40 weeks!!

Today we had our 40 week appointment. Everything went well and I had made a little more progress. I'm at a really good 5cm and 75% effaced. We had a ton of questions (and still do!) and ran through all the what if's of what do to from here.

Since my contractions are consistent and painful she said the next time I have them to come on in. Even if they aren't 3-5 minutes apart like they say they should be. Mine are usually 7 minutes apart and obviously that's enough for my body considering the progress I've made so far. Plus, we don't want to have him at home or on the H3 :)

The ideal plan would be for my contractions to pick up again on their own and after 30 minutes head into L&D so they can monitor me. Then while I'm having the contractions they'd like to break my water and hopefully that will be all that I need to stay in active labor on my own. We're just waiting around tonight to see if the contractions kick in on their own again. If not, they are going to call tomorrow morning and have me come in when they aren't too busy. At that time, they are going to check and see if I've made anymore progress from today. Then we have the option of them going ahead and breaking my water in hopes that will start the contractions. Dr. Coleman is very confident that once my water breaks things will get going and he'll be on his way!

Please keep us in your thoughts & prayers! While we know what's ahead there are still so many unknown factors to think about. I pray everything goes according to plan and all the decisions we make are the correct ones. We're so anxious to meet this sweet little guy and share him with all of you!

Love,
Randy, Liz and baby Noah :)

39 weeks!

I finally have a few pictures of his room! I really, really, really wish we could paint but at this point it would be more trouble than it's worth. I'd like to find a larger rug and a few more decorative items for his dressers/walls, but I'm not in any rush to get those things before he arrives.









I had my 39 week appointment on Wednesday. I wasn't able to see Dr. Coleman, but it was a quick and easy visit so I didn't mind too much. I had progressed to 4cm dialated & was still 50% effaced. She told us you have to be 4cm in order to get admitted to L&D so the next time I was having consistent contractions to come on in. She recommended coming in when my contractions were 5-7 minutes apart for 2 hours or so. Silly us left there thinking he was practically on his way!

That night I woke up about midnight with some contractions. I timed them until about 2AM before I decided to wake up Randy. We came out to the living room and over the next hour they started to die down. Not knowing what was ahead we went back to bed about 3AM to rest while we had the chance. I think it was around 5AM when I woke up again with more contractions. This time we decided to call L&D just to see what their opinion was. The nurse said my contractions needed to be 3-4 minutes apart for 3 hours. Okay, that is completely different than what the doctor had just told me! I was a little frustrated, but at the same time I didn't think it was the "real deal" so we headed back to bed. I ended up calling into work that day. There is no way I would have made it after being up all night!

It's weird, but I don't have very many contractions during the daytime. But the second I lay down at night they start to kick in. They have gotten stronger every night since Wednesday, they are more painful and they are definitely taking my breath away. I just hope when it's time to go into L&D that it's obvious! Heck, before I was worried about my water breaking at work and now I'm kind of wishing it would happen. At least then I would 100% know that it's time to go :)

Below is a picture of my big ol' belly from this afternoon.



We're waiting as patiently as we can! Hopefully he'll decide to come sometime soon. Randy and I both have a 3 day weekend so we're just going to relax, hang out and wait on him. I go back to the doctor on Wednesday so we'll see if I make it to then or not! Thanks for checking on us and I can't wait to announce that he's finally here!!!! :)

38 weeks!

It's so hard for me to believe that I'm 38 weeks pregnant! The past month has flown by and it's crazy to think our little man could decide to come any day now. We are as ready as we can be and have everything that we need! Plus, I'm sure a lot more :)

I had an appt yesterday and everything looks good. My belly measured at 36 weeks, I'm 2 cm dialated and 50% effaced. If you don't want to know all the girly details I'd skip the rest of this paragraph! :) During the exam she said she could feel his head, but he moved away from her when she did touch him. She said that typically means that he isn't engaged yet since he could back away from her. I was just glad to hear that he was head down, because I was starting to wonder if he was laying across my belly based on some of his movements.

I think our doctor was surprised I had progressed that much and this early as a first time mom. I know we were! Heck, I wanted her to lie and tell me I was 1 cm even if I wasn't, lol. I have been having a ton of BH contractions so I was hoping they were getting things moving. I've had two really long spells of them where they were 8-10 minutes apart for about 6 hours or so. She said one of these times they won't stop and we'll be on our way to the hospital! She doesn't think I'll make it to my due date (21st) and thought he'd be here sometime within the next two weeks!!

Maybe next time I post there will be some images of a sweet baby boy! :)

Mele Kalikimaka!

Merry Christmas! I hope everyone had a wonderful day with their families. Even though we weren't in Iowa, Randy and I had a great day together. We sleep in a little bit, opened presents, baked a few side dishes and then headed to Annie & Eric's for a late lunch. I made sure Noah got plenty to eat and then we spent the evening playing games. Overall, it was a great day!

Randy and I made our final trip to Babies R Us before Noah arrives~ or so we hope! We still needed to pick up a few things so we did that yesterday and then spent today working in his room. If anyone was worried about him having clothes have no fear he has plenty! I thought we'd have to do a load or two of laundry~ man was I wrong!

I created a list of those who are still in the running for the baby pool that we did at my shower in Iowa. Sorry to those of you who guessed girl and are already out~ Lindsay, Sam, Jill, Renee, Han-na, Rachel, Shannon, Grandma Deb & Patsy! Maybe next time :)

This week is another short work week for Randy and I with the holiday. We did a lot of running and cleaning this weekend in hopes that we could relax and just hang out this coming weekend. The only thing we're doing this week is on Wednesday and we go on a tour of the Labor & Delivery Unit at the hospital. I'm not sure if that will calm some nervous or only make them worse. I'm guessing worse, lol :)

Again, I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas with their families. We're so thankful for everything that we have and feel incredibly blessed to have all of you in our lives to share it with! Even though we were all the way in Hawaii we still felt plenty of love from Iowa!

new belly pics!

Dec. 20th, 2009
(anyone know why my dates are wrong all of the sudden?!)

I know it's been forever, but I'm finally updating with some belly pics! The link below is from the USMC Ball in late November. We had such a great time! I've never seen so many women who are pregnant in one location in all my life, lol. It was pretty funny to see how many people are having Homecoming babies :)

http://www.photoreflect.com/pr3/Orderpage.aspx?pi=03OH00G4020072&po=72&pc=134

We also had a maternity session with my friend, Michelle. She was the one who took our Homecoming photos back in April. She wanted to try some new things so I happily volunteered us to do so. Randy was such a good sport and went along with everything we tried! Here are a few of my favorites from that day.








This is from last weekend when we went Hanauma Bay with Randy's mom and Susan. I can't snorkel anymore, but I was still able to walk around and see fish. The water was so clear! I was in water up to my chest and I could still see fish just by walking around! I'm incredibly jealous they got to swim with a turtle! I can float on my back and swim just fine, but for some reason I can't float on my tummy which makes snorkeling a little difficult at this point.



And just because I think this one is funny... :)



This weekend we finished our shopping, wrapped everything and shipped it all for a small fortune. Randy made some awesome chili for lunch and we plan to spend our evening baking, watching football and maybe a Christmas movie.

The little man and I are doing good. He's gotten so much stronger in the past week or so. I'm wanting to record my belly when he's really active, but I haven't had any luck yet. It's almost as if he knows I want to record it~ little stinker! He's wild and crazy when I'm at work, but never when I'm just sitting at home.

We have everything we need and I think we're officially ready for him! I have been having a ton of Braxton Hick contractions. I had 3-4 days were I had them non-stop around the clock. I don't think I'll have him anytime soon, but since Johna had Mason so early every little thing has me wondering now. I go back to the doctor on Jan 6 and I'll be 38 weeks at that time. She said she'd check to see if I've made any progress if I wanted her to. It's just crazy to think how close we are~ only one more month!

I'm next in line.

I'm officially the next one in line to have a baby and I have less than 50 days to go! Randy's cousin, Johna, was due with their little boy on December 20th. On Tuesday morning, their little man decided to make an early appearence! Thankfully he's doing well and they're heading home tomorrow afternoon. Now that he's here that makes our little man the next one to arrive and me the next one to give birth! Yikes!!

Randy's mom and friend, Susan, are here visiting us for the next two weeks. This weekend we're heading to some museums, going on a dinner cruise, checking out the swap meet and spending an afternoon snorkeling. I'm excited, it should be fun!

I promise I'll share a belly picture soon! We've just been so busy that I haven't had time to upload anything that we've taken. Don't worry though, I have definitely been growing!!

Busy, busy, busy!

We have been so busy lately that I don't even know where to begin! My parents got here on the 6th and we've been on the go ever since. That weekend we had our follow up 3D u/s appointment. The little guy behaved much better this time! Granted he wasn't as entertaining as the first time, but he was still fun to watch. We saw a few cute yawns (which are my absolute favorite) and several sweet expressions. He's still a fan of having both little hands right in front of his face. The tech had me push on his bum a little bit to see if we could get him to move his arms and he gave the most pathetic pouty face I've ever seen! I was curious to see if he had any hair, but she said he doesn't have much yet. She said he still has plenty of time to grow some so hopefully he does! I've been envisioning him as having all that dark hair that my siblings and I had so I guess we'll have to wait and see once he gets here!

You can click here to see his new images. Click on Ultrasound, click on clients at the top and the password is boughton. They are in the same gallery as the first set of images. He still looks like the same little baby, but he is definitely beefing up! :)


Our sweet little man!


Not loving the photo shoot anymore!


This was our first peek at his little toes so I love that he's reaching for them!

My parents, Randy and I then headed to the Big Island for about a week. We had a great time and I'm sure I could make a post of just eventful moments we had :) The weather wasn't exactly perfect, but we still had a great time!

Tomorrow night is the USMC Ball. I feel like we haven't been to a Ball in forever, because of deployments. I'm excited to get all dressed up and go out for the evening with my hubby. We both have Thursday and Friday off so I'm also excited to spend a long weekend together without much else planned.

Oh~ if I'm really good he said we can start to decorate for Christmas this weekend too! :) I didn't decorate at all last year since he was in Iraq so we're going to more than make up for that this year!