Dear Pregnancy

As my time being pregnant is quickly running out, I decided it was time to put my feelings on pregnancy in writing...

Dear Pregnancy,

It's time to break up.  It's not me, it's you. You've got to go.  We've had some great times together and I can't thank you enough for those.  Getting a positive on that little stick, seeing our baby on the first ultrasound, hearing his heartbeat and finding out he was in fact a he, feeling him kick for the first time, and mostly every time after that; these are moments I will treasure forever.  True blessings of being a pregnant woman who is able to experience these incredible things.  Thanks for all that, pregnancy, it means so much that we were able to share those things.  But it hasn't all been heartbeats and flowers, and that's why our time together must end.  There were the first weeks of exhaustion and nausea, the not one but two glucose tests with all that blood work, not cool.  All those (ahem) stomach issues...seriously yuck.  At times, it felt like you were suffocating me, pushing all my organs around really messes with my breathing.  There's the weird little red dots on my chest, a rash because gaining almost 30 pounds isn't enough, really pregnancy?  All the jabs of little feet in my ribs, and lately the head buts to my pelvis, I get it, you're done too.  And then there's the H-word, hormones, yikes!  This break-up is especially emotional for me, my poor husband doesn't know if i'm going to cry or yell at him lately, and it's all your fault.  So pregnancy, we are done, I want my body back.  And most of all you've been hogging my little boy for 9 months and now it's my turn.  I will always love you, and someday I hope we meet again, but for now we're done!

Love,
Soon to be new-mommy Kate

PS. To everyone else, it's quiet time for the Blinn family as we await the arrival of our Jackson.  If you are lucky enough to be part of the Grandmother texting chain you will get updates along the way.  If not, you all get to wait for the super exciting instagram/facebook announcement once we are home with our little bundle.  We so appreciate how excited everyone is for us and we can't wait to share our joy with you, after we have kept him all to ourselves for a little bit ;)

The final countdown

We are one month away from Baby Blinn's due date!! Which mostly means this little guy can show up whenever the heck he feels like.  (Don't worry mom, I think he'll wait until you arrive.)  So the freaking out has been kicked up a notch.  Everyone says this is the time to sleep and relax and clean the house, all those things I wont be able to do once our little bundle arrives.  Well let me tell you, I can't really do them now either.  My body must be prepping for sleep deprivation because waking up 4-5 times a night and spending hours laying wide awake in bed has become the new routine.  Yesterday I tried to do laundry, after separating all the dirty clothes into three baskets and dragging the first basket out to the laundry machine, I had to lay down on the couch because I was winded and my back hurt...awesome.  My beautiful wedding rings also had to come off yesterday since they were trying to permanently fuse themselves with my poor chubby finger.  It took ice, olive oil, soap and not a small amount of yanking to get those things off.
So i've decided to take it easy for the next few weeks (not that life has been that taxing lately, but still) to prepare myself for the extreme life change that is headed my way.  I'm cherishing my mornings on the couch with my fur baby who is soon to be ignored.  I'm watching Christmas movies even though it isn't Thanksgiving yet.  And I am refusing to feel guilty about just staying home and being quiet in my house.  We have a dear friends wedding this weekend that we are so excited for, one last excuse to get all dressed up and be out as a couple.  Then its Thanksgiving, which we will spend with friends, and have a weekend full of Christmas prepping, getting our tree and decorating! After that we will be in December and on serious baby watch!
Today also marks the start of my weekly Dr appointments, which somehow makes it more real.  Still waiting for baby to flip, and I have yet to experience my first contraction so there is definitely some anxiety mounting. So far I have been so lucky to have a relatively easy pregnancy and i'm hoping Jackson will be just as nice to me when he makes his arrival.  I can't believe i'm almost done with this crazy stage of life, nothing will ever compare to some of the feelings i've had during this first pregnancy.  But man am I ready to meet little Jackson and become a family of three!

Generation Y Parenting

We are about 5 weeks away from becoming parents to our little boy, and as we get closer my parenting fears have started to shift.  I'm not as scared of the crying and the lack of sleep and knowing what my child will need.  I know I will figure it out, my "mommy reflexes" will kick in and I will be fully capable of keeping Jackson alive and happy.  My fears are now centered around how my son will learn and grow in our world of fast paced, technology obsessed life.  I'm realizing that in order to give my son the childhood I want him to have, the childhood I think he deserves, my husband and I are actually going to have to change our lives first.  We are part of the last generation that played outside instead of with video games, that got handed a puzzle instead of an iphone when we needed to be entertained, and used an encyclopedia at the library instead of google to do our homework.  And then as we grew up, so did technology, and now we can't believe how we survived without our handheld devices.  I am as guilty as anyone else, the TV is on most of the day, just playing in the background as a distraction, and my cell phone is hardly ever out of reach.  As a military family stationed across the country from everyone we love, all the technology can be a blessing to keep us in touch with everyone back home, and that definitely wont change once Jackson arrives.  Using my iphone to make sure my parents and in-laws can see their grandson is a blessing, and definitely something I am thankful for.  But other than that, the arrival of our son will jumpstart a serious unplugging in this house.

The constant noise of the TV will be replaced with the sound of my voice.  I plan to talk and sing to my son constantly.  I am my child's first teacher and I want to feed his little brain with as much as he can handle. Which won't include the overstimulating images that can cause a lack of focus and attention, which, lets be honest, most little boys have an issue with already.  My husband and I both have fond memories of playing outside, using our imaginations to create alternate worlds in our backyards, it would break my heart if my son never got to create those memories.  I'm pretty sure kids wont remember the video games they played, but I promise they will remember the refrigerator box that got turned into a castle.

I am getting the incredible gift of being able to stay at home with my son and I plan to use this opportunity to give him the best first years I can.  I am going to play with my son, I'm going to teach him things and take him places, and I am going to let him discover the real world.  I know that there will be times when my patience is short and the idea of handing him a phone with a game on it will seem like the only answer.  And maybe there will be times when that does actually happen, because lets be serious I am not going to be the perfect mother.  But I plan to try my hardest to give this little guy as much of a technology free first few years as possible.  There will be plenty of time for him to be a grown up, he deserves to be a kid for as long as he can be.

The Third Trimester

28 weeks in and a little under 12 weeks until the little man is scheduled to arrive, and I am caught between desperately wanting everything to be done and ready and for him to be here, and wanting time to freeze because I am terrified of how much life is going to change.  It's a crazy feeling knowing there is this imaginary finish line that is actually just the starting line for something much bigger that has no finish line.  Impending motherhood is making me very philosophical and wise...moving on.

For me this week is about appointments, and torturous ones at that.  I had to have another ultrasound to recheck some things, and as great as it is to see Jackson swimming around, moving his arms and legs and opening his mouth, I also believe that ultrasounds are designed to test a pregnant woman's will to live.  They make you drink 36 ounces of water and you CANNOT go to the bathroom for 2 HOURS! By this point in the pregnancy you've got about a 3 pound kid sitting on your bladder and kicking you whenever he damn well pleases.  And its the miracle of life and blah blah blah, but seriously I have to pee!  So the technician starts showing me all the adorable things my baby is doing and my darling husband starts asking what organ that little white blob is and everything is great because they aren't about to burst and don't have someone pushing gel around their belly with a blunt cold object.  Anyway, the appointment ended and I finally got to relieve myself and all was again right with the world.  By the way, Jackson has graduated from looking like a baby dinosaur to more like a baby monkey, and he was grabbing his toes and is just the cutest in-utero baby ever (obviously). Tomorrow the torture continues with my glucose test!  I get to go drink a bottle of syrup and then sit in a waiting room for an hour so that they can watch me and make sure I don't pass out or something and then I get to have blood work, yay! After that lovely experience I will get to go see my regular OB for my routine 28 week appointment and to go over the results of the ultrasound.

In other news, the numbers on the scale are climbing scarily high, although they say i'm doing great and am on target to be in the normal range. But still, yikes! The numbers are probably related to the fact that I have an appetite like a football player, I amaze even myself with my ability to eat.  Which brings us to the indigestion, a super fun symptom that makes evenings so comfortable.  To counteract all of that I am taking yoga at least twice a week and the weather is cooling down so I can go for walks again!! The break from the heat is seriously a god send because this mama was starting to get really miserable.  The mornings are now a gorgeous 65-75 degrees so I can spend them on the patio with the pup and my one cup of coffee per day.  Its sunny and there is a breeze and its doing amazing things for my attitude about this hell hole of a desert town that we live in.  My husband still thinks i'm crazy for one reason or another on a daily basis, but we are trying to fill our remaining time as a twosome with fun activities so that we can have fond memories to look back on in 3 months when we aren't sleeping or speaking to each other due to lack of said sleeping and all the crying and pooping we will be dealing with.  Also, both mothers are coming to visit this month to try and squeeze in a little alone time with their babies before the babies have a baby of their own.  It will be fun to have the grandmas here to see the nursery and help get us ready with any preparations and to enjoy some mom time.

Another fun little tidbit, I have been playing all sorts of music around the house for Jackson to hear and haven't had much response.  A few days ago, Mark was making a playlist for the gym and started playing 2pac, the kid went nuts.  Apparently we have a tiny gangster in our future.

It's a Boy!

A few weeks ago I got to have the most perfect little gender reveal party with my family and close friends and got to tell everyone that we are expecting a boy! Which means we also could start telling everyone that our little one will be named Jackson Richard Blinn.  We could not be more thrilled about this next exciting piece of the puzzle. 

Being back East was so nice for me, to be able to relax and reconnect with everyone that is so important to me.  My sister flew in from Germany and my best friends drove up from Philly to see me and it was so incredible to be around so many people that love me so much and are so excited to become Aunties (biological or otherwise) to Jackson.  

So now I am in full on nesting mode!  And honestly so is Mark :)  While I was gone he cleared out the room that was the guest room/office and will now be the nursery, he also did a little arts and crafts project for Jackson!  We've starting putting together furniture and all the other gear and we're working on decorating and making it a cozy little space for out little guy.  Our friends and family were so generous to us and are making it possible for Jackson to have everything he needs.

Tomorrow I will be 25 weeks pregnant and I'm getting more and more excited to meet our baby.  That also means that we are getting very close to being parents, which lets get serious is scary as hell!  I know that we will be just fine, this is something we have both wanted for a while and we make such a good team.  But its a little daunting to think about all the little details and decisions we are going to face.  We have become such a great two person team, and now we're adding a third member!  This is the most amazing journey and experience I have ever had and its just beginning.  Here's to staying positive and loving every minute!

half way there!

I am 20 weeks pregnant! I can't believe i'm halfway through this pregnancy already and that in 4 1/2 short months we will be parents! Things are definitely going to start kicking into high gear now. Today we went for our mid-pregnancy ultrasound and we got to see little Blinn again!  Mostly this appointment is to measure everything on the baby and take about a billion pictures of all its organs and such, but we also got to find out the sex!! Sorry its still a secret for now :)  Baby Blinn was wiggling like crazy but they were also hiding behind my belly button a lot of the time, so after a walk, poking myself in the stomach and trying to boss around my unborn child, the technician finally got the pictures she needed.  We even got to see little Blinn sticking its tongue out and sucking its thumb!

Next week I get to head back East to see all my wonderful family and friends and have a Gender Reveal/Baby Shower!!  I'm so glad that I will get to share a little bit of this crazy journey with everyone  we love.  Our wonderful friends are already starting to send us baby gifts and its seriously the most exciting thing.  I'm pretty sure the second I get home i'm going to want to set up the nursery and play with everything.  I mean 3 months isn't too early to have everything ready right?!

Also, for those of you that don't know, Mark will become an instructor after he graduates school in November which means we will get to stay in this lovely desert wasteland of hell for another 3 years.  (I'm trying to be positive I swear)  It's definitely not our first choice, it's kind of an awful place and we are so far from our families, but I will get to stay home and be a full time mommy to our little one which has always been a dream of mine.  And speaking of being half-way done with things, in October I will be half way done with my time as a Marine wife.  The countdown will be begin to October 2017 when we can finally move home!

So that's what is going on with us, trying to stay cool and anxiously awaiting the arrival of our little one!

Baby Blinn!

I have been dying to write this post for months...I'm Pregnant!! This is the craziest, most exciting, wild, scary and intense thing ever.  It has been quite an experience already.  Around week 7 I hit a wall and all the symptoms kicked in.  I wrote a little bit of how I was feeling...

Being pregnant sucks.  Don't get me wrong I am beyond thrilled to be having a baby, but seriously, what the hell?!  After the initial shock and excitement wears off during the first week or two, real pregnancy starts, and I was not prepared.  

I thought it was going to be this wonderful, dreamy, magical experience.  My mom had great pregnancies with no morning sickness and just the short lived extreme fatigue.  I watched several friends glide through their pregnancies, not even knowing they were pregnant until after their first trimester.  So I was lulled into this false expectation of a peaceful pregnancy.

I'm exhausted...I could sleep for 11 hours and after being awake for 2 i'm yawning and curled up on the couch with a blanket. Oh, but if I take a nap I can't fall asleep at night.  I took a yoga class yesterday and almost fell asleep in child's pose twice.  I pee about 400 times a day (and night).  I'm not really nauseous to the point where i'm going to get sick, but I feel just nauseous enough to be miserable, constantly.  I've only been pregnant for around 4 weeks and already my boobs are outrageous and they hurt, I just can't wait to see what they're doing in 8 months.  There are also these lovely little things called hormones! Except they are anything but little right now, they are completely consuming.

So now I am just about 12 weeks, I have seen the doctor for our first ultrasound and little baby Blinn is doing great, and this mommy to be is starting to feel more like herself!  I was so excited to finally go to my appointment, to make sure everything was going just as it was supposed to and to finally see the little peanut.  Seriously, it was the most incredible thing I have ever seen in my life.  Happiness doesn't even begin to describe how I felt when the doctor started to point out feet and hands.  It still blows me away that women can make entire little beings without even trying, and to see it makes it a little more real that it's happening to me!  Our excitement has shot through the roof and we cannot wait to meet our little miracle.  I know its still going to be quite the roller coaster as we prepare for this new adventure, so enjoy the craziness as I document this incredible time in our lives.

(Left) The day we found out I was pregnant!  (Right) 11 weeks pregnant! Harley was boycotting... 

Namaste

I think i'm becoming one of those "crunchy" people.  I do yoga outside, I go hiking in the desert, I even make my own granola for God's sake!  

But for real, i'm feeling really good.  I'm cooking constantly which is good in lots of ways, cooking itself is one of my favorite things to do, and we are saving money and eating healthy stuff! I'm also walking a ton, with the dog around the neighborhood and in Joshua Tree National Park (take that love-handles!).  And i'm getting back into yoga, which is probably my favorite way to exercise.  It's also amazing what not working for a month can do for your sanity.  I am so much more calm, although my husband may argue that.  I've worn nothing but flip flops and sneakers, so my feet have been way happy, and I haven't used an alarm clock in months!  

So all of this has made me realize how important it is to take care of yourself and find time to do what relaxes you, centers you, and makes you more like the person you actually enjoy being.  It can be terrible and boring and lonely to live in a place where you don't know anyone and are very limited in your opportunities.  But i'm trying to be positive and find my inner calm, or whatever...Namaste friends.

Military Wife Myth Buster

I am a military wife. 

I am also a normal person.  I am not a stereotype. 

For those of you that share the military wife title, I have the utmost respect for you and I hope you find this at least entertaining.  For those that are not, well here's how I honestly feel about it. Take it as you will.

Joining the military community is, without putting to fine a point on it, weird.  After being a normal human for 23 years, I got married and became a military wife.  Then I started going through my initiation process.  I had to learn a new language, filled with lots of acronyms that not even my husband remembers what they all stand for.  I had to learn how to navigate a military base at no more than 25 mph.  And I had to learn to help repair and maintain all sorts of uniforms.

And then I had to make friends.  Now don't get me wrong, I have met some really wonderful people over the past few years.  But really, making friends with military wives is like taking women from Minnesota, California, Tennessee and New York and telling them they need to be best friends because their husbands are blonde and named John.  We are all so different, just like civilian wives (imagine that!) our husbands just happen to work for the same company.   We come from all over the country, a huge range of ages, different levels of education, and just different places in our lives in general.  

It blows my mind that people who meet me are surprised when I tell them that I am married to a marine.  They then say things like "But you have a degree", and "You're so mature and have so much going for you".  Um seriously?  The stereotype that all members of the military and their wives, are young, poor, have 5 kids and are uneducated is outrageous! Do some people choose the military instead of college because they can't afford it or don't have the grades? Sure. Do some people get married at 19 or 20 to a person they've never lived in the same town with? Sure. Do some young families have kids? Absolutely.  But i'll let you in on a little secret.  I have met some of these women and their families, and they are kind and generous and loyal.  Part two of the secret...civilians do that stuff too, and they aren't always so nice. 

So yes, we are "older" for Mark's rank and his time in service, I have a college degree, and we don't have any kids (yet) but does that make me less of a military wife because I don't fit into some sad stereotype? There are all sorts of people everywhere you go, and sometimes the people you thought you had absolutely nothing in common with, become your closest friends.  The last few years have definitely been an eye opening experience for me, and has made me a more accepting, less judgmental person.  And if there is anything I can impart to anyone, it's that military wives are in fact, people.  We are resourceful,  supportive, and fiercely loyal.  We are women who want to be appreciated for who we are, not stereotyped because of what our husbands do.

Home Sweet Rental

We've been in our new place for 2 1/2 weeks, Mark has gone back to work, and things have started to settle a little.  We had the whole place unpacked and decorated in about four days, then my mom came for a week and helped out with some finishing touches.  After a few craft projects and a little rearranging, it definitely feels like home.  So for those of you that have not gotten a virtual tour via Skype, here are the pictures! PS. I'm unemployed so I am available for Skype dates.

Living room, complete with lazy dog.

Kitchen, complete with my next sewing project on our new chairs!

Master bedroom 

Guest room/Mark's office

 And the patio! (Thanks for the adirondack chairs mom!)

So we live in the desert, and I will probably be melting in a month, but at least I have a cute little house so sweat to death in :)

Love is all you need

So it's Valentine's Day, and normally I can take it or leave it.  I am not one of those girls that expects anything extravagant, I don't even really need flowers or presents.  But it is nice to have a little reminder to shower your partner with love, and really I at least expect a card.  

This year, a day about love couldn't have come at a better time for us.  I have not been the easiest person to love lately, and in all honesty I haven't put in the effort that my amazing husband deserves.  As you know we're moving, i'm quitting my job, leaving my friends and moving to the dessert.  There is a lot going on in my  personal life and all of it is stressful.  Unfortunately, this makes me cranky and lazy and emotional and no fun.   (Sorry, honey!) 

Last night, Mark came home with a card board box and inside turned out to be one of the sweetest surprises he has ever given me.  The gift is thoughtful and beautiful and completely from his heart, which makes it perfect.  I am so incredibly lucky that this man loves me, even when it may not be easy. He constantly shows me that I am special and that he is there for me.  I truly have a partner in life, in good times and in bad.  And a best friend to face whatever adventure we are on.  

This year I am all about being sappy and celebrating being in love, because its fantastic, and i'm lucky that I have someone so wonderful to share my life with.  And I hope all of you are just as happy today. 

Happy Valentine's Day Lovers!

Home is where the Marine Corps sends us

It's time to move, again.  This will be duty station number 3 for us since we got married. 

I had never moved until I went to college, and really thats not a legit move.  So when I got married and moved to Denver it was my first real move.  And since then I have realized, I hate moving.  Once we get to the new city and get unpacked and make our new rental cozy and homey i'm fine.  But the actual packing and moving and then unpacking itself is horrible.  It's even worse when you have to do it pretty much every year.  So while we are USMC nomads I am trying my hardest to make each apartment/condo/house into a home while conquering my hatred for moving boxes.

When you move around a lot, and especially when you leave your childhood home for good, your definition of home changes drastically.  Obviously the house I grew up in where my parents still live, will always be home to me on some level.  But it's important that we feel at home wherever we are.

Its the period of unrest that is the hardest.
 Those few weeks when we are completely unsettled and can't find anything.  It's because home to me has become something different.  In our life where the only constant is change, the things that make me feel home don't have anything to do with our location.  Home has become all about us, about my husband and our dog, our silly little traditions, pictures of our families and valued treasures that we have collected from our travels.  So when we are in that stressful, messy in between stage, when I can't find the coffee pot or the picture that sits on my nightstand, I have to remind myself that soon, the new house will become my favorite place.
Home, sweet home.

New Adventures

It has been a very busy few weeks, we went home for Christmas with the McFarland/Blinn families and had a great time.  Then it was home for a week before we were off to our next adventure in San Francisco!

I love to travel and have a growing list of cities and places here in the US that I am dying to visit.  San Francisco has been on this list for a long time and it finally worked out that we could go! The weather was a little grey and chilly and my poor hubby got hit with a terrible cold (which i am now enjoying) but he was a trooper and let me drag him all over the city.
I am a firm believer that when traveling you should "do as the romans do" or San Franciscans in this instance.  I like to eat the food that is local, shop local, and enjoy local sights. Clearly we did touristy things too...how can you go to San Fran and not take a million pictures of the Golden Gate Bridge?! So here is my list of ways to experience San Francisco!

1. Pacific seafood. When you are visiting a city that is on the ocean, it only makes sense to eat lots of local seafood!  So if you want oysters, you eat the ones from Washington Sate, not the ones from New England.  It was all Fresh and delicious.

2. Shop local. Our hotel was across the street from the Ferry Building, which is kind of like a permanent farmers market. There are all these little shops and restaurants and they all specialize in some local food or craft.  So we got amazing cheese and a raspberry peach champagne jam from Cowgirl Creamery,  french bread from Acme, (which a lot of the restaurants in the building get their bread from!), California wine from The Wine Merchant, and almond brittle from G.L. Alfieri. We got Ahi burgers for lunch from The Fish Market.  Moral of the story, I could have spent the entire 3 days at the Ferry Building, and if you go to San Francisco, its definitely a must see!

3. Be your own tour guide.  Seeing the Redwood trees in Muir Woods was definitely on our list of must see things.  The tour we originally wanted to take was sold out.  So we rented a car from out hotel and braved the streets on our own.  Driving through the city actually wasn't that bad and it allowed us the freedom to do exactly what we wanted and take our time.  We stopped on both sides of the Golden Gate Bridge to take pictures, we spent almost 2 hours in the park looking at trees and shopping for our traditional vacation christmas ornament, then we took a detour to Muir Beach, and had lunch in Sausalito.  Our entrance to the Muir Woods National Park was free because of our Military Passes* and our rental car was the same price as one tour ticket would have been!

4.  Be a tourist.  I know this negates my previous rant about being like a local, but sometimes there's just no avoiding it.  Mark has been dying to go to Alcatraz.  And when its a national park on an island that doesn't allow private boats to dock at it, its kind of hard to see it without going on a tour.  But it was so worth it, definitely a cool experience and really interesting.
We did also check out fisherman's warf at Pier 39 to see the little shops and check out all the seals!

5. Relax.  A few days before we left, Mark went on Groupon and found us an awesome deal for a couples massage right by our hotel! It was so relaxing, affordable, and we got to see yet another little neighborhood in San Francisco.

So there are my travel tips and my top 5 things i loved about San Francisco.  I can't wait to cross more cities off my list as we travel across America on our USMC adventure!

*Active duty military and their dependents are eligible for a free annual pass that is good for everyone in your car at every national park in the country! So cool, thanks National Park Service!