In the 10 day stretch!

I haven't posted anything in quite sometime but now that Luke shall be here in about a week and half. Let's get everyone caught up. 

I took a fall down the stairs in my house with Lily and ended up having to take a Japanese ambulance to the main hospital on base. Thankfully everyone was ok. 

I was put out of work exactly on month ago because I was starting to dialate and have some pretty severe contractions from working 40+ hours a week on my feet. 

I purchased Scott a 2000 skyline for him to drive once he gets back from deployment. 

Scott's been to Singapore and Hong Kong as port visits for this deployment. His Hong Kong visit was cut a few days short and his ship was sent to the Philipines to help with the typhoon disaster relief. Although it was just business as usual for Scott he will recieve a humanitarian accommodation for relief efforts. This will be his second in his career. He helped with the relief in Haiti a few years back. 

A friend of mine as well as my manager from work threw me and Luke a baby shower and we got lots of goodies for the baby. 

Lily was moved to the toddler room and has started potty training. I may be nuts for starting it this close to my due date but she has been ready for a long time so this is a huge step for us! 

And me well I've stop having contractions. I've been dialated at 1 cm for over three weeks and I've been battling a cold. :/ I'm on an antibiotic  and took my last days worth today but it's rearing it's ugly head once again. Slowly but steadily I've been trying to clean up the spare bedroom and have moved a lot of Luke's things up there. Hopefully tomorrow Babies R Us and I will get along and I can order the rest of his nursery items. And put that to rest. 

Other than that I've just been trying to rest and keep Luke baking till daddy comes home! 

We decided on a name!

Introducing....

A picture tells a thousand words...

As I reached my 8 month mark and had one crazy week I decided to look back and see how much different my belly looked between Lily and Luke at the 32 week mark. 

It's so funny. Everyone thought Lily was a boy and most people think Luke is a girl. I guess I carry my babies in opposite. High for boys and low for girls. And my belly was pointy with lily and looks very round with Luke.

Take a look for yourself. 

Times flying!

Well Scott is on the second leg of his deployment. Which means when he returns, our second addition may very well be here or only a few days from it. I've been so busy between work and lily I can't believe that my first baby will be two in a little more than two weeks! Since Scott is not here we aren't doing much of a party. Her classroom will celebrate October birthdays on the 11th. They sing and the cafeteria makes them a cake. I'm going to bring a Curious George piñata I found a big Curious George doll for her birthday, and I ordered a book gift set with a small Curious George doll as well. 

Also today at my job I found huge Elmo. I put that on layaway for a Christmas present for her. She's going to go crazy when she sees it! 

Other than that I have not done much to prepare for the boys arrival. Other than stock up on lots of clothes for him. I'm ordering his car seat next week. And I'm sure that everything else will fall into place. So I'm not super worried. I'm measuring right where I should be and except for a few minor things. This pregnancy has been right on track. The only thing missing is a name. It will come to us. 

Naming a child

I have to say my brain hurts tonight. Naming a person is a daunting task. It's so funny how we came up with our daughters name. I actually had an app on my phone and I shook it and Lillian came up. We both liked the name but thought 99% of the time we would call her Lily. I then thought hmm, both of our mom's middles names are Anne/Ann. Boom and we had a name! 

This go around we tackled the idea of naming them after a family member in remembrance of them. But couldn't quite settle on a name that we both liked and felt like it was even distributed. So we said scratched that. 

So far our requirements are, something strong, not common, and I'd like something that's short. I may give on that one. We've looked at past presidents, Greek, and just top 100 lists. Only a few have jumped out at us. Well, I should say, some for Scott and some for me. 

Naming a person is such an important responsibility as a parent. I won't take it lightly. But now other factors come into my thoughts as we weed through the names. How well does it flow with Lily, can lily say it? I practice saying it in my head, as I would say it aloud. Such as, cooing "him" to sleep or when "he" starts running a muck and I have to create some order. What will others think? Do I know anyone else's child with the same name? Have I ever known someone with that name that had a negative effect on me or us? 

I'm sure I'm just reading into this all too much. But it's only a short time before Scott leaves again, and its hard to play names off of each other through email. And the next time we see each other "he" may or may not be here quite yet. Another thing that fills my heart with worry but I ultimately stand strong and know that with or without him I've gotta do my job, while he does his. 

Hopefully, we can find the best name for "him" soon. 

Till then....

Well it's finally public! It's a....

BOY!!!!

We couldn't be any happier to announce that we are expecting a baby boy December 4th. I've been keeping this secret for sometime now and it's been killing me! Scott and I found out the gender together over the phone while he was out to sea. The first phone call was dropped and we didn't get to open the open the envelope. I had to wait two days later! 

Once we found out, I decided to keep it a secret and make announcements to mail to my family back stateside. I used Tinyprints, a sub company from Shutterfly to print them. 

They had to be mailed to me so that I could address them, then I sent them off! It took little over a week for everyone to get them! I was on pins and needles waiting for everyone to find out our exciting news! 

The front of the card

The back of the card

My announcement on Facebook.

I made them blue Sakura flowers as the is the flower here in Japan. I bought the pandora charm the day after we found out and sported it in my bracelet. 

We are registered on Amazon and Babies R Us. And have decided to do a babies Monsters Inc. theme. We will have to order the crib from the navy exchange here in Japan. But everything else should ship here fine. If not we have a way to do so. Just email me at vsteely@gmail.com if something says it won't ship. 

December 4th will be here before we know it!!!!! 😀

Waiting is the hardest part!

So I went for my gender ultrasound on Thursday and Scott called me later on that evening. After getting caught up on everything from Lily to my travels around Japan. We were gonna open the envelope and see the gender together for the first time, our call dropped! And he hasn't been able to call back since! So now I wait! But in the mean time here are pictures of our sweet baby #2's profile. And the infamous envelope! Lol 

So precious! 

Pink or blue, pink or blue! Can't wait to find out! 

What it looks like to be five months pregnant and upset after a dropped call! 

Tomorrow's the big day!

Although it won't be announced for a week or so! ;) 

Fun things to remember to do for next deployment

My friend Cristie Jo is so crafty. She has two boys. A few years older than lily, she decided to make the best of the deployment and her very inquisitive boys. Posting this so I can remember to do this when lil gets older and starts asking more questions....

The chain is to help count down the days left... And she said if the deployment gets extended she will add more at night when the boys are sleeping.... Lets hope they come home as scheduled! 

She used her cutter tool thingie to cut out a mini carrier to move around the map. She attached magnets to the back of the map and carrier so the boys can move it around when they here news of where the ship is or headed too. 

4th of July four mile color run/walk

Well sick or not,(me) Lily and I walked four miles and got doused with color. The MWR hosted and Fourth of July Firecracker Color Run/Walk. We completed it, it just little over an hour, and we walked. It was a lot of fun! Here are some photos! 

Lily's colored hair!

My colored shirt and bump!

All colored up! 

Lily really got colored! 

After the race!

Snacks all colored!

Before the race...

All clean and white before the race!

And they are off!

Scott's ship finally left this week. It's mixed emotions for me as I know Scott loves being at sea. But missing out on Lily growing and changing and the transformation of our new addition. He was at every appointment except one for my whole pregnancy and this time he has and will probably only make one, hopefully two, the big show! 😄 That's the big difference between being stationed on sea duty vs shore... 😑 But we have email which Scott sends every few days or so. I even made him a Facebook account but I still don't think he has logged on to it... I made him one because I post so many things about lily on there I figured it would be a way for him to watch her grow. But I think he is still ifie about it. Lol till next time! 

The guys manning the rails... Don't look for Scott he didn't do it this time...

The ship at the pier...

Leaving the bay...

The pier looks so empty now! 😞

USS George Washington CVN-73

First swim of the summer!!!!

My friend Gina and I took our girls, Briella, and Lily to the base pool for the first time! They had so much fun! Just look at the photos!