Mele Kalikimaka!

Merry Christmas from the Kramers!
May peace be your gift at Christmas and your blessing all year through.

Gobble Gobble

I ate the whole turkey! Well at least I feel like I did.
Darnell and I stayed home and enjoyed a quiet Thanksgiving Dinner together. I think the most fun was shopping for supplies the day before at 4:00am! Not only did we have the entire parking lot to ourselves, but the whole store too. The cashier accidentally rang us up for a free turkey, but upon realizing her error she let it go. Yippee! Thanks to Darnell, the turkey was delicious. The grilled eggplant and zucchini rocked too.
Here's a belly pic Darnell took from our local beach the day after Thanksgiving Day.

Time Flies When You're Having Fun

7 MONTHS!!!!! Are you kidding me? Wasn't I just 3 months like... yesterday? Oh man. This is becoming a reality sooner than I had expected. Still feel great. No pains or aches. Sleeping like a baby... sorry, no pun intended. Passed the glucose challenge test (GCT), so I don't have gestational diabetes which is a big relief. BRING ON THE PUMPKIN PIE! Fundal height (distance from pubic bone to top of uterus) is 27.5 cm. Baby's heartbeat is still rocking 156 bpm. Only thing I am noticing is how huge I am starting to get. Belly is definitely starting to get in the way (i.e. shaving legs). Hard to believe I have 3 more months of growth to occur.

San Diego Visit

Had a great time on my 'last' visit to San Diego for quite a while. Got to see loads of friends and eat everything in sight. In fact, I gained 9.5 lbs in the week there! (Don't worry, I've come back down since returning to a normal diet.) Ahhh.... tacos. So good. Got to hit up one of Darnell's favorite breakfast spots, Hash House A Go Go and get their AMAZING Hot Cocoa. Special thanks to the Keller Family for the baby gifts and to Grandma-to-be Danna for the wonderful keepsakes. See you all next year!

Hiccups

Enjoyed a lovely night out with my hubby last night and the restaurant was pumping some pretty fun music. A good mixture from our HS years. Baby Kramer (BK) was moving around pretty well and made me sit back in the booth. Soon The Smiths were playing and BK got a pretty good rhythm going on in the nightclub we'll call House of Womb. In fact, it was too good of a rhythm. Each thump was at a consistent beat. I glanced over at Darnell and said "BK's got the hiccups!".
So cool! 100 days to go!!!!

6 Month Belly Dance

Still getting used to having something inside of me moving around. So bizarre. Most movement comes in the morning as I am awakening. This is followed by fits of giggles as I watch my fuzzy belly button jump around. I can only imagine the snorts and laughter will increase as this baby grows.

The Pink Palace

Went to Tripler Army Medical Center today for my check-up. This is also where we will be having the baby. Built in 1907, Tripler's massive coral pink structure can be seen from any point in the Honolulu District. Supposedly the signature coral pink color of Tripler was a personal choice of General Richardson, who borrowed the color/design elements of the complex from the Royal Hawaiian Hotel in Waikiki. Another story says the architect came into Col. Robert B. Wood's office, who was the Army Corps of Engineers area engineer, and said it was time to select the color for the hospital. Wood's looked out his window at the red dirt on the then-undeveloped Moanalua Ridge and said, "You've got to get it as close to that color as you can because that's the color it will be when you're through." The building also has some colorful nicknames: "The Pink Palace", "The Pepto-Bismol Building" or "Crippler", just to name a few.

Here's a pic I took on the way to the hospital today:
Appointment went great. Baby Kramer has a super strong heart beat. I have no swelling in feet/ankles, a little weight gain (first time since becoming preggers) and an A+ on my white blood cell test from last week. YAY!