EIB and St. Louis Trip

Congratulations to Drew!! After lots of hard work, he earned his Expert Infantry Badge last Friday. Drew has his CIB (combat infantry badge) which he earned in Iraq, but the EIB is a well-respected, non-combat related badge. Drew trained for a couple of weeks with his team to prepare, but last week was the test. It started on Monday with a PT test (no big deal) and land navigation but then they got into the 'lanes' as they call them where they have to complete a series of tasks in a high stress environment in a limited amount of time. The hours were crazy too with Drew barely sleeping all week. The graders are tough and tend to mark off for the littlest of things. To give you a better idea, 388 guys started and only 35 were pinned. It ended with a 12 mile ruck march which Drew enjoys. Great job, Drew!! I am doing a poor job of explaining it, but it's a big deal!
I wish I could have been in two places at once so I could be home to celebrate his accomplishment but I was off to St. Louis for the weekend. I had a great time! Here is the official 26 weeks picture (6 1/2 months) from Friday.

Friday night I was able to see good friends who threw me a baby shower/dinner at Bartolinos (my friend Tina's family's restaurant). So fun and of course the food is so good! Before hand I was able to meet Tina's daughter Natalie who was only 5 weeks old at the time and her big sister Josie is who is almost two. It was great because the moms were invited too so there was much 'baby talk' to go around from the new mom, mom-to-be, aunt, and Grandma perspective. My mom loved it too! It makes it so real when people are giving me presents for my son... Drew and I are going to have a son!!! Thank you to Tina, Carrie, Amelia and their moms for making me feel so special. Truly a nice time!
Here are a few pics. I was surprised to see the baby books and toys on the table when we walked in. I didn't realize we were having a 'baby' dinner. Such a nice surprise!




On Saturday my parents and I were invited to my friend Mary Beth's wedding shower. I have been friends with her since grade school and was asked to be a bridesmaid but... their wedding is in July and I am due in July... so I will be unable to fly in for the wedding. I wish two of our biggest life events were not falling in the same month but there's nothing we can do about it. We are so excited for both! I wanted to at least make it to something 'wedding-ish' so the shower was a perfect opportunity. It was great to see her and her soon-to-be husband Eric. My friend Brian who has also been a friend since gradeschool was there too. Here's a pic of us. The bride-to-be looked great! Sooo excited for them! :)

Sunday I rounded out the weekend with a trip to see Drew's mom Jeannie (soon-to-be Grandma!). We went to Babies R Us where I showed her different things on our registry and things we already have so she could picture the nursery. Then we got lost in baby clothes. I could buy everything in there! Thanks to Jeannie for getting him 5 new cute little outfits. His wardrobe is slowly growing... he now has 8 outfits. Something tells me we'll need more than that. :) We then enjoyed dinner with Gram which was fun to show her my quickly growing baby bump. The conversation seems to center around Baby H these days. We just can't help ourselves!
Last night I got home safely and Drew enjoyed seeing the new baby things. I tried to stuff as much as I could into my carry-on but our parents will bring the rest when they drive down next, which may just be when Baby H arrives! Thanks again to everyone who contributed to such a special weekend!

It's beginning to look a lot like Baby! Our baby furniture came in this weekend so on Saturday we went to pick it up. You would think that we would have assembled it right away but Drew and I were in the mood for a beach day so we picked it up, dropped it off at home and headed to Hilton Head. It was the first time this season that we could swim and go underwater so we had our ceremonial 'first dip' of the season. Well, it wasn't really a ceremony... Drew went under and said it felt good so of course I had to. This was followed by a high-five for first underwater swim of the season and that was it. :) Let the beach season begin! I must say I look a lot different than I did last beach season. This belly is really bulging in a good way! Last Wednesday I went to the OB and everything looked 'just perfect' according to the doctor. My heart rate, his heart rate, my weight gain and my belly bump measurement are right on track. I love hearing that. Drew has been really busy training so he didn't make it to the appointment but I got to hear the heartbeat twice last week which was fun. I am switching primary care physicians to a new office at the top of the street so went to have my introductory physical on Friday. They had a doppler too so we listened to the heartbeat for a second time that week. Bonus! I love checking on the baby and it is great to hear from my OB and regular doctor that Baby H is on track. We're continuing to pray for a healthy baby. It's interesting because people ask if we know if it is a boy or a girl and I say boy and their next question is 'is that a good thing'? My response is always a healthy baby is a good thing, knowing the sex is just a bonus. Our prayers are for one healthy baby not for the sex of the baby. But yes, we are very happy Baby H is a boy! (And I would be saying we are very happy Baby H is a girl too!)
In Army news, I'm sure you heard about the threatening government shutdown that almost took place last Friday. Among other things that would have been affected, Drew would have not been paid this month until things were resolved. Fortunately we have two incomes and him getting back paid next month would not affect us, but we know so many families that the soldier is the only income. We had a few friends really stressed out about paying bills and feeding the family. Long story short, I'm happy it's resolved and our soldiers have one less thing to stress about. Especially our deployed soldiers. They need to stay focused. Thankfully it's now a non-issue.
Drew's training has really picked up recently. Last week he was at work from 5am-8pm and just this morning he had to be there for a 3am PT test and will not get home until about midnight tonight so that he can do night-time land navigation training. It should slow down soon but it makes for long days.
Anyway, back to the baby furniture, we put it together first thing Sunday morning. And I mean first-thing Sunday morning. If Drew looks sleepy it's because he literally rolled out of bed and we started putting it together. We were excited to see what it looked like. Here's a pic of the assembly which luckily went smoothly.

And here's a pic of the finished product. The wood was much lighter at the store when we bought it but we are really happy with this too. Once we get our chair we will set up the room exactly how we want it but so far it looks great. (Right now we have the three pieces in one corner which we will not keep like that.) Now we can take our time with decorations and getting everything into place.

6 Months Pregnant

It's hard to believe we have passed the 6 month mark! July will be here before we know it! I realize this is a recurring theme, but we have been so busy that time is truly flying by. I was telling Drew yesterday that it seems like we are always doing something (because we are) but something tells me our lives are only going to get busier. ;) Last weekend we had a blast with my parents. We had not seen them since Christmas so it was fun for them to see my growing belly and feel the baby move. Baby H is a kicker! He kicks, moves and wiggles all day long. While my parents were here we enjoyed the weather by going to the beach, going on a fishing charter, enjoying nice dinners, baby shopping, and just good old hanging out. It was great to see them. We have it planned pretty nicely from here on out in that I'll see them once a month until the baby comes so they don't have to miss the growing baby bump. We are feeling the distance even more with the baby but are making the most of it!
Here's a pic of my Dad and Drew on the fishing boat. Unfortunately I was the only one who caught one red fish... they were supposed to be biting like crazy. Oh well. We still had a great time.

This is at a little restaurant on Tybee Island that sits on the water.

On Monday I took my parents to the airport and got on a plane too. I went to New Haven, CT for the week for work. I feel great but I realized the long days of meetings all day and entertaining all night started catching up with me more quickly than they normally would. I was happy to get back home.
This weekend we went to Babies R Us and registered. That was really fun. There are so many choices and so many things we'll need! Who knows what ended up on our registry but at least we are registered. :) (All of a sudden I would hear the registry gun beep and Drew would act surprised even though he purposely was adding things to our registry. At least he is an involved Dad!) Drew surprised me on Friday by bringing home a Pack N Play and high chair from a store on base. We liked the pattern better than other things we've seen so we bought that separately. He set it up quickly and seeing it set up made us get that much more excited! We still have awhile but as we slowly start getting everything set up our excitement will only grow.
Here's a pic of Drew putting together the removable napper that fits on top of the pack n play.

Even with the craziness we are finding time to have fun. Yesterday we went fishing at one of the lakes on base and Drew caught some nice ones!

And here's the belly shot for 6 months. I am getting bigger everyday! Geez!!