What a forever memory feels like...

What's on your list of forever memories?
You know, those memories that will stay with you for all time.

I'm sure that I have more than I think I do, but this last weekend added one of the best.
See? Jen has it easy. She gets to feel my little girl kick and twitch and do somersaults, but baby's still too small for me to feel. I've seen pregnancy test sticks, I've seen pictures, I've watched ultrasound video, but nothing can compare to replacing my prized "high-five" picture (see the pictures) with the real thing!

Ok, not exactly the real thing. Mk1's not out of the launcher yet, but she did give daddy's hand a bump on Sunday night.

It's like crack. Just the one time, and all I want to do is press my hand harder against Jen's belly just to feel another bump. Of course, that's when Jen says enough - right before I cause permanent bruising or a bladder accident!

I might forget the way we had the living room set up; I might forget the movie that we were watching while laying on the couch (it was Nick and Nora's Infinite Playlist); but I'll never forget that first little brush against my hand.

60.67% baby :)
and we're less than 10 million seconds!!!
(9, 515,000 to go...)

Introducing...

Mk1 Mod1 in the Launcher!!!!
weesawdababy eetsagirl!

It's hard to describe the feeling when you're looking at your daughter squirm around on a computer screen. I think that our wedding day still beats it, but it was pretty cool.

Then there was the extreme coolness of using megahertz frequency sound to image my wife's insides. yeah, it's an acoustics student's dream

So I refrained from demanding acoustics answers from the very nice tech that performed the ultrasound and sat back to enjoy looking at my daughter (and the inside of my wife I guess) from every angle, all the while trying to figure out what I was looking at.

In all there were 8 pictures that we got printed. The picture of her face is a little bony and scary looking, so I didn't include it here, but staring into the eyes of the picture, I see the face of Jen. She has Jen's chin and jaw (clearly seen in the bony outlines). I know this all sounds a little weird, but trust me, she's beautiful...Jen's convinced that she has my deep sunken eyes.

I love the picture of her hand. It makes me think of how big my hand will be compared to hers.

I love the picture of her miniature broad, flat foot. Just like daddy's.

I love the picture of her laying in the cozy curled up "fetal position" So snug and comfy.

Only 10,200,000 seconds remaining!!!

57.81% baby...

We're starting to go shopping for baby stuff now.

We seem to have this crazy knack to decide on the most expensive of everything, carefully justifying the upgraded purchase with every possible reason.

SHE NEEDS THE SUPER BABY BOUNCER SWIVEL SEAT MP3 PLAYER SLEEPER OKAY!!!

It really is amazing what you can find when you go to Target...

One day, it will all come together, and our office will be a nursery. Oh what a beautiful day it will be! When our garage will be full of all the stuff we no longer have room for...

I feel like I'm becoming a real dad now :)

until then, we'll keep counting the seconds, and moving the boxes, and watching the belly get bigger, waiting for that first kick that I get to feel.

This stuff is cool :)

Back in the saddle again

At long last!

Thank you to all of our followers, we love you :)

Have you been counting?

We have.

48.5% baby,

12,450,000 seconds left!!

We're beginning to see what the nature of family life in the Navy is all about. Being out to sea is tough for communication; it's tough for family; and it's all a little new to us because we weren't married and living together last time.

My Facebook status today says it all though. "Rolling with the changes...thanks REO."

It all comes down to attitude. Jen has started to attend a women's group Bible study about "Loving your Military Man" focused on how to improve the military marriage relationship. Part of her "homework" is to discuss certain topics at home to identify ways to improve our relationship. The continuing theme for us as we go through the questions is that, no matter what happens, we're committed to each other and we know that God will not give us more than we can handle.

Now's the time in the pregnancy where other people start noticing the baby bump and questions start coming. The strangest thing, and most unexpected by far, is that now is also the time when the baby horror stories start coming out. "My baby pooped this," "My little one threw up that," "I woke up every 45 minutes through the night," and my favorite, "My baby just didn't poop at all for 5 days, and the doctor said that it was normal." The nice thing about having the baby at this time of our lives is that we've gotten the chance to get exposure to parenting from all of our friends with kids. If we've learned one lesson more than any other, it's that every kid is different. Yeah, we'll get poop; we'll get peed on; we'll have smelly baby syndrome; and, God willing, Jen will clean it all up (hehehe). No sweat.

The saddest story of the week came from bad pregnancy news about a new friend of ours here in Hawaii. A lot of people have asked us if it makes us nervous about our own pregnancy, but it doesn't. After the first miscarriage, we learned that God provides according to His purposes. My memory verse for the week is Psalm 33:10-11, "The Lord foils the plans of the nations, he thwarts the purposes of the peoples. But the plans of the Lord stand firm forever, the purposes of his heart through all generations." We are full of confidence that whatever happens will not change the fact that God is in control, and we're okay with that.

If nothing else, the course of our lives leading up to each other has convinced us of that.

And with those deep thoughts, let me leave you with this smile:

Best quote: "Ahh...twins, how nice"

Dedicated worker, jealous husband

31.75% baby, that I still haven't seen yet...

Today, the battle to maintain an even keel on the Life-Work balance totally failed.
As with most new jobs that involve some level of authority, the sense of ownership required of the successful can be overwhelming. So there I was today: torn between not having completed the tasks that I needed to accomplish; stuck between meetings; and not able to accompany my wife to her first pre-natal physical exam.
The appointment went well. Jen learned that the nurse practicioners do not perform births, contrary to what we were told at the Makalapa Clinic. It's a shame because Jen seemed to like today's nurse-practicioner a lot. She also learned that the midwives can administer some drugs, so we're planning on meeting a few of the midwives and getting some exposure to the differences between their philosophy and that of the standard doctor.

For those of you that may worry that we're going to have the midwife help with the birth at home in the bathtub with nice scented candles and the like, don't. God-willing, we'll be in the hospital for the birth, and all will be normal.

Without some of the more gory details, the appointment today involved two things that make Noble something something...
1. The team decided to run a glucose test on Jen, so she had to drink this orange soda stuff and come back in an hour. I want some orange soda :(
2. YET AGAIN, they decided to do an ultrasound. Surely there would be pictures this time!

No orange soda, and NO PICTURES make Noble something something...
GO CRAZY!!!

With my luck, by the time we have the gender revelation appointment, I'll be there and they'll decide that they don't need to do an ultrasound. The good news is that Jen is 12 wks and 5 days today which puts the due date right at 20 July. Just in time!

The question of the day is "How do you strike the appropriate Life-Work balance?"
4586 hours to go!

The awesomest let down

Sorry to disappoint you all today.
We didn't get the expected photographs of the baby today. It turns out that we weren't even going to get an ultrasound today!! It didn't matter because we were late.
It all got started when I got stuck in a class and didn't make it home to pick up Jen for our first appointment with the nurse practicioner. She finally decided to drive herself at the same time I left work. No problem! We both had half an hour to get there. The island is not THAT big, right?
WRONG!
The onramp to the highway was closed for her due to an accident. Then, the only entrance to Tripler Army Medical Center (the only military hospital on the island) was down to one lane due to road construction. Add up all the delays, the packed parking lot, the Valet Parking that closed only minutes before her arrival, and her 13 mile journey, 20 minute drive took her an hour.

Tripler AMC has a policy that if you're more than 15 minutes late, your appointment gets cancelled. For the first time in my life, I got a little snippy with the customer service. No provision is made for situations like ours where the hospital is part of the problem and they still expect you to abide by their policy.
Thankfully, I didn't act on all of the viscious, nasty things that ran through my head, but I'm still shocked at the transformation that is happening with us. As my patience gets shorter, her's gets longer.

Anyway, our next appointment is Friday where we get the full pregnancy physical. Still no pictures unless they feel they need to do an ultrasound for some reason. We only get one ultrasound as part of normal routine, so we have to wait another 8 weeks.

All the buildup and excitement for the dis-appointment.
The awesomest part of the day though started with us actually talking to the nurse-practicioner. She said that Jen needs to drink more water and that pseudoephedrine and tylenol are okay for her sinus headaches. She also got some zofran for nausea, so all that should make her feel a little better.

Oh yeah, and we got to hear the baby's heartbeat!!!
:) :) :) :) :)
Cardiac function verified!

I didn't get a hard count on the heart rate because I was holding Jen's radial pulse while listening to the baby's heartbeat and a plant was in the way of the clock.
I did see a couple of seconds go by and got a general idea.
It was somewhere around 150-160.

:) :) :) :) :)

16,860,000 seconds to go!!!
30.3% baby!