27 weeks

I am officially 27 weeks 1 day. I am now back to 16 lbs under prepregnancy weight. I feel like I am ballooning. It's weird, I keep my weight in check when I'm in Germany, but for some reason being home the pounds just pack on. It makes me want to stay away, I wonder if it's all the stress from my mother that I don;t have to deal with when I'm in Germany. I still feel pretty good, a lot more exhausted than I'm use to. The drama between my parents really takes it out of me. I try not to get involved, but my mother is so cruel sometimes that it's hard to stay out of it. Maybe coming here for so long wasn't the best idea I've ever had. I really miss Aaron too. We don't get to speak very often because of his work schedule coupled with the time change, and it really sucks. He made me cry on Tuesday. He sent Kayla a bouquet of flowers, roses and carnations and alstomeria(sp?), it was gorgeous and his card was really sweet talking about missing his princess and not being able to wait to hold her again. He also sent me a bouquet of red roses and calla lilies. Both are absolutely gorgeous. I wish I could do more for him. It seems like our relationship is very one-sided sometimes.

I've been thinking about my "job" a lot lately. SAHM was the last thing that I ever thought I would be. Yet, here I am. I love spending my day with Kayla, and I look forward to spending my days with Kayla and Graham, but at the same time I feel like I don't contribute to the household. I feel like all I do is spend money and I haven't helped earn any of that money. It's made me consider more seriously joining the army myself. It's something I've always wanted to do, but something always happened right when I was about to sign that prevented me from doing so. The plus side of joining would be 1. My student loans would be paid in full, 2. I would have steady income, 3. I would receive a large sign-on bonus that could be used for a down payment on a house or be put into a mutual fund that by the time Kayla and Graham were old enough for college it would fully fund their educations and then some. The down side is that 1. I would have to leave my children and my husband for 13 weeks of Basic Training, during which time I would be able to talk to them maybe once a week. 2. I could possibly be deployed at which point I would be away from my children for a year 3. Aaron and I could deploy at the same time, in which case our children would have both parents gone for a year. It's a lot to take in and think about.

Kayla just continues to amaze me. She put on an anime cat hat today, I think my mom purchased it at some point from good will, and immediately said "I'm a cat" It was the cutest thing. She is such a sweet girl. I am the luckiest mom on the planet. She is always giving me hugs and kisses and saying "love you momma" or "I love mommy" She is growing up so quickly. I can't believe she is already 25 months old. I can't imagine life without her. It's going to be very difficult to split my time between her and Graham once he arrives. I'm sure I'll feel like I'm neglecting one of them, and with Aaron deploying it will probably be even harder. I think I may stay in Germany for the majority of his deployment. I was originally planning on coming home from November-April, but after being here only 2 weeks now and thinking it's too long, I can't imagine being here for 6 months!

Until next week, or I need to vent again

26 weeks

Yay! 26 weeks down, 14 to go. My bout of sickness on Sunday, and inability to really consume food for the next day took it's toll on my weight and I'm back down to 20 lbs under pre-pregnancy weight. I am still very able to hide the fact that I'm pregnant. It's weird to be so much smaller at almost 6 months pregnant than I was when I first became pregnant. I have noticed though that my baby bump is much more pronounced in the late afternoon than when I first wake-up. Bloat is crazy like that I guess. I will be making an appointment with a local OB while I'm here per Doctor's request. I am also planning on surprising Aaron with a 3d/4d ultrasound appointment. I feel Graham moving like crazy now. Last night, about 1 am, I was able to feel his head pushing out against my stomach. It was the weirdest feeling, because it was like I was actually holding his head in my hand. I love being pregnant. Every moment is amazing.

Surprise!

The past week (almost) has been amazing! Aaron and I decided a few days after Christmas that it was a good time for my visit home. So on January 7, I boarded a plane with "Uncle Vinny", Andrew, and Kayla for the flight from Germany back to the states. That was probably one of the longest days of my life. We boarded the plane at 1:30 Germany Time. We landed in Chicago at 5 pm Chicago time, or 12 am Germany time. Our flight was originally scheduled to depart Chicago at 8:00 pm(3 am). We stood in line at customs for a few minutes, dreading what seemed like would be a very long wait as the line was outrageous. However, I quickly noticed a line for military ID card holders that had maybe 3 people in it. We were through customs in no time. Next we had to pick up our bags, go through customs again, and re-check our bags for the flight into Nashville. By the time we were able to do this, we had been in Chicago for 2 hours! We were starving to boot. Somewhat luckily, our flight was delayed until 9:00pm (4am) We went to Chili's and tried to watch some of the Alabama Texas BCS bowl championship, but it didn't work out so well. By the time our flight actually left, we had been moved to 3 different gates, and sat on the plane for 45 minutes. It was midnight(7am) when we arrived in Nashville. I had officially been awake for 24 hours since I didn't sleep during my flight time. I was up until 6 am (1pm) before finally getting to sleep thanks to Kayla staying awake because of the jet lag.

Our arrival in Nashville, however, was very exciting. It was a complete surprise for my entire family. My mom started screaming and crying when she saw us, my dad just grabbed Kayla and hugged and kissed her all over. I have missed them immensely. Friday we slept, Saturday we were having a big family get together and surprising them with our attendance. The weather had other plans. So we called everybody playing coy about what was going on, some people figured it out very quickly, others took quite a bit of time. It was quite funny. My aunt Suzi didn't believe that we were here and hung up on my dad because he was playing such a cruel joke. The weather got a little better, Missy, Amanda, and Lilly were able to make it out to visit for a while. Sunday morning, Big Nan Nan brought breakfast, eggs, bacon, orange juice, raspberry danish coffee cake. He wasn't able to stay very long but Kayla was very excited to see him. I was sick the rest of the day, it was horrible.

Monday was uneventful, Tuesday was full of fun. We went to Farmers Market for lunch. PSA Stay away, now that the chinese food place is gone from there the food leaves lots to be desired. After lunch we went to AC and Boo's to play. It turned into another huge party, Cari, Mack, Helen, Pinky, Joseph, Big Nan Nan, Miss BB, Missy, Amanda, Me, Nan Nan, Kayla, Boo, and AC all visited together until about 6.

No plans as of yet for today.

New Years and a Pregnancy Update

New Year's Eve was pretty uneventful. Aaron, Kayla, Vinny, Andrew, and I spent our time over at our neighbor's house with what seemed like the whole neighborhood and then some. Kayla was ready for bed at about 9 pm though so I had to go home and get her to sleep. I finished reading New Moon. Aaron came and got me at 1130 so that we could do the countdown, I was back in bed by 12:10. Aaron on the other hand didn't make it to bed until 7 am. He was out until 6, and then proceeded to pass out on the toilet until I found him there when I got up at 7. Vinny and Andrew slept until 3 pm and 1 pm respectively, Aaron never really made it out of bed. So far 2010 has been great, we've played in the snow, visited new places around Germany, and I got my plane ticket to go home for a visit.

Pregnancy update: I am currently 24 weeks 6 days, and 16 lbs less than pre-pregnancy weight. I still feel really good and can definitely still hide my baby bump if I want. My jeans still fit, and most of my shirts cover my tummy except for the few that were almost too short before I was KTFU. I am surprising Aaron while I'm home with a 3d ultrasound. I am so excited, hopefully the little fella will be cooperative during this one, unlike at the Drs office. He won't ever give us a profile view of his face, or a decent look between his legs. At this point we are operating under the doctor being "pretty sure" it's a boy. I would really like a definite answer. I've gotten more information about the setting I will be delivering in, and I am super stoked. It has everything I could want and more to have a smooth labor and natural delivery of Graham.

You may be recalling my recently purchased ticket to visit home. I am going home on Thursday, just two days from now. Nobody knows I am coming, it will be a huge surprise. Not only am I going home, but I will be there for 6 weeks! I can't wait to see everybody again. I miss my family and my besties like crazy.

Well that is all the information I have as of now. I'll keep updating as time progresses