and seeing white twinkling lights, lasting for 3-5 seconds each time, but no headaches or dizziness. He said this was "troublesome" to him because if it was accompanied by headaches or dizziness or lasted for 5-15 minutes, it would just be associated with migranes and he would prescribe me a pill, but since mine did not fit that description that would not do.

The only other time he has seen this type of thing is when the person has a hole in their heart. So, he is setting me up for testing at the hospital, a total of three tests, for now. And bloodwork, of course. He said it might not be a hole in the heart, but obviously we want to rule that out first. He said if something alarming comes back or if he wants more testing done right away, he will call me. In the meantime, call him if they start to happen more frequently.

The good news is the opthamologist said he found no problems with my vision, both my glasses and contacts are the correct perscription and he (through MANY tests) found no eyesight problems.

Barring anything unusual (I know, I know, but I can hope)...
I see the ob again December 14.
I see the neurologist again January 14.
I see the opthamologist again December 21.

Our First Christmas Card

Grandma and Grandpa Abrams get the honor of being the first Christmas card to grace the kitchen window this year. Thanks Gma & Gpa, way to be early !!

Thanks Joe & Shannon

Cousins Joe and Shannon got us this adorable bright pink and orange baby gown. It even has the fold over hands. I was just telling Mom Brill this weekend that we needed more of these. Thanks guys, we love it!

Mom and Dad left today and we are so sad.

96 days........................................

I just got finished reading Heather & Christopher's blog. I had to read all the entries, as before today I didn't know they had a blog. I had heard vague rumblings they were starting one but that was it. I had to hear from mom who heard from a letter to grandma...and so on.

Anywho, while I was reading their blog I was thinking of the need to update our blog. So I click the necessary buttons to open our blog and am immediately confronted with "only 96 days to go!" Like I am supposed to be joyful about this rather than be filled with a sense of dread and fear that I have 96 days left of this.

This being the facts below:
-If I go more than 12 minutes without admiring my bathroom walls it is a good 12 minutes.
-Our daughter seems to have inherited the restless side of Richard
-And she is obviously taking up wrestling at such a young age, what a prodigy
-Little Miss seems to never sleep, which might actually be the exclamation point to that 96 days left, unless you realize that means that
-I never sleep more than 20 minutes at a time...If I am lucky, and make it past the normal 12 minute bathroom break
-I have now outgrown several maternity tops. This is just thrilling.
-I am in constant fear that my water will break on the plane somewhere over Kansas and 150 angry passengers will not only throw their pretzels at me but it will be months and months after that before I can say "we're not in Kansas anymore".
-I know in my mind that everyone who has two legs and two feet has two ankles, but somewhere along this process, mine have left the premesis. I was told the other day that this process left me with "cankles" only to have that person be corrected by someone else to say "no, this is beyond cankles, those are thighs".
-I constantly have an awful taste in my mouth and feel something stuck in my throat, about which there is nothing the doctor can do and water, ironically, seems to only make it worse.
-I can no longer bend over. This has been true for awhile but was not as much of an issue when I could use my go go gadget toes to pick up whatever I needed.
-Today I had to have Richard paint my toenails. They are, we'll say, a work of art. He also enjoyed painting my foot and my leg...giving me "a friend" for when I get lonely. (Have no fear, I cannot reach my toes, but I can reach his upper arm. And he now has a friend also).

However, despite how the above lists may sound, we're estatic to be having a child. Well, not the one time act of having, I could do without that, but the lifelong process. And we can't wait til February 22, although it seems like its more than 96 days away, but should be so much less.

We have our first "birthing/parenting" class at the hospital on Monday. The first of about 12, seems like a little overkill, but who knows. We are supposed to take a doll or stuffed animal. I hope a 10 inch pig made with love by Gund will suffice in preparing Richard for diapering our daughter. I'm not buying the $50 version that is "lifelike" (yes, including the bodily secretions) when we will have our own version soon.

Richard's parents are coming on Wednesday, and possibly his aunt and uncle. I cannot even begin to explain how excited I am. Not being at work since last Monday, I am more than ready for some entertainment. And I'm thinking they will be roped in to Christmas decorating also. Nothing better than that.

October

We did go to Great Wolf Lodge for our anniversary and we had a great time. I would definintly recommend it, especially in groups of more than one couple to split the cost of a room, or with a family with kids. It was awesome.

Richard is working all nights now. He leaves around 2 pm (sometimes earlier) and generally gets home about 10, sometimes as early as 8 or as late as 12. He likes the fact that they are generally more relaxed on the night shift and he gets along with most of the people there.

I have seen the doctor a couple of times. He has done lots of tests. I will find out on Thursday the results of last weeks bloodwork to determine the cause of lots of foot swelling. I also take the test for Gestational Diabetes this week. Hopefully I will pass that with flying colors. There was a (very slim) chance that I might have TB but thankfully the test for that came back negative. For now I'm supposed to keep doing as I have been: not doing much, staying off my feet and not wearing any shoes that 1)are heels, 2) are dress shoes or 3) lace up. Yes, I am as lost as you about what this leaves other than flip flops in the winter.

We ended up trading in my car. (The stratus that I bought brand new four years ago and the only new car I've ever bought.) But it wasn't actually as sad as I thought. We had been planning to trade it in sometime soon for a vehicle that had more room for a stroller and baby stuff, but not quite this soon. But when Mom and Dad were here, he noticed that the tires had another week left on them, if we were lucky. So we went ahead and switched out. We traded for a 2004 Chrysler Pacifica, technically it is a "crossover SUV". I love it. It drives really nice, no different than the car really, and it has all the same features: power seats, six disc cd changer, auto stick, etc. Plus some new ones: memory seats, dual temperature controlls, an automatic (opening and closing) hatch, and my favorite of all, moveable foot pedals. The only thing I really miss is the automatic starter, but I've asked for that for Christmas. It has six bucket seats that all fold down seperately to be flat. Its great.

We have been working on Lillian's room a lot, changing it from just a guest room with a Red and Tan motif to a guest room/Lilly's room with a hot pink and orange motif. Richard has changed lots of the art on the walls and put up a set of fantastic mirrors. I just finished making some new curtains for the windows.

We are excited to have Richard's parents come down for Thanksgiving. It will be nice to entertain again, let alone at a holiday.

I got told on Wednesday that I am being let go from my job because they have decided after four months of working part time that they really don't want someone working part time. So its back to mac n cheese every night. lol. Not that that bothers me really. It was just a surprise at this time that we wern't really planning on. Oh well, it will all work out somehow.

I have put pictures of LIlly's room and the new car and even Great Wolf I think on our picture site, at http://picasaweb.google.com/StaceyBrill.

Busy, busy, busy

We have been extremely busy this last month, hence no posting.

At the end of September, R's parents and grandparents came to visit for a week. We had tons of fun going to the Nauticus museum, Colonial Williamsburg, Monticello and the Luray Caverns. We went shopping and took them on a tour of the base.

A week later S's parents and K&K came to visit. We had lots of fun going to see a sandcastle competition at the beach, Busch Gardens, and moving the furniture around in the old guest room to make it Lillians Room/Guest room. Then we went to Gordonsville, VA and stayed at a resort in the woods. We rode horses, took hikes, went swimming and boating and played games.

Yesterday, we traded in Stacey's Stratus for a Chrysler Pacifica. It actually has the capacity to hold the stroller and something else, an amazing feat. It also has tons of cool features like memory seats, dual temperature controlls, an automatic hatch opener, adjustable foot petals and a DVD player.

This weekend we will celebrate our first anniversary with a trip to the Great Wolf Lodge (indoor waterpark) in Williamsburg. We are really excited to just have a short trip for the two of us, our first since being married.

Lillian is doing good as far as we know, just making Stacey completely exhausted. She spent lots of time sitting and resting during the vacations, but it was still lots of fun. Our next ultrasound is on Tuesday.

Sugar Frosted Goodness

We spent this morning making some frosted sugar cookies in honor of Lillian/Dad Brill's Birthday & love of Michigan/Fall. Here is a small sampling...with a random easter egg and pig thrown in for good fun.

You Shipp's should get a good look at this frosting job, realizing you will not see this when you come :-), if you're lucky your's will be frosted with one solid color.

Coming this February....

Lillian Ashleigh

Left side profile, she's scratching her head wondering why this person keeps banging on her home.



The result of all the banging...a perfect shot.
Another left side profile, hand in motion back down to the side from the head.

A straight on head/face shot, although I think only the trained eye can tell.


Lilly weighs 6 ounces and is 6 1/2 inches long. The dr. said she is basically a half full can of pop, size wise and weight wise. The hematoma is slightly smaller than last time even and the blood work came back negative for downs syndrome. Excellent news all around.

It's a Girl!!!!!!!!!!

...and she currently weighs a whopping 6 ounces.

The ultrasound yesterday confirmed it. We are going to have a little girl in February. We have decided on a name and will soon post that.

The ultrasound tech said everything was looking good and I will follow up with the dr. tomorrow. She gave us a couple pictures too, and those will be posted in a day or so when I get the energy :-) If you're going to die if you have to wait, send me an email and I can email the file to you.

We are excited to start buying little girl stuff, but dismayed to find that most infant stuff is only made in pastel colors, how dull. The search is on for bright clothes, blankets and room stuff.

Blah, blah, blah

Time is passing very slowly right now. I'm still not able to do much, pretty worn out most of the time, so we're mostly staying close to home. We've pretty much cleaned or re-organized everything in the house in the last couple weeks.

We did go out on Monday to an outlet mall about an hour away. We were mostly looking for clothes for me but didn't have much luck. But it was fun to spend a day together away from the house.

We're excited to have mom & dad and gma & gpa (his) coming in just over a week, that should be really fun as well as help time pass a little faster. Then, just a week after that mom & dad and Kyle and Kristen are coming out. Then we'll be in the second week of October and our first anniversary. As slowly as time seems to be going sometimes, it seems to have gone pretty fast for this first year.

Thankfully the first three months were the most eventful in a bad way and things have calmed down since then. Right now we're starting to look for a new vehicle, prepare for baby (of course) and decide what we want to do about housing. Lots of changes coming up but for now its just same ole, same ole.

R is working nights but so far has not gotten home later than 10 so I at least get to see him to say goodnight. That has been really nice, but we've been warned not to get used to that. He's still waiting to hear if he gets the leave he requested for when family will be here. Hopefully he will, they have some fun ideas planned for us to do together. I am still working 3 days a week, and for right now I am still on temp status even though I've put in my 3 months hours wise. But things are pretty hectic there right now so the boss just wants to keep me on as temp now til he has time to think about the best way to go forward. The problem is that no one at the company is part time except for me, so he's having a hard time hiring me normally, but is trying to work something else out. Who knows, but for now, everything is still the same, and I'm still getting paid so we're all good.

Labor Day

I felt the baby for the first time this morning, twice. R tried to feel, but you can't feel it from the outside yet. Hopefully soon.

The nurse at the doctors office stuck a needle IN MY STOMACH yesterday.

Apparently it was a routine test they neglected to inform me on the details of. I was there alone.

IT SUCKED!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Shopping for baby

I've had several people ask about buying things for baby. First of all, we don't know yet whether it is a boy or a girl. Yes, we are going to find out. And yes, sometime not too long after we do we will tell everyone.

What we know right now is colors for the nursery:
Girl: Bright Pink and Orange
Boy: Chocolate Brown and Orange

We are not a fan of pastels, for the nursery, blankets, clothing anything.

That's all for now, soon I will be getting the registries all up and going.

R got put on nights. Fabulous. Just freaking fabulous.

Thursday update

The doc said things were AMAZINGLY better this time than last time. He said he didn't tell me last time but I had only a 35% chance of carrying the baby even to 8 months. And that the hematoma was the biggest he had ever seen in his 20 year career. He said if it was the same size this time or bigger still, he was going to refer me to a specialist, feeling it was out of his range.

However, it shrunk from the size of a 5.5cm 3D sphere to that of a 3cm flat circle. This way, not only is is less in size, it also takes up almost no room, as it is basically flat. The difference of a baseball in my uterus compared to a piece of cardboard.

He said the baby is 3.5 inches long from head to butt (or CRL Crown Rump Length), which is right on target. Because of this good progress, he is moving my dr. appt schedule to "normal" which means I see him not again til 16.5 weeks, 4 weeks from now. This is good, but I was liking the pictures every two weeks.

Also, he told me, that in the third "set" of ultrasound pictures on our website, you can see the hematoma very clearly. This is actually the 5th picture down if you're counting the ones with the arrows and non arrows. The baby is laying on his/her back and you can see a white circular, U shaped object hanging down right next to the baby. This is the hematoma, ideally, this whole area around the baby would be a black sphere.

He also said he couldn't endorse travel at all in the 3rd trimester but he wouldn't stop me at the airport. He said the major risk is blood clots. He said air travel is much better than car travel though, as the most I can be in a seated position from this point out is 2 1/2 hours. I have to sit for 2 1/2 hours, then get up and walk around and eat/drink for at least a half hour before sitting again. Not bad, we can handle that. Now we just have to hope that everything is boringly normal from here on out so I have no questions about traveling by air home for Christmas, when I am 31 weeks preggo.

All in all, the baby is doing completely better than last appointment, when we had pretty dismal results. We are so excited! As I think I said last time, we might actually have this kid after all.

12 weeks 4 days

Here are our pics from tonight's ultrasound. The tech said the hematoma seems to have gotten smaller from the last time, and is now more the size of the first time they saw it. The baby is right on track size wise and has a strong heartbeat still. We might just end up actually having this baby :-D. Everything looks good now, we just have to wait to talk to the dr. on Thursday. We got four pics today. The unedited pic is on top, right above the pic I have put words and arrows on. Therefore, the first and second pic are the same photo, one without arrows and one with.

Boy or Girl?

We will find out in September whether it is a boy or a girl. For now, we are opening up a poll. Start the guessing...

The dr. said today that the baby is 4.5 cm long from head to butt. The hematoma is 5.5 cm long and 5.5 cm wide. He said he is "worried" and "concerned". He said there is nothing they can do to treat this, the only thing is to wait until the next ultrasound and see if the baby is still growing and has a heartbeat. That will be in two weeks.

4D Ultrasound

THIS IS NOT OUR BABY. I REPEAT, THIS IS NOT OUR BABY. However, it is an example of a 4D ultrasound of a 10 week 5 day old fetus. This is the exact age of our baby. We will probabloy not get the 4D ultrasound done because Tricare does not cover it, but I think its really neat and wanted to share it with ya'll.

10 week 4 day ultrasound

**Edit** If you double click on the image, it will open in a new window, larger.

This is a shot of the whole body. I don't think it was the best view we had today by far. But "he" is laying on "his" stomach, arms hidden, one leg can kinda be seen at the far left.

This is the one that amazes me. Everything is just what she labeled it as.

** Edit ** Mom wanted some clarification on this second picture, it is two ultrasound pictures on one printing. THERE ARE NOT TWO BABIES. The left side is a pic of the butt and legs as if he were sitting on a glass table and you were looking up at his butt (shame on you). The right side is a side view of the right leg.

Its amazing how developed "he" is already, at only 2 inches from head to butt. So total of about 3.5 inches now, head to foot. We saw "him" moving around, saw two arms and obviously two legs. She said the heartbeat was 160. She didn't tell us what day measurement the baby was measuring at though, so we'll have to wait until Thursday to find out. She said my subcorionic hematoma is actually bigger, I was hoping after these two weeks it would have been less but not so. So we'll have to get some specifics from the doc on Thursday. She seemed kind of surprised I wasn't on full bed rest. Hmmm... Lots of questions for Thursday.

This is the matching bassinette and swing we found on craigslist fo great deals.

This is the car seat and stroller combination we also got for a great deal.

Both of these surprised me when I came home from a long day of work yesterday. Not only two vases of roses but also a COMPLETELY clean house. It was great.

I worked M-W-F this week and it killed me. For some reason my body is acting as if there's a switch in it....When I lay down I feel fine (and bored) and want to get up and do something. However, if I get up (including sitting up) I feel awful, have bleeding, nausea and pains in my stomach. I talked to the dr. and he said just to keep doing what I'm doing for now, the three days a week, until the end of the first trimester, unless anything gets worse than it is now. So that is what we're doing, working 3 days a week and laying flat most of the rest of the time. Craziness....

Lots of information, not lots of answers

We saw the dr. today and he said I have a subchorionic hematoma. 2% of all pregnant women have these, but of pregnant women who beed during pregnancy that percentage increases to 30%. He said that is what caused the bleeding last week. What is left is the remainder. It is currently 3.5x3.5 cm. I still have a 50/50 chance of having a miscarriage. But he did say "everything will probably be fine" right after he said "you are still in danger of a miscarriage". The chance of miscarriage from a subchorionic hematoma are greater by three things 1) age of mother, 2) age of baby 3) size of hematoma. The older the mom, the younger the baby and the bigger the hematoma the higher your chances of miscarriage. I have the age thing for me on my side. But for the baby I am considered "in the danger zone" until completion of week 13. You are also in greater danger as long as the hematoma is larger than the baby. Right now the baby is 2.1 cm and the hematoma is larger. But there is a strong heartbeat and the baby is measuring right on track. The hematoma shouldn't get bigger and the baby should. The hematoma might be 1) absorbed into my body 2) expelled by my body (producing bleeding-red or brown-better if its brown) or 3) stay in me for whole pregancy.

He said I was okay to go off bedrest but to take it easy still. He said it was okay for me to go back to work on Monday. He said nothing I do, bedrest included, will help or hurt at this point. I have found information online that agrees with this and information that conflicts. I am going to tell work I can come back on Monday, but only working M-W-F next week and see how that goes before going full time.

I go back on Tuesday the 31st for another ultrasound and then again on the 2nd for a follow up with the dr.

Our tough little gummybear

The baby is 8 weeks 5 days old (I gained a day!!). It is 2.1 cm long. It's heart is beating 172 bpm. It has a head, body, arm and leg buds. And yes, there is only one. Whee!!!!!!!!!! We got to see it moving and hear the heartbeat. We see the dr. tomorrow for more info, but this is the important stuff. We will post more tomorrow afternoon after our appointment with the dr. Hopefully he will be able to explain some of the happenings of the last week.

For those of you who don't already know...we had a HUGE scare this past Wednesday. We spent the whole day in the hospital and I'm on bed rest since then. But they did find a heartbeat then and said everything looked ok for the moment and we had a 50/50 chance of carrying full term. I have an appointment for an ultrasound Tuesday night (tomorrow) and then a dr. appt Wednesday afternoon to find out if things are still okay or not. So for now we just wait...

Its alive and beating!!!!!

We had an unexpected dr. appt today and he said everything was fine and did an ultrasound and we got to see the heart beating!

This is just a closer up shot the dr. took showing just the sac and the baby.





We still have an appointment next week for a full spectrum ultrasound which will give us the exact (almost) age of the baby and let us LISTEN to the heartbeat :-D YAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The dr. said....EVERYTHING IS GOOD!

Our weekend

We had a fun weekend. Friday night, Rich's friend from Jax, Logan called. He was to be our best man but was deployed. He now lives in Beaufort, South Carolina and called because he was up here getting ready to go out again. After just getting back in November...crazy. That is one cool thing about living here, all the east coast boats leave from here so we might get to see old friends once in a while.

Anywho, we picked Logan up from a friend's house and he came over for a bit. Then we picked up two more of his friends and we all went to Cheesecake Factory. It was such a fun night. We just sat there for two hours or so and chatted. Then we had to take them to the boat. We were able to drive right up next to the boat, which was the closest I've ever been. It was neat except there were lots of families there saying good bye to their dads/husbands and it was really sad.

Saturday we went to the mall for a little bit but had to come home because I was so exhausted. I mostly just laid around for the rest of the day.

Sunday we went to Sunday School but couldn't stay for church cuz I wasn't feeling very good. So, surprise, surprise, I just laid around for the rest of the day Sunday too. Richard spent two hours cleaning up and doing laundry which was marvelous. I see everything and want to do it but I just don't have the energy to get up. Or if I do, I immediately feel sick. Its very odd.

But that was our weekend and now its off to another week of joy at work !!! Yipee!

Oh Boy!

For those of you who are just dying to share all your baby naming wisdom with us, we are now accepting applications for names-with several stipulations.

1. It must be a boy name (no, we don't know yet, that is way down the road, we just have lots of girls' names that we like).
2. It must be a first name only (we have a middle) that goes well with Brill.
3. It must be a long name that has a shorter version or common nickname. For example: Jonathan (Jon) or Samuel (Sam). However.....
4. It must not be a common name-no Jon's or Sam's allowed. It must be unique but not wierd. If its on any top 10 list, we don't want it.

There, if you feel you must offer suggestions, this is the area we could really use help in.

Again, we DO NOT KNOW THE SEX OF THE BABY, we just have girl names we like already.

We keep being off in our checkbook balance, by hundreds of dollars. However, we cannot find any discrepencies, and the errors are always in our favor. I just would like to say a quick thank you to whoever is making mysterious deposits to our account. But we are keeping track of all this money separately, in case it just disappears some day. Hopefully not though.

On the baby side of things, we started looking at names this week. I am thouroughly convinced choosing a name will be harder than 18 years of raising that same child. We have several good books, some that we purchased, and two that were loaned to me, so we've been reading up.

Yesterday and today I have been very panicky about losing another one. Part of me knows its probably silly, yet part of me knows its very real. Its been a very long weekend.

Dr. appt

I had my first "real" dr. appt today. As for now, my due date is February 22, 2008. However, he thinks that might be moved a little earlier, which would be a huge blessing. I am feeling pretty awful at this point, very tired, sick, sore, etc. He said this was good though, he said that means that I am very much pregnant.

He has scheduled an ultrasound for July 17 and says he should be able to tell me how far along I really am and we should be able to hear the heartbeat. Whee!! I think we will all feel more comfortable after that. As a precaution, he did put me on bedrest other than work. Not that I am doing anything other than work anyways, by the time I get home, I crash and that's that.

Some people have requested monthly nekkid belly shots. Not gonna happen people...not in a million trillion years. Nope, nada, never. Just so you all know, and can quit asking.

Updates are probably going to be fewer these next few (hopefully very few) weeks, not only do I not have the energy to write, but I have nothing other than puke and sleep to talk about.

R is doing great. School is going good for him, back to everyday classes, he's set to graduate the middle of August. He is excited about this pregnancy, I think the shock got him last time and this time he was almost ready for it, even though it was still very much a surprise.

So that's our news....just pray, pray, pray that everything goes well from here on out.

Mom-here is the invitation to the wedding shower for a girl at work that you asked to see a picture of.

This is our strawberry patch. No berries yet, but lots of buds.

Today we went to the beach and figured we would have a great time in the water, since its been 100 and up for two weeks now. However, there were a billion and a half people there, about twelve of whom were in the water. We decided to try it for ourselves and then decided to enjoy laying on our towel on the sand for the rest of the day. Richard got fried all over, despite the use of sunblock, so tonight we bought aloe and 50 spf. I got fried in about 5 splotches in random places and look very diseased. We are both dismayed because I was the one who wanted to get sun in the first place.

Tomorrow we're going to head back to the church we've gone to a few times and try the sunday school class for a second time. We'll see what happens. Hopefully we will still like it and can stick with this place and stop looking. But I'm still wishing there was a smaller one we liked. This one has 6,000 members.

One night this week we took a walk and watched the baby geese who aren't so much babies anymore and got hissed at by their mommies. We went to the playground and swung on the swings and slid down the slide. It was more fun than I remembered from when I was a kid, but I got nautious on the swings. No fair!

I think that's it for now, R's moaning and groaning about needing more hands for the extensive aloe application process.........

Coke Insanity

We just started collecting coke points. We thought since we drink a lot of coke products maybe we could get something good. Well we could...if they continued this program until we are retirement age. All of that to say, if you have coke products that have codes on them...don't throw them away, email the codes to me....someday we'll have enough to get a baseball hat.

This is how the new uniform looks. :D I couldn't stop smiling after Stacey sewed the patch on for me last night. Its a nice relief knowing that I made it and can reenlist after these next 2 years is over with. Assuming I ever graduate from this class that I'm in. Still haven't had any word and its about 5 weeks now that we've been on hold. I don't really mind so much because of the time off, but its driving others nuts in my class who have family elsewhere and had plans after graduation which is getting pushed back over a month. Anyone want to sign up for the job of seamstress? Or seamster?











This is a picture Stacey took while outside of the building I was frocked in. The ceremony wasn't anything real spectacular because its a training command and not very many people were promoted that are here. 5 were promoted to E5, and 2 were promoted to E6. Very small numbers. Navy wide there weren't very many people who made advancement. Our rate is locked up :/













This is the top portion of the certificate I have. Not sure why she zoomed in to the top part, but here it is lol. I zoomed in so you could (kind of) read the sentence under number 1 that says you are hereby authorized to assume the title and wear the uniform of a Second Class Petty Officer immediately.












Pictures Stacey found and showed to me. These birds are pretty cool and this one has some long feathers on it. This bird was in a greenhouse/nursery Mom, Dad and I visited while I was home in MI, it was just chillin in the back room, walking in circles.


















And another shot of it. Its highest feathers were definitely taller than me, by a lot. Mom and I were standing about 10 feet from it and it was just prancing around.













I'm sorry but those are some ugly dogs lol I had a friend who had a few of those dogs n they were really dumb n made us laugh. But they're kind of so ugly their cute in my opinion and they're really sweet. They're Kyle & Kristen's "foster boxers".












The long awaited TV is finally here! Always wanted a big screen and we were finally able to get one. Had the money set aside for it quite some time now and went out and got one. Its a 46" Sharp Aquos LCD 1080p Kept going back n forth on the lcd and plasmas then finally decided on this for now. I don't have to sit on the coffee table playing my games anymore, I can sit on the couch and see everything just fine :D Or he could just put his glasses on, but no.....we had to get a giant TV.

Quickly...as its past bedtime already.

We celebrated R's promotion with Coldstone Creamery ice cream yesterday....possibly the best idea ever.

Today we just took it slow and relaxed.

We also bought a 46" LCD flat panel TV, a camcorder, new uniform items for R and another Playstation 3 wireless controller. We have had wedding money saved for the TV, waiting to buy it after we moved. Then, we signed up for the NEX credit card to get 10% off the TV and because we got 10% off for the whole day, we decided to buy the other stuff now as well.

Thats all for now, we're tired and still have stuff to do before bed.

R will be making an update in a day or so, nothing spectacular, just cuz he hasn't in a while.

We got the most fabulous news today...

RICHARD GOT HIS PROMOTION!!!!!

He finally made it this time. Navy wide there were less than 80 people who made this rank this time, so he really did good. Congratulations Honey!!!!

Three day weekend

We haven't posted for awhile, and actually our last post was a lie. We wern't really thinking of going to Busch Gardens because I was ..... GOING HOME. I flew home early, early Saturday morning and surprised my dad for his 50th birthday (Monday). It was great, he was really surprised. Ky and Kris were home this weekend also, so that was fun. I flew back here late, late Tuesday night and worked the rest of the week. So, you haven't had any new posts because I've been so tired every night I just come home and crash. And work is crazy too so that probably doesn't help.

Richard is still "on hold" for class so he gets home about 10 every day...Rough. He had today AND Monday off for the holiday... also rough. But he did have duty today so he had to work from 3-7:30.

Tomorrow I have a dr. appt at 7:45 am. Now that is rough. But oh well, better than during the week and missing work. Then we are headed to the Pungo Strawberry Festival. Should be fun, its a big thing around here.

On Monday, we talked about going to the parade in Portsmouth, its the oldest in the nation, celebrating its 130th year or something crazy like that. Who knows.

We're also running lots of errands this weekend...hallmark, the commissary, the bank, etc.

So, not much new, which makes it hard to have an exciting blog, but we will try to update it more often, even if its not horribly exciting.

This week has just been kind of normal. Work for me, computer games for Richard. On Tuesday night I got highlights and my nails done. On Wednesday we had a girl from my work and her husband over for dinner and to watch the last episode of Gilmore Girls...ever. Very traumatizing. Although the writing this last year has been so bad, I don't think they had a choice but to end it.

If it ever stops raining here, we are thinking we'll go back to Busch Gardens this weekend, since it was so much fun last weekend. I can't wait to go back. I'm so glad we got season tickets.

Busch Gardens and more

The Hampton Roads Bridge Tunnel (HRBT) on our first time through.


Ships at Norfolk (Naaw-fuuk) Naval Station as viewed from the HRBT

Crazy coasters at Busch Gardens.
My magnificent husband.

A neat building we saw from the interstate.

Kiddie "Dragon Land" viewed from the air ride.

The new ride...The Griffon. Three rows of ten seats across. This view shows how only the middle three or four are on the track, three on each side hang off the side of the track.

Another view of the three seats hanging off the side of the Griffon.

The Griffon. Hanging in wait above the 205 ft 90 degree straight down drop. It just hangs there for 5 full seconds.
The Griffon goes into water, you don't get wet but it provides this impressive display.

Richard got his Journeyman card.

Our new computer that Richard built. Its black with clear sides and lots of blue lights.

The 90 degree straight down drop.

My new plant up close.
Our photo signature mat up on the wall.

Richard's Journeyman certificate and letter and holder.

The babies that just arrived outside our house.
A sign we saw at the beach, which we found out means no swearing in public.
A close up of the shirt R got at Busch Gardens.

Our new houseplant :-)