This week....

1) I'm 21 weeks pregnant and feeling great, praise the Lord! The heat isn't really getting to me, I'm able to keep running, and sleeping great in my "cocoon" as Caleb calls my maternity pillow my Dad bought me for my bday. Sidenote: my sweet Dad said that he knows how much I've always loved sleep and loved napping and he remembers how my Mom had a hard time sleeping while pregnant, so he surprised me on my bday with a big 'ol maternity pillow which is the most fabulous thing I've experienced in a LONG time!
2) Caleb felt baby boy move for the first time. Typically I'll feel him moving and Caleb will feel my belly for a good 10 seconds, then give up. Thankfully, the other night baby boy was just moving like crazy and Caleb was able to catch him in action!
3) I've "popped". Last night we went for a walk and I was wearing a dri-fit shirt...Caleb said "woa, you really look pregnant". Today 2 girls at work that I see regularly mentioned that I've gotten much bigger this week. I'm taking it all as a compliment and saying we have a healthy, growing boy on our hands.
4) Nana bought our baby bedding--the first big purchase for the nursery! Now if we could only decide on a crib!
5) Caleb and I celebrate our 6 year anniversary. I sure am a lucky girl. When I reflect back on the past 6 years--from Waco and law school livin' to graduate school and Uptown livin' to DINKs and a house with now a baby on the way--I summarize it all as "fun". We just have fun together given whatever situation and whatever the Lord brings our way. Everyone tells me that we will have so much fun with a baby, and I don't doubt them....but to maintain the honesty in the blog, I will say that part of me is sad to lose this part of "us" in a few months. No worries though, we are convinced there will still be TX/OU weekend :)

PIcs!

I just uploaded pics, so decided on a 'lil summer picture post.

My bday was fabulous, as always. Took off work, went for an early morning run with Shannon, pool time with the girls, lunch at La Madeline, prenatal massage, hibachi dinner with Caleb, followed by the traditional ice cream cake on the special day plate. Ahh...bliss. I sure enjoyed it, as I have a feeling next year may be a *little* different with a 6 month old!

Then on July 1st we went for a 4 day getaway to Cozumel, thanks to a fabulous deal on applevacations.com. We had a great hotel and the days went from bed to pool to beach to nap to pool, etc....you get it. Very relaxing. Here's our room:

Room service for breakfast each morning (one carafe of decaf for me, regular coffee for Caleb)

Nights were filled with yummy dinners! They served water in wine glasses, I promise I'm not indulging while pregnant :).

I absolutely love towel animals :)

I said to myself "when we get back from Mexico, I'm really going to get on the ball with the baby stuff". I got a little overwhelmed at first, but think we're definitely moving forward. We started our baby registry at Babies 'R Us....this is how/where I found Caleb about 45 minutes into it.....he was done :)

I've been taking belly pics every 2 weeks, here's the 18 week pic:

Now to this past weekend....we went to a murder mystery bed and breakfast Saturday night with 4 other couples from our community group. We had a blast. Now, if Caleb and I would have gone just the 2 of us....probably would have been very awkward, as it was unscripted. However, going with 3 other couples made it SO much fun, I don't think I've laughed so hard in a long time! We thought they were joking when they told us we were going to visit Johnnie's (the guy from our HS class that committed suicide...but really didn't...) grave, but no sir-ee. Here's proof of Shannon mourning near Johnnie's grave in a REAL cemetery:

And here's the whole group (4 couples from community group, 3 random couples, and the owners)

It was 50s theme....Caleb was voted most likely to succeed and wore his UT shirt. He had a cool hat, but not sure why it didn't make it in the pics. I didn't get to wear these awesome glasses the whole time (Elizabeth wore as the "nerd"), but needed them to complete the "spoiled rich girl" character pic:

And here's a little proof to show why I laughed so much:

Baby Names

The question I get on a >daily occurrence is "do yall have a name?". We're working on it. We went through the entire baby name book and we started out with a top 10 list before we went to Mexico. We then narrowed down to 5, and even though we're still on those 5, I think there are 2 names that are a step above the other 3. We're now overly analyzing names, because this is a BIG decision to make. I mean, this is the name the teacher will call out at the beginning of every single year and we don't want our kid to be one of THOSE kids that has to correct the teacher on the enunciation of his name. It will be on his college applications, wedding invitation, resumes, and if Caleb gets his wish will be broadcasted all over ESPN one of these days :). Me being a speech pathologist throws another loop into the mix as 1) I think about how it will be misarticulated by him and/or his peers that have those cute little artic issues (ie: our kid will likely NOT have a name that starts with an "r" because he will replace it with a "w" and with the last name Wood......"woger wood", etc....you get my point 2) I have a huge history of students and patients that I will forever associate their personality with a name 3) I don't really have a 3rd point for the SLP/name thing, but need to have a 3 to keep it a list!

So, while we continue to brainstorm and come up with the *perfect* name for our firstborn son, he will still be called by his current nicknames: Woody, Twig, Willy, Tyke, Cinco, BabyWoo

We are not keeping the name a secret, but we are keeping our brainstorming between the 2 of us. Don't worry blogger friends, when we have a name, we will share with you :).

18 weeks

We had a Dr. appt today with the official anatomy scan. Working in the hospital, I have a very skewed idea of "normal" so it was great to hear the sono tech say "see this nasal bridge--babies with Down's Syndrome don't have that" and "here are the 4 chambers of the heart" and "if there was a cleft here, there would be a big open black space right here" while pointing to the palate. My day consists mostly of seeing children with congenital abnormalities, so although the odds of having a single ventricle heart are probably one in thousands, it's 3 in 8 patients for me today. So, seeing our little baby boy and his healthy, growing self leaves me in utter bliss tonight....

Don't get me wrong, as excited as I am that everything is healthy thus far, this verse in Psalms will continue to be my strength and rock.....I am carrying this baby, but the Lord is his CREATOR and is daily knitting him perfectly according to HIS will in my womb, not mine. And when I hold those itty bitty babies with single ventricles, I firmly believe that the Lord has a perfect plan for them, they are perfect according to His plan. I praise Him because His ways are so much higher than ours.

"For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother's womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I kow that full well. My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place. When I was woven together in the depths of the earth, your eyes saw my unformed body. All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be" -Psalms 139: 13-16