Cast your Vote!

OK, Jeremy and I played the name game last night. We each made a list of 10 middle names we would like, and then narrowed down each other's lists :) We knocked it down to 5 (one we shared, and then 2 from each of our lists) and I have posted them in a poll to your right on the blog. So everyone cast your vote! Not sure when we'll make the final decision but we'll be making the announcement on the day of Noah's birth! We may make changes along the way too.

24 Weeks

Let the nesting begin!

Whew! Everything is going so fast now! Only 110 days until my due date. We started making space for Noah yesterday. Who knew that one little baby could turn a whole house upside down? We have had to consolidate the guest bedroom and the office into one room and create extra closet space for Jeremy in the master closet. Both of our extra bedrooms are, I believe, only 10x10 so things are a little squished. The nice part is that Amy got a laptop for Christmas because there would be no room for 2 desktops in the newly converted office/guest room!

I also found just the bedding I was looking for to go with my paint plans! I found it at Babies R Us, where I have also started my registry. You can search for us on there but it doesn't have much yet. Allison said she would go along and tell me everything we really need. I'll probably give in and do a Target registry too, although I am slightly miffed at them at the moment. We'll see. Here is my favorite crib and dresser so far. (They don't show the dresser for some reason.) My parents are generously buying the crib for us. In fact, Mom already picked up the mattress.

Jeremy asked her if she was just a little excited about the whole deal ;)

Once I found the perfect bedding, we went out and matched the paint colors we want. We're going to do a chair rail, with darker blue below and light blue above. Sorry I wanted to insert a link with the colors but the Valspar website is not cooperating. (The colors are Escape and Mountain Lake, if anyone really wants to know :)

I had another OB appointment Friday before last and everything went well. We discussed the date of April 10, which Good Friday falls on this year. I will be exactly 39 weeks then. I am 90% sure that I am doing an elective C-section. I have my reasons, have gotten some good recommendations on them (from people that have had them in the last few years!), and have read some good info. However, I have noticed that if I ever mention this, particularly around women who are a little older, the room goes quiet or I get looks of horror, like I am a bad mother for considering it. So I try not to mention it and no one will care once he gets here anyway. From what I've read, quite a lot of births end up with an involuntary C-section anyway due to inductions or having the epidural too early in the labor process, and it seems safer to me if it's planned and I haven't wasted a bunch of misery. I have no tolerance for pain. Not sure why I am rambling on about this. Anywho, I just discard the advice unless someone has actually done this in the last 5 years. :)

As you may have seen, Noah had a great "zero" Christmas, as Jeremy put it. On Christmas Eve night, we got to WATCH him kick for the first time! He moved my belly around all night but has been a little quieter since then. I think he was anticipating getting a visit from Santa. :)

Well, I am off to continue the middle name debate with Jeremy. We are each making a list and then we'll cross one off each other's list one at a time and see where we end up!

O Holy Night

We had a great Christmas! We had fun buying for others and were very blessed by our families with gifts. We got a new vacuum (SO needed), money, and a Lowe's gift card, among other fun things like maternity 'lounge' pants and Jeremy's favorite new running shoes. Here is our Christmas card pic:

The Christmas tree this year:

Quality time with family. Here is little Jake mesmerized by my brother. I have a feeling that this guy will be Noah's favorite partner in crime one day :)

Miss Mallory playing with Jeremy. Those twins love to laugh and thought Jeremy was hee-larious.

Oh my word! I have never seen the unborn receive so much loot at Christmas! Noah was very blessed this year. It was SO much fun opening gifts for him. He got several sweet items with his name on them. My niece Madison made him an adorable Build-a-Bear in pajamas...and of course convinced Mimi that she needed one too!

I AM Suzie Homemaker! I decided this year that I needed to start some traditions of my own and Southern Living had some great recipes for me to try. My friend Kelly and I got ambitious and had a cookie-making party. We exhausted ourselves by making FOUR different recipes...and some chili for the boys...all in one afternoon...that stretched out until about 9:00pm. And I only had one blond pregnant moment which caused the throwing out of one batch. :) I am so proud. Here is a sampling:

And the boys had some Christmas Eve silliness:

And, of course, the reason for the season. There was, alas, no room at the inn. In other words, we did not arrive early enough for the 3:00 Christmas Eve service at our church and had to be turned away. I was bummed but Sophia made up for it with her rendition of Christmas caroling (princess-cowgirl style) later that evening:

Merry Christmas Ya'll!

Humpty Dumpty Had a Great Fall

Yes, I am a bit embarrassed. And sore. I tripped over myself in the hall at school today and landed, face down, sprawled out on the floor. I will avoid the heels from now on.

Thank the Lord, I insisted that the doctor check on Noah, and he is fine. And other than embarrassed, I have a sore shoulder and knee. However, I am irritated with the school district for insisting that I do worker's comp because now nobody will pay for my OB visit...it wasn't work-related and was totally my fault, but because it happened on campus, everything is jacked up.

I feel that this must be somehow related to Jeremy telling our niece Sophia to call me "Huppy Duppy" recently. (This is how she pronounces Humpty Dumpty and it's pretty darn cute...unless you are pregnant and are being called this egg-shaped character.) Humpty is bad karma.

Oh, and I was informed that I gained 6 pounds in slightly less than 4 weeks. Oy...

22 Weeks and "Run the Rock!"

Here we are again. Somehow the pictures don't seem to do my potbelly justice. It really is there, I promise.

We only had a tiny bit of excitement since my last post. For a couple of days, I wasn't feeling much in the way of movement from Noah. (And after all, some of his little kicks were to the point of being uncomfortable at times.) I came home one night feeling a little panicky and upset about it, which concerned Jeremy enough that he called around to some doctor friends at the hospital the next morning. One of them suggested that I come up to the hospital so he could check the heartbeat for us. This very kind doctor pulled us into a closet, plopped me down in a recliner, and did a little ultrasound. Noah was just fine, thank the Lord. Apparently at this stage, babies can move into positions where it is difficult to feel any movement because there aren't enough nerve endings. The doctor was very amused because the magic ultrasound wand seemed to be making Noah mad. :)

Then for the big excitement today: Jeremy ran in his first marathon! He finished the Dallas White Rock Marathon in 5 hours and 51 minutes. That's 26.2 miles! It was so inspiring to watch so many people torture themselves in such an admirable way! I am happy to report that Jeremy is limping around the house just fine. There was some concern that he would not be able to finish due to some knee problems, but they held up very well. We are all very proud.

This is us just before the race started. Sorry it's a bit blurry...

Here is mile marker 5:

Brian lubing up Jeremy's knees with "Tiger Balm" at about mile marker 15:

Noah's gene pool (aka my parents and Jeremy's parents) hanging out at mile marker 21:

Brian ran miles 18 to 24 with Jeremy to give him a little encouragement:

Here is he coming up to the finish line. I'll have better pics from other cameras soon.

Getting up at 4:00am was not fun but we enjoyed running around trying to keep ahead of him and cheering him on. I'm SO proud! No more marathons, please honey, no more...

Sonogram Pics!

I almost forgot about posting these! I seem to be missing a few, but here are 3 of them.



Here is a profile shot:A hand:
Boy parts:

The Story of Noah

I have had people ask, so I wanted to take a moment to explain where we got the name Noah.

A few years ago, long before I met Jeremy (I estimate late 2005 or early 2006) I was a part of a ladies church group that read a trilogy of Christian historical fiction novels together. I know, sounds a little dull, but they were really fantastic; we were all addicted! (Mark of the Lion series by Francine Rivers.) Anyway...

In the last book, one of the characters is explaining the story of the gospel to someone by summarizing the entire Old Testament. So I'm reading along and come to:

"The Lord was sorry he had made man and decided to blot him out as well as the animals and all creeping things he had created...Only one creature found favor in God's sight, a man named Noah."

In the weeks preceding this, that name kept popping up, and when I read this some kind of lightbulb went off. In that moment, I just "knew" that someday I would have a son and should call him Noah. I understand that this is a bit of a stretch. Trust me, at that particular period in my life, I was pretty unsure as to whether or not marriage was even going to happen. So I had plenty of doubts along the way but never lost that "knowing", if you will. I put it in the back of my mind until I found myself "with child". :)

Luckily, Jeremy loves the name too. We still remain undecided on the middle name. Both of Jeremy's grandparents have made a point to clearly tell Jeremy that they do not like our choice of name, which makes us laugh. I have been known to argue with God but I'm just not going to on this one. My aunt pointed out that at least we didn't pick Moses. And I don't want any Noah's Ark themed nursery items. We can't beat the poor kid over the head with it after all. :)

"But Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord... Noah was a righteous man, blameless in his generation. Noah walked with God." Genesis 6:8-9 ESV

20 Weeks

Well folks, this pregnancy is more than halfway over! Its more fun now that I don't feel sick all the time. (Except that Noah objected strongly to getting up at 4am on Black Friday to go shopping. I nearly barfed. Or perhaps it was because I ate leftover chicken 'n dumplings after they sat through the 2 hour ride home from Wichita Falls, unrefrigerated. Who knows?) But hey, we got a good deal on a great new laptop at Best Buy. Merry Christmas to me! (Did you know there are crazies who spend the night in tents at Best Buy the night before Black Friday, even when it's rainy and cold??)

I have the "baby bump" now, even though its still small. I like it at this point. And Noah is quite the kicker. I needed to go to the bathroom the other day and it seems my bladder was cramping his style, so he started kicking at it. I decided I would go ahead and take care of that little bother for him. :) And Mimi and Papa sent me home with enough diapers to stockpile to cover his little behind for a couple of months!...maybe!

Not much else to report. We had an enjoyable Thanksgiving and got most of our Christmas shopping done. Now I just have to finish a little contract home study I'm doing so I can get to decorating!

Give Thanks!

Inspired by my friend Tina, here are some of the things I am most thankful for this Thanksgiving:

• Baby Noah. I have had a lot of contact with people who struggle with infertility, which is such a devastating loss. For some reason, that was always in the back of my mind and I was a little bit shocked about how effortlessly we were given this little guy.
• My husband. Amazingly, the man who spends hours mercilessly tormenting me and provoking aggravation also inspires such feelings of adoration and affection in me. We spend the majority of our free time together and never tire of one another. Well, at least from my perspective. :)
• My job. I love it when God lays things out clearly and reveals his plan. This was just perfect timing with Noah coming and it's such a great job.
• Our house. Today is the first anniversary of closing on our little place.
• Our church. God really knew what he was doing when he moved us to our area.
• Our home group from church. What a great bunch of folks. It's good to have some friends from church finally.
• Our great families that take such good care of us.
• Blogging.
• God of course. Just because. :)

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!!

Highlights of the Past Week

1. Today I baby-sat the world famous Chamblee twins! Jake and Mallory are just too cute. And I had good luck--they did not wake up at the same time demanding to be fed. I got to feed them one at a time and felt like such a chicken :) Now that they are 3 months old, they are smiling, laughing, and love to be talked to! Check out their blog sometime.

2. Also today, I made dinner and we took it to a home group friend who had a baby recently--and got to meet little Braden!

3. I read the entire first Twilight book. Nevermind the husband kicking and whining the whole way. :) I just had to know what the hype was all about. Loved it. That Edward Cullen character is something else, ladies. Scarcely a dull moment. And Jeremy is taking me to see the movie soon...I can't wait!!

4. Thursday I had my doctor's appointment and sono, which was awesome! See previous blog.

5. On Wednesday, I learned that I have to have a cavity fixed soon because of an old filling that was not well done. That's more of a lowlight of the week.

6. Last Saturday, while we did our weekly shopping at our uber-cool and green Wal-Mart, I tried Dunkin Donuts coffee (decaf!) for the first time and I may like it better than Starbucks! Caramel latte was YUMMMMMY! I'll give it another taste test in the morning. ;)

I am really excited about this next week. I only have to work Monday and then I am off for Thanksgiving break. I love everything about the holiday season: the stupid Macy's Parade, the insanity of going shopping at 5am on Black Friday (armed with Starbucks), the eating, the decorating. We are headed to Wichita Falls to his parents on Wednesday evening and will participate in the "Chicken-n-Dumplings on the night before Thanksgiving" tradition. Noah can hardly wait!

And the Wiener Is...

...still there! We definitely have a little Noah on board. We have several pictures but they aren't scanned very well, so maybe I will post them later, when we get better copies. No more sonograms unless medically necessary though. Bummer. I'm going to check into the cost of the 4D sonogram.

Noah was very cute though...and very active! He was dancing around and even yawned for us. People have tried to tell me that I'm just having gas and not really feeling him move, but I knew better. Apparently his little one-inch feet are dead center and the kid packs a punch already! He is 5.5 inches, crown to rump, and probably 8 to 9 inches total, so it's amazing that no one really notices that I am pregnant unless they already know.

Last night I dreamed about seeing Jeremy holding the baby and he had big, blue eyes and was beautiful. However, we were calling him "Cade" and I'm not sure why. I'm also not sure why we were in a parking lot the day after he was born and I was seeing him for first time. As previously mentioned, the dreaming gets a little weird with pregnancy. Just like everything else!

An update on our romantic getaway: we found some cheap Southwest tickets to New York for the first weekend in December and got all excited until we realized that Jeremy has too much going on with work at that time. We'll try to save up and go next year. Leave the kid with grandparents...maybe. :) I have dreamed of going to NYC during the holiday season for years. I was already envisioning myself at the Rockefeller Christmas tree, sipping frozen hot chocolate at Serendipity, and posing for pics with Matt, Meredith, Al, and Anne. Oh well. I may look into a bed and breakfast in Austin or something.

I still have spats of nausea, usually early morning and nighttime. But it's definitely improved! Tomorrow I will be babysitting my cousin's twins for a bit. They are just precious. God definitely knew which Erwin girl could handle two babies at once! Allison is super mom. :)

Have a great weekend!

18 Weeks

I am happy to report that at EIGHTEEN weeks, my nausea is finally going away...I'm pretty sure anyway ;) And I think that I have been feeling some movement in there, especially when I squash the little guy by laying on my stomach or wearing constricting pants. He doesn't seem to appreciate being squished. :) I am averaging one pair of jeans per week that have to be retired. Pretty soon I will only have prego pants left to choose from! Another interesting aspect of pregnancy: lots of bizarre dreams. Although I read that pregnancy does not increase dreaming, rather it just wakes you up more frequently during the night, therefore you remember more of the dreams. I can attest to the frequent waking up part.

This Thursday we have the big sonogram coming up and I am pretty excited to see him again. And to confirm that the equipment is definitely there!

I have a confession to make. Since starting this process, I have become a total blog addict. I am disappointed when I come home and someone hasn't written a new blog or left me a new comment to read. This is kind of sad. I just love spying on the lives of those I know...whether I know them well or not! And I had to laugh when my cousin recently blogged about being recognized in a restaurant by a stranger who "stalks" her blog. There are little blog voyeurs everywhere!

We Need a Getaway!

Jeremy and I need one last little romantic getaway before our lives are completely taken over by Baby Barclay!! We need somewhere within driving distance that isn't too expensive. I really wanted to go to New York City during the holidays (I've never been) but it looks like that's out. So give us some ideas if you have any!

Election Day!

Well, this isn't exactly pregnancy-related, although I guess the outcome of today's election will impact my little one in some small ways.

I am one of the least political people you will find. Clearly, I did not pay attention and/or have forgotten 99% of what I learned back in those good ol' Government and Economics classes. I regret that because there is so much I don't understand. I also despise "fakeness" and people not being themselves or not representing their values just to impress others. I digress...

But how can you not find this year's election just a little exciting. One way or the other we are really making significant history here, something I feel like our generation hasn't seen a lot of. (We just haven't competed with WWII, JFK, MLK Jr, etc.)

The high school that I work at held a mock election among staff and students yesterday. With the students, Obama had a 30% lead. With the teachers, McCain had a 9% lead. Isn't that funny? I can remember participating in some kind of nationwide election in 7th grade where Clinton had a landslide victory among the students. The kids will always vote for whoever is younger, better looking, and more popular. :) There were kids cheering for the opposing candidates in the hallways today and I was tempted to ask if they knew anything about what the candidates actually stand for, or if the kids were rooting for them based on less important things.

I always feel a little frustrated by voting. There is just no way I can vote that fully encompasses my values. I am "conservative" (Which, by the way, is a funny way for society to label my Christian values. Come on, Jesus was the biggest radical of all time :) But I also value equality, standing up for the oppressed, helping those in need, and all those good Democratic things. However, I can't stomach abortion (no pun intended), especially these days, and I can't go for gay marriage. Sorry, God called the holy union between a man and a woman marriage. They need to come up with another term for their relationships. And we can't really afford to hand out much more of our income to Uncle Sam. Not with the state of things.

So where does that leave me? I go with my gut I suppose. I'd probably vote Independent but what does that count for? Actually, unless you live in a swing state, your vote doesn't matter that much anyway right?

And then there are my relatives who send out political emails. You know who you are. I have never seen so much fear raised by a single politician. I think that most likely Obama will win tonight but I'm not going to be anxious about it, even though I don't particularly trust the guy. God has it all planned out. He is not surprised or dismayed by anything. God will do what he will do, and he doesn't need our help. In our homegroup, we read over an old sermon of our pastor's last weekend. It was about Sodom and Gomorrah (sp?) and how the real problem wasn't sexual deviance. Shocker. That was only a symptom of the condition of the hearts of those people. Keeping abortion and gay marriage illegal doesn't change the heart of the nation.

Well, enough of my ramblings. Either way, it was about time for some excitement in this country...and hopefully our next President will be an agent of change in making some positive outcomes.

16 Weeks and Happy Halloween!

Ya gotta love it! We had a little get-together at our house on Halloween night with some friends and had a great time. Here is the spread that Kelly helped me prepare:



Crazy weekend! After Halloween, we celebrated my mom, dad, and brother's birthday on Saturday evening at our house with some chicken chili and cake. Then today we are taking the snacks to our homegroup from church. I have never cooked so much in one weekend.

Here is my 16 week pic:



Jeremy was thrilled because he thought for sure people could see a little belly this week. :) Lots to report. Had my 3rd OB visit this week. It was kind of a bummer though. She just listened to the heartbeat, asked a few questions, and I was outta there. The last two visits I left the office glowing after seeing my baby. :) Strangely enough, I walked out of the office and found Keeli Williamson (not sure of her married name) sitting there, more prego than me. She lives close by and sees one of the other docs in the practice.

There are so many new experiences to be had when you are pregnant! I had the privilege of having my nonexistent belly patted down by a couple of virtual strangers (though they know Jeremy) a couple of weeks back. When my aunt did this recently, I laughed because really all that's sticking out at this point is the fat and intestines that are being pushed up by my expanding uterus. :) Also, since I think my blog viewship is basically female, I will add that I have more boobs than I know what to do with these days. I have gone in the last several weeks from a comfy B to a big mama D!! Is this really going to continue at this rate for the next 24 weeks?! If so, they won't even be able to find my belly when it comes time to deliver this child. And the "roadmap of pregnancy" finally appeared this week. Thought I might get out of that one. OK, OK, no more about the boobs, I promise. I just can't get over them...no pun intended...heehee. And then I purchased my first maternity clothes this week, a fabulous red wool coat and a pair of jeans, to have ready and waiting. I have had to retire some of my more snug-fitting things now. And who knew all the "normal" body functions that are disturbed by pregnancy? I had to visit the eye doc this week after seeing "sparks" flying around. This is apparently caused by changes in blood pressure or iron. And I did not know that your nose could be made so stuffy/runny by pregnancy. Although I'm not convinced that allergies aren't playing into that one. Lastly, the nausea report. My doc kept telling me that it could last as long as 16 weeks. Well, here I am. This week she told me it might take me an extra week longer. Gee. But I am feeling better at least!

Whew, that was a long one! My next appointment and sono is November 20, when we will hopefully confirm that we have a little Noah on the way. Have a great week everyone!

In the Beginning...

For those of you who are not MySpacers, I decided to repost my blog describing "how we found out." Looking back, it is of great amusement to me. :) Enjoy!

08/08/08 5:30am

It's the morning of the Birthday Bash Cruise. Literally, only cruise ships get me up at this hour of the day. We have an early flight out of DFW, bound for Orlando, FL. From there we will rent a car and drive to Port Canaveral to embark on Royal Caribbean's Sovereign of the Seas ship, to spend 3 nights cruising around the Bahamas. We are totally pumped about our stops in Nassau and Cococay, and we're excited about the day we plan to spend at Disney World when we get back.

But let me get back to Friday morning, 5:30am, my bathroom. (I'll try to leave out some of the TMI details.) I have decided that I should take a pregnancy test just to be safe, since things are unfortunately due to start rockin' and rollin' that day, and not just the ship. All I have are a couple of Equate pregnancy tests (read cheap, generic) that I grabbed for occasions such as these. I use one and am thinking, no big deal. Until I notice a faint semblance of a vertical line accompanying the usual single horizontal line. I yell at my peacefully snoozing husband, "Jeremy, get in here!"

He squints at the test for a several seconds and asks, "Are you pregnant?" I respond, "No, I think it's just a cheap, fluky test. I'll take another." I proceed to reenact Juno by consuming lots of orange juice while I finish getting dressed. Jeremy sits on the bed watching me, every couple of minutes repeating, "Are you pregnant?" Eventually he gets dressed and begins teasing me by patting my belly and talking about "the baby." I roll my eyes and laugh and go take the remaining test. It is negative. HA, I say. We leave for the airport, but that fluky test continues to come to mind. I decide that we will stop and purchase some sort of quality pregnancy test on the way to the ship, just to be absolutely sure, since of course there is much alcohol involved in cruising it seems.

(Here we are at the Orlando Airport. Still SO not pregnant!)


We stop at Wal-Mart somewhere in between Orlando and Port Canaveral, where I purchase the motherload of digital Clearblue Easy pregnancy tests. (No fluky vertical lines on these bad boys! They either say "pregnant" or "not pregnant" and simple is what I need at this point.) Of course, Jeremy, Brian, and Stacie are cracking jokes the whole way to the ship and I keep saying, "You guys, I am SO not pregnant!" We get checked in and have just a few minutes to go to our rooms and grab our life vests for that ridiculous "just in case the ship sinks drill." I excuse myself to the bathroom, and for the 3rd time of the day, pee on another stick. I wash my hands and then go back to look at it. I swear I stood there for a good 30 seconds, staring and trying to figure out where the word "NOT" was. In a zombieish state, I tell Jeremy the news, along with Brian & Stacie, who are in ear shot, and we all just stare at each other for a few seconds. Then there is much excitement as we are rushed out the door to the "muster station" for the drill, wearing big orange life vests. (I am still in zombie mode and can't really think of what to say, but all the others are chattering away.)

If you have ever participated in one of these ridiculous drills, you'll understand. They line you all up on the tiny deck like sardines wearing big orange sumo life vests. It was really hot and my traveling buddies seemed to be making incessant comments about my being pregnant. I started feeling a bit claustrophobic, crammed in with all these strangers, who are looking curiously at me and know far too much about my reproductive status. Then I can't breathe. Next, I am pretty sure I am going to throw up over the side of the boat, in front of everyone, and on top of whomever might be below. I tell Jeremy that he needs "to get me out of there." He quickly leads me through the mass, shouting to all the staff that his wife is pregnant and about to get sick, and leads me back inside to the air conditioning. I sit down and my stomach goes back to where it should be.

(Here is me thinking about barfing over the side of the boat.)


Over the next couple of days, I gradually lose the zombie-like state and start to get excited about the whole deal. I did end up taking another test a couple of days later after the first digital one ran out on me, just to re-confirm that the whole thing was real. Yes, that makes a total of 4 tests, if you're counting.

So my blog about this vacation is a little different than those of the past! Here's my review in short: We didn't like Nassau. It was pretty trashy. Cococay, which is Royal Caribbean's private island was pretty cool though. We did some great snorkeling there. And I don't recommend Disney World in August, especially when your insane friends insist on visiting 3 parks in one day, and especially if you are pregnant.

(Ahhh...here's a happy face. No more zombie. Just wait another week and a half until the nausea hits her!)

14 Weeks

Well, I now am in that stage where people will probably judge me as someone who has eaten one too many donuts, rather than a pregnant chick. (I only did that once, I promise!) There is a small tummy but it really just appears like too much lunch at this point.



I'm still feeling sick sometimes but maybe it's getting better now. I'm a little terrified that I will be one of those that is sick for 9 months. Not much else to report.

Our son's first name will be Noah (that's a whole nother blog) and the middle name is undecided right now and will not be announced until the day he is born. I am thinking about posting a poll on this blog and letting people vote for their fave! Of course, voting results may not impact the final decision :) Here is what I am pretty sure it cannot be: Caden, Aidan, Jayden, or Braden. Seriously, at my high school reunion, one-quarter of my graduating class had sons named one of those. And it's unfortunate because I LOVE Aidan but it seems to be the most popular name lately.

In the tradition of the Chamblee's, we are going for major nesting projects before the birth becomes imminent. I was afraid I had bitten off more than I could chew but its turning out nicely actually. We have a great contractor who has spent the past week constructing a new master shower for us. The old one was truly disgusting. I won't even tell you what he found when he tore it out. :) We also took on painting all the cabinets in the kitchen and master bathroom ourselves this weekend! BIG thanks to our sweet parents for each spending a day bailing us out. I'll post some pics after we get it all finished.

Oh and for those keeping up, sign up and leave me some comments! Apparently there are several people following and I have no idea about it. Have a great week!

12 Weeks: Bonus Edition

We went in for our "Sequential Screening" today and found out some big news! IT'S A BOY!! Apparently there is no external genitalia yet but there is some sort of marker that indicates what is to come. The technician said not to go shopping but that it's normally very accurate. The doctor said the same thing and sounded confident. But of course, I knew it already :) The purpose of the test (can't remember what the heck the medical term is? occlumency? no, that's harry potter.) is to check for Down's Syndrome, open neural tube defects, etc. The doctor said that everything measured normally. The really cool part was getting a 4-D ultrasound. The tech even made some short little video clips and burned them for us.


The 4-D pictures made him look a little alien-like so here is a regular picture.



Isn't he the cutest?? A little over 5 centimeters long now.

Peace out from the Barclay's.

12 Weeks

Sorry, my 12 week post is a little late. We went to my 10 Year Reunion in Paris over the weekend AND the Cowboys game on Sunday.



The Reunion was good...it was great to see old friends. Everyone seems to be doing well, which was good to see. And I felt really good all weekend pretty much. I was thrilled thinking that the morning sickness is finally over...but then I was sick all day today. Go figure. Everyone keeps commenting about my lack of belly, although I now have a nice roll around the middle that I am sure came from the 15 desserts I had this weekend. Best of all, I got my hair done. :)

I had another doctor's appointment last week that went very well. She couldn't find the heartbeat so I got to have an extra sonogram! The little guy was kicking and flipping around in there even though he's just over 2 inches long...and I would never know it otherwise. That is so awesome to see! We go in the morning to have some tests done that include another sonogram and then no more until 20 weeks. Then we'll find out the sex for sure!

10 Weeks

Here I am again. Nothing to show! And yes, I am still sick. I get this question a lot. The first trimester has not been any fun so far and I am counting down the days until it is over...and praying that the "morning sickness" goes with it!

Another bummer of the first trimester: no hair dye! This is pretty shallow I realize BUT my 10 year high school reunion is coming up. In fact, I am headed to my hair stylist on the day of the reunion, which happens to be exactly 12 weeks! And I cannot wait to have some new hair!

Here's a dilemma: when I go back to my next OB appointment on the 1st, they will want to know if we want to do an early blood test for birth defects that will make the next test in the next trimester more accurate. The doctor said it is covered by insurance but knowing mine, it won't cover all of it. And it's not like the results will change anything for us, you know? So what should we do?

In other news, my super athlete husband ran his first half-marathon at White Rock Lake yesterday. Go honey, go! He is going to run a full marathon there in December. Here is a pic of us in the Dallas Arboretum after the race:



And Mamaw and Papaw Barclay joined us!

Eight Weeks

Well, here's me at 8 weeks. Nothing too exciting yet. :) Yes, I look a little out of sorts...you know, morning sickness and all.




This is someone's brilliant attempt at making morning sickness cute. Still not cute, however I do find the candy helpful sometimes!

We had the first doctor's appointment and sonogram earlier this week and everything looks great! We were able to see and hear the heart beating. You know, I knew I was pregnant. Positive test and all the symptoms right? But there is something about actually seeing a heart beating inside of you that firms up reality.

We Have An Announcement to Make...

We are adding a third party to the Barclay household! (Well, fourth I guess, if you count Adaiah.) Following in the footsteps of my cousin Allison, I am going to post the progress of Baby Barclay on this blog! This is my 6 week post. Let the fun and nausea begin!!