A time of reflection.

I am now over 40 weeks pregnant with no sign of labor in sight and I am officially playing the waiting game. I’ve finished every project that I started to help make time go by a little faster. The house is clean and all of the baby laundry is done and put away. I have absolutely nothing else to do but wait. Lately, I’ve had a lot of time to reflect on the past year and it has definitely been a crazy one! There are so many things that I am thankful for so I thought I’d mention them now.

This time last year, Dennis was in Afghanistan and it felt like my world was turned upside down. I have never experienced a more stressful time in my life and lived on pins in needles for the entire 6 months he was gone. Dennis’ battalion lost so many amazing men and my heart still breaks and will continue to break for their families. Each of those men will never be forgotten for the rest of our lives. There are also so many that are still dealing with the injuries they received on that deployment. It’s so easy to get caught up in our daily lives and forget that there are people who 10 months later are still going through surgery after surgery to repair body parts that were injured in an IED blast. Please continue to pray for those men. There are also many that are dealing with the effects of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. PTSD is a very real thing and the men and their families that have to experience it are also in my prayers. Fortunately, Dennis has never had to deal with anything like that... my husband returned home to me completely untouched by this war and I will forever give thanks to God for that.

Shortly after Dennis’ return home we received the exciting news that we were pregnant. In the beginning, we had scare after scare and God continually proved to us that He had everything under control. Here we are 9 months later waiting for our amazing little miracle to make his appearance into this world.

In February, Dennis was in a horrible accident here in Hawaii. To this day I still can’t comprehend how he was flipped multiple times in the open back of a humvee on the highway, was ejected from it and he as well as the 3 other people involved still had no life threatening injuries. To add on to that, after Dennis returned home from Afghanistan last October, I prayed and prayed and prayed that he would not have to go back to Afghanistan…especially know that he’d be leaving only weeks after Charlie was born. I completely give full credit to God and like to think that this humvee accident was His way of answering my prayers in the most creative way possible. Because of the injuries Dennis received during this accident, he will not be deploying this time around.

I am also thankful for the amazing family and friends that Dennis and I both have at home. They have all shown us so much love during this pregnancy. From a “baby shower in a box” from my mom and Grandma to an amazing “webcam baby shower” thrown by Dennis’ mom and family, and all of the wonderful gifts we’ve received from our amazing friends the last few months, We are so incredibly blessed to have them all in our lives.

I absolutely cannot wait to start this next chapter of our lives…. and hopefully Charlie decides to start that chapter soon!

40 weeks.

I'm still pregnant.

38 weeks

Enough Said.


These last few weeks have gone by slower than I ever thought possible. Sleepless nights filled with wonderful pregnancy induced Carpal Tunnel, Sciatica, Restless Leg Syndrome, and constantly having to get up to pee. The 3rd Trimester is definitely a wonderful thing!

Riiiiiiiiiight.

Charlie is still an active little wiggle worm. I'm anxious to see if that continues when he's here. We may have our hands full! I can finally say that we are officially prepared for his arrival.... and I never thought we would be! We've spent the past couple of weeks getting the house ready and purchasing the last few items we need. Plus- we had an AMAZING webcam baby shower thrown for us by Dennis' mom in Louisiana that I will post about once we receive everything! I am so incredibly grateful for all of our family and friends who have shown us so much love. Charlie is definitely going to be a lucky little man to have so many wonderful people in his life from the start!

We have our 38 week appointment on Wednesday... hopefully we'll find out that he's made some progress and will be making his appearance sooner than later!

Combat Monkey

When I was looking through pictures that Dennis had sent me from Afghanistan, I noticed a little black and white stuffed animal in a few of them. I asked him what it was and he told me that it was "combat monkey." While in Afghanistan, one of Dennis' marines named Michael received a care package full of stuffed animals. I'm not sure what the reason was, maybe to give to the local children... Either way, Combat Monkey was adopted and went on every patrol that Dennis and Michael went on. He either stayed in Dennis' pocket, his backpack, in Michael's pocket or on the dashboard of the humvee. He was their 'good luck charm.' Seeing something like a monkey beanie baby pop up in pictures here and there made laugh, which definitely helped a little knowing that even though Dennis was in a combat zone there was still time for fun.

A few weeks ago, I asked Dennis if Combat Monkey had made it back to Hawaii. He asked Michael, and sure enough Michael still had him. I couldn't help but think how fitting it would be to have Combat Monkey in our post-Afghanistan-deployment-baby's-monkey-themed-nursery. Today, Michael brought Combat Monkey to our house and he has now taken his place on Charlie's shelf. One day we'll tell Charlie all about his daddy's time in Afghanistan and how that monkey was with him on the other side of the world.

34 weeks

Dennis got behind the camera and took a few more maternity pictures for me. Here's what he came up with:

32 Weeks

This morning we had an ultrasound to check on Charlie's growth. They wanted to make sure that the septum in my uterus wasn't putting any growth restrictions on him or affecting his ability to turn head down. Turns out, the ultrasound tech couldn't even find the septum so apparently it's been pushed or stretched out of the way and is having no affect on the pregnancy. Charlie looks perfect...he's currently head down and is growing like crazy! One of my biggest fears was that he wouldn't be able to turn and I wouldn't be able to have the natural birth that Dennis and I have been preparing ourselves for. I'm so glad I don't have to worry about that now! For the past few weeks I really thought that he was in a transverse position. If I pushed in on both sides of my stomach I would feel a solid lump on each side. It turns out that on my right side is his butt and on my left side, what I thought was his head is really his giant feet! The ultrasound tech told us that his feet are only a centimeter short of 3 inches right now!

She also said he has a big head which is going to be oh so fun for my drug free birth plan!
In our 4d ultrasound pictures I thought that Charlie looks alot like me when I was a baby. In this profile picture, the shape of his face really resembles Dennis. I know that when you're pregnant you see what you want to see but I really think his nose and lips totally resemble Dennis' profile!

We also got an estimate of what he weighs right now. The ultrasound tech told us that he's weighing in at about 4lbs 8 oz. Most babies gain about a half of a pound a week from here on out so if that's the case Charlie will at the very least weigh 8 and a half pounds! Dennis and I were both big babies and I've had multiple dreams that he will weigh 10lbs so this definitely doesn't surprise me! I really can't believe that we only have about 8 weeks left before we meet our little man.

He gave us another little wave today as if to say "See you soon mom and dad!"

Baby Shower In A Box

Being pregnant and stuck on a rock in the middle of an ocean is definitely not easy....it's hard not really having our family and friends to share it with. I don't get to go shopping for baby clothes with my mom, and when Charlie arrives, other than posting pictures online, I don't get to show off our new baby to the people that we're closest to. While I am so thankful that I have Dennis home to experience every second of this pregnancy with me, I do wish that we were at least attached to the same piece of land as the rest of our families. We are also so incredibly blessed to have family back home that goes out of their way to make us not completely feel like there is an ocean between us.

This afternoon there was a box on our front porch.

My mom and grandma sent us a box filled to the brim with baby presents wrapped in monkey/jungle themed paper.

Here's a peek at what was in the box:






I can't wait to see Charlie in this. There's just something about these nightgowns that make babies seem extra snuggly!

This is one of my absolute favorites...EVERY baby needs a glowworm!

I love this little Giraffe rattle!

This blanket is SO soft and snuggly!

A rainbow of baby bibs!

and...

My favorite outfit of all- How cute is Charlie going to look in this! Hopefully his uncle Jordan will be able to come back out to Hawaii so we can take a picture of them together!

Thank you Mom, Dad, Grandma, Jordan, Kay and Danielle for everything!!!
We love and miss you all!