BLISS

BLISS = supreme happiness; utter joy or contentment....this is how I feel!!!


Miles is one week old today. I can't believe how quickly the time has gone by already!

Matt was burping Miles and my mom captured this on her camera. It's our favorite pic so far :)

Big Sister and Bama Lois holding Miles at the hospital

Rian has been adjusting pretty well considering the circumstances. At night, she gets a little more feisty and wants more attention, but for the most part, she is doing really great. She loves her baby brother and especially loves feeding him!

Helping feed again!

Daddy giving Miles his bath. The first bath (which I didn't capture on film) he didn't like so much. This time, he enjoyed it much more...although his face may not show it in this shot :)

The bath exhausted him!

Check out this calic....gotta love it!

Bama Lois and Miles. They just love each other! I am so grateful my mom is here. She is so awesome and I am so lucky to have her as my mom! About 2.5 weeks til my dad gets here :) Rian can't wait to see him....and neither can I!

Everyone thinks Miles looks just like Rian did as a baby. Here they are in the same outfit. She is about 5 days older than him in these pics. Rian is on the left, Miles on the right.

Miles is such a good baby. We really lucked out! All he does is sleep, sleep, feed, and sleep! Occasionally he will wake up and enjoys walking around the house. His bilirubin levels were higher than the Dr wanted, so we had to go in the day after we were discharged to check the numbers. He had lost quite a bit of weight and was not filling up his diaper like he should have been. He was dehydrated. Apparently, I wasn't producing much milk yet.....surprise, surprise...my milk never came in with Rian. I was so worried. But we went in the following day and his weight went way back up and his bilirubin numbers were great. Now all he does is fill up his diaper! In fact, last night before bed, Matt and I were laughing hysterically because Miles pooped and we seriously went through 4 diapers in just that one diaper change. He just kept going and going. It was quite comical! I love having a newborn in our home again. He sleeps so well at night and I'm getting enough sleep to function throughout the day. At least for now, maybe it will hit me in a few days.

Rian is doing pretty well considering. She really wants to be involved with Miles and she wants her own time with both Matt and I too. Totally understandable. It's a little bit of an adjustment for me, but I am trying to make her feel very special too. Any advice on what has worked for you is totally welcomed! She has her first dance recital coming up and I can't wait for it! She really loves her dance class and her teacher. She also loves her weekly tumbles class! She has been going on lots of playdates with her friends too. It's so fun to watch her play with her friends! Thank heavens my mom is here to help out with all of Rian's outings! Rian has also been doing so well with recognizing letters and learning how to write her letters too. She can even spell some words. She also loves to type names/words on the computer, as well as play educational games on the computer and ipod touch. She is such a good girl and I am grateful to have her in my life! Seriously, how did I get so lucky! :)

Tummy Shots

I can't believe I am 32 weeks already. The time has just flown by! This pregnancy has definitely been a lot different than my first. I've had a lot more pain, but it is kind of hit and miss. I passed my glucose tests and am happy to report I do not have gestational diabetes this pregnancy! I'm a lot smaller this time around too (some of that probably due to the fact that I am not diabetic). In fact at my 32 week appt, I was only measuring 29 centimeters, which is only one centimeter bigger than my last appt at 28 weeks. But I seriously feel like I am growing bigger every day!!! Don't I look more than a centimeter bigger on that collage?? Our little guy is pretty dang active, just like Rian was, but he moves differently than she did. I love feeling his movements, even if they are uncomfortable sometimes. It's my favorite part of pregnancy :) Oh, and my cravings are definitely not the same this time!
We are getting anxious to meet our little guy! Rian is definitely ready to be a big sister and seems excited for his arrival too! She always mentions her baby brother in her prayers and is excited to be our little helper! I'm glad she is at the age where she understands what's going on. She can see and feel the baby move, and already loves to talk and sing to him. It's so cute!

Counting Our Blessings

Once again, our prayers were answered and we are incredibly grateful! The typhoon continued heading north through Friday night and Saturday morning. When we woke up Saturday morning, we were still on a Tropical Storm watch, but by 10 am that watch was cancelled. At that point, we knew we were in the clear! It was a little windy on Saturday, but I don't even think we even got rain to be honest.

My heart is so full of gratitude! And my testimony strengthened! This is obviously our first typhoon season, and we have had many close calls. We have had quite a few storms coming straight towards Guam, that have changed course. I'm sure this is how it will be every season we are here. And the only thing we can do is prepare ourselves and let mother nature take its course. How grateful am I for the Gospel! For the wonderful counsel of our Leaders on preparation. And the scriptures too. Modern day revelation is such a huge blessing and I have been reminded this past week how lucky we are to have it in our lives! I couldn't help but think of many versus on being prepared this past week....here is one that stuck out to me this evening:
"Organize yourselves; prepare every needful thing..." Doctrine and Covenants 88:119

Typhoon Melor

It's 930 pm Friday night. By tomorrow morning, this is what the entire island should look like. All the windows covered with storm shutters or wooden boards, so the wind/flying debris won't break them. It's kind of an eerie feeling driving around town and seeing everything boarded up.

Typhoon Melor is expected to intensify over night and become a Super Typhoon, which means winds will be exceeding 150 mph. Melor is expected to hit Saipan, which is a smaller island just north of Guam. We are not on a typhoon watch, but on a tropical storm watch because we are far enough south of the eye of the storm, so we should expect winds to not exceed 73 mph.

We've been told to prepare for heavy rain and damaging winds starting tomorrow morning and continuing on into the evening. Hopefully the typhoon will continue heading west northwest and not southwest towards us!

We feel very lucky to be out of the eye of this storm. However, we aren't in the clear quite yet. We continue to ask for your prayers for all of us here in the Marianas Islands. Many smaller islands will be hit much harder than us. Thank you for all your prayers, care and concern over the past week. As long as we have power and internet connection we will continue to update our blog. It seems like every time we have gone to bed the past few days, we have woken up to news that this typhoon has intensified. I am nervous to see what we will wake up to tomorrow morning. We'll let you know...

Pop Tarts: A Disaster Necessity

So I sent Matt to the store again yesterday for some last minute disaster necessities. Guess what he comes home with........a Costco size box of Pop Tarts, NO JOKE!!! In his defense, they are a shelf stable food, right? Wait can you even consider Pop Tarts a food?!?!

Storm Watch Update

Wow, this morning has been quite the rollercoaster ride. I woke up this morning to the news that Guam has been put on a Tsunami Watch. I seriously had to laugh at this point. Really, a tsunami too, is this a joke or what??? American Somoa was hit with a huge 8.0 earthquake which triggered a massive tsunami. Many islands here in the Pacific were put on Tsunami Watch, but luckily the Tsunami watch has now been lifted for Guam!!! Yay, one less thing to worry about!!!

Now on to Tropical Storm 18W. It is still considered a tropical storm with winds expected to hit at 40 mph. The storm will be hitting the southern part of the island coming in from the east. We are located in the middle of the island on the east coast, just so you know.....not that this island is by any means big or anything :) Anyways, it is expected to hit us around 4 pm local time (it is 1030 am right now) but the military is going on today with "business as usual". I'm am definitely not worried about 18W. We have been through a tropical depression back in Dec, and 40 mph winds aren't too bad. We might lose power, but we have a generator and I am almost positive the power will be restored before our building's generator is out of juice.

Now on to more serious news! We have another HUGE storm coming! The next tropical storm 20W, named MELOR, will be approaching over the weekend with typhoon strength winds of up to 100 MPH. Holy crap, this is the one to be scared about!!! Although the current forecast is for a Saipan impact on Sunday morning (Saipan is located north of Guam), computer models are not in agreement on the track and the forecast may change over the next 48 hours.

As I learned from 18W, conditions are constantly changing. In fact, I could have updated this blog 5 times yesterday, but decided to hold off until this morning because I knew the conditions would be changing yet once again. We will expecting to hear more about 20W on Friday morning local time. That will be Thursday afternoon for you all who are stateside. We will be praying that this storm slows down just like 18W did!

I do have to say though, that I think I have been handling all this stress/anxiety over these storms and tsunami warnings pretty dang well. So I am pretty darn happy with myself. I tend to get anxiety attacks pretty easily, but I have been really trying to stay calm and not freak out too much through all of this. Especially since the conditions are constantly changing, so what's the point? Am I nervous about 20W, heck yes!!! But I need to stay calm for me and the baby and for Rian too. So that is what I am doing for the time being. :)

It's Coming....

I am scared. There is a big storm heading towards Guam. I've never been through anything like this before. We are just waiting for it to hit us and just sitting here waiting is not a fun thing.

Tropical Depression: winds less than 38 mph
Tropical Storm: winds between 39-73 mph
Typhoon: winds over 74 mph
Super Typhoon: winds over 150 mph

Over here in the pacific, we get typhoons. They are just like hurricanes. Yesterday we were informed that Tropical Depression 18W has formed and was gaining speed. It was heading straight towards Guam and would most likely become a Tropical Storm by the time it directly hit us Tuesday evening. Luckily, it slowed down and moved south yesterday afternoon and now will actually hit just south of Guam. This is great news!

As of this morning (it is 9am Tuesday right now) 18W is 625 miles east, southeast of Guam. Damaging winds will most likely hit us starting around 5am Thurs. Since it will hit south of us, we will most likely just encounter a Tropical Depression on Thursday, however a Topical Storm watch is still in effect for Guam at this time. Hopefully it won't be too damaging. However, the speed of the storm can change at any time, so we still need to prepare for the worst.

One problem with these storms is that it affects the power and water. Losing power is a very common thing here and we actually lose it during almost every thunderstorm. However, losing power means losing internet access and phone (we have digital phone), which then means, we lose all communication to all of you who are stateside. I do not like that! I have been stocking up on water and non-perishable food ever since we got back to the island in May. But I keep asking myself, do we have enough?? I can't seem to answer that question. And this is one of the reasons why....

...There is another storm following behind Tropical Depression 18W and possibly another storm (yes, that's #3) behind that one. Since this first storm won't be too damaging (hopefully), I am pretty sure we can survive that; even if we were out of power for a few days or so. But what happens when this next storm hits. The next one has yet to be named, but has been rumored to be much more intense than 18W. Will we have enough to get us through another major hit? Because you know we won't have a chance to restock after each storm, especially since we live on a island and there are limited supply of everything to begin with. And sometimes the power and/or water can be out for weeks. The next storm is projected to hit us Sat morning.

I just feel have that motherly instinct to protect my family, and I am worried that I won't be prepared enough to do that. We have food, water, gas in our vehicles, flashlights, batteries, hurricane lamps, candles, clean clothes, clean towels, clean dishes, toilet paper, paper products (plates and stuff), clean bath tubs to fill with water before the storm hits, charged electronics, etc. I've gone over the list several times and I think we are prepared in that aspect. But this is still a scary thing.

Matt just sent me this link: http://www.goes.noaa.gov/guam/guamloops/guamir.html If you want to see satellite images of the storms. I'm going to try to keep you all updated with this information as it comes to us. Please remember all of us here on Guam in your prayers :)

We Are EXCITED

We are having a BOY! And we couldn't be more thrilled!

The ultrasound lasted over an hour. The hospital was very thorough, taking about 60 sonogram pictures. We did get a disk with the pictures, however, we cannot save them to our computer :(

The baby weighed approximately 1 lbs 2 oz. He was breach and facing my back. So the tech had a hard time getting a profile picture.

We were only given two actual pictures, one of the spine and this one!

The tech said the measurements looked great, but that is all he told us. I have my appointment with my Dr next Thursday. She will go over the ultrasound at that time. Apparently they are very strict at this hospital and they tell the to tech kept his lips sealed, even about the gender. We got him to peak at the gender, but that's it.

I still can't believe it's a boy! Even though it's my second pregnancy, it feels like a whole new adventure knowing that it will be a completely different experience. Thanks for participating in our poll....looks like the majority of you were right :)

Potty Training Update

First off, I need to say THANK YOU to everyone who posted comments on my previous post about potty training. I was in a huge rut and I really need the boost you all gave me to continue on the potty training journey! I am really happy to announce that Rian has been doing awesome since my last post!

I took Auntie Lauren's advice about not asking Rian if she needed to go, but instead just taking her. That way she wouldn't have the chance to tell me no. Most times I would just say something like can you come with me? and we would walk hand in hand to the potty. That worked extremely well!

I also decided that I did not want to 'reward' Rian, but instead 'chart' her progress. As all of you probably know, Rian is absolutely obsessed with anything princess. So I found a free sticker chart on the internet, printed it out, and taped in up on the wall in Rian's bathroom. I just happen to have some princess stickers too. I crossed my fingers that this would be the key to her success.....and thus far it has been! She loves to put her stickers on her chart whenever she has gone on the potty! She has already filled up one chart and is doing very well on her second!

I also read on the internet to add food coloring to the potty water. Supposedly, if you use blue dye, it will change to green once the child goes in the potty. Well, we tried that experiment and I guess Rian's pee isn't concentrated enough (which is a good thing!), but she still loves to add food coloring every time she tries to go on the potty!

We've moved on to Princess Pull-ups instead of diapers! Sometimes she will tell me when she has to go, but that isn't too often. I wonder how to get to that next step? However, over the past three days she has told Matt and I probably 5 or 6 times that she needs to go. So I guess that is improvement, right?! We are just so proud of her! In fact, yesterday she told me she needed to go and asked if she could try it by herself. Of course we encouraged it! So I secretly watched her from around the corner :) She did so good! We are so proud of our little girl and hope that we can continue making progress!!

Sonogram Pics

Today I had a nice little surprise when I went to the Dr. I was a little concerned last Monday when I went in for my 16 week appt. The Dr had a really difficult time finding the baby's heartbeat. He kept finding mine, but really struggled to find the baby's. When I showed my concern, he blew me off. So you could say I left the appt very unhappy.
I really wanted to know that the baby was okay, so I switched doctors and asked for another appt. My new Dr rocks! It took a few minutes, but the nurse found the baby's heartbeat and then told me to wait for the Dr. While I was waiting, the nurse wheeled in the ultrasound machine! I was very surprised. My new Dr explained to me that normally she would not do an ultrasound at 17 weeks, but since I was concerned with my last appt, she wanted to reassure me that everything was okay with the little baby.
She put Rian up on the table with me and pointed out everything to Rian and me. Everything, but the sex :) Rian saw the baby move his/her feet, and open and close his/her mouth! She was so excited! I left the office feeling so comforted. And most importantly, feeling like my Dr actually cared about me and my concerns. The first picture is a shot of the head. You can see the huge forehead, eye sockets, and the mouth opened. The second picture is of the spine. Our next ultrasound is scheduled for July 23rd. I put up a poll for you to guess the sex, so we expect everyone who reads this to vote!

back to island life

that's right...rian and i are currently in hawaii waiting to board our next leg to guam! it's been a long night. we left northern california about 8 pm last night and got into hawaii around 2 am local time. our next flight should leave around 5 pm local time. so for the time being we are just hanging out in the terminal. we can't wait to see matt again!

A BABY PINE HAS SPROUTED!

We are so excited to announce that THE PINERY IS GROWING!!! I found out on March 25th that I was pregnant while I was visiting with my sister in San Diego and Matt was in Ventura County. I didn't want to share the news with him over the phone because I wanted to be able to see his reaction and share in hugs and kisses. So, as hard as it was, I kept it a secret from Wed morning until we saw him on Fri afternoon. I bought Rian a "Big Sister" t-shirt and had him dress her. His reaction was awesome! I knew he would be super excited! We all are! And the best part, I got it on video!

I had my first ultrasound on Monday. Here is one of the pictures we got. Can you see his/her two little arms and two little feet? The arms and feet were wiggling around like crazy! It was so cute! Unfortunately, Matt couldn't' be there since he has already left for Guam. But that's okay, he'll be there for the next ultrasound! I am due on Nov 27th....the day after Thanksgiving (my favorite holiday) and two days before our 6th wedding anniversary! I'm 11 weeks, but can't hide it anymore! You know the saying 'you show earlier with your second'? Well, it's totally true in my case. I mean, I'm only 11 weeks and showing....Crazy!! Yet, so exciting too :)

Yes, We Are Still Alive!

We have been so incredibly busy ever since the Seabee Ball. I have SO many pictures to post from the past 2 months and I'm feeling a little overwhelmed with the task ahead. It was our last 2 months as a family here in the States, so it's been jam packed of stuff to do! Now Matt is back in Guam and I am still in San Diego trying to spend as much time with friends and family before Rian and I head back too. But this week I am setting a goal.....to go through my pictures and start posting! I know you are all dying to see what we have been up to!!! So check back soon :)

Change of Plans

Turns out we received Matt's orders and are actually moving to Guam in three weeks! Crazy, I know. We have a million things to do and hardly any time to do it. So this is just a heads up that I probably won't be posting for a little bit. We'll see how these next few weeks go!

Matt graduation was awesome and he looked so good in his uniform! We are so proud of him and are all happy to have him back! And I'm sure he is even more happy to be back :) Hopefully we can get pics of it up soon as well as some more pics of our vacation.

2 Days To Go!

I am getting so dang excited, I just had to post about it! We only have 2 days to go until we get to see Matt again! I can't wait to see Rian's reaction when she sees him for the first time! I hope to get it on video :) We are flying into Newark, NJ on Tuesday and then renting a car and driving 4 hours to Newport, RI. And for those of you wondering why we are not flying straight to Rhode Island...well, here is your answer: we will be visiting family in NJ after Matt's graduation! I know our countdown says we have a little more time, but that is counting down the days until graduation....Matt won't really be mine again until graduation day!

We continued to have a blast in FL and managed to make our way to VA. Thank heavens Hanna only turned out to be a tropical storm. We hardly got hit here at all! We are having a great time in Virginia Beach. I probably won't be able to post pics until we get home.

Let's pray these next two days fly by!!!!!