Lucy Joy

Meet Lucy Joy McCrory. She was born after 19 hours of labor at 4:01 pm on Saturday October 25, 2014. Weighed 7 lbs 10 oz and 18.75 inches long.  

I had decided earlier on in pregnancy I wanted to do a natural birth with minimal interventions. I had watched The Business of Being Born which initially peaked my interest and then I read Your Best Birth and Natural Hospital Birth. (Highly recommend Natural Hospital Birth to every pregnant lady no matter what you are wanting to do. I learned so much in that book!) I also hired a Doula=best decision ever. She was amazing. 

Back to the birth. I went to my 40 week appointment on Thursday morning and had the Dr do an internal exam. Low and behold I was at 5 cm and 50% effaced! I thought, 'wow! i'm halfway there, this labor shouldn't last very long'. Yeah, good one. Jump ahead to Friday night at 9pm. Thats when things got real. I had just gotten ready for bed and thought I better get some sleep if these are real contractions. The sleep thing didn't pan out. We got out of bed and starting doing some of the coping exercises we had learned in our childbirth class. My go-to ended up being leaning over the back of the couch that had pillows stacked and then rocking side to side. My doula came over at about 3 am. We got to the hospital at 5 am and I was at 7cm. At this point I'm thinking "oh good, it's almost over!" Nope. 

The next 11 hours were all a blur. My eyes were pretty much closed the whole time. I was very internal. I remember my mom making conversation with the doula and I finally had enough energy in between one contraction to ask her to stop talking. I needed total silence! I myself was pretty silent the whole time as well. Nothing like the movies, although maybe some people are like that. Duke, my mom and my doula were all taking turns constantly massaging me, holding heat packs on my hips (my hips were where I really felt my contractions), and when I got farther along- holding cold packs on my forehead while I was sweating and shaking uncontrollably. Duke said they probably went through 20 heat packs. The worst part was having to lay on the bed for 20 mins every hour for the intermittent monitoring. It was hard to cope with the pain in that position. My thoughts during the most intense parts of the contractions were "I'm never doing this again", "An epidural would be so nice" and "how have people been doing this for so long?!"

Anyways, I was finalllly at a 10 and was ready to push. I was so completely exhausted at this point, but it was more relief than painful at that point. I pushed for an hour and then she finally was born! My mom said her head popped out, quickly followed by an extended arm, as if she was announcing "I'm here!"

I thought I'd cry when I saw her but honestly I have never been so completely exhausted in my life, I had no energy to cry or do anything but lie there. But I couldn't believe she was here. 

It was a crazy, surreal experience. I hope I never forget it. It's so crazy to finally meet the little baby who's been living and squirming around inside you for so long. We love her so much already. And now for picture overload. :)

My team! (minus my mom) Duke, nurse, Dr Beauchamp, and my doula--all wonderful!

Proud daddy^

Proud grandma!

Dukes first EVER diaper change^ It was a doozy.

Hanging out in the hospital. Woot

grandma time!

My friends visiting with their cute babies

leaving the hospital^

Winston meeting Lucy

Weeks 33-37

33 weeks^

I've been pretty busy the last month which is why I have been quiet in the blogosphere. However, I thought I better do one more pregnancy post since this baby could potentially come any moment now! This last trimester has been uncomfortable, as they usually are! I have been very lucky to not have heart burn though! Mostly just back pain & sciatica (until about 36 weeks). Now its just hard to move in general and having cramps here and there. (also--starting sanding that^ crib 4 weeks ago..still working on painting that sucker. ugh).

 32 or 33 weeks..maybe 34?? ^

How far along: 37 weeks & 5 days

Total weight gain: 23 lbs as of today

Favorite thing so far: Feeling the baby move...I'm not sure what else is cool about pregnancy at this point other than the fact that it ends in a cute baby.

Sleep: Some nights I wake up right around 3 am and can't fall back asleep for 2 hours. Other nights I sleep fine! But either way I get up about 3 times to use the restroom, sometimes more.

Fitness: Since I hit about 34 weeks I honestly have been doing nothing but cleaning around my house and doing projects that have kept me busy and moving, but no real exercise. I can't even imagine running right now. I feel like I have a bowling bowl strapped to my stomach. Also I've been collecting sea glass at the beach and even that has become a real struggle. I have to do a squat as I bend over. This baby has taken over my abdomen.

Feelings: Feeling easily overwhelmed lately. I really have been so busy every single day for the last month and a half. Rushing to get things ready for baby, finish projects around the house, appointments (SO MANY!), and entertaining my friend Stacy who was here for a couple weeks! I've had some nights I've had to cry it out and tell myself I can finish things after the baby arrives. But the truth is I want to feel ready before she is here! I know I'm probably overdoing it some days when my whole body and back are just aching from being on my feet and bending over cleaning or painting or cooking. I can't wait to be a normal person again! But still so excited for her arrival. Can't wait to hold a tiny little human that I helped create!

 35 weeks at the Imperial Gardens in Tokyo

 35/36 weeks at peace prayer park^

 36 weeks at Manzamo Point^

37 weeks at beach by Peace Prayer Park^

Baby Shower!

I am so lucky to have made some great friends while I've been here in Okinawa. My friend Annie threw me the cutest shower a week ago and I can't thank her and the people who came enough! I felt so loved and spoiled. Thanks so much guys! We are so grateful. Here are some pictures of the celebration!

 Thanks to Milly for snapping a couple pictures of me!

36 weeks^

 I don't know who snapped these pics of me opening gifts, but thank you!

So fun to be having a girl...too much cuteness!

Thanks again everyone!!! And big special thanks to Annie for making all the decor adorable and the food delicious. Glad you are my friend :)

Weekly Adventures

August 27 was our THIRD anniversary! We got lucky that day because Duke had a night flight, which meant he didn't need to go into work till about noon. So we celebrated by eating brunch and a really short beach trip to Araha. It was so nice to spend a little time with him especially in the morning and especially on our anniversary. 

Duke worked everyday last weekend, but had most of Monday off, so we drove up to Torii Beach and just chilled out. Am I allowed to complain about how much my husband has been working lately? I know no one cares or wants to hear it and there are probably people gone more often, but he has literally been at work every.single.day for 2 weeks straight and if he gets next Saturday day off it'll have been 3 weeks straight. I guess it's just new to me since this is our first year in the fleet. I just thought it was safe to assume he would be home on Saturdays or Sundays, but lately it has not been so! It hasn't been this way the whole year, so i'm sure it will get better. I would just like to hang out with my husband every so often. Is that so much to ask Marine Corps??!! wah. Ok complaining over. 

I find the teenyist, tinyist hermit crab ever!!

 Some relaxtion! 

 32 weeks. I feel like I look HUGE in that pic.^

 Saturday night date from last week^

 Last Sunday I drove about 30 minutes north to an awesome little town/village called Yomitan. I went up there to borrow an electric sander from someone, but decided to drive around a bit and explore (by myself, bc duke was on duty wah..ok NOW i'm done complaining). I found a secluded little beach and watched the sunset go down. And I stumbled upon a small little field of sunflowers! I just love it up there. 

 ^look at this beaute! Alson in Yomitan

 Best thing about Japan: I'm driving around fields of nothing but Sugarcane--farming town--but I'm dying of thirst. Japan says- "No problem! We've got vending machines in the middle of nowhere!" I passed about 5 on this road alone. SO AWESOME.

On Wednesday I met some girlfriends for lunch at the cutest little cafe called Cafe Green Green. It was a rainy day but this was the view out back! Not too shabby.

And right next door was a really cute store with tons of cute stuff, mostly baby/kid stuff. But look! Where the Wild Things Are in Japanese. Pretty cool. 

 THURSDAY, I drove about an hour north with some other girls to explore the beach on camp schwab. It was great and we were the only ones there! Always a plus. We also went to seaglass beach and stocked up on our seaglass and floated around.

 My little sunbather^ He loves lounging out there

I've been soooo busy these past few weeks working on projects around the house to get ready for baby. This crib is one of those lovely projects. I'll be soooo happy when I'm done with this beast!

Winston is my moral support :)

And that's whats happening with us over here in Oki world!