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