still waiting...

My mommy made it here!!! She arrived on Thursday(Thanksgiving) and I surprised her by showing up with Chris to the airport. We all came back here and ate Thanksgiving dinner at the Officer's Club and have just been eating,sleeping and waiting ever since. I desperatly want to take her around and show her Japan and see things up here myself but the doctor recommended only going within about 30 minutes off base.
We had another appointment today. Slowly making progress!! 25% efaced and 1cm dialated. The doctor tried rupturing my membrane but it didnt work. Hopefully within the next few days something will happen! My mom, Chris and I are all very anxious and very bored! I am definatly feeling the affects of the last month/weeks. I am constantly tired, uncomfortable and basically miserable.
As soon as the baby comes I know Chris will post pics on his blog and send out emails and of course make phone calls. I dont know how much I will feel like talking, but I will atleast call everyone and tell you she has arrived!! Hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving!

38 Weeks!!!

So Chris suprised me and came up here today!! Needless to say I was excited and relieved! I think everyone on base knew but me! We also had an appointment today. I think the doctor is as anxious as I am for the baby to come, but we are hoping for next Friday b/c that's the next time she will be working in labor and delivery. She did do a pelvic exam today and said that I'm not dialted but my cervix is thinning which means we are making progress! Everything else is fine-measurements and vitals etc. She gave us some umm interesting ways to speed along the labor- two of which were to drink castor oil or an enema, neither of which I plan or support doing nor does she. The others we will not mention but apparently work and every expectant mother I have talked to says works-and fathers for that matter!
I know that some of you were worried and emailed me about the tsunami warning here lastnight/ your morning. I just wanted to let you all know that everything is fine. I was in the warning area but we experienced nothing. I was watching the American news this morning and they blew it out of proportion as they tend to do with things. There was an earthquake, but it was a fair distance off the island and we were under a tsunami warning but the worst they thought it would be was 2meter high wave-which was an overstatement. There was a report of a 40 centimeter wave........yes I said 40 centimeters, which makes me wonder how they even determined it was a tsunami wave. But thanks for all your concerns and prayers.
Will update you guys as things happen.

Now that the weekend is over I'm in a much better mood! The weather here is perfect-well for me anyways! Its just cool enough to where you can wear a jacket and not be hot....well for me. Everyone else I think is a little colder! I
It just hit me yesterday that next week my mom is going to be here!!! I CAN NOT wait!!! But I must admit I am very nervous for her on the long flight by herself,especially being that she has never flown before. But I know my mom and she will be fine. Chris gets here next Monday which hopefully will be here faster than it seems. I have another appointment on Thursday-which I am going to request a pelvic exam to see if anything has changed.Other than that everything is fairly quiet. I talked to Lindsay today and she got me a pic with Kelley Monaco--soooo excited!!! In case you guys dont know who that is, she is on General Hospital which I have been watching since I've been here-yes I know I sound like a housewife!
Everyone keeps asking me what I have been doing since I've been here so I will give you guys a rundown of my daily schedule.
I get up usually around 9-given I could sleep fairly well the night before- take a shower and get ready, then walk up to Starbucks and the Exchange. Dont worry though, I'm only drinking tea, even though the coffee smells soooo good! The exchange here is bigger than ours, and has a little more than ours does, but its still no Target or Walmart! I have gotten a lot of Christmas shopping done though. Then after watching people for 30 minutes or so outside of Starbucks, and going shopping I either grab something to eat or just walk back to the room. It's maybe a mile walk one way, so I'm getting a fair amount of walking in everyday. Then when I get back to the room its usually about time to watch my soaps (General Hospital and Guiding LIght) and after they go off I usually take an afternoon nap.
Now is about the time of day I start to get bored. I either read, do crosswords, sudoku, scrapbooking or play on the internet in the internet cafe' but I can only do so much of each before I am bored. So the late afternoon/nights are what really gets me. I know I am leading an exciting life right now!! JUST KIDDING! But I am enjoying it because I know my life is about to turn upside down here in a short while-but I am definatly looking forward to the change! Love and miss you all.Uncle Chuckie and Aunt Joan I am sooo happy to hear from you two-love you guys!

Marine Corps Birthday

So today is the Marine Corps Birthday-normally an exciting day, but considering I'm a 6 hr train ride away from Iwakuni its not too thrilling. Everyone is getting all dressed up, getting their hair and nails done etc and I'm stuck up here by myself. Can you tell pregnant Ash is having a pitty day?Hahaha!! Anways my point was to say Happy Birthday to all the Marines and hope everyone has a wonderful weekend at their balls!! Miss you guys!

37 weeks!!!whoa!!

I can't believe I'm already 37 weeks!! I'm getting so excited, but also tired of being pregnant-which is what everyone says about the last month! I had an appointment today and it went well. My doctor/midwife said the baby is measuring fine as well as my weight and blood pressure. She doesn't feel the need to do a pelvic exam to see if I'm dialated at all since I'm not having any contractions. She gave me the option too, but since she knows more than I do I decided that if she didn't feel the need to then we wouldn't. I have another appointment next Thursday so until then just more waiting!
This past Tuesday night I went and ate dinner with Chris' friend Scotty (from the Academy) and his parents and Grandmother who are visiting. Scotty's mother is truly an amazing woman. She was on Opera in 2003 for being such an amazing mother and I had the opportunity to watch it. ..... Both her children were born in concentration camps in Cambodia and she managed to escape with her children get visas to the US, save money to divorce her abusive husband,finish highschool and go to college-not to mention raise an amazing family. Of course there is a lot more to the story but that is the short version. I felt so honored to be in the same room as this woman. I left crying and amazed. We see these stories on T.V. and are amazed then but to actually sit and talk to someone like this and be in their presense is another thing!
Other than that my week has been fairly quiet. I get up every morning and walk to the Exchange to do a little Christmas shopping and to Starbucks to get my Chai tea and watch people. I then walk back to the room (maybe a mile walk each way) watch my soaps, do my crossword and sudoku and hangout. I tend to get bored in the late afternoon and evenings, but only about a week and a half and Chris will be back and then my Mommy not long after that-then hopefully baby Lola immediatly after that!!! Love and miss-hope everyone is doing well!!

In Yokosuka

In case you guys didnt know we arrived safely in Yokosuka on Wednesday!! It was a very long and tiring trip but everything is fine. I was swollen like crazy when we got here and still a little today, but thats normal. Lastnight was terrible, I got no sleep whatsoever. The baby kept kicking and moving and I think just being in a new place and all the excitement.
We had our first appointment here this morning. It went really well. I will be seeing a midwife who has been working for the Navy for quit awhile, and I feel totally comfortable with her. When I deliver though whoever is on duty will deliver the baby, which I am kind of bummed out about. Chris got to feel the baby's head for the first time today(which is huge just like his;-)!!!! Her head is already down and feels as if its already dropped down a bit, but nothing major. All of my vitals are fine and everything is normal and on track-now just waiting!! Chris has to leave on Sunday for work and will not be back here until around the 20th, so I will be up here alone and needless to say bored for two weeks, but I am fine with that as long as we have a healthy baby!!!
There probably will not be much to update while I'm here besides about my weekly appointments, but I will update regularly. Chris' blog will probably be a bit more exciting to everyone though and in case you dont have the link its chris-wade.blogspot.com He will be putting up pics and have more exciting news as he will be traveling throughout Japan for the next few weeks!