35.5 Weeks

Today I am at 35 1/2 weeks. Time is flying by, I still have to much to do and only one day left of Spring Break (plus the weekend).
Today my doctor told me I was having the "perfect pregnancy" and that he is hoping it continues. I feel bad for people who have imperfect pregnancies because this has really not been that much fun. I guess having a cold basically the entire time and constant heartburn don't amount to much. I really have been fortunate and thank God for everything going so smoothly.
Baby Gunnar is head down ready for the big day. All I know is that now, the bathroom always needs to be close by. Anytime I shift positions I am off to the bathroom to pee! Baby Pettit rock and rolled during the fetal monitor which is normal for him, I swear he thinks it is a punching bag, but he was fast asleep by the time the ultrasound came.
Kyle kept the ladies in the waiting room entertained by falling fast asleep sitting up, then he started snoring. His girlfriend (aka my nurse or technician) gave him the doctors nice office chair and permission to use my pillow while I was hooked up to the fetal monitor so he got even better rest there. Sometimes I think the only reason he comes is hoping to see my technician. He has been disappointed she hasn't been there the last two times, but boy was he excited when she came and got us from the waiting room today.
I like to give Kyle a hard time about her, but really she is my favorite too! She is always so friendly and tells me what a nice belly I have, plus, she always prints us off a picture (which hasn't happened the last two times, so my mom has not been pleased)! As for Kyle's sleeping, he is on staff duty today which means he was up at 5 this morning and won't be home until 9am tomorrow, with no sleep.
Here is the latest picture of Gunnar (once again a little scary, but he is still a cutie):

A Weekend Trip

This weekend Kyle, Junior, and I went to Garmsich. We left around 6am Saturday morning hoping to catch a few sights (I guess is what happens when you go places with guys in the military, there is no such thing as sleeping in). I don't really know what happened, I was sleeping in the back seat, and apparently the boys don't know how to follow the directions from the GPS lady and they missed some turns, it took us 5 hours instead of the normal 2.5 hours. I warned Junior that he had to be the back up GPS because Kyle gets side-tracked and tunes her out, apparently he didn't listen to me. However, I do think it was a good thing I was sleeping because shortly after waking up I got very car sick and I am sure the people behind us enjoyed their shower I so kindly shared with them out the window. Once we arrived, ate some lunch, figured out where the guys were going to go snowboarding on Sunday we decided to go to the show Junior the Gorge and Olympic Ski Stadium. We took the 1.5 km walk to the Gorge only to find out that it was closed due to ice.

After checking into our hotel and finding the guys the gear they forgot for snowboarding we went to the Linderhof Palace. Kyle and I have both been there a couple of times, but Junior had never been to a castle in his 8 years of living in Europe. A lot of the statues were covered due to the snow, but we got to see some of it.





On Sunday, we got to sleep in a little which was wonderful and after breakfast I took the guys to the bottom of the mountain so they could go snowboarding for a few hours (they said they only wanted to go for 2 hours, but it ended up being about 4).

I went and ate some lunch, and hit up the Garmisch PX, I saw so many people I knew I might as well have been back here in Schweinfurt. After shopping and lunch I filled the car up then went and took a nice nap. The dogs and I went for a short walk, I had some time to relax looking at magazines, then the guys were ready to be picked up. After picking them up we decided to stop by Neuschwanstien castle on the way home so Junior could see it. We ended up going into Austria for a little while which was beautiful and then went and drove by the castle. The castle as always was beautiful. We then headed home and got back around 22:00.



It was a nice quick trip and we all had a good time. The dogs even enjoyed themselves...I think. My ankles didn't have such a great time and today I will be keeping them up hoping the swelling goes down, I have some major KANKLES going on!
Junior has to send me the video of Kyle in action snowboarding. This was his second time ever going. Apparently he did good considering, but I did see one pretty funny video of him that I will have to share.
For now...it is time to enjoy Spring Break! I have a lot to get done, but today I think I will be taking it pretty easy recovering from the trip.

The Countdown

So I keep looking at the little countdown and I realize that our baby is going to be here sooner than later! I can't believe it. I wish I could say that I am clam and collected about it all, but the closer it gets the more scared I am becoming. I was really pretty confident about this whole child-birth thing until it was suggested that we watch a birthing class. We had watched one where the process was just described with props. Well apparently that wasn't good enough and this last weekend we watched one with a live birth on it...eww, that is all I can really say. It didn't help that the video was from the 70s. Let's just say we saw way more of the 70s than we ever needed to!
Today when we were going over the April calendar in class, I showed the kids when my last day would be so that I could go and have my baby. I can't believe I only have about 10 more school days with them. The kiddos are really excited about the whole baby thing, and I they all think he wants to come and play with them...hmm, probably not! Anyways, today as I was tying of the the my little charmer's shoes he looked up at me and said "Mrs. Pettit, in like 30 days your belly is going to REALLY hurt, huh? I mean that baby has to get out there somehow, and that can't feel good!" He then gave me a nice pat on the tummy and ran off to play outside!
I love these kids and they crack me up, but I really am looking forward to Spring Break when I can get some much needed rest before my last two weeks of work and get the house ready for the big arrival of Baby Pettit!

Oma

Meet Oma



Saturday Kyle and I took the long drive to pick up our new puppy. I have never spent so much money on a dog...all I can say is she better not die. Our German neighbor told us we got our puppy for a good price...haha, funny when we paid $18 at the pound for Suesse. Oma is a wired haired dachshund. She is 8 weeks old. She did pretty good her first night only waking up twice crying. We just gave me a little attention and he got quiet again and went back to sleep. Kyle took care of her once, then the next time he handed her to me...I think this is what the future may hold for me. She loves chasing Suesse around...Suesse acts scared of her and runs. Suesse is tolerating her, Kyle wants them to cuddle with each other, but not is not happening right now. Maybe with time. The neighbor kids had fun this afternoon carrying Oma around, they only dropped her once and she seems to have survived! Right now she is dragging her new stuffed animal that is the same size as her around.
We named her Oma (German for Grandma) because she is already getting her whiskers. The dogs look old even when they are young. Plus Suesse is German for "cutie" so we thought we should stick with the theme. Kyle will be out on the sidewalk calling "Oma" and he will have the puppy and a bunch of old ladies following him.

Are you my family??? I think she likes the shoes since they are the same size as her.

This is about as close as it comes to cuddling for the two of them.

Baby Shower

Tonight my girlfriends, Fran and Lacey put together a shower for me. It was really hard finding a time that was good for everyone, but a perfect little group of friends showed up. We all had a good time, and all the gifts were great. I was very surprised to find gifts from my sister, mom, and grandma in the lout. I couldn't read their cards or I was sure I would cry...sometimes it is harder than others to be so far away.
Thanks girls for putting on a great shower and thank you to those of you who came. I really appreciate each of you. You all make being away from home a little easier!

Lacey, Me, and Fran...thanks girls!

5.5 lbs. and growing

Well today was our doctor's appointment and things are going well.
The little bugger wouldn't cooperate again with the heart monitor. The technicians wanted to know if I could get him to stop moving so they could get a reading, they had me on it about 20 minutes and could get nothing expect him rolling around and kicking. I was informed he is going to be a football or soccer player. They then didn't like that I couldn't tell them where his head was. After I tried over and over again to explain that he was moving around to much Kyle took over explaining that he moves so much I don't know what is his butt and head. Sometimes the language barrier gets a little frustrating, Kyle handles it much better than me. They did finally get the heart beat for about 3 minutes and it sounded good and strong. Then he got to busy moving so that was the end of that. My mom thinks I should start taking ritalin now...get him an early start.
The ultrasound is always fun, he is such a little chubber! He was busy looking around and I guess he got shy after a minute or two because he covered his face with his hands. Gunnar is weighing in at about 5.5lbs, nice and "healthy."
We were the last appointment of the day and I think everyone was flustered with the kid not cooperating again and we walked away without a picture the second time in a row! I ask for one, but it was to late, everything had already been deleted.
--Well, I am finally finished with the two courses (one graduate one a professional development) that I have been taking online...thank goodness. Tomorrow I am teaching a Tech Wednesday class to the staff at my school, and after that, it should be smooth sailing to my last day April 24th. Right now I am just looking forward to Spring Break.
--Kyle is doing good, he had his first check-up since the initial eye surgery and his vision is better than 20/20 so he is very satisfied. He has to go back two more times before he can submit his Warrant officer packet. But as far as his eyes are going things are good. He is on 24-hour staff duty today and tonight.
--Suesse is really smelly tonight and I am hoping Kyle reads this and gives her a bath sometime tomorrow while I am at school (hint, hint;) We get our new puppy Saturday...I am not so sure I am wanting to be house training a dog right now, but I guess we will deal!

Murder Mystery

Tonight our friends, Dan and Sandra hosted a Murder Mystery Dinner! We had a great time with our friends, and Kyle walked away a murderer!
It took place in the 90s (we thought it was suppose to be the 80s...oh well) and Kyle is my French Mobster of a boyfriend, and I am an Italian Floozy Gangster! Kyle ended up being the one that murdered my father.

So my costume description said I should be wearing a tight black mini-skirt and a tight black sweater with gold jewelry...I did my best. I wanted to crimp by hair but we have a busy day and only about 25 minutes to get ready, and it would take me that long to crimp 1/4 of my thick hair. I felt more like a pregnant hooker walking down the street than anything else. Kyle was to be wearing a casual sport jacket with a black t-shirt and wine stained hands...we passed on staining his hands!

In other news we got the crib put together last night and then got the mattress and everything set up today. It is the only part of the room that is ready, we still have to clean out all our stuff...we just need some more time to do it. Plus we have to decorate, but the crib is done, one less thing!

A Chocolate Eating Adventure

Tonight has been crazy thanks to our dog! When Kyle got home from work we decided to go and pick up the crib...it is finally here, yipee! Well Kyle loves taking Suesse with us everywhere, so she came along, and the adventure began!
As we were leaving the PX Kyle looked in the back seat and noticed that Suesse got into something. Then he realized he had left a chocolate bar sitting back there and the wrapper pieces were all over the seat he got very concerned. I wasn't to worried because I have heard that it takes a lot of milk chocolate to hurt a dog and that the chocolate thing is a myth all together. But, Kyle was very concerned, he loves Suesse way more than me I guess, he thought I was being insensitive to the dog.
Once we got the crib on car, Kyle pulled Suesse out of the car and decided that he was going to make her puke. This didn't go over very well with me or her. Needless to say, it didn't work, sticking your finger in a dogs throat is not effective, and we headed home. When we got home I let Suesse out of the car, and instead of following me to the door she decided to go on a run. So now Suesse is a sickly, chocolate eating runaway. She is very, very fast, and there really is no catching her, and she doesn't like coming when you call her name...that is why she is always on a leash! So I walked all over, and Kyle joined me after unloading the crib from the car. After about 45 minutes of walking and looking around for her, I started back home, sad without our dog. Apparently she saw me and sprinted home in front of me and was waiting to coax her to him with treats.
For once Kyle instead of me started getting worried (I am usually the one who is worried) about the chocolate eating. He called a 24 hour vet clinic and they said we could bring her in and they would give her medicine to puke, but we only had about a 45 minute window before it would be to late. Well, the clinic is about that far, so we kept researching on the internet to see if she was really going to die. All signs and things we found told us that she would be okay, maybe just a little sickly. But wanting to ensure she did not die, Kyle decided he needed to make her puke. So he googled it and then gave her a teaspoon of salt, put her in the bathtub and waited a minute or so. It definitely worked. She puked everything up, and is now a happy dog again. I don't think he would have given the salt to her if she hadn't started whining. But since she started whining and didn't want to eat or drink anything, he decided it was time for an intervention.
I am glad that everyone is better now, Suesse is sitting here enjoying herself, drinking water and eating a raw-hide.

Please don't call the Humane Society. He watched and video and it said to put the salt on the back on the tongue, so he was using the Ice Tea Spoon to get the salt back there.

This is what he does when I am puking too...he just laughs it up!

Kyle thought she needed to look more sickly so he put some water on her hair, trying to make it more dramatic I guess.


Well, our poor dog has survived...at least she is still truckin' at the moment.

--We have a busy weekend, coming up, hopefully Suesse survives it! Tomorrow around 1400 I get to go with Kyle to some more mandatory fun. This time it is a mandatory Platoon Softball game. Then in the evening we are going to a Murder Mystery Dinner at our friend's house...I have to get our outfits all ready. Plus, I have homework to finish up!

32 Weeks!

I guess I am on a blogging frenzy the last few days!
Today I 32 weeks pregnant. I am feeling pretty good. I am so thankful the doctor gave me something for the heartburn, it is great to be able to eat again without getting sick! I am starting to get a little tired, but that could just be me trying to do to much. We just got back from church, and I am ready for a little bit of a nap, then I have tons of homework! I do have to find time to go over to the grocery store since it is closed tomorrow!
Since there really is no child birthing classes here offered English, I ordered a DVD set off the internet, so I have some clue of what is going to be happening. Kyle and got a good laugh out of them last night. They are a series called "Laugh and Learn," so I guess it is okay that we were laughing. We both were actually learning new things too, so hopefully we can remember some of it when it comes time!
Here is a picture of me at 32 weeks!

A Long Drive!

Kyle and I took a really long drive (we were about 30 minutes from the border of Luxembourg and also very close to the French border)to check out a puppy today. We decided that we were going to get another small dog. However, this one is really small, probably only going to be about 9lbs. Suesse likes having the company of other dogs around, and I think it will be good for her. The poor dog has a lot of changes in her near future...not only are we bringing her a puppy home that she has to share her house with, but a baby soon too!
Here are some pictures of the the puppy that we picked out. We didn't realize it, but we picked the runt! She was the only one not whining...we are hoping she stays like that. We go pick her up in 2 weeks.


Here is a picture of the mama with two of the puppies. The mama has a mohawk. Kyle really liked that about her!

This is the farm that we are getting her from. I call it a farm, but really it is just a huge house with a barn and lots of dogs. I am pretty sure this older woman lives here alone and just breeds dogs. She had French Bulldogs and Beagle puppies too!

Here are what the two doggies were doing in the back seat. We are dogsitting Nutmeg again this weekend. Her and Suesse would take turns going between the kennel and the seat. At home like like to sleep in each others kennel. They are silly!

We hope that when we go to pick the puppy up that we have the time spend a day or so in Luxembourg. We were so close it would be a shame not to visit!

Why Babies have Mothers

A friend from back home sent this video to me in an email. Kyle and I got a good laugh out of it! I can't wait to see him change a diaper. Enjoy!

School House Rocks!

Kyle and I got invited by our friends Dan and Sandra to go to the community theater with them tonight. We saw the musical School House Rocks! We had a good time, it was a good production and was a fun night out. Thanks for inviting us Dan and Sandra!

Kyle is now on a 5 day weekend...I am jealous! He is heading to a gun show tomorrow with some of our friends. Then Saturday we are headed to go pick out a puppy. Kyle has really been wanting another dog, and he has comprised with me and has agreed to a small dog. Then Sunday will be a day of homework with me.

60 days to go!

Somedays I feel like it was just yesterday that I found out I was pregnant and others it feels like I have been pregnant forever! We are on the downhill strech and have about 60 days to go.
Today I had another check-up with the doctor. Gunnar decided to be uncooperative and he made the appointment last way longer than it should have. I was all hooked up to the fetal heart monitor and they had me moving all over the table for a good 10 minutes trying to find his heart beat. They would hear it for a second then he would quickly move and we wouldn't be able to hear it anymore. The doctor was ready to see me, so I moved to the other room for an ultrasound.
Dr. Schwind said everything is good and that Gunnar is above average in size, but is very healthy. We had a very hard time getting a clear picture of him because he would not stop moving. Gunnar weighed in at 2050 grams which is about 4 1/2 pounds. We had a much longer than normal ultrasound because they all enjoyed watching him move around so much. We saw him grab the umbilical cord, suck on his fingers, yawn, open and close his eyes, do a somersault, and we saw (I felt) many punches and kicks. They didn't give us a picture this time, but saved the video clip for us for next time. We didn't bring a CD in, we have to wait for the next appointment to burn it.
After the ultrasound we went back to the fetal heart monitor were he still refused to be heard. I had three people gathered around me trying to find the little stinkers heart beat. Finally after putting me in the most uncomfortable position, and having me hold the monitor in the correct place firmly we got a heart beat. I was told I had to stay like this for fifteen minutes, but Gunnar insisted on not letting us hear him and kicked the monitor I was holding and was moving so much that we never could get a good reading, and I only had to stay uncomfortable for about five minutes. Kyle had moved his chair over by my bed and was sharing my pillow with me, and slept through all of this. The nurses had a good laugh at him.
I have felt pretty good, expect for this never ending heart burn. It has actually gotten much worse and I haven't been able to keep food down for the last couple of days. Well, come to find out milk is now off limits, and may be a major colporuit in this heart burn...a sad day for me! I love milk and this will be a very hard change. He also gave me a prescription to help. I am keeping my fingers crossed. I hardly slept at all last night because of feeling so sick, and not sleeping doesn't go over well when I spend my day with 20 kindergartners.
In other news, Kyle's eyes seems to feel much better. He has good days and bad days when it comes to seeing, but we were told that it is normal. He is currently standing out our window with his new airsoft gun (that looks very real) shooting to test it out. I am waiting for the military police to be showing up anytime.
I started my master's and am already wanting to quit. It isn't hard, but very difficult for me to be doing online. I am much more of a go to class person. This first class is only 3 weeks so I am suffering through it and will take a break until after the baby for my next class. Only 2 more weeks left, I can't wait for it to be over.
I will try and get some new pictures posted soon. I am not feeling up to a picture today as I am just exhausted. I think instead I will go take a bath and then watch the latest 24!