Third Trimester

I am officially in my third and final trimester!! It feels like the pregnancy is going by so quickly and it is getting me more excited to meet Baby Muller. Dennis got to feel the baby kick about a week ago and he thought it was one of the coolest feelings. Now I feel like the baby never stops kicking especially on my bladder. I did have a doctor's appointment the other day where the doctor went over all my lab results and she said I was doing great! She even knows that I am doing Crossfit and since I am healthy and was doing it before she said I could continue. She did see some scrapes on my legs and shins and asked where they were from and I told her beach volleyball. She then scolded me and said no more of that. lol! Sleeping is still a minor issue for me but it's been more of a bother lately about having to go to the bathroom a couple times a night. I guess it will be good to prepare me for the baby but I have joked with Dennis that I would love to wear an adult diaper to bed. Other than not sleeping through the night, everything has been great still and I hopefully will enjoy my third trimester as much as I have loved the last two.

This week a fellow squadron wife took some maternity photos of me around Misawa. They came out great and I was grateful that she had thought of me when she asked if I could help her out with her portfolio. Below is a little preview of the beautiful photos. The link to her blog is http://www.paperairplanesphoto.com/

From the polls and talking to people, everyone seems to be thinking we will be having a Boy. If it is a boy it will be Dennis Joseph Muller III. I have been trying to think of cute nicknames for the little guy since it can get very confusing when your husband and potential son have the same exact name. So far, I have come up with D, Little D, DJ, Denny, and Trey. But I am still secretly hoping for a little Heidi Alice Muller. No nicknames required there ;)

I leave on Tuesday for Florida and I am super excited! The OB gave me some awesome knee high compression stockings for my 12+ hour flights. They should look super sexy ;) I am going to miss Den and the puppy a lot while I am gone but it will be nice to be in America for a bit. I can't wait to see you all and I can't wait to celebrate with some of you with a Baby shower in about a week. I hope you had a great holiday!

Boy or Girl?!?

26 weeks pregnant in my flight dress. 

Time has been flying by and I will be in my third trimester in a week. That means only a little over 3 more months until Dennis and I get to meet our little bundle of joy. I have already been noticing some of the side effects of the third trimester like wanting to take a nap in the middle of the day, harder to get to sleep and get comfortable at night, being super clumsy, or my favorite, Snissing (Sneezing and peeing a little at the same time). Other than those minor hiccups, I have been feeling great and got a baby who is kicking like crazy. I am enjoying every moment of being pregnant.

26 weeks pregnant! 

One exciting thing since I last posted is that the nursery is beginning to actually look like a nursery. I painted the walls last week a light teal/turqouise color which is very gender neutral and looks great. Dennis also built the crib and dresser/changing table this weekend and they look fantastic with the wall color. It definitely still needs some decorations but I think we have a good start. I will post some pictures once it is a little more completed.

Girl or Boy?

Even though Dennis and I are not finding out the sex it is always fun to take a guess at things. At first, I thought I was going to have a girl because I craved the same exact sweets as my good friend Meredith. And by same, I mean she told me she was craving starbursts and skittles and those two exact items I had bought from the store during my whole first trimester. All my friends here at Misawa seem to think I am having a boy. As of right now, I am not really sure and I am not leaning towards either side. So I looked up some old wives tales which help you "predict" the gender and I thought they would be fun to try. I am not going to go out and buy all pink or blue after this but I thought it would be fun to look back at it and see which predictions were correct. They all have a 50/50 chance so here it goes.

1. Chinese Gender Chart = Girl
2. Mayan odd and even numbers = Girl
3. Heart rate. Faster (>140) is Girl. Slower (<140) is Boy. = Girl 
4. Cravings. Sweet foods is Girl. Salty foods is a boy. = Girl 
5. How you are carrying the baby. High is Girl. Low is Boy. = Boy (Low I think but it could be in the middle. lol!)
6. String over belly test. String goes in circle is Boy. String goes back and forth is a girl. = Girl
7. Bad acne is a girl. It says that she is stealing her mother's beauty. = Boy 
8. Dry Skin is a boy or Soft Skin is a girl. = Boy 
9. Linea Nigra Line. All the way up the belly is Boy. Just to belly button is Girl. Mine is very faint but from what I can tell it stops at the belly button =Girl 


There is also one where you mix your pee with Drano and whichever color it comes out equals a certain gender but I am not willing to try that one. Seems not too user friendly with the fumes and I don't want to buy drano just to do it. So from the results above it looks like I should definitely break out the pink, or coral in my case, because I am having a girl. Which I would be super excited about if it  was accurate but then again I would be just as excited for a little boy. Honestly though, the only thing Dennis and I are hoping for is a healthy and happy baby no matter the gender. We are just so excited to have something to look forward to in the delivery room.

What do you think the sex will be? Click the link below and take the poll.

Click here to take a poll!

On another note, I got named this weekend by the Lady Panthers. My name is "SPADES" which is due to my love of Kate Spade purses and some other things but we will not get into that. ;) It was a fun naming just wish I had been able to partake in the drinking part. Other than that, things have been good over here on the other side of the world. Looking forward to coming home in about two weeks. I hope everything is going well for everyone back home and I can't wait to see most of you soon :)

6 months

6 months pregnant in front of the Viper. 

Six months into the pregnancy and I think I was made for this. I have been in the best mood over the last couple months and can't stop smiling and laughing. Pregnancy just suits me. Hopefully, this trend will continue on and crossing my fingers, I will have an easy birth as well. I went in for my 24 week appointment last week and everything was looking good. They measured my belly which was exactly at 24 inches. They say from the bottom of your pelvic bone to the top of your uterus should usually measure about how many weeks you are. The only scary thing they told me is that I have to go in soon for my gestational diabetes test in the next couple weeks. The doctor said I should be fine but it's just one of those things that you never know. So say a little prayer for me and hopefully I will be in the clear. I heard from other mom's to be that Gestational diabetes is no fun especially since you have to restrict your sugar intake. Other than that, I have been feeling the baby kicking a lot more lately. I actually have felt it faintly with my hand on my belly but the doctor said it would be a little harder since my placenta is at the front of my uterus. When that moves to the back I am sure I will feel a lot harder kicks and at some point get a little sick of it. I just can't wait until Dennis gets to feel the little guy/girl.

Speaking of boy or girl, I think Dennis and I have finally settled on our baby names. If it's a boy it will be Dennis Joseph Muller III and if it's a girl it will be Heidi Alice Muller. We both have recently fell in love with the name Heidi and thought it was very appropriate with both of our German Heritage. The girl name could change, you never know, but for right now that's what we are leaning towards.

The nursery furniture is here! We had to order from the military catalog store since no where online can you ship a crib or dresser to an APO address. Just one of the little things we have to work around being overseas and in the military. We ordered a crib and small dresser/changing table (espresso color) and will be keeping our Queen bed in the room for any guests that may come visit or sleepless nights with the baby. It will be a tight fit in our little military housing but I think we can make it work. I will be mixing some paint colors together this week to try and get a turquoise color for the walls. It should be a fun experiment. I will be sure to post some pictures of our progress and once we get the whole room together.

I want to send a big thank you to Dennis' mom, Ms. Cheryl, and my parents for sending us some really adorable baby stuff. Baby Muller is so loved already. Just an FYI for anyone else that might be thinking about sending a package while we are overseas. To save a little money I would go to the post office and get a flat rate box to ship the items in. Even if you have to use more than one it usually ends up being cheaper since weight is not a factor in those boxes. Just a heads up.

I will be home in less than a month and be having a baby shower on July 13th back in the states. I can't wait to see all my family and friends and also eat some much craved Chick-fil-a. Which I should probably tell my mother that the shower should be catered by them. Haha! I hope you all have a great weekend and to all my teacher friends I hope you are enjoying your much needed summer break.

Beer Belly or Baby Bump?!?

23 weeks pregnant.

So I finally crossed over into the stage of my pregnancy where people can tell that I am actually pregnant and not just sporting a really awesome beer belly. It's been nice so far to be in this part of the pregnancy because people just seem to be a lot more pleasant to me. Maybe here they have even more sympathy because they know soon you are going to have to go through hell and bare the summer heat with no air condition. One of the not so fun things about living on base in Misawa. Overall, I like this stage because I feel like I look a lot cuter sporting a little bump but I am still very mobile. Plus, I think I finally felt the baby kick. It's really been hard to tell since I don't know what it feels like. I always think to myself...is it the baby or just gas? Well, last night in bed I believe I was finally able to distinguish between the two and felt the baby. I was so excited that I woke Dennis up from his slumber. I just can't wait until he gets to feel Baby M too.

While forming my my lovely baby bump I have continued to workout and actually participated in Memorial Day Murph this past weekend. It is a workout that was meant to honor a fallen hero and Medal of honor recipient, Michael Murphy. Though I might not have done the workout as prescribed like last year (1 mile run. 100 pull ups. 200 push ups. 300 air squats. 1 mile run.) I did do a mini pregnancy prescribed version of it called "Baby" Murph (800m run. 65 pull ups. 65 push ups. 65 air squats. 800m run) It was still hard and I pushed myself to the point where I had a nice tear in my hands from doing all 65 pull ups but this was a minor sacrifice compared to the ultimate sacrifice Michael Muprhy gave for this country. Thank you to all the service men and women who are serving or have served. You are truly the hero's of this nation.

Right before Memorial Day Murph at 22 weeks. 

Other than working out, Dennis and I have been trying to get out a lot and enjoy the nice weather of Northern Japan. We went camping this past weekend which was a lot of fun and even got to play some beach volleyball. It was a great weekend with friends and we are looking forward to more warm weather in our future. I hope you all had a wonderful Memorial Day Weekend. I can't wait to see most of you in July! 

PS-I wanted to send a big thank you to my Naner. She sent me a package with an amazing body pillow and some other goodies. Thanks for thinking of me! Love you!

Halfway There!

We have officially passed the halfway mark in the pregnancy! Cue the "Oooohhhh! We're halfway there" song. Baby Muller is now about 10 1/2 inches long and weighs about 13 ounces. I had my 20 week ultrasound a couple of days ago and Dennis and I got to see the little guy/girl. If you read my last post you know that we are not finding out the sex so there is no big news to report except that everything is looking good for Baby M. He/she is measuring pretty close to the due date, has ten fingers and toes, and all the scary tests I took for things like cystic fibrosis and downs came back negative which is wonderful news. I have been feeling great still and I am so blessed to be having such an easy pregnancy so far. I just love being pregnant!

Baby Muller at 20 weeks 

Other than our latest appointment, we ordered the baby furniture for the nursery. I can't wait until it comes in and we can get started on painting and decorating. I am thinking turquoise walls with yellow and white accents. I have been eyeing an adorable plane mobile on etsy and thinking we might go with a "Oh the places you will go" theme for the baby room. If it ends up being a girl I am sure I will sneaking some of my favorite coral color in the mix. Dennis likes to say that the coral and turquoise is too close to gator colors for his liking. LOL! I just can't help that they are my two favorite colors lately and he is just lucky that I am not going with an alligator themed baby room.

Last Sunday was mother's day and I want to wish all the mother's out there, especially my Mom, a Happy Mother's day. I got my mom a cute wine glass that says "Omi's sippy cup" (Omi is grandmother in German) and Dennis' mom one with Mimi's sippy cup. I thought they were really adorable and appropriate for both our moms especially because of the contents they hold inside. I had my first mother's day this past Sunday which was really nice. My parents sent me some cute gifts. Dennis did really well and got me a some pretty flowers and a Canon Rebel T3 camera. Perfect timing for a grown up camera with the baby coming and I am sure I will be taking tons of pictures.

Mug from my parents :) 

Before I sign off, I thought I would answer another question that I have been getting a lot lately....

What are some of the names you and Dennis are thinking about?

Well, if it is a boy it will be Dennis Joseph Muller III. So naming the boy is going to be super easy. Plus, I like to joke that when I married Dennis it was written in the contract that the first boy will take Dennis' name. HaHa! (We don't really have a contract)
If it is a girl the only thing for certain is that we want her middle name to be Alice after my Grammy. She is one of the most wonderful, spiritual, loving woman in my life and my daughter will be so lucky to be blessed with such a meaningful middle name. As for first names that is a little harder....we have been tossing up names like Brooke, Grace, Evelyn, Heidi (a true little german girl name), and a couple of others. It's really hard to choose the right one and it doesn't help that everyone has their own opinion of each name. I just need to remember that our opinion matters most and whatever name we choose should be meaningful and beautiful to us. I know we will pick a good one :)

I hope everyone is doing well! I can't wait to see some of you in July!

Baby "M"uller

15 weeks pregnant

If you haven't heard the big news yet Dennis and I are expecting our first child September 25th, 2013. We are both so excited to be parents!! So I thought it would be a good to start up my blog again and keep everyone updated on the pregnancy.

I thought I would answer some common questions first...

Were you and Dennis trying or was it a surprise? 
Dennis and I were trying but it was definitely surprising how quickly it happened. We joke around and say that we are going to name our baby Bora Bora after our honeymoon.

How have you been feeling? 
I have been real lucky and have been feeling great! No morning sickness at all. I was tired the first trimester. Let's just say I could of slept on the couch all day if I had my way. But since I have hit the second trimester I have been way more energetic. Other than that I have been feeling amazing! Just now getting used to a little belly that I have been sporting the past couple weeks.

Are you finding out the sex? What do you think it is? 
No. We are going to make it a surprise. I know it's going to be hard but we have heard from friends that it is one of the most amazing moments of your life. I can't wait for Dennis to yell out in the delivery room "It's a BOY/GIRL!!!" I think it will be so special. As for what the baby's sex is...I'm thinking a girl but we will see :)

What have you been craving? 
Pretty much anything sweet. I love to eat lots of fruit and drink chocolate milk. I also like to indulge in some candy like gummy bears, starbursts, etc...

How did you tell your parents? 
Well if you have been following me on Facebook you would of saw that I went home for a while to see my family in Florida. One of the main reasons I went home was to tell my family that we were having a baby. I thought it would be so much fun to tell them in person. So when I told them I was already 12 weeks. It actually worked out perfectly because I was at my Grammy's and I brought in a gift for my parents. I told them I had gotten them a present from Bora Bora and they pulled it out and it was a framed picture of the sonogram saying "You're going to be Grandparents". They were so thrilled and so was my Grandmother and Great Aunts. It was such an amazing moment.

Are you still working out?
Yes. I am still working out 4-6 times a week and it is mostly still Crossfit with a lot of modifications. For example, lower weights and no handstand pushups anymore. There are so many great websites out there now of women that have done crossfit the whole pregnancy. They preach how beneficial it was for them, their easy births, and getting back into shape post baby. Besides crossfit, I go on walks/runs and hit up a yoga or spin class when I get a chance. I know to take it a little easier now and most importantly I listen to my body.

Are you planning to come back home again before you have the baby? 
Yes. As long as everything keeps on going well I plan to come back in July sometime. I hopefully will have a baby shower than and maybe get some maternity photos taken with my cute bump (hopefully it's cute). It will be nice to see the family one last time before having the baby.

When will be your first visit home with the baby? 
We are planning to come home with the baby in November around Thanksgiving time. New Orleans first, for Thanksgiving and then Florida for the weekend after Thanksgiving. The baby will be about 2 months old and it will be so nice for family and friends to see him/her.

I hope you enjoyed reading up on my pregnancy so far and I will keep you updated with some more blogs throughout it. Let me know if you have anymore questions you would want answered. Let me leave you with some some belly pics throughout the pregnancy below.

6 weeks. Tummy still flat :) 

10 weeks

11 weeks

13 weeks at Disney World

14 weeks

18 weeks 

18 weeks front view 

19 weeks at the Cherry Blossom Festival 

Perks of the Air Force Wife

One of the major perks of being a military wife overseas is being to hop on military planes from different bases in the Pacific Region. I decided when Dennis was going TDY to Guam that I would not buy a plane ticket and try to hop down there for free. That's right, FREE! If you are a military dependent you can take a cargo or tanker plane wherever you heart desires for no charge. But before you get too jealous there are risks like getting stuck on a remote island because your plane had to divert or the flight you were planning to take gets canceled last minute forcing you to wait another day or maybe weeks until there is another one. So when me and another wife saw that the Tankers that were going to bring our guys down to Guam were coming up to Misawa we were super excited! We were thinking....how easy it would be for us to get down to Guam and actually fly right next to our guys the whole time. Well, like most hops the plan ended up changing a little bit. We found out the day before we were planning to leave that the planes were not going to come to Misawa anymore but were being diverted to Yokota (A base down near Tokyo). If I haven't told you yet, it snows A LOT in Misawa. It is really hard for bigger planes to land in the conditions here so some of the times they will go to another base down south instead. At first when I saw this news I was kinda of bummed thinking maybe I wouldn't be able to go to Guam but then I thought twice and I called Corban, the other wife who was planning to go, and told her we should get on the bullet train today and head down to Yokota. So last minute we packed, while I just did laundry and repacked since I already had most tropical clothing out already, and we headed to the Misawa Train Station. Getting down to Tokyo is not too bad since there is a bullet train that only takes about 3 hours to get down to Tokyo station. The only bad part is that the train costs about $150 one way. Japan is not a cheap country to travel around. The only hard part of the journey was getting to tokyo station and trying to figure out how to get to Yokota. We thankfully got on all the right subways but we were definitely a little crowed with people and us with our big bags.

Letting me talk to Den while he is flying :) 

The next morning Corban and I wake up early to get to the roll call for Guam. When they list seats online it is never guaranteed. So we were praying that we could still get on the flight. It actually worked out perfectly when we got to the terminal because there was no one else trying to get on the flight. I knew that Dennis was going to re-fuel with tanker #1 so I asked to be on that tanker and the request was granted. They bused us out to the KC-135 and we got to meet the crew who were so awesome. It took a while to take off since we were waiting on the F-16s up in Misawa. They had some bad weather up there (typical) but once we got up in the air we were ready for take off. The crew let us sit up in the cock pit for take-off and it was incredible view with Mount Fuji to our left as were taking off. Once we got up in the air it wasn't long until we got to see the guys flying next to us. The "Boom" operater let us come to his back area to watch the re-fueling. The Boom is the stick the fighters attach to re-fuel mid air. We laid down and got to look out this little window where we could see the boys pull up to the boom. So when it was Dennis' turn to re-fuel he said he could see me through the window and when he was pulling away took off his mask and blew me a kiss. The Boom operator was also all about me talking on the radio to Dennis. Which I loved but I think Dennis probably found a little more embarrassing when I told him "I loved him" over the frequency. This was one of the most memorable experiences of my life and I loved getting to see a little bit of what Dennis does in the air. I couldn't be more proud of him. Let's just say this was one of the biggest perks of being an Air Force Wife :)

Den re-fueling!

Taking off in the cockpit