My Dear

My significant other is getting sexier and sexier every day that I see her.  She is embracing the pregnancy and loving just about every minute of it.  She has a glow about her that draws me in.  Her belly is so cute.  I love to see her lie on the bed with her hands on her belly feeling the baby kick.  When I felt it kick for the first time I was surprised and excited.  I'm afraid the baby doesn't like to kick for me as much as it's mom though.

Sitting in Georgia

Well, here I am again. We finally got underway from Norfolk. We headed down to Kings Bay, Georgia where we are currently in a holding pattern for some repairs. Our biggest reason for coming down here was to load weapons. That task is done and it is also the same reason I haven't had a day off in almost a month. Today is the first in almost four weeks. So needless to say I'm a little tired. Danelle can tell you how late I've been coming back to the room we are staying at.

I don't mind staying and doing work when it has to get done, but I must say that this particular weapons load has been completely disorganized. We have had guys sitting around for hours on end with nothing to do. Most days could have been shorter if the higher ups would have just taken the time to plan a little better instead of looking at the schedule and waiting for stuff to come up. There were a lot of people very pissed off in the Sonar Division. Most of them have today as their first day off also.

When we did pull in, and I finally got to see my beautiful pregnant wife, I was greeted with a few new pictures of the baby. They look great, don't you think? I was very excited to see these. It made what had been a crappy day into a great day. I haven't been able to spend much time with Danelle while I've been here, and that is what really gets me. She is a very strong woman though and hasn't complained about it. Today I belong to her.

Still no real update on whether I will be coming home for the birth or not. I've been told by several people that they are doing everything that they can to get me there. There is one guy in the division who should be qualified Sonar Supervisor and isn't, and I'm sure he's part of the problem. Also, the fact that our Chief really doesn't want him to be standing the watch anyway. I don't know how this delay is going to effect the overall schedule of the boat. We were suppose to be gone from here by now. We could be here for a while yet. More to come with that.

I'm in good spirits, can't complain too much, really need a hair cut but haven't been able to find a barber shop open at 11:00 at night.

20 weeks and counting

Danelle posted our new 1/2 way update that you can read! I will have to write more later when we port in Georgia (at the mother's urging to write more). READ OUR 1/2 WAY UPDATE HERE

I don't understand the Albany

Today I found out that I will not be augmented for the second half of deployment.  This means that I will not be here for the birth of my first child.  This is messed up in so many ways.  

First I wasn't even told, I had to go and ask.  My chief didn't even know, apparently it was a secret or something.  I'm still wondering when this was actually decided.  I'm sure that it wasn't today.   So of course I was a little stunned, because there really is no reason that I shouldn't be allowed to leave.  There will be more than enough Sonarmen on board and there will be people qualified to do my job.  

So after I found this out I decided to write a leave chit for next week since for the purpose of not only spending as much time as I can with Danelle, but to try and get things in order and everything set so that she doesn't have to deal with a lot of crap.  I routed it through the chain of command with nobody having any problems with it until I get to the Chief of the Boat, the senior enlisted person on board, he read the reason and gave me this crabby response.  He made it seem like I was being unreasonable for wanting to take leave.  My reason on the chit was this: R/R to take leave in order to take care of personal affairs due to the fact that I will not be here for the birth of my first child.

(Time for a little side rant.)  When he first looked at me with his snotty little face and gave me that look I was ready to punch him.  I am not a violent person, but my fist was closed and tightening.  This guy is such a power hungry, short person complex, asshole.  He is the standard out of date chief that thinks he can bully people around and get them to do what he wants.  Obviously has very little concern about the moral of the crew and more about his career.  This is most evident lately in his most recent idea to keep everybody on board for a clean up ship at 4:00 in the afternoon.  Not giving them the precious little time left before we ship out to be at home with loved ones.  

I'm not the type of person that thinks the Navy owes me and should let me get what I want.  I understand the job and what can happen.  What pisses me off about this whole thing is the way that it was handled.  I'm sure this decision was made a while ago, yet they didn't tell anybody.  At least not me or my chief.  And the general way that things are run on this boat everyday makes me wonder how things get done at all.  I am curious if they would ever have said anything to me if I didn't push the issue.  And it's things like that that make me pissed.

The Mommy

So my wife is now in her second trimester. I think that's how you spell trimester. There is probably a hyphen in there somewhere, but I'm sure that someone will let me know sooner or later if that's wrong. Anyway, I'm glad that the morning sickness and all that stuff is over. I hated to see her feeling like crap and not being able to do much. We seem to be over that now though. She is much more active.

I'm going to be a father

What can I say except, oh my gosh. I just went to the midwife with my wife to get the first look at our future child. This was the coolest day of my life to date. I got to see the little tiny heartbeat of my little baby growing inside Danelle. I had the biggest smile on my face the entire time that the midwife was moving it around to try and get some good shots. I could tell that Danelle was very happy and that makes me even happier. When I first saw the image of it's little body moving around and it's heart beating so fast I was mesmerized. I didn't know what to say. I can't wait to welcome this little one into the world with my whole being.

I’m going to be a father, can you believe that? Sometimes I forget what that really means. Last night I was on duty standing the 0300-0600 watch and I was sitting there with very little to do, and I just thought about what the next 18 years at least are going to entail. It’s scary and yet at the same time I can’t wait to see what happens and how things turn out.