9 weeks old

Who would have thought that my extreme paranoia, separation from my husband for 6 months, stress from worrying about my moms brain cancer and worrying about the umbilical cord wrapped about the baby's neck, raising a toddler in my mother in laws house, running into a cement column with my car, falling down a few steps, random bouts of vomiting and hospitalization, loneliness, sadness, frustration, planning a move across the world with 2 kids and a dog, and gaining 25 pounds would have produced a healthy 8lbs 1oz baby boy?

Max will be 9 weeks old in 3 days and I couldn't be more happy! The first 3 weeks were hard for him, we thought he had colic but turns out that moderate reflux and my diet were to blame for the 3-5 hour cry sessions we were having daily. Now that some of that is under control our daily lives are getting a little more bearable. We do take a noon car ride just to get him to sleep but other than that everything is going ok.

We have Sergeant all ready to go to Japan. The process to take a dog to a rabies free country is obnoxious. Between micropchipping, FAVN blood test, vaccines, dewormings.... It goes on, but he is almost done. 10 days before we board that plane we will need to get him a health certificate and also get all of his paperwork stamped at the USDA in LA.

Just waiting for a few things on the military side before we can book our flight. Max turned 8 weeks old and we were able to get his vaccines and our medical screening done, we were approved that day and all of paperwork was then forwarded ( by that I mean I had to scan all the paperwork and email it to Ryan) to the medical screeners in Okinawa. Once they approve us then he can move into our house and get our things out of storage there. Once we get Max's passport then we can book our flight. Thankfully my wonderful sister in law will be travel with me on this 24 hour trip!

Jack is doing great. He is well into in his terrible twos. And it is terrible. I've heard about terrible threes but I refuse to believe it! I'm just going to thinks he's going to grow out of this in a week. Other than that he is super fun! And smart. Knows all his letters, most shapes and colors and can count to 10. Right now we are working on staying in bed at night. He likes to get up and sleep by the door, which wouldn't be a problem if he didn't kick the door off and on. So irritating! So he gets his "blankie" taken away for ten minutes and then he stays in bed the rest the night. So far.

We can't wait to see Ryan. I am so sad to leave everyone but I am very excited to have my own family whole again. And I will never complain about Ryan leaving for short periods of time ever again.

06.11.11

So, I can't believe that I haven't wrote or posted anything since February.

There has been so much going on.... in March we celebrated Ryan's birthday, and mourned Audrey's due day. March was also the month that we started packing and setting up dates for the shipments to start for Japan.

April came around and on my 30th birthday, there were movers in my house setting up the shipment of our things that were not going with us to Japan. Which was most of our things, since the housing in Japan is small. A couple days later we moved out of our home and in with Ryan's wonderful mom. Granny and Grandpa are the most amazing people on this planet, we have turned their house upside down, and I will never be able to repay them for letting us stay there. Our shipment of our household goods going to Japan also left in April and is already there. We just received confirmation. We also got to spend some wonderful time with Great Grandpa in Vegas for his birthday. Pictures to come....

May was fun. We went swimming a lot and Ryan started checking out of work getting us ready to leave on June 29th. My friend Crystal came down and we got to hang out a little before I leave. I had a blast with her!

June is where things get tricky. June marks a lot of things for us. Its the month that we didn't want to come, since it was the month we are leaving. June also marks the month that makes me 4 months pregnant. We just found out last night that we are having a little baby boy!!!!! Jack is going to have a little brother by the end of November and we can not be more HAPPY!!!!!! Its been a hard pregnancy for me emotionally. I have not told a lot of people yet... for my own personally feelings that I am not going to explain. I am being carefully monitored by my doctors, I have had weekly visits since I was 7 weeks. I am also seeing a Perinatologist every 2 weeks since this pregnancy is considered high risk. He has already placed a cervical cerclage (I had that surgery almost 2 weeks ago now) as preventative. I will start progesterone injections next week and will receive those weekly until 36 weeks. Those injections will help prevent preterm labor. With all this going on, my doctors have also recommended that I stay behind until the baby is born. Which means, Jack and I would meet up with Ryan in Japan sometime next February or March. Ryan will be able to come back for the birth, but it does mean he still leaves on the 29th. :( We both understand that no matter how hard this separation will be, that we need to whats best for the baby and we all agree (doctors included) that I will get the best care here. So, that's about it. Hopefully, I will be able to put some pictures up soon! Jack is seriously getting big and more cute by the day. Just sayin :)

2.28.11

love this picture.