Anxious Nugget

Apparently Nugget is anxious to get out of his warm little cocoon as he tried to make an early arrival on Friday. I had called the doctor's office Thursday afternoon concerned that my next appointment was not until July 6th - 4 weeks from my previous appointment. So the nurse kindly moved me up to July 1st and asked if I was having any problems. "Not really but I think I might be having more contractions at night." I said that because I truly had a hard time distinguishing between when Nugget is just pressing his butt up against my belly and when I am having a contraction. She suggested that I come in Friday morning instead. Friday morning, we got up and took the dogs for a run and noticed a few contractions. Then we Showed up at the doctors office and all of the sudden the nurse gets this look on her face and proceeds to tell me that I was 4 cm dilated. Oh no, no, no, no. Needless to say, I was a bit freaked out. She asked when my last contraction was and I wasn't sure. I told her that at that moment he was moving around and she felt my belly and corrected me - I was having a contraction. She left to talk to the doctor while I started timing the contractions - 5 minutes apart. Oh no, no, no, no. It is too early! Doc came in and sent me directly over to the hospital to see if they could stop the labor. After being admitted a new nurse came and checked me - but she said I was not dialed at all?? Then my doctor came over and I told her the good news! And she confirmed no dilation!! But now my contractions were 2 minutes apart. My doc said that although I was still in labor, knowing that I was not 4 cm dilated changed the likelihood that Nugget was not going to have a June 24th birthday.

After being hooked up to an IV for fluids and having a few shots of terbutaline to stop the labor, the contractions slowed down a bit. They kept me overnight and my contractions are becoming more and more spaced out. I am still having a few today but they seem to be in check. Per doctor's orders, I am now on partial bed rest, i.e. I can go to work and go home, for the next two weeks. She has kept me on the terbutaline for the next two weeks as well. Once I hit 36 weeks, she said I can go back to my normal routine and Nugget can come whenever he wants to then.

In the meantime, my sister from Beaumont is in town for the week. She has been wonderful and taken over my house. I feel like I am part of a TV series where you come home and your rooms are completely redone. Since I had no semblance of a nursery, she has taken it upon herself to make sure I at least am set up with the basics just in case. She and my dad have taken the guest bedroom apart and essentially scaled it down and combined it with our office room. And now they are working on the nursery. It looks great! Now if we just knew what color to paint the walls.

New Addition!!

Don't worry - it's not mine thank goodness. My sister had her fourth baby on Friday afternoon. They have 3 boys already - one 5 years old and twins under the age of 2. Her fourth was born weighing about about 7.5 lbs and is a GIRL!!! Huge suprise. She did not know what she was having but was very confident it was another boy. She was so sure that they really did not have girl names picked out and she only brought a boy's outfit to take her little one home in. I was able to hold her on Friday and she is absolutely beautiful.

Makes me question my confidence that Nugget is a boy. At least if I have a girl, she will have a cousin with similar sexual identity issues.

Fathers Day

Happy Fathers Day!! Someone asked me if I counted today as Doug's first fathers day and despite not being able to spend it with him, I would have to say yes. Although he is not here, he is still keeping tabs on us - he sent me an email last week asking if I was getting the recommended 75-100 grams of protein each day. Ironically, my mom and I started childbirth classes last week and our assignment this week was to write down what we ate each day and see if we are getting 75-100 g of protein each day. I was able to get my Sunday call in and all is well in Iraq. He sweetly listened mostly to me complain about being tired of house remodeling and Nugget trying to outgrow my belly and not letting me sleep.

Unfortunately, not only did I not get to spend fathers day with my husband, I did not get to spend it with my pops either. Being the great dad that he is, he came over last night to mow my lawn and was going to meet me in Round Rock this morning to help out on the house - great way to spend father's day I know, but that is the kinda dad he is. Apparently, he woke up in the middle of the night not feeling well at all and has spent the day and now night in the hospital. Nothing major, but they are going to observe him for a few days to see if his digestive system kicks back in. I think even he would admit that he'd rather be working on the RRock house.

Next year promises to be better : )

Nugget's First Tri

Nugget completed his (or her) first triathlon. If Nugget is a he, he managed to sneak into an all womens tri. Every year Austin is one of the host cities to Danskin Triathlon which is a fundraiser for breast cancer. My girlfriend, Karyn (6 months pregnant & breast cancer and chemo survivor) and I had talked about doing it somewhat jokingly several months ago but I thought surely I would be way too big to think about it. A few weeks ago, I looked at the registration and found out that it was still open (the race usually fills up at least a month prior). I emailed her, now even more jokingly, and asked if she was still interested. We know the race director, also a cancer survivor, who Karyn immediately emailed and responded to me that we were in and registration fees were waived. First I thought, what have I gotten myself into? And then I thought, well I am not THAT big - and no I have not shrunk since my last picture. So after taking my bike in to have the handle bars raised as much as they could go, so that I could reach them more comfortably, I was set.

The start times for the swim typically go in “waves” and for this race the waves are in order age, oldest to youngest, 4-5 minutes between each wave. If we started in our age division that means we would start around 8:00-8:30 with a couple of hundred other women in our age bracket. Or we could sign up in the Elite division, where we somewhat legitimately raced previously, go first at 7:00 am and only start with about 30 women. So of course our big bellies signed up Elite. We picked up our race packets yesterday and the guy at registration kindly asked us if we knew that we had signed up in the Elite division. "Why? Don't we look Elite?" He didn’t say much more but we were sure to give him a hard time.

Karyn and I met up this morning, a bit late and cutting it close to the start time but we weren’t racing and really didn't care. After standing in the bathroom line, we headed down to the start which was supposed to running late. Apparently, it started on time. The 4th wave had already started and we had missed the Elite start. Oh well.... So we jumped in with the next wave, about 20-25 minutes late which added 20-25 minutes to our overall time. There were a few more people than I cared for in the water at that point but I stayed to the outside and practiced my meditated lamaze breathing and met Karyn at the finish of the swim (she kindly waited for me). I was ready to get out of the water. Then we hopped on our bikes and the 4 of us started pedaling. We had someone, who actually was racing, yell at us as she went by that we were not supposed to be riding side by side. In years past this would have driven us crazy, but, again, today we didn’t care. The bike went by really fast and didn’t get too many weird looks. It wasn't until the run that "is she?" and "go mom!" was frequently heard. Who are they talking to? Still getting used to the "mom" thing. Reminded people that we were both “moms" so as to attract more attention to Karyn’s belly - she is hardly showing and her belly is not sticking out like my obvious melon. We finished the run running and had a great time - it was a perfect way to end Nugget's first Tri.

I'll post pics as soon as I get them back and air brush them.

Minor Change to Change in Address

I thought "APO" did not sound right when I put Doug's new address in and after talking to him today, he said that was a typo - his address should still be to an "FPO"

Mail to:
Major Doug W.Gardner
Haditha Dam, 3/25
Unit 72110
FPO AE 09509-2110

You can continue to email him at:

dgls_gardner@yahoo.com but now I would also cc: him at
gardnerdw@gcemnf-wiraq.usmc.mil

If you sent anything in the past week, I do hope it will get to him. It will probably depend on how observant your postal carrier is and whether they notice it should be an FPO. It may take a few extra days.

He has made it safely to his new location at the Dam and although communication is not as great, he still will be able to make his weekly Sunday calls on government line! Needless to say, that makes me happy. He emailed me on Wednesday and apparently there is usually a 2 hour wait to use the internet and it is slow and not overly reliable. He is doing well despite the new cast that goes up to the middle of his upper arm. The doc says he'll have the full arm cast for another 2-3 weeks and then maybe switch it out for one that comes to his elbow. The upside to the Dam is that is about 10-15 degrees cooler there than Hit - making it a pleasant 100-105 degrees. And I thought it was getting hot here.

Change in Address

There was yet another sand storm yesterday so my conversation with Doug was choppy. He was scheduled to move to a different position in two weeks which was bumped up. As of tomorrow, he will be weapons company commander of the strongest weapons company in the battalion (I think I have that right). He is moving from Hit to another city just north of Hit on the Euphrates River - what they refer to as the Dam which I think I may have mentioned in a previous blog. The good news, so he tells me, it is supposed to be somewhat safer. The bad news is that the communication is not as great. I have been spoiled with emails from him every other day and a call once a week. We are not sure at this point if the calls will be as frequent but fairly sure that the email will be more spotty. I would go ahead and continue to email him at:

dgls_gardner@yahoo.com but now I would also cc: him at
gardnerdw@gcemnf-wiraq.usmc.mil

His address will change as of tomorrow as well. Mail to:
Major Doug W.Gardner
Haditha Dam, 3/25
Unit 72110
FPO AE 09509-2110


If you sent something this past week, it will get to him, it just may take a few more days.

Unfortunately, he is taking on his new position with a broken wrist. At Camp Hit he managed to brake a fall with his wrist. Fortunately, not combat related. Like any good wife, I asked "How can you shoot?" Not sure I have a satisfactory answer but I am sure he'll be fine.

He was able to see my belly pic before I posted it – to which he responded:

“Wow. What did you swallow? I think you should show a little more restraint at the dinner table. Where's my wife? You're all belly. That's awesome. Have you thought about getting a cast made? I don't know what we would do with it but it would be nice.”

Gotta love my husband : ) Can’t wait to see his response when I have my 39-40 week belly picture!

32 Week Belly Shot

I reckon I should have prefaced this with some sort of warning - as it is a bit revealing.....

Hard to believe what a difference 8 weeks makes, but here it is. I knew I had gotten bigger but did not realize how much until I looked at my 24 week pic. Yikes! The kiddo is doing great. Despite the apparent growth spurt, he or she is right on track in size, so I am told. He (I still think it is a he and can't call the baby "it") is supposed to be about 18-19" long and close to 4 lbs. He really enjoys pressing his butt or his head out to one side so that my belly constantly looks lop-sided. I can't really distinguish what is an elbow, foot, or hand, but can tell when I am being poked with one of them. It is very entertaining to press on the unknown body part to see if I can move it or if he will press back. I will be amazed if Nugget isn't born with bruises at the rate I am poking at him.

I had my first contractions a few nights ago which I am told is normal but I still worry. Nugget and I have a deal that he is to stay in as long as possible so long as he does not go over 8.5 lbs. I figure the longer he stays in, the less Doug misses out on. We'll see if I still agree to this deal in a month.....


32 week belly  

Toilet!

We have an operating toilet in Round Rock!!! It has been a year and a half since we bought "the money bit" and a year a half without a toilet. You may not fully appreciate what this means. In fact, unless you have worked out at the house for several weekends in a row having to run up to the nearest gas station (or tree), you cannot appreciate the beauty and significance of this picture. Of course the bowl has a crack in it (after being installed on Friday) and will have to be replaced tomorrow but who said anything was easy?


Toilet! 

Mugwai

Doug's unit has adopted a new pet. Her name is Mugwai, named after the little gremlin in The Gremlins. Doug refers to her as "the world's ugliest dog" but I think she is kinda cute. The guys out on patrol found her covered with sores and mange. Doug said that she actually looks better now that she is starting to grow some of her fur back. She has a very sweet temperament and is not bothered by all of the activity. I think they will keep her for awhile.


Mugwai