Week 31

31 weeks! I know that the due date is just an approximate guess as to when she will be here but if she decides to bless us with her presence June 26th that is only 2 months away :)

I was thinking we should start a pool about everyone's guesses on when she'll get here. Feel free to comment on here, text me, or Facebook it and I'll start a calendar to keep track. :) I'm not sure if I can have more than one guess but I have two :) It may be on June 23rd (because it's the biggest full moon of the year and wives tales say lots of pregnancies are in a storm or full moon) or June 29 (because that's my grandpa Ray's birthday and that would truly be a sign).

Raelin, what are you up to this week?!?!
Well I had a doctor's appointment yesterday and it went great. Her heart rate was 143 and strong. The midwife said she was already head down and even though she can still move around she is most likely to stay in that position. Her being in that position makes sence because now I can feel her feet under my ribs, which is a weird sensation and hurts sometimes lol.  She apparently is the size of a bunch on asparagus and weighs about 3.3 lbs.

Hypnobirthing is going really well too. There are some really nice couples and the instructor is very informative and helpful. I know labor isn't going to be a walk in the park and things don't always go as planned but I feel confident and prepared as anyone can be and am looking forward to welcoming Raelin into this world, thanks to all the support and love I get from my husband, close family and amazing friends, I couldn't do this without you all :)

Things are going to start picking up soon because Raelin is almost here, Trev will be home soon and we have alot to do, not just finishing Raelin's room but other things as well so next week will be my last week volunteering at the Adult Day Care. I have enjoyed doing it every week and will miss seeing all their faces but I know they'll understand. I'm sure after awhile too that I can take her in and show her off to everyone :)

Next week I'm sure I'll have more pictures to share but here are the 2 I have this week :)

Here is a picture of the bassinet all ready to go in our room :) can't wait to see her in it! This bassinet has so much meaning and is one of Trev and my favorite things for her. Trev's grandpa (Papa) Koepke made it especially for Trev when he was born and was past to Stephen and all his cousins and now our daughter. What a wonderful heirloom to share :)

Trev and I want to thank Ron and Pam for the wonderful gifts we got in the mail from them the other day. I'm so in love with the bag and love that it has Raelin's name on it.

I hope everyone has a great week and I'm looking forward to sharing more soon :)

Daddy's Corner

Daddy’s Corner!

Hello everyone.  Let me start by saying how wonderful it is to be home with my Beautiful Wife!  I was amazed at how far along she is looking and am getting really, really excited to meet my Daughter.  It has been a long deployment that has been about as eventful as watching the grass grow.  The only thing that seemed to keep me sane the entire trip was hearing from Misty daily.  She kept me up to date about Raelin kicking and all the organization of the baby’s room that she has been doing. 

Hearing from her was the best part of my day and will continue to be the best part of my day as we are not done with our deployment on the worst running polished turd of a Cutter I have ever been on.  Everything that could be wrong on the borrowed Cutter (the Escanaba of all Cutters) has gone wrong and I guarantee the Escanaba Crew is not going be grateful of all the hard work we put into it. 

We are almost done with the deployment though.  We are on Port Call right now in home port so I am able to sleep in my own bed, but we are working all days we are here, then we get back underway.  We spend a few more weeks underway and deliver the Escanaba back to her original crew in Boston and I will be home with my wife for the rest of the summer and the rest of the pregnancy.  I can’t say it enough that I am really, really excited to finally meet my Daughter, Raelin.

Week 29 & 30

Hello, hello :) I think Spring is finally here. I'm crossing my fingers that I don't see any more snow. Lots of things have been happening. First of all, Dusten and  my sister-in-law Kala had their baby on April 7th at 12:36pm. She was 6lbs. 12oz. and 19 1/2 in. long :) They named her Dusti Lynn Rose.

And here is a picture of this beautiful baby girl :) Trev and I are so happy to be an Uncle and Aunt.

 

 

 

We are so excited for Raelin to get here because we know they will be best of friends :)

 

So most of you are probably wondering how Raelin is doing....

We only have 10 weeks to go!! Woohoo! We are in the home stretch! She's do great :) I had a doctor appt almost 2 weeks ago (next doc appt is this Thurs) and her heartbeat was 148. I'm measuring out well and everything is normal. Just within these last couple weeks she has started to kick and move so much that it wakes me up in the middle of the night or if I'm sitting there eating I can feel her moving around. One side of my belly will go up, then the other side. It's just amazing and I love it. I can also tell when she gets the hiccups because it's a rhythmic twitching that goes on for a few minutes. She is the size of a green cabbage now according to my baby app on my phone lol.   

So what have I been up to?

Still volunteering on a weekly basis. I sewed some burp cloths and am working on other things for Raelin's room. My Hypnobirthing classes have started and I'm really enjoying them. It's giving me a new perspective on how this birthing thing is going to happen lol.

 

 

(burp cloths I made and soon bibs to match)

 

Trev pulled in the other day on the boat and will be here for a few days. It's been really nice showing him everything in Raelin's room and just around the house in general. It's feeling more like a home :)

It's been great to share with him all of Raelin's kicking too. I kept telling him while he was underway every time I emailed him she would kick. I'm sure she knew I was happy and that's why she was kicking. Needless to say she's been kicking up a storm since Trev has been home and I've gotten to share that with him. He thinks it's really cool too :)

 

(Trev's boat pulling in)

 

(happy he's home)

 

(really happy he's home!)





(30 weeks baby bump)

 

 

 

 

 



Week 28

This week was a long one. I was able to volunteer Tues and Wed. and even though it's only for a few hours each day, I definitely need a nap when I get home lol. Thursday one of the Coastie wives and myself tried to start sewing some things for Raelin's room but decided it was a better activity to do at the beginning of the week instead of the end. Hopefully we will be more rested and my mind is a bit more clear. Pregnancy brain makes you forget everything, all the time lol :P

Thursday night I went to this "Mocktail Party" which was a party for new moms and moms-to-be. They showed us how to practice hands on swaddling techniques, baby massage, baby wearing, and calming, as well as simple yoga breathing for relaxation. It was really fun, learned a lot and met some nice ladies.

                                    

What's Raelin up to this week?!?!

Well when I told Trev he described it back to me as... Raelin was jumping on my bladder, kicking my ribs and playing jump rope with her umbilical cord, LoL! He is too funny.

So she is the size of a head of lettuce this week, and weighing in at about 2 1/4lbs. She is developing billions of neurons in her brain and adding on more body fat in preparation for life in the outside world. She has eye lashes now too.

(my pic of a head of lettuce, lol)

How's Trev doing?!?!

Well he's in port right now, in NYC for a bit so I am able to talk to him on the phone. He's doing well and happy to be on land for a couple days. He's went and had sushi and enjoyed a movie while in NYC, trying to keep it low key so when we get a chance to go together we can go see big things like the World Trade Center Memorial and the Statue of Liberty.

This upcoming week will be a busy one. Going to try and get some sewing done, volunteer, my first hypnobirthing class :) and more stuff in Raelin's room.

Trying to stay busy while Trev is gone has been difficult and while I have many projects in the works for the baby's room I have also been doing some shopping and have found sooo many great deals on clothes I think we may need a second closet :P Everything is just too darn cute to pass up though.

 Hope everyone has a great week and I'm excited to share this upcoming week of events with everyone :)

Oh and real quick wanted to thank everyone for the comments, Trev and I enjoy reading them and love to hear what you think. I try and add as much dancing food as possible but some time it's not available so I have to get creative....hence the picture for this week :P

Week 27

This is the start of my 3rd trimester :) Woohoo only 3 more months to go!!!

Raelin is about 2lbs now and is the size of a head of cauliflower.

She is sleeping and waking at regular intervals. An interesting factoid of the week is...she has more taste buds now than she will have at birth and beyond. Which means that not only is she able to taste the difference in amniotic fluid when I eat different foods, she may even react to it. Some babies respond to spicy foods by hiccuping or by kicking when they taste it.

I had a doctor's appointment yesterday and it was weird because Trev wasn't there. But when I heard Raelin's heartbeat it calmed me down. It was 140bpm and really strong. I also had to get some blood work to see if I had gestational diabetes. They make you drink this orange drink (they say it taste like flat orange crush....they lie, it tastes gross) I had to take it an hour before and then get my blood drawn. I'm sure I don't have it and if I haven't heard anything by Mon or Tues I'll be in the clear.

While I was there I also got to visit another Coastie wife they had her baby the night before. It's so amazing to hold a newborn in my arms, the same feeling I got a couple weeks ago when I held the other Coastie wife's newborn. Now I'm the only one left in my little group of friends that's still pregnant lol. I'm so excited for Raelin to get here and I know the next couple months are going to fly by.

(here's a pic of us in Boston this past weekend, it's a little blurry because we were excited to go see Blue Man Group)

Trev and I had fun spending time together. We wish it would have been the whole weekend but he had to stand duty. It's more time than usual I get to spend with him while he's underway so we were happy.

We got to see Blue Man Group and that was really fun and unexpected because we weren't sure if we even could get tickets, but we did :) Trev and I laughed a lot and during the drumming and loud parts Raelin was kicking.

The next day Trev had duty so I was able to go on the boat with him, we had breakfast and hung out watching movies in his office until I left around lunch time.

While Trev is gone I've been getting Raelin's room ready little by little. I picked out fabric (brown and cream colors)for the comforter and bed skirt and a couple other little projects. I'm hoping to start sewing them within the next week or 2. I found a really cute purple matching set that included a bouncer, swing, pack and play, car seat and stroller so I was excited about that. It's all coming together slowly but surely.

 

Here are some pictures of me and the belly lol



 

 

And I want to send out a BIG THANK YOU to my CHOICES family in Manistee!!! I loved all of the gifts and I know Raelin will love them too. I miss seeing you guys and working with you everyday!!

 

 

I hope everyone has a good week and have a Happy Easter :) 

Week 26

Hey everyone! Had a pretty eventful week. My mom and I went shopping for Raelin. You all know how I love to find really good deals and that's exactly what I found :) We spent a little bit of money but got a good chunk of clothes, so I was happy. I shared all the good finds with Trev and he was impressed.

(one of the items we bought)

I have been able to exchange emails with Trev everyday depending on how busy he is and connection while he's underway. The first couple days he was was struggling with sea sickness a little bit, but says he's feeling good now. They went thought the winter storm like we did, he said they had 15ft waves or swells ( I think that's what there called) but made it through just fine. He's enjoying hanging out with the crew on board and fills his spare time with working out and watching movies.

Here's a news article that was in the paper about just one thing of a few things they are doing.http://www.seacoastonline.com/articles/20130316-NEWS-130319769

(picture of our backyard after the storm 12-16in of snow)

RAELIN

97 more days to go until the 40 week mark :) Yay we are in double digits! I know the next few months are going to fly by.

This week she is the size of an egg plant, weighing about 1 2/3 of a pound and about 14 inches long.

According to what I've read in the pregnancy book and my baby app on my phone her eyes are completely formed. They will open soon and start to blink. She can start distinguishing between light and dark from inside the belly. She's learning to grasp and can play with her umbilical cord even (don't worry she can't tug on it that hard lol). She also has become good at sucking her thumb. The sucking reflex is just 1 of 70 plus reflexes she will have when she's born.

I'm feeling pretty well for the most part. At this stage I'm dealing with heartburn and lower back pain, also a lot of clumsiness. Even though the tummy isn't huge I still feel off balance and don't even get me started on my mind lol I feel like I'm forgetting everything. I have been reassured by other mothers that this is normal so post-it notes and note pads have become my friend lately :P

Some things I have been eating a lot of lately....

And this last picture is of Trev in the bassinet that his Grandpa made for him when he was born. This is the same bassinet that Raelin will be sleeping in :)

I hope everyone has a good weekend coming up. I'm heading to Boston tomorrow so I'll be sure to post a couple pictures of that next week. :)

Week 25

This week has been a bit long in the Aikin household. Trev and I really enjoyed our last few days together before he left underway. He made yummy crepes for breakfast and later we watched the new James Bond, which was really awesome :)

Since Trev got underway I'm just trying to get in a routine to make the time go by faster. I've been volunteering and am still enjoying that a lot. I try and do it every Tues and Wed for 3-4 hours. I enjoy just talking with them all, helping with crafts and doing fun things like drumming class and they also have a therapy dog that comes in so there is always something new to do.

How's Raelin doing?!?! She is growing by leaps and bounds. Interesting facts of the week are her nostrils, which have been plugged up until now, are starting to open. This enables her to begin taking practice "breaths". Her vocal cords are functioning now also, leading to occasional hiccups. She's the size of a zucchini and weighs about a pound and a half. She's starting to grow her baby fat and also more hair.

I'm feeling pretty good most days. Belly is getting bigger, heartburn is kicking in more, getting harder to sleep comfortably, sometimes having lower abdominal pains because she is growing and moving around a lot. All of which is normal, just uncomfortable lol.

Been starting to get her room ready little by little. I made some dividers for all of the clothes I'll be hanging up in the closet. Also started buying outfits and other little things I know she'll be needing.

(made with just foam and ribbon, but you can never be too organized when it comes to babies lol)

I'm hoping to have a couple of things done by next weeks so I'll keep you all posted on how the room is coming. I may not show all pictures because Trev hasn't seen it but I'll at least tell you about them.

Hope everyone has a good week :)