An Update

Alright, I guess its time to get this thing up and rolling again. 4th of July was my last post, but that's because soon afterward Brian returned from deployment. The main reason behind this blog has been to keep him up to date with pictures since emailing photos to the boat is nearly impossible. And now he's gone again, having left a few days after Christmas. Its taken me a while to get back to this because life's been pretty rocky for us over the past month or so since he left. I keep saying I feel like its the perfect storm... our 3rd deployment in 3 years (which in itself is hard), Meredith just being 3, Meredith finally "getting" that Daddy is gone and lashing out, and me being pregnant, sick, and tired. So its been tough, but we're finally starting to see through the haze and things are improving.

And yes, you read right... I'm pregnant, if you didn't already know. We'd been trying for quite a while so its very welcome addition, but I must admit being pregnant during deployment isn't quite as easy as I thought it would be. I do think our timing couldn't have been better though, and I'm thankful for the fact that he *should* make it home for the birth and the newborn part, which was a very tough period for me with Meredith. And this *should* be our last deployment for a while, so he'll be around for the first few years of this next baby's life. I'm due on the 21st of July and as of yet we don't know the sex of the baby, nor if we'll be sharing the news when we find out. ;) We opted this time to see a midwife and have a home birth. My biggest reasoning for this was that the Navy Hospital here has an obscene cesarean rate and I wasn't sure I'd be given the leeway to labor on my own time without being pushed with interventions. I'm very thankful we were able to have Meredith in a civilian hospital that had an amazingly supportive staff and a great doctor. I didn't think I'd be so lucky this time. So I'm seeing a midwife and already through just my first few visits I'm thrilled with our decision. Especially because if Brian doesn't happen to make it home for the birth I know I won't have to drive myself to the hospital or worry too much about what to do with Meredith.

Meredith is doing well, overall. She's had a tough time with Brian leaving this time. I keep saying he & I really got cocky with this deployment. Its our 5th, and 3rd with a family and we didn't think too much about how it would affect Meredith this time since it never really has in the past. We didn't take into consideration she was that much older and that she really does "get" Daddy's absence this time. What is normally a week or two of settling in became over a month and my patience was wearing so thin I was looking into counseling for the both of us. Thankfully Brian was able to call and that really made all the difference. Amazing how her little mind works. Brian & I have become much more proactive with how we're dealing with her this time and that's helped too... with special gifts from Daddy and letters from him just for her to keep them connected. She also changed preschool classes right when Brian left, so her little life was just thrown into turmoil for a while. Thankfully things seem to be settling down.

So there's our update! We didn't do a whole lot between Brian's last homecoming and this recent departure. We spent a long weekend in Oregon with just the three of us, and had a big family Christmas up here again. And we haven't done a whole lot since Brian's left, so not a whole lot of new pictures yet. But we have a LOT coming up now that this first month of deployment is behind us. My sister (yes, that's a whole other story which I will post about later) is coming out to meet us in a few weeks. Then we have our big ultrasound. We're heading to Colorado for Easter with Grandma & Papa, then we have our halfway dinner in April. We plan on spending most of May in Hawaii with Grandpa, and June will be full with a baby shower, my birthday, and preparing for homecoming. I'm hoping that for as long as this last month has felt, the next 5 will fly by.

Here are just a few photos from the last month, to satisfy the grandparents! :)

Brian aboard ship right before deployment began

A little fairy princess

I cut my hair!

Being silly at breakfast with our friends on Valentine's Day