Well life here is pretty slow going. It's still warmer then a winter really should be, and it's really making me miss being home for the holidays... Most days it doesn't really feel like it's really the holiday season here. Very very few people actually put lights up around here (we drove around for about 10 min and only saw 3 houses that had lights up... it was sad...). There are a few places you can go to see lights, ie the city park, TX, TX college campus... but that's about it. It's really made me miss being able to put up lights this year. But just means that next year when Matt and I do put up lights it'll be that much more amazing!! For a tree this year Matt and I made a tree and ornaments out of felt to hang up. Eric has loved playing with it! And I've enjoyed knowing that he can't really do anything to hurt it at this point. Our plan is to keep the tree and put it up for the kids to play with each year, and then add some new decorations as they wear out. So far I've found that felt candy canes aren't the best idea for Eric, he doesn't like that they aren't straight and keeps trying to pull them straight.
Other then that, not much has been going on. I'm still as pregnant as ever, Matt's still busy with school and Eric is still growing like a weed! Matt will go on break starting Friday and we're both hoping that Samantha makes her grand entrance sometime around the 26th. That way Matt not only will get to be there for the delivery but will also get to be around for a week to help me get used to having two little angels/recover.
We weren't able to get a Christmas letter mailed out this year, but we will post it on here and attempt to email it to the family.
But for now it's time for me to crawl into bed and hopefully get some sleep before the morning comes.
Sweet dreams!!
Well we are all just hanging out here in Ft Sill. Mostly we've been keeping busy with the little man running from here to who knows and then back again. Since most mornings we go to another building at the hotel for breakfast, Eric has started running towards "breakfast" when we go outside. We definitely have to keep our eyes on him when we go out!! Eric is getting excited to meet his little sister and will come snuggle with Samantha (not mom) when he's getting ready to take his naps. It's adorable! If I tell him it's snuggle time he grabs his blanket and a book and then comes and lays his head on Samantha. After listening to her and a few pages of the book he starts "kissing" her, which quickly turns into head-butting... At which point we usually finish reading the book and then he takes his nap.
Other then that Matt and I are pretty boring. Matt has had a lot more homework lately, most of is entails going out and buying this that or the next thing for his classes. Other then that Matt has been keeping busy helping me at nights with the little man so that I can make dinner or whatever else needs my attention. Sometimes it just means giving me a chance to have some alone time not spent sleeping.
As for me and Samantha, we've been keeping busy with contractions, dropping and getting ready to meet this little princess. I've been so grateful that Matt has a friend here that we both trust and is willing to take Eric when I go into labor. We also found out that since we aren't going anywhere for Christmas Matt will still have to report for most of the days that we were originally told we'd have off. But that also has turned into a blessing in disguise as it means that Matt will have leave saved up and will be able to take 10 days of paternal leave when Samantha decides to join our little family. All in all life here has been interesting, thankfully now that means in a good way :)
Other then that we've been looking forward to Christmas, I'll take some pictures of our tree and what few decorations we have up. Matt and I made our tree out of felt and have it up in the living room stuck to the wall. We also cut out ornaments out of felt that Eric can play with as he wishes and I don't have to worry about him hurting himself or breaking anything. Eventually I will decorate the ornaments more, but for now they are plain. I would love to decorate some of them now, but the 2 that I did add some decorations to Eric promptly removed them. So we will wait until he's a little older and understands better to not pull them apart.
That's really all the news there is for now... If anything exciting happens you'll be the first to know!!
Well I'm trying to finish catching up on all the pictures we took on our way to Fort Sill. Unfortunately the internet connection here is soooooo incredibly slow (we're talking 1.5 Mbps slow) that it takes forever to get anything to upload, and videos are out of the question :( So for now I will slowly keep trying to post pictures of what we've done and will do. But for the time being I'm so frustrated with the connection that I'm just going to go work on Samantha's blanket and start designing the sleeves for her blessing dress.
Well we got to Fort Sill on the 31st and things have only gotten more exciting since.
The first hurtle was actually getting our room. When we got here we were told that our room wasn't ready and would be ready on the 1st. So we got a room for the night and then between the time we were going to be room-less I was able to find the hospital where I will most likely be delivering our little princess. While there, in true Army fashion, I got the run around until someone finally knew what I was supposed to be doing. Once that was done I got about 10 pages of forms to fill out and then I could schedule an appt for my first visit here. After that we got a call from the hotel telling us that our room wasn't going to be ready until the next day and to go back to the room we were originally put in. At this point I was SOOO over packing and unpacking. So I didn't even bother unpacking anything, waited until I was out of control tired and called down to the main desk to see if we could just stay in this room and not have to pack and move rooms yet again... Thankfully because we were down sizing from a 2 bedroom to a 1 bedroom they let us just stay! I was so glad to finally know where we were going to be for the next few months (at least until Feb, at which point we will have to re-reserve the room until April). So then came the unpacking and figuring out what all we needed.
The second hurtle was trying to figure out what was going on with Matt's class. We found out the day that he reported that his class had started a few days earlier, but that they had failed to let Matt know about the change. Thankfully he hadn't missed anything important and was able to get all caught up quickly.
The third hurtle is a sick little boy. It started Friday night. He was restless and grumpy but thankfully was able to sleep pretty okay. Saturday he started sounding a little horse but not too terrible, by Saturday afternoon I was starting to get worried when he stopped eating/drinking like he normally does. Saturday night was an adventure, Eric and I spent most of the night on the couch. Him sorta sleeping on my chest and me just listening to his breathing getting worse. Sunday we went to Sacrament meeting and to try and find someone we could call or ask for help with giving Eric a blessing. We ended up finding out that 2 of Matt's friends from ROTC are here and in the ward that we attended. So we are opting to stay in that ward were we have at least a few people that Matt knows and that I will get to know better. Thankfully Sunday he didn't get too much worse and we were able to get Eric a blessing. We did end up making a trip to the Er on Sunday just to try and find out what we were supposed to do about getting him a dr's appt. So Monday morning I called and was told that Eric wasn't in the "system and couldn't be seen by a dr." So frustrated out of my mind and getting more worried about my son who refused to eat and wasn't acting at all like my son, I called Matt, got the car and took Eric to the ER. We got there at about 1240, waited until 1450 to even see a Dr. Finally got someone in to listen to his lungs and let us know what was going on and then spent until 1715 waiting for nurses to give shots, RT to give a breathing treatment, Radiology to do a chest X-ray and then the Dr to give us the Rx's we needed to start getting Eric better. After all that, we spent the rest of the night picking up Matt, getting the Rx's filled and trying to find out where to get a nebulizer (which we still don't totally know), going to the store to get food for the week and then home to sorta relax.
The forth hurtle is trying to figure out how in the world to get Matt's Id card and DEERS all set up so that we can start getting everything else figured out. And that's currently where we are. So Matt is sitting up at the welcome center waiting to see someone who will hopefully give us an answer... And hopefully it'll be sooner rather then later so he's not missing a full day of classes. But my little prince is calling and is in desperate need of a shower and some book time.
Hopefully now that things are actually starting to settle down some I will be able to post all the pictures that we've taken. Some will be good, others will be from my phone so who knows how they will turn out...
Well we are all safely in Wichita, KS!! We were planning on only going to Salina, KS today, but between Eric falling asleep at a very opportune time and no mountains to deal with we just kept on driving and are now enjoying a relaxing night at a hotel with internet that isn't $3/24hrs and actually works!! Not much to report today other then that we are safe and so excited for a bed that doesn't feel like a box of rocks!!
Well we made it safe to Denver! And we are all SOOOOO Sick of the car!!! So today is a day of playing in Denver before we head out again towards Fort Sill. I'll post pictures tonight (Assuming I still get internet access... if not I will post them tomorrow night when we get to Salina)
Here is a picture from the car ride here of our little prince :)
Just for kicks and giggles I decided it would be fun to go back and read some of the early posts on this blog. It made me smile reading them and seeing how much hope I had for the future and how head over heels I was for Matt. Don't get me wrong I still have a lot of hope for the future and I'm still head over heels for Matt. But it's different now. Maybe it's just because I don't have the energy level I once did, maybe it's the stress of realizing just how much more responsibility I have now, maybe it's just because I'm prego and spend most of my time either feeling sick or wondering why in the world I got out of bed this morning. But what ever the case may be, looking back at those posts made me realize something, something I've known all along but that got pushed from my mind that is filled with details and worries about OK, and that is just how truly blessed I am.
Now that's not to say that I didn't think I was blessed before, just that I didn't realize the extent I have been blessed. I've been blessed with a wonderful husband who is so patient with all my mood-swings and is always willing to do whatever he can to help me. I've been blessed with the most adorable, fun loving, energetic son in the world! I love how often his smiles and laughter comes, even when he's teething molars. I've been blessed to have infant's advil and tyelnol around to help with the molars. I've been blessed with an amazing family that is more then willing to help me get everything that I need for this little princess, and for Eric while we are gone. Today I was blessed with a huge bag of clothes from my sister, and all of a sudden my huge list of clothes Samantha needs once we get to OK turned into a coming home outfit, socks and pants. I've been blessed with a mom who was willing to sit with me for several (probably frustrating at times) hours to teach me how to sew and knit. I've been blessed to be in a home that I get to call my very own. But most of all I've been blessed with a sense of peace.
The thought of leaving UT and having a baby in OK used to terrify me. How in the world was I going to have a baby in a state I didn't want to be in, with no family around to help with my precious son, and no known friends? How was I going to make it through the endless hours riding in a car with a toddler who hates getting in and out of cars, and cries if we are in the car for more then 45 min at a time? How was I going to handle the car ride home with said toddler and a 2-3 month old?
Then came the talk by President Eyring, yes the same talk that had me freaking out. I realized after looking at my previous blog posts that I was focusing on the wrong part of the talk. Yes his daughter gave birth at 25 weeks to a premature little princess. And yes it was scary for the family to deal with, especially being away in another state. But, there was still hope. His daughter was blessed with an amazing VT companion who was willing to listen to the Holy Ghost and act on His promptings. She was blessed to be in a church that has such a wonderful support system for all of its members. That is a blessing that I also have. I may not know any of the members that are there, but I know we share a common love. I know that when the time comes that I will be able to find someone who would be willing to watch Eric while I'm in the hospital and Matt is doing his training. It's still very possible that things won't work out how I picture them, but I know that they will work out. I know everything will work out for the best for my family. And I know all of this because I know that Heavenly Father won't give us more then we can handle. So all my fears about getting there, being there, giving birth and getting home are pointless. So while they may still surface between now and when we leave in 3 weeks, they will be fleeting, because I know the Lord will be with us and help us in any way that He can.
Soooo.... last Saturday night during the RS meeting President Eyring talked about his daughter giving birth at 25 weeks. I'm 25 weeks. Since then I've been having dreams about having this little princess premature and my contractions have increased in frequency and strength. As if that wasn't enough, Sunday during RS the teacher talked about how the Lord sometimes uses dreams to talk to us. So I started freaking out a little bit more. Then today I got talking to Matt about my contractions and how much harder they are now compared to when I was 25 weeks with Eric. To which he responds "well I had a dream about the baby coming early last night."
At this point I'm having hysterical thoughts running through my head and all I can think is "great, now I'm going to have this baby in the next 3 weeks, Matt's going to have to leave for OK alone, get all set up for us there and eventually I'll get to join him there after a horrific airplane ride with a crazy one year old and a screaming 2-3 month old."
Add all of the above together makes for one freaked out pregnant lady...
