The Travelling Macdonalds!: March 2013

So the base we live on, does not have a hospital to deliver at. Our options are USN Hospital Yokosuka, or to deliver at a local Japanese Hospital. Jon and I both agreed that we did not want to experience the local hospital, and opted for the Naval Hospital.
We were told that at 20 weeks we would be sent to Yokosuka for our "big" ultrasound. This is also a way to familiarize ourselves with the travel route it takes to get to Yokosuka.

Thursday March 21, 2013
Jon and I took a long trip to United States Naval Hospital in Yokosuka, Japan which is about an hour (via city train) some direction from Tokyo. To get to Yokosuka, we had to first get on the Shin-kansen in Iwakuni to Hiroshima, where we switch to a larger Shin for the long ride to Shinagawa. This ride is about 5 hours of total travel time. Once at Shinagawa, we transferred over to the city train that takes us to Yokosuka...in all, it is about 7+ hours of travel.
Once in Yokosuka, we checked into our room at the Navy Gateway, and found the hospital. We had to check in with Medevac Yokosuka so that they would not cancel our appointment for the next day. After we checked in (took 30 seconds), we started to get familiar with the base. The base is not huge, but I think it is a little bigger than ours.
We found the Navy Exchange, and the Commissary and walked around. We bought a few groceries at the commissary since we were going to be there for 3 days. Our first night there was kind of a short night...as I was exhausted after travelling all day. We called it an early night, and prepared ourselves for an exciting Friday!

Friday March 22, 2013
Today is the big day....too bad our appointment is not until 1:15pm....long morning of waiting. We both woke up around 5:30am (on our day off) excited for the big ultrasound. We finally left the room around 8:00am on the hunt for coffee and some breakfast. We found the Starbucks on Yokosuka and grabbed a coffee, then headed out to find some breakfast. After breakfast we walked around the base, basically to kill time. We shopped the exchange again...but came up empty. We shopped for baby stuff, but since we had no idea who we were shopping for, it was not any fun....then again, we did not care for any of their baby stuff.
Finally noon rolls around, and we decide to grab a bite to eat, and try to get the baby happy for it's big debut. We had to make a quick run back to the room to grab our paperwork so that after our appointment, we can check out.
We arrived early for our appointment, and waited (for those that know Tracy, patience is not something she is good at). Finally at 1:15pm the radiology tech called our name.
He took us back to the room, and explained the ultrasound process, and what he would be looking for.
He covered my belly with goop, and the fun started. First he located the heartbeat, and then figured out which direction baby was laying. He told us that baby was on it's back, with it's feet folded up by its belly (flexible).
He did a quick once-over and located a head, heart, 2 arms, spine, belly, and 2 legs. It was at this time he asked if we wanted to know what we were having.....YES!!!!
He looked and said that "there are no boy parts, so I would say it is a GIRL!!!! We kind of had an idea it was a girl, but now we know for sure.
The rest of the ultrasound was measuring how big her head is, her belly, her femurs etc. The tech was very focused on her heart, and mentioned a thousand times that she has a 4 chamber heart....this is normal. The tech pointed out the lungs, kidneys and bladder, and checked blood flow through all. He then went back to baby's head, and this is where things got interesting. He was trying to focus in on her face, and she was not cooperating. Several times she placed her hands over her face. At one point she started to suck her thumb (we will have to break that habit). The tech started to get a little frustrated, and at one time, she actually flipped him off....yep that's our girl.
After about 80 minutes, the tech was finally done. He wiped off all of the goop (I think about half a gallon was used), gave us our copies of the pictures, and sent us on our way.
We checked out with Medevac, and went back to our room to inform the family. On our way back to the room, it hit Jon....he was going to have a GIRL....he is now shopping for more guns!
We got back to the room, and not only was my mom online, so was my sister.....mind you it was 11:00pm in CA. We told them both, and they were very excited. We let our friends know next, and then the rest of the world via facebook.
That night, we went to dinner with Tracy's boss at the base Chili's (Iwakuni is the only base in Japan without a Chili's).

Saturday March 23, 2013
Today we came home. We literally took the same route but in reverse. We made it home by 3:30pm to Iwakuni, and we were very happy to be in our own home. We decided to grab a celebratory Indian Dinner at our favorite restaurant Taj, and called it an early night.....again.

We have a lot to do before our little girl comes, and we will get it all done eventually!

We decided since the weather was getting a little nicer, it would be a good time to take a hike. We drove over to Oshima Island, and the plan was to hike Mt. Inoyama, which has an observation tower at the top. We parked at the bottom, and started hiking!

First stop....about 15 minutes into hiking....the bridge in the back connects Iwakuni to Oshima Island.

Oh yea, check out the baby bump

Random rock we found...it has been cut in half and looked like a butterfly - who knows if it is supposed to be like that or not!

So this hike basically consists of a road that winds up the mountain and ends at the observatory...so I was told. As we were hiking, there were several cars that passed us going up the mountain...I figured they were going to the few homes that were scattered along the mountain...WRONG!

Come to find out...there is a parking lot at the top next to the observation deck...grrrr!

After an hour of hiking straight up, we made it to the top of the mountain, and the observation deck. It was a clear day for the most part. Crazy that it was about 20 degrees colder on top of the observation deck, than on the mountain....we stayed long enough to take pictures and left.

This is a view of Iwakuni City from Oshima Island