Limited Time Viewing. For Your Eyes Only.

Took this clip last week of my Soldiers having fun (acting goofy) in the field.

When they call for LT (that's me...Lieutenant) at the end of the clip, one of my Sergeants can be seen making a mockery of a new fad called "planking".  Apparently some of my younger Soldiers were having fun with it earlier that day.

Another pic of planking. Goofy stuff.

Congratulations Brian!

Brian got promoted on Wednesday and as part of the ceremony, with Eli strapped to me, I got to take off his old rank from his jacket and replace it with the new rank.  After I placed the new rank on, I punched him in the chest where the rank sits. At the end of the ceremony, all 100 or so soldiers went through, shook Brian's hand and punched him as well.

A few picture updates of Eli

I have not been keeping up with the blog as well as I would like to, but it truly is because I am too busy enjoying motherhood. Brian has been away a lot so it has been just Eli and I most of the time. And our sweet baby boy loves to be held and we, of course, love to hold him. So there are days when I don't get much done because I am just enjoying being a mom and loving my son.

So here are some pictures from birth to now and more pictures to follow, I promise.

Eli's official hospital picture 

A few hours after birth 

 First day at home

 Tummy Time

 Ready for a ride

Stealing a moment to post this

Eli just fell asleep so I decided to use this moment to write about his grand entrance to the world two weeks ago.

The family is gone and Brian is in the field for a few days, so I am alone with our new son for the first time. It has given me a chance to start catching up on my sleep and to reflect on the pregnancy and delivery.

During my entire pregnancy, Brian and I kept saying to each other how blessed we were that it was so smooth and enjoyable. Our German doctor and his staff were all amazing and we knew Eli was in good hands.

Now..about the delivery....

My due date was May 17th but nothing was happening yet. I felt too good so I knew I was going to be overdue by a few days. In Germany, the doctors will let pregnancy go 10 days past due date before they induce labor.

My doctor said I was healthy and was willing to let me go the 10 days if needed. Because I wanted a natural, unmedicated labor, Brian and I felt it was best to wait until Eli was ready to come out.

I didn't focus on how many days I was overdue, I just took every day as it was and we enjoyed our time with Brian's family who came to help our new family. Brian's sister Charmian came with her husband Jon and our nephew Gabriel. A few days later Brian's mom came as well so we had a full house of wonderful helpers!

6 days after my due date on Monday morning, Brian was getting ready to go to PT at 5am and I woke up with him. I felt lite cramping every so often but didn't worry about it much. Brian woke up Charmian on his way out and she came to tell me it was time for me to shower and get ready. Brian turned right around and came home. I made breakfast and we sat around the living room as people were getting up. My contractions were not very strong and I happened to have an appointment with my doctor at 11 that morning so we went to see him. He told me that Eli was coming that day but I still had time to go home and relax.

When we got home I got in the tub and Brian and I hung out in the bathroom. The contractions started to get stronger and closer together until I realized they were 5 minutes apart. It was time to go to the hospital!

We arrived there at 3:45pm and the midwife strapped me in to monitor the contractions and baby's heartbeat.

Charmian and Brian's mom were with us supporting us through it. 

Around 4:30 the midwife checked me and I was at 5 centimeters and my water broke. They showed me into my delivery room, which had a "swing", ropes, dimmed lights, aromatherapy and a CD player for us to play music if we chose to. The hospital has a tub available for women to get into to relieve some of the pressure of contractions. I got in around 5:00pm, Brian put in a Norah Jones CD, the lights were dimmed and I just relaxed and tried to breathe through the contractions. I could not have done it without Brian! He was holding me when I needed to and talking to me when I needed encouragement to relax through some strong contractions.

The midwife came to get me at 6:30 because I had to get monitored again. She said she would put me on for 30 minutes and then I could go back to the water. I had to lean on Brian sitting up because laying down was extremely uncomfortable.

It is now 6 weeks later and I am finishing this post, wow.

I kept asking to go back to the water when my doctor showed up at 7:30pm. He then told me to move to the table from the swing to make the exam more comfortable. Lo and behold, as soon as I laid on the table, the doctor said to push and 30 minutes later we welcomed Eli into his daddy's arms.
Per our wishes, Eli was handed to Brian as soon as he was born. You should have seen the look on the proud new daddy's face! I have never seen him happier, not even on our wedding day:-)
They left us to bond as a family in the room for a while and then Brian had to go home while Eli and I were moved to the maternity ward. I couldn't sleep all night, I watched Eli and made sure he was breathing (a new mom thing I guess).

Finishing the Nursery

As I approach the last days of the pregnancy (8 days to go!!!), the nursery is now prepared.
We decided not to paint the nursery because we are renting the house and the military community we are a part of is going through many transitions at the moment. People are moving on short notices and who knows, it can happen to us as well.
So instead of painting, we went with wall decals. They are fun, colorful and really tie the room all together.

I ordered the decals online and they arrived on several sheet of backup paper. We had to cut them up into individual pieces and then decide on the placement. It was easy to do but it is definitely a job for two people!

Here are some pictures of Brian and I as we finished putting up last pieces of the decals. More pictures of the nursery coming soon.

One Saturday Afternoon

On Saturday, Brian and I decided to go to Heidelberg, which is another city about 20 minutes away. We go there quite often but we have never taken the time to explore. Until this weekend.

We had an overpriced breakfast at an "American Diner"

Then walked around the ruins of the Heidelberg Castle

On our way home, we took the back roads through the small towns. At one point, we came to a place where we had to take the ferry across a small river.

Pregnancy Insomnia

For any man out there who might be interested in knowing what it is like to sleep when you are pregnant:
This is what you need to do one night in steps:

1: Find a 4 pound squirrel (good luck) . Make it really mad and swallow it.
2. Lay down in bed and enjoy the feeling of the squirrel trying to escape through your stomach. You can't lay on your stomach or on your back though.
3. Play a recording of a snoring man next to your year.
4. When the squirrel calms down a little bit and you are getting used to the snoring and you feel like you are finally falling asleep, you feel the need to turn on your other side.
5. After a 2 minute maneuver, lay on your left side, which wakes up the squirrel so she is up again and kicking.
6. Wait until the squirrel calms down again and you are falling asleep.
7. All of a sudden you have to jump out of bed and run to the restroom because your bladder is too small these days.
8. Now you are wide awake and ready to start the process all over again, but mother nature just might throw you a curve ball and you might get a terrible cramp in your leg.

So this was my night last night but I wouldn't change it for the world. In the end I get a sweet baby boy out of it so I will endure!