Base Housing and 15, 16, and 17 Week Pictures

Hi, everyone! I'm so sorry I haven't posted in three weeks; Chet and I have been moving! Instead of buying another house like we had mentioned we might do before, we decided to move into base housing. Even though we are not "senior officers" there was nothing available for us to move into except one of the single-family senior officer homes right on the beach! Needless to say, we are thrilled with the location, and we know this is the right decision. Sorry, no pictures yet; I'd like for things to look a little more put together before I post anything.

Baby news: We had another doctor appointment Monday, August 24th, and it went great. The heartbeat was a strong 150 bpm, and my doctor scheduled the ultrasound that will track the baby's growth and hopefully determine the sex! The ultrasound date is September 15th, and I will be one day shy of 20 weeks, so as long as the baby is in a good position the sex should be unmistakeable. Chet and I are really excited!

15 Weeks

16 Weeks

17 Weeks

I haven't gained much weight (1 pound according to the scale at the doctor's office, but I think it's actually more than that), but I am definitely starting to show. Chet is thrilled; he can't wait for me to be huge. Thats all the news I have at the moment. Now that we have cable and internet at the new house I'll do my best to post updates more often. I hope everyone had a great week!

14 Weeks

Here I am at 14 weeks. The only difference this week is that I have red marks all around my waist. That's because I had just changed out of my khaki uniform after wearing it all day long. As I'm sure you can imagine, those pants are getting a little tight, and I don't normally wear that uniform for so many hours in a row. Don't worry though, the pants are currently getting let out at the tailor shop. (I'll eventually start wearing the pregnancy uniform, but I'd like to wait on that for as long as possible, hence the reason I'm paying to get my regular pants let out!)

Besides that, no baby updates. Our next appoinment is Monday, August 24th.

Sailing

Last Sunday (after we dropped Grant off at the airport), we met our friend Cal who took us sailing on his boat (Cal asked us to check on his boat every now and then while he is gone on deployment starting in September). Chet (the Sailor) was thrilled to sail again, and I was content relaxing and soaking up the sun!

Chet at the Helm

Chet and Cal Working Hard

Grant's Visit

Last Thursday, Grant flew into Jacksonville to visit Chet and me for the weekend. I was able to take off work Friday (Chet couldn't take off due to a week-long conference he had to attend) to spend time with my baby brother. I took Grant to the base on Friday to attend a picnic hosted by my ship, so he was able to meet some people I work with. Friday night, the three of us saw the movie "Moon", and Saturday we went to the beach and Joe's Crab Shack for dinner. The inbetween times were filled with eating cheese dip, trips to the library, reading, games of Skip-Bo, and a lot of laughing. We had a really great time, and wish his visit weren't so short! Here are some pictures (of course, I forgot my camera when we went to the beach, so I only have pictures from Grant's first day and right before we left for the airport Sunday).

Grant Tackling Chet (right after Chet arrived home from work)

Grant and Ashley

Chet, Ashley, and Grant

13 Weeks

Still not much of a change in this picture (it seems kind of silly to keep posting pictures of the same thing, but I've already started, so I'll continue dutifully). I think you'll be able to see change soon though.

13 Weeks

I had another doctor appointment this past Monday, and everything went great! The doctor wasn't planning on doing an ultrasound, but she had trouble finding the baby's heartbeat with just the doppler, so she ended up doing an ultrasound anyway. The heartbeat was much slower this time (145 down from 180), and she said everything looked perfect. I asked the doctor if there was any truth to links between the baby's heart rate and the sex and she said not really (but then she said she would bet our baby is a boy because it was difficult for her to locate a heartbeat at first!). I honestly have no idea what the sex is, so I guess we'll all just have to wait a few more weeks to find out for sure!

Belly Pictures!

So, several of my friends have posted pictures on their blogs of their growing pregnant bellies, and we've decided to follow suit. Each Wednesday marks a new week in the pregnancy for us, so that's when we take our weekly picture, and I'll do my best to post by Thursday. Feel free to bug me if I forget, and all comments are welcome! (Chet just proofread this post and said, "You're not showing yet, honey.")

8 Weeks

9 Weeks (I had just woken up, if you can't tell)

10 Weeks

11 Weeks

12 Weeks

Anniversary

Yesterday was our third anniversary, and Chet got us tickets to Alhambra Dinner Theater to see "Annie". It was really cute (especially all of the little kids in it), and the dinner and dessert were really good too!

At Home Before Dinner

At Dinner