Hawaii Vacation!

So we took a much needed Vacation to Maui. We went for a week and got away from it all. We flew out on Friday the 17th and came back Thursday night the 24th.Here we are at the airport waiting to catch our plane.Here's the plane!Here we are on the plane happy that we can finally see land!The land we see! Finally to Maui! When we got to Maui we got our rental car which was a Convertible Sebring, not the greatest car but it did get us everywhere we wanted to go, and we only used a half a tank! We got to the hotel which was the Ka'anapali Beach Club and here are some views from the room...View from the Balcony toward the waterView from the balcony to the Koy PondOf View of me on the balcony. The View from our door going down to another Koy pond and the restaurant area in the middle of the rooms.another view from the balcony on a bad day.

Once we got settled there we went swimming down at the pool for movie night. They were playing 27 dresses, we watched a little as we swam and then it was time for bed. We spent the next day putting around and then going on a dinner cruise that night. It was ok, the weather was good, the food was ok and the magician was ok. I wouldn't reccomend that trip but it was an adventure. WE did see a few whales while we were out there, so we got one on the camera, it was a picture right before it came up out of the water, the thing was massive.

WE spent the next few days lounging around a visiting Lahina (front sreet) where we shoped and ate at some restaurants, here are some of the Lahina photos:

WE rented some Snorkel equipment (it was sad because I have such a small face that the normal size didn't work for me and it leaked, so we had to go back and get a childs size mask for me)and did snorkeling outside of our hotel, (an I got a panic attack the first time in the water, so Devin had to go out for a while with out me) so here are some views from the beach and those fishies:

Ok so we did take a Snorkeling trip. We were supposed to go to Molakini, but the weather was severely bad the day we decided to go. So we ended up going out farther to an area that is a reserve. Much to our surprise when we got there, there were dolphins in the water that we got to jump in and swim with. I was SOOO happy about that since the "swimming with dolphins at the place" was off limits to pregnant women. But out in the open ocean they can't Stop me. MMMMWWWWAAAHHHHHH. Anyways, we didn't see much out there because it was murky because of the wind, but we did get a few photos of that trip! Totally worth it!

So here are just a few random ones from the week:
The last day. The last day we took it easy. We had dinner plans at the Lahina Grill (very upscale restaraunt) so, we played mini golf, and then went to dinner.. so here are the photos from the last day)-:So I know there are a lot of pictures, but so many people have been requesting them that I tried to get them all on one post. People it took me seriously 5 days to do this post, so I hope you really enjoy the pictures and the not so much commentary.

A Big Expand

OK so I haven't posted for a little while about the little growing baby, so I'm going to spill it all now.
March 30th we had a follow up appt. with the Genetic councelor. The week before I got my blood taken from my Dr. so they could compare it to the blood from the beginning of the pregnancy. We started the appt. off waiting in the waiting room for an HOUR before we were even seen. Devin and I knew that we were getting an ultra sound and getting to find out the sex so we secretly took Kristene (my sister) with us and we told her it was just to meet with the counselor. So when we finally got called into the office I told her as we were walking in the door that we were going to be able to find out the sex that day..... I think she was pretty excited to be part of it!!!

We then got into the room we sat in there for another 15min. before the lady came back. UGH we were so annoyed at this point already. She started the ultra sound and did a lot of stuff, looking at measurments and the brain and all the bones......... She didn't explain anything to us so I was kinda upset about that, so we just sat in silence watching the screen. She said that the baby was measuring small and asked if Sept. 1st was my true due date. As far as I've been told it is. This lady wasn't up to speed on life I'm sure. After she left the room a different lady came in and looked at some things and then left again. We were then left in this room alone for some time before a nurse came in to take my blood pressure. After then we went to another room and sat down and waited for the couselor to be available. FINALLY we got called into Vicki's office to hear about the test results.

As far as they can tell in the blood work, I am not a carrier of anything on my family. But, my blood test came back abnormal. My hormone levels were really high on some things and low on others. So the 3 bads..... We have a 1 in 100 chance of having a baby with Down Syndrome, we have a 3% chance of having a baby with cystic fibrosis (which doesn't make any sence because you have to be a carrier for that and someone in your family has to have it, well no one on either of our sides have it...) and then the 3rd one has to do with my placenta not being able to give the baby enough nutrients. The things they looked and and how they came up with the conclusions they did are: my blood work coming back with abnormal hormone levels, the baby measuring smaller then it should be, and the bones in the top of the arms and the top of the legs are measuring small, and the blood that moves from the baby through the umbilical cord wasn't how it was supposed to be moving (I guess). So all in all I was annoyed at the whole thing, and Devin was scared about the whole thing, and they want to do more tests. They want to do an Amnio. WTF, no way. They are SO not going to stick a Giant needle through my stomach, into my uterus while puncturing my amniotic sack just to get a little bit more info (that will probably come back Inconclusive anyways, screw that). PLus there is a chance that the baby can miscarry at that point because they punctured the amniotic sack. There is no way that I want to take a chance like that for something that probably isn't happening to the baby. SO we opted out of having an amnio and I will have another ultra sound next week to measure the baby again to see if anything has changed. If the baby is growing small then, they will just keep an eye on it for the rest of the pregnancy. I would rather enjoy the next 4.5 months and not being tested every week. We Finally left that office at 5:15pm when we got there at 2pm. It was the most aweful appt. that we have ever been to.

Now that you have read all this, the real point to this post was to show you that in the last few days, I swear this thing has pushed my tummy out more and more each day. And it's to the point where I am now actually showing and not being just "fat''. So here is this weeks.

This was this morning about to walk out the door. My tummy is smaller in the morning than it is at night right before bed time.

This was taken last night right before bed.

And again last night right before bed, when I look down it feels and looks bigger then it does from the side. But this picture was for fun!!

Oh and I'm sure you are wondering what the sex is since I posted that earlier.... She didn't give us a picture of it (but gave up 6 pictures of the face), Well my friends, we are having a little baby Girlie and I couldn't be more excited about it! Devin is happy, but would have been happy either way!!!

A doggie play date!

(last year Maui didn't want to swim, she didn't want to go into the water)

So we decided to try to take Maui swimming again for the season. Last year she really didn't like it much and didn't want to go into the water. This year we decided she's supposed to be a water dog and dagnabit she's going to do it! So we walked to the pond down by our house on Friday night to give it a try. She was excited to get down to the wooded area because everytime we get there we take her collar off and she gets to go run around alone. We made it over to the pond area and we threw a stick into the pond and WOW there she goes, she jumped right into the pond to go get that stick. She did it OVER and OVER and OVER again until we said no more. She was shivering because she was cold so it was time to go home. She was also HORRIBLE on her leash that day so we decided to get one of those choke collars so if she pulled, she hurt herself. We went to Petsmart and bought one and used it on Saturday and Sunday and it was PERFECT. She now walks a whole lot better and doesn't rip our arms out of our sockets!!! YEAH!

We called our friend Jacob to invite him and Mojo (his yellow lab, Maui's little boyfriend) to go to the pond with us to see if Mojo would follow Maui into the pond. Mojo isn't a swimmer yet and we were hoping that if Maui did, then Mojo would, and HE DID!!!!! We would throw the ducks out and Maui would jump out to get them and Mojo would follow right behind and then swim back with her side by side or trying to mount her in the water and she was swimming.

They were so cute together and quite the pair. They did this over and over and over again until Maui was shaking and they were getting pretty tired. We then walked home and said g'bye to our friends.

So we started talking Sunday morning about getting Maui one of those doggie neoprean vests that keep sogs warm and actually have a little bit of floatation in them so we she gets tired swimming (retreiving all the birds that daddy's going to shoot for her this winter) the vest will help her keep going and keep her warm. We made the drive down to Cabela's in Lacey and picked one up for her. We got home and tried it on her and it was too long so we made some cuts here and there and got it so it fit her well. She didn't like it getting put on her and taken off so many times but she delt with it and finally got it perfect! After it was done we took her back to her swimming hole to try it out! With no hesitation she was off again!!!! And not to mention she looks AMAZINGLY cute in it!

She just looks all grown up and pretty! I'm so proud of her for being such a good dog for us and doing so well swimming. YES, we now have a swimming dog!!! We are STOKED!

Full body Exam.....

So I went to the OB today to get the lovely full body exam. I am now 17 weeks along. She went to put the sonogram thing on my belly to listen for the heart rate, and she couldn't find it. It was about 10 minutes of trying to find it with no luck. She then put more gue on my belly it an attempt to try again. So she tried a little lower this time on my belly and found it after a while. The heart beat is still strong at 150bpm and she said that the baby was sitting WAY lower then it was supposed to be, which makes HER think that it's a boy. )-: ahhh dang. I'm not taking anything from her till I see a little thing in a picture..... But the heart rate is strong and that's a good thing, makes me feel a little better about it still being there and still being healthy!!! I was having some doubts that it was still there, or that is was still growing well, or that it was even still alive, (I know, pre-mother jitters, but we all think this way at least once when we are pregnant) but it was nice to hear that and the baby is still there!!!

Other then that I'm doing ok, I've officially (for a week now) have gained ONE pound. I'm eating well and I pretty much don't eat any crap foods. I eat alot of fruit, veggies, and cheese. I'm still kinda turned off to the whole meat thing like Steaks and chicken, pork, stuff like that, so I'm trying to get protein in other ways. I haven't really had any bizarre cravings lately, but I will say that a rootbeer float is sounding more magnificant that life itself. And this has been going on for about 1 week now, and now that I got the ok from the Doc that I can have soft serve ice cream... I see rootbeer floats in the VERY near future for me!!!! Anyways, the pants are tight and I'm using the rubberband trick and it works well, along with the one good maternity pants that I have. I have to wear longer shirts now to cover the top of my pants and this little belly that's forming. Here's a picture, it's now a week old, but here it is anyways....

Baby is starting to show through this thing a little. Some days I feel a whole lot bigger and some days I feel small. I'm not sleeping well these days. In fact 2 nights ago the peeing in the middle of the night started. I got up 4 times the previous night, and last night it was only once. I now sleep in a "cacoon" where I have a body pillow on each side of me and I try to "cuddle" with those all night so try to stay off my back. It's tough sometimes being pregnant but the end result is always worth it!!!

More to come next week when we meet with the genetic counselor for the update on that stuff.