The Longest Week Ever...

Greetings and Salutations!

So it's about 0400 right now, and for some ungodly reason, I'm awake. I was nausiated all evening, thought it went away, then awakened around midnight when it returned. I happen to be a total pansy about being sick, so it's no fun being alone like this. Especially when Blaze has told me all they've done since he got there is eat, take long naps, and they practiced combatives one day....OH WAIT! They also have been playing Spades in the barracks. So far, it's only 15 people from 4-25FA, the rest of the unit is still at Drum for some reason. In addition to that, the Army booked the flights with Delta before the bankruptcy, now they have no way home. Blaze told me tonight that in their one month stay at Ft. Polk, they are only scheduled to train for Iraq for 12 days. Needless to say, he's pretty upset about the whole thing, I'm not too thrilled either, but that just comes with the whole Army thing.

In other news, I received a letter from my brother, Ryan, today. :) For those of you who don't know, he's at Ft. Benning for Basic Training and I haven't talked to him since he left. It was great to hear from him. :) He actually seems to be excited about the baby which kind of surprises me, but thrills me all the same. :)

As for the baby and I, we're wonderful! I've been swimming every day, I've read it's wonderful exercise for pregnant women because you get a low-impact exercise that's great cardio and works every muscle group. I will say, I was a little more out of shape than I thought I was; I was dying after like four laps, I'm chalking some of that up to all the smoking I did before the baby. I've actually lost a couple pounds which scares me a little, but I had weight to spare beforehand, I'm taking my vitamins, and I'm eating right so I think everything is okay.

AHH!!! BLAZE IS GOING TO QUIT SMOKING! :D (or at least that's what he says) I'm thrilled. He never smokes around me anyway, but he always smells like an ashtray and I won't even talk about kissing him. I didn't even realize how gross smoking is until I quit and saw how much better I feel. Anyway, yeah, he's going to quit, he's already cut WAY back. I'm proud of him. :) By the way, if you tell him that I think it'll spark some sort of rebellion thing, so act like you don't know. I promise I'll keep everyone updated. :D

I'm going to attempt to get back to sleep now, I love you all and can't wait to see everyone when I come back to Texas in May. :)

Shannon

Just Updating

Howdy, Howdy, Howdy!

So I just woke up this morning and realized I haven't really posted anything in a while, therefore, I'm fixing that. Blaze leaves for Fort Polk, Louisiana at midnight tonight and I won't see him (or likely talk to him) for about a month. He'll be doing some pretty neat stuff. It's for Iraq infantry training, they actually have civillians dress up like Iraqis and speak Arabic to the soldiers, basically, the soldiers have to navigates their way through the entire camp successfully. Basically, it's an Iraq simulation. I think Blaze is excited because it's what he signed up for in the first place, so I'm glad he's getting to go. In other news with Blaze, he has dramatically decreased the amount he smokes! :) The other day he finally said he was going to quit because of me and the baby. We'll see how that goes. :)

As far as me, things are about the same, I'm excited to get back home to Texas. I should be there on the 8th or 9th of this month for a visit. I'm just thrilled I'm able to come back and don't have to spend my birthday alone. :) The baby is doing fine, morning sickness has again raised it's ugly head. However, it seems less severe than before, so I'll be okay. I'm having TONS of dreams about the little one, usually about the sex of the baby, oddly enough it changes from one night to the next. haha

I changed my OB/GYN to Carthage Area Hospital, a civillian provider. I'm soooo happy about that. They haven't called me for an appointment yet, as I'm still waiting on TriCares approval, which shouldn't be problem. Carthage is actually a pretty neat town, it's a tiny little mountain town and the hospital is BEAUTIFUL! Besides, the midwife at the hospital, is Sgt. Major Redvay's wife. Blaze is pretty excited because he loves Redvay and Redvay loves him haha.

Well that's all I really have for today, I need to go eat something before I get sick. Love you all, take care, and I hope to see everyone when I come home! :)

Shannon

Sonogram Appointment #2

Hello All,

I hope all is well with everyone, here is my latest update: I went to the doctor this afternoon for a standard sonogram and unfortunately, several bad things happened.

First, Blaze's Chief told us that he would be able to go to my sonogram appointment, and had been telling us that for about a month now. This morning, he changed his mind and again, I went to my appointment alone. In retrospect of the appointment, I'm kind of glad he wasn't able to go. Let me just say THE BABY IS FINE, before anyone freaks out. It's me that's the problem.

I went at 6 weeks for a sonogram because of some bleeding, so they went ahead and did my pap, I got a call a couple weeks later about a bacterial infection they found and got treated for it. What they failed to mention is that the results came back for cancerous cells on my cervix. The way I found this information out is because I had some depression that I wanted to discuss with Major Morgan (my OB/GYN) and she asked if it was because my pap results. I told her no, because it was just a bacterial infection and there was no reason to be upset. She then looked at me, totally shocked, and said "so...you don't know about the actual pap coming back bad?". I said no, and had to fight back tears, because, as we all know, a pap tests for cancerous cells. So she broke the news to me then we continued with our appointment. Let me just say, it really took the wind out of my sails and made it really difficult to enjoy the sonogram.

That being said, when she did the sonogram the baby was kicking it's feet around and waving frantically, occasionally throwing a backflip or two. :) Then, as if he knew he was being watched....he just stopped and it looked like he was sucking his thumb. It was cute. :) I'll include the sonogram pictures at the bottom, they did the sonogram externally therefore he looks a lot smaller than he is. According to the measurements, he's 4.41cm long. :)

Blaze and I are good, we just got home from taking a long walk around the neighborhood. I really enjoyed it, as did he; we're making that part of our daily routine to get out of the house, get some exercise, and just enjoy each other.

He had kinda had a bad day too...Chief wouldn't let him go to my appointment, which really bothered him, he was told at 1700 that he had a Class A and TA-50 inspection at 1900, and he spilled our dinner all over the truck. The first of the three is pretty self explanatory. Blaze was completely ready for his Class A and TA-50 inspection, (he looked so handsome in his uniform!) and we were on our way to the battery when we got a call from Blaze's Chief saying the inspection was cancelled. About that time we were stopped for a random vehicle search at the post gate. So there we were, Blaze in his Class A's, me in some house shorts and t shirt standing outside the truck just waiting while everyone drove by, pointed and laughed. After that, I was pretty upset about the doctor and didn't want to cook, Blaze didn't either, so we settled for McDonald's....Blaze picked up the bag and apparently they had it sitting in water or something and french fries went flying. Good times. Anyway, sorry for rambling, I'll put pictures in now. :) Love you all, just keep us in your prayers, we need it. :) .

Shannon

Saturday Morning

Howdy!

So it's Saturday morning and we've got big plans for the weekend. :) Well, at least I think so. Today, we're going to breakfast/lunch/brunch (whatever), then going to Carthage to check out Carthage Area Hospital's Maternity Unit. :) Some one told me it was really nice and beats the heck out of the Maternity Unit at Samaritan Hospital in Watertown. (Samaritan is old, outdated, and just dirty). The rooms are supposed to resemble a bedroom or hotel room, they offer some neat things that I didn't know places usually offered. If I so please, I could do a water birth (where you sit in the huge tub of water and have the kid, it's supposed to ease up the contractions a little bit) but I won't do that just for the hygiene factor. They also offer a catered dinner to you and your spouse after you rest up from delivery. I don't know, it just seemed pretty cool. I'll write more when I have more info from the facility. All of this info is subject to change.

Then this afternoon, we're going to go play on the 4-wheeler at a new place Blaze's chief told us about. Blaze is excited because he gets to play with his toy, I'm excited because it's just a flat out, gorgeous day!!!

Tomorrow we'll be heading out to Syracuse early in the morning for a gun show, then we're going to check out the 5 story mall. I've never seen anything like that, but we'll just see how cool it is, I've heard awesome things about it. Would it be too tourist-y to take pictures? Anyway, we're staying entertained and getting ready for the sonogram appointment on Monday. :) SOOOOO EXCITED! Can't wait to see the little one. :) This will be Blaze's first time to hear the baby's heartbeat. :)

Well, I've gotta run, it's time to drag Blaze out of bed, wish me luck! Love y'all!

Shannon

Greetings!

Hello everyone!

So it was brought to my attention that a lot of people are blogging during their pregnancies these days, so I jumped on the band wagon (thanks to the help of Tina and Brittany). This will be the place to go if you just want to see how things are developing and basically just check up on Blaze, The Baby, and I. I'll try to post the sonograms as often as I get them, however I've been told after 20 weeks, they don't do them anymore unless there's a problem. By the way, I will still send all the sonograms out to everyone whose email addresses I have. :)

As for the current condition of our family, we're peachy! As of today, I'm 10 weeks and 3 days pregnant. It's amazing how precise doctors can be with that stuff. The morning sickness was gone for a while, then came back with a vengance about a week ago, but it seems to be subsiding again. I've only gained about 4 pounds so far, (THANK GOD!) I'm super concerned about the weight gain portion of the program because according to the doctor, I'm supposed to keep it around 25 lbs. That doesn't sound that bad, except I'm looking at all these pregnant women around me (it's an Army post, all people do around here is reproduce) that have gained close to 40lbs. Fortunately, my pregnancy craving lately has been Spicy Hot V8 and beef jerky. That should help with the weight gain. I'm not really showing yet except for some water retention that makes me feel pretty tubby, as I've said before, I guess I'm just showing enough that people passing by think I should lay off the junk food. Enough about me...

Blaze is doing wonderful! :) Things are good at work, apparently they've just put in the paperwork for his PFC, a promotion is always a good thing! Last weekend, Blaze got to play with his toys (the truck and 4-wheeler), I've got some pictures, they're very muddy. I think Blaze is starting to get excited about the baby, his Chief is allowing him to come to my appointments (YAY!) so that's always a good thing. Other than that, not a whole lot has gone on, it's just another day in paradise because I'm with him. :)

Shay