quick update!

It was the last weekend for just me and the little man as Randy will be home Tuesday! After three months, I'm so ready for him to be home and stay home for awhile with us. He gets in about the time I get off work so I'll be rushing home that night for sure!

I went into super cleaning mode again this weekend. Randy and I will have this coming weekend together and then my parents will be here so I'm trying to get everything done ahead of time so we can spend our weekend relaxing. We might go to Babies R Us and get a few more things for the little man. I had a dream the other night that he came early and we didn't have anything for him. While I was in the hospital Randy had to leave to go buy a car seat, because they obviously wouldn't let us go home without one. So yeah, I'd like to get one of those sometime soon :)

Here's my belly this morning (27 weeks, 3 days). I know it's getting bigger, because I accidentally bumped it twice this weekend. Thankfully I didn't do it too hard, but I still felt bad! I'm still amazed at watching my belly and just love to feel him move! His movements feel different than before and they are getting a little stronger. It's just crazy to watch my belly move and do the wave as he wiggles around in there! I read the other day they are the most active in the 7 month so I'm anxious to see how much he changes in the next few weeks before he runs out of room in there.



The non-shingles infected view of my belly :)

Holy high cost of living!

We've lived here for 1.5 years and I still can't figure how out how people afford to live here. I guess if you were born and raised here it wouldn't seem as outrageous as it does to this Iowan, but I just find it absolutely insane!

Heather came over on Saturday night. We planned to order Papa John's and watch some chick flicks for the evening. She's just like me so we decided on a large 1/2 cheese, 1/2 pepperoni with some breadsticks. I tell the lady what we'd like and she informs me it'd be about $3 cheaper to get the special with a 2L of pop so I tell her that's fine we'll take the pop too. They get to the house and our total was $36.28! Are you kidding me? For one pizza? Do they not have any idea how many homemade pizzas I could make with $36.28?! Needless to say, that is only the 2nd time I've ordered pizza in Hawaii and it very well could be the last.

Then on Sunday I went to the commissary to pick up a few things. When I got there they were unloading some pumpkins so I thought I'd get one for both Randy and I to carve. They were decent pumpkins, but they all seemed a little squatty (I'm fairly positive that isn't a word!) to me. They were nice and round, but I thought they'd be hard to carve since they didn't have much height to them. So there I am digging in a barrel that's up to my chest looking for the perfect pumpkin. I have no idea what the going price for a pumpkin is these days, but they seemed a little pricey so I decided to only get one and we'll just have to carve it together. I get up the register and the dang thing is just under $1.00 per pound. Our average sized, kinda squatty pumpking cost me $10.00! Then I talked to my mom later that night and she said they were complaining about the price of pumpkins in Iowa, because they were a little over $4.00 this year. $4.00- heck that's a great deal compared to what I paid! Plus, I know Iowa pumpkins and I know they aren't squatty like the one I have!

As for me, I'm doing much better this week. My back is still a little sensitive, but it doesn't have the painful surface sting/pain it had earlier so I'm not complaining. Randy should be home in about one week so hopefully the little man and I can behave until then!

Where do I even begin?!

I was so excited for my three day weekend. I had a huge list of things I wanted to get taken care of and I wanted to spend Monday at the beach. Needless to say, my weekend did not go as planned... not even close!

When Randy was home last weekend I woke up in the night with terrible back pain. Initially, I thought it was a kidney stone. The next morning it didn't bother me, but I pushed fluids just to be safe. At one point, Randy put his hand on my lower back and it nearly brought me to my knees. It hurt so bad! Since my back only hurt to touch I knew it wasn't a kidney stone and so I assumed I got bit or stung by some strange Hawaiian bug.

Tuesday I noticed a small rash on my back near the "bug bite" and by Wednesday it had spread into several patches along my lower back. I went to the doctor just to make sure the little man would be okay. The doctor said your body can react very differently during pregnancy and he thought I was having an allergic reaction. He gave me something to put on it and said to call if it got any worse.

Saturday morning I called my mom to ask if I could still go to water aerobics. After describing how much my "bug bite" had changed she advised that I not go. She said it sounded like I had shingles. Truthfully I didn't even know what shingles were so I googled a picture of it (bad idea by the way!!). The instant I saw the first image I knew that was what I had on my back. It's one of the most disgusting things I've ever seen!

After 20 weeks you are supposed to call Labor & Delivery if it's after office hours and you have a question. It just so happened the doctor I saw earlier in the week was on call and at the hospital so he had me come in. He took one quick look and confirmed it was shingles. Lovely.

Sunday I ran a few errands with Heather. As the day went on I began to feel a little worse and overall just uncomfortable. My pants and shirt irritated the shingles so I went home and just hung out on the couch for the evening. I felt even worse as the night went on, but the doctor warned me it may get worse before it gets better so I didn't think too much of it. Plus, knowing that I'll be experiencing labor pains in 3 short months I was trying hard not to complain as I know that will be pain on a whole different level.

At 3:30AM I threw in the towel and called home. I knew there wasn't anything anyone could do for me, but being alone and in so much pain I just wanted to tell someone. We decided I should try to lay down one more time and get some sleep since I had been up all night and call L&D in the morning. I hung up the phone, got another glass of water and went to the bathroom before laying back down. I was completely shocked to see that I passed a kidney stone! In that very instant I felt sooooo much better! As many as I've had you'd think I would have figured out one was coming, but I didn't. All I can say is that I'm so thankful I passed it so quickly and on my own. I can't imagine trying to pass one of those suckers for days on end while you're pregnant and drug free. I'd do it if it meant the little guy would be okay, but that's something I don't even want to think about!

I'm doing much better today and actually feel better than I thought I would. I'm hoping the worst of the shingles is over, but the doctors couldn't say for sure if it was or not. They weren't too specific, but I do know it will be a few weeks before they clear up all the way.

I didn't take a belly picture this weekend so here's one from today (25 weeks, 5 days). I thought I'd leave my shirt on this week so everyone wouldn't have to see all the nastiness of the shingles. I'll have you know those are regular jeans that I'm wearing and they are buttoned! I'll also go ahead and admit those are the only regular jeans that I have left and I can only button them after wearing them all day when they are stretched out. But that still counts in my book! :)

We have a wild man our hands! :)

We have had a sneak peek at our little man on 4 separate occasions. On all 4 of those occasions he has acted like a wild little man! And yesterday was no exception...

I felt him move a few times during the ultrasound, but on the screen he was moving constantly throughout the entire appointment. We watched him for an hour and I'm pretty sure he didn't sit still for more than 5 seconds straight. The woman couldn't get the pictures that she wanted so we're actually going back once Randy is home for her to try again. It was really entertaining to watch him, but I'm a little worried about his behavior :)

Even though he was wild he was still cute! We saw him yawn a few times and it was absolutely adorable! She also got a picture of him smiling. She said he had his face up against the side of my uterus so it was hard for her to get a good/clear picture. She had me rolling on my sides, poking at him, talking to him but we couldn't get him to move. He'd lay still for a split second and then all at once he'd jerk his little body and all his limbs would go flying. He'd also arch his back and throw his head back just like he was having a little tantrum.

The slideshow is pretty fast so you can turn it off if you'd like and click on the images one at a time. On some of the 3D images you can see part of the baby's face, but the other side of his face is blurred or completely missing- that's because he's up against my side and in 3D mode is can't focus on what is right against my side. I think that's the main reason she's having us come back, because she didn't get a picture of his entire face without a portion of it being blurred. That's okay though~ I'll take another sneak peek at him!

We also discussed his eye from our previous u/s. She said what we're seeing is the socket and what looks like his eye is actually the light reflecting off his iris. She said it's not something you see with every u/s, but it does happen. I saw it a few times again yesterday as well. She said it was too early for him to be opening his eyes and when they do they typically only open their eyes a tiny bit. Almost like a little squint.

Here's the link to view the images:

1. Go to www.HawaiiUltrasound.com

2. Click on "Ultrasound"

3. Click on the “Clients” tab along the top

4. Enter our password: boughton

5. Wait a few seconds for the pictures to load.

#15- Randy's lips? (I'm hoping!)
#23- he finally opened his little fingers for us!
#29/30- smiling

It was so nice to have Randy home even if it was only for 4 days. We did some shopping for our little man on Friday night and we're pretty sure we found the nursery furniture as well. Now we just need Daddy to come back so we can get started on everything!

Here's a belly pic from this morning (24 weeks, 3 days). Everyone asks if I have grown since Iowa and the answer to that would be yes. Yes, I have!

It's a sweet baby boy!

Randy is finally home and we're having a baby boy!!! :) We had an amazing day and it was so much fun to find out together. I can't imagine not waiting for him to find out the gender. Living with the envelope wasn't as bad and what everyone imagined, but I'll be honest and say the last week was just plain annoying. People due 2 months after us were announcing what they were having and I was just ready for it to be our turn!

As soon as we found out we called Petal Pushers. They delivered flowers to our parents that said, "It's a boy!" I went to see Val while I was home for Labor Day and they were incredibly excited to be in on the surprise with us. We spent the rest of the afternoon making phone calls and sending texts so that we could share the news with everyone else.

Yesterday I had my 24 week appointment and everything looked good. I saw Dr. Coleman again and I was really glad Randy was able to meet her this time. She tried to find the little man's heartbeat, but all she was hearing was kicks at first. I hope this isn't any indication of his energy level or behavior once he arrives :) It came up that Randy wasn't at the 20 week u/s so she was incredibly sweet and brought the u/s machine in for us. It wasn't as high quality as the previous one, but any chance to get a glimpse of him we'll take. He was moving all around and once again hiding his little face from us.

Tonight we're heading to Babies R Us when I get off work. The store just opened last week so I'm really excited to see what they have. I have not bought one single baby item so I'm ready to do some shopping! Saturday we're having a 3D ultrasound done out in town and then Randy leaves again on Sunday for the Big Island for a month. I was assuming we'd have all day Sunday together, but they booked the flights in alphabetical order so Randy is on the 2:30AM flight. Lovely, huh?!

I'll have Randy take some pictures of my belly before he leaves again and I'll post them on Sunday afternoon. It's definitely grown since Iowa! I'll also post some images from the u/s since they give us a cd with all the images they get :)