Last Spouses Banquet

It's hard to believe that my last spouses banquet has come and gone and in 4 weeks Stephen and I will be moving back home. I never thought it was going to come. This is the best night of every semester when all of us girls get together for a yummy dinner and amazing company. I am so glad that we had it a good month before we all leave. If it had been closer to us moving home it would have been a really sad night. It is impossible not to be sad thinking about never seeing some of these amazing ladies ever again. Only we know what this experience is like living here while supporting our husbands in medical school. It can't even be explained. All we have here are each other and I am so thankful for every spouse I have met on this journey.

Us lucky ones who survived our stay on the Island and will be moving 

back home in just a few more weeks!

Absolutely LOVE these girls so much!!

Baby Moon and Birthday Rosalie Bay Weekend

For Stephen's birthday we spent two nights at Rosalie Bay and also considered this our little baby moon vacation before Poppy comes. We had a wonderful and relaxing time. It was an adventure getting there of course. Our rental car came an hour late with an empty tank that we didn't notice until 15 minutes out. So we had to drive back to Portsmouth to fill up the tank then headed back on our way to Roseau to have lunch at the French Bakery. It was a complete downpour the whole way and was actually really scary to drive in because we couldn't even see the road at times. But we survived and had a delicious lunch and made it to Rosalie Bay just a half hour after check in. Our room was decorated beautifully like always. They wished Stephen a happy birthday and congratulated us on expecting. We were upgraded again to a junior suite which overlooked the Atlantic ocean. The rest of the day we relaxed in our room until sunset. Then took a walk on the beach before dinner. Sunday we spent the day relaxing at the pool and in the afternoon we were able to see the last turtle nest of the season. There were 5 green sea turtles and they were so adorable. I was really hoping for a chance to see these ones but I thought the season had ended for them. We were so lucky to be visiting when the last nest hatched and all five of them made it to the ocean to start their long lives. The next day was Stephen's birthday. We slept in, enjoyed a yummy continental breakfast at the restaurant and then had to leave beautiful Rosalie Bay so Stephen could get back to his studies. We had pizza and birthday cake that night to celebrate him turning 27. This was exactly the weekend we needed to get us through the next 6 weeks on the island.

A cute little baby swan towel just for Poppy.

Stephen's first time laying on a couch here on the Island. 

This was probably his favorite thing in the room.

Our balcony overlooking the ocean.

Baby Green Sea Turtles

You could just see the excitement in them

 as they made it closer and closer to their home.

Happy Birthday Stephen!

Off to breakfast before heading home.

Saying goodbye to Rosalie Bay for the last time.

Baby Peirce - First Trimester

September 12 - 19, 2014: Our little sesame seed is now 5 weeks! Stephen and I are still getting used to our little surprise and are starting to get more and more excited about our tiny baby every day. Stephen has been so sweet and is already praying for our little one and asking that it may be healthy and grow strong. So far I have felt pretty lazy and have had a serious lack of energy. I have a little bit of food aversions and no cravings. Nothing is appetizing but if I don't snack every couple hours I start to feel sick. I feel the most sick at bedtime when I lay down to sleep. Our first ultrasound was done this week to determine how far along I am because of my super abnormal periods. We only saw the gestational sac which means I am in fact about 5 weeks along. We are so excited!!

First ultrasound showing only the gestational sac.
Meaning we are having a May baby like we thought!

Telling mom and dad the good news!

September 26 - October 3, 2014: Our little blueberry is now 7 weeks but measured 8 weeks on the ultrasound we had today. We were able to see his/her heartbeat!!! Our little poppy is incredible and amazing in every way! Poppy had an amazing heartbeat of 155 bpm and everything else is looking perfect. As for me I am only feeling sick when I haven't eaten in a couple hours. So I am still feeling the worst during the night when I am sleeping. As long as there is a little food in my tummy I am pretty good during the day. I am still super exhausted but am able to get out of the house to go on a short walk almost every day. 

Baby Peirce measuring at 8 weeks with a heartbeat of 155 bpm. September 30, 2014.

This will be the last ultrasound we get until January when we are back in the states.

9 weeks - October 11, 2014

October 27 - November 7, 2014: Today (Oct 27th) we were able to listen to our little figs heart on the Doppler! Poppy is now 11 weeks and doing very well. It was incredible being able to listen to his/her heartbeat. The only symptoms I have during the day now are occasionally getting exhausted for no reason or feeling a little sick around food. My sense of smell has been incredible. I feel like I have a superpower which is both good and very bad being able to smell every little thing, especially living here where garbage is found everywhere. I've never sneezed more in my life than this last 11 weeks. My lack of sleeping well has slowly gone from just annoying to just unbearable. I feel horrible any time I lay down which means I haven't been sleeping much the last week and a half now. Thankfully the doctor at the clinic gave me some nausea medicine to take at night. The first two nights I took it I felt amazing and was so happy to be sleeping again. By the third day it wasn't working as well and the side effects from it were making me feel even worse than not being able to sleep. So I stopped taking that after about 5 days. Week 12 started pretty awful being back to no sleep and just feeling miserable. One of the spouses here went home to visit family for a week and brought back some sleeping pills that I haven't been able to find on the island that are alright to take while pregnant. I started taking them about half way through week 12 and have felt significantly better. I am now sleeping again and hoping that within the next couple weeks I will start feeling good again. We are happy to be done with the first trimester and look forward to the second and me starting to show!

12 weeks - November 2, 2014

Baby Moon/Birthday weekend getaway to Rosalie Bay

Halloween Celebrations

This Halloween was so much fun to celebrate! Most of all because we chose Halloween to announce our having a baby. I decided to wear my little skeleton costume to the kids fest and it was a lot of fun seeing everyone's reaction when they would really look at it and figure out what it meant. Plus hanging out with all the cute kids all dressed up was super fun. The kids fest this semester was obviously Halloween themed and there was face painting, a photo booth, cookie decorating, and a haunted house. The haunted house was actually pretty dang scary. Most of the kids and maybe even an adult or two came out screaming or crying. I only went in so I could hide behind the kids and have them protect me.
In the weeks leading up to Halloween some of us all got together to watch Halloween movies! The first movie night was practical magic and it was really fun watching it with so many ladies who hadn't seen it before. It is pretty scary in a couple spots and it was great watching everyone scream or jump. The next week we watched my all time favorite Halloween movie, Hocus Pocus! It is a classic and was so much fun watching with everyone. I can honestly say that this Halloween was a success and doing all of the fun things I did made me miss home a little less.

Practical Magic girls night!

Kids Fest Halloween Fun!

Just a couple of the many cuties at kids fest!

Hocus Pocus night with my girls!

Probably my last bake sale here in Dominica.

Halloween themed of course!

Our special Halloween treat

It's official...Stephen and I are going to be parents!!!

This last April I got off "the pill" and we officially started trying for a baby! We both have wanted to start a family but didn't know when would be the best time. After going back and forth and changing our minds for when to start trying, we decided all that mattered was that I didn't have a baby here in Dominica. So we planned to start trying when it came close enough to us moving back to the states that we could both be at the birth. Which meant April was the month to start. I started taking prenatal vitamins in February and began reading way to many blogs and articles about pregnancy right away. I wanted to know everything! May came and went with no baby. We weren't to surprised with it being our first month trying. After June and July passed we became a little discouraged but again just had to remind ourselves it has only been a couple months. Towards the end of July I started tracking my ovulation through my temperature and I guess it worked because while we were in Martinique celebrating Stephen's break from school I ovulated which meant two weeks later we got the biggest surprise ever!

September 7, 2014!
Today was a pretty exciting day for Stephen and I. We have been trying to get pregnant since April and this morning the stick read "Pregnant!!!" I had decided a few days earlier I would wait to take a test until Sunday morning because then I would have officially missed my period. So when 6:30 Sunday morning came I couldn't sleep any longer. I got right out of bed and headed to the bathroom. While waiting for the result to show up I hid it out of the way, washed my hands and as I was drying them grabbed the stick which read that I was pregnant. I stood in a daze for a few seconds, then with still pretty wet hands I ran to the bed to wake up Stephen and show him. I turned the lamp on first and that just wasn't bright enough so I quickly opened the blinds so there was plenty of light in the room to read it. My hands were shaking as I handed it to him and I've been a little on edge all day. Of course the reality of me being pregnant hasn't quite sunk in and I'm not exactly sure when it will. I've felt a little sick all day, though I'm not sure if its because of the baby or my nerves. We looked up the size of our little baby and its the size of a poppy seed. So we immediately started referring to it as our little poppy. Baby Poppy Peirce is due May 15th 2015 and we couldn't be more excited!!!

Of course I had to take two just to make sure!
Then I took a third the next day.

4 weeks!

This Halloween someone new is Brewing!
Our treat arrives May 2015
(12 weeks in this picture)

Me not realizing the picture was being taken.

Stephen liked this one the most.

Lasts

With only ten weeks left on the Island everything we do is becoming the last time we will do it. Stephen is in his last semester of medical school, he just took his last first exam, we went to our last beach bash this week, had my last beach clean up, and are most excitedly down to our last months living in Dominica. It has been quite an adventure living here but I am ready for it to end. Being extra home sick and missing the American Holidays and weather changes is making me that much more anxious to move home. So far the semester has dragged quite a bit but I am trying to stay positive and every week I get to remind myself we are one week closer to moving back home. Besides Stephen being super busy trying to tough out his last semester not a lot has been going on. We celebrated our two year anniversary from when Stephen proposed and he was so sweet and bought me flowers. He said he has been meaning to get them for me for a while now with celebrating different things over the last month but the flower lady had been out of flowers. (only in Dominica does that happen) It was a fun surprise to get them no matter what the occasion was. He really is the greatest thing that has ever happened in my life and I love him so very much! I am getting so excited for our next many adventures to come. This Island adventure sure was a surprise but I wouldn't have changed any of it. I'm just glad our next adventures from here on out will be done in America!

Pitch Perfect Girls Night! These ladies are the best!