Is it fall?!

Running this morning was fabulous....60 degree weather, great friend with good conversation, and a maternity belt that kept the newfound "pressure" to a minimum. Got home, made some decaf coffee, and sat down to watch GameDay to kick off college football. Ahh, it definitely feels like fall! Even though I'm sure we have a few more 100+ degree days ahead of us, I am sure enjoying this little treat!

I officially entered my 3rd trimester yesterday, sitting strong at 27 weeks. I had a MD appt this past week and talked to her about some little pains I'm having. She said it's all normal and just get ready for more aches and pains....so, I'm gearing up! I'm still loving the big pillow my Dad got me for my birthday, I am sleeping great!

As for the MD appt, it was the glucose screening. I was nervous about it, so Caleb took off work and found his own little bottle of orange "juice" so we could take the drinks in a mere 5 minutes together:

He's such a great partner in this pregnancy journey :). Sad news is that my levels were too high so I'm taking off of work and going back for the big 3 hour test this Wednesday where I get to drink even MORE of this stuff :(. I've done my share of worrying, but know that the Lord is in control and if I do have gestational diabetes it will be just fine. I'll adjust my diet and Carter and I will keep on truckin'. Until then, my doctor said to keep eating like normal....which means we will definitely be having our Mr Gattis during the Texas game tradition.

Many people are asking for belly pics and I'm not huge on posting pics of this growing tummy, but also want others to be able to see Carter's growth (definitely his, not mine...right?!) and know I'll enjoy looking back. So, I'm taking pics about every 2 weeks, last one we took was at 25 weeks:

I'll take another this week (27) as it's definitely grown since this pic :).

Caleb's Dad just arrived and he and Caleb are upstairs getting the nursery ready to paint! I did some taping yesterday, so here is the before pic:

I think by the end of this weekend we'll have his crib put together, bedding on, and nursery painted. Can't wait! I think this will really hit home that Mr. Carter is coming and will hopefully get me more in that "nesting" phase I've only heard about :). We're very thankful for Papa coming up to help get everything ready for the little guy!

We will definitely be taking a break (I say we--they're doing the work while I"m here blogging!) at 2:30 for the season opener against Rice. Even though Carter is still cooking and we hope he continues until right around the Big 12 Championship game (12/4 I believe!), he will be ready to sport the right colors when he comes:

I haven't bought this yet, but am seriously considering for his newborn pics:

Haha....and on that note, happy 3 day weekend and hook 'em!

baby has a name!

Carter David Wood

I hope he loves it as much as we do :).

Big Week

Cavalier sold. It's been very bittersweet and emotional for me to get rid of this car, as it's been a staple in my life since I was 15. However, there is a season for everything and although the season for the Cavy was long and brought so many memories, it has come to an end. I'm glad another 16 year old girl will get to take over, I hope she brings her many memories.

Hence, why we got rid of the Cavalier...we got a new car on Saturday! I sure hope that this car will be as good to us as as the Cavy baby and our little family makes lots of memories in this car (it's much safer than the Cavy!). It's a dark greay Volvo XC90. It has the 3rd row, so 7 seats....we have plenty of room to grow. It's going to take some getting used to with the size, but I'm loving driving it around and Caleb is loving driving the Accord!

Last but not least, baby boy is growing and growing. I think this pic shows my "popping" stage I talked about in the last post! He does have a name...we're slowly revealing, so wait just a little longer blogworld and I will reveal to you :). Until then, stay cool---this 106 degrees is getting OLD fast.

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

The big announcement!

Blogworld....get ready....

Baby Wood will be making HIS appearance around December 6th of this year and we're thrilled!

Get ready for lots 'o updates from here on out, but just a little backstory...

We found out we were expecting on March 24. Without going into too many details, let's just say that we were both very surprised, but happy surprised. Caleb had always told me from the very beginning of our marriage that if I thought I was pregnant, take a test....and only let him know if it was positive. So, that's what I did this time after I got home from work. We had already scheduled to meet for track workout and had some other friends meeting that night as well....so, me and my I-cannot-believe-I'm-pregnant self went and ran my 'lil heart out and kept my mouth shut.

Caleb came home to a gift sack of miniature Disney frisbees on his pillow. He opened them and thought I bought him disc golf disc markers....he was a little surprised by the random gift, but when he saw my face of utter shock that read "those are not for disc golf" (I was speechless honestly) he looked at me and said "are you pregnant?" and my response was...."I think so!". I took another test that actually read "pregnant" or "not pregnant" and when it was plain and clear "pregnant" we went to Braum's for peanut butter cup ice cream to celebrate/be in gleeful shock together. Caleb's first question to me was "where is the baby going to sleep?"---haha, we have plenty of time, babe.

So, that was the big reveal between the 2 of us. We wanted to wait to tell family/friends until after the 10 week appointment. At first it was difficult, as we were so excited we wanted to shout it out to everyone. I did have to tell the speech girls at work, as I could no longer do swallow studies. I also told a random stranger, just because it was fun :). Other than that, we kept our word. We were able to tell all 3 sets of parents within a 3 day period which was fabulous. I have the reactions of all on video, tried to post them, but it's just not working tonight. I'll work on that for a later post.

We were then able to share with our family and friends, and it has taken us over a month to get to the point where we feel comfortable announcing to cyber-world. I just took the plunge and wrote it on facebook after having to delete a few birthday posts today that alluded to pregnancy.

As far as pregnancy symptoms, I had my share of nausea and all-day sickness weeks 6-10, my Dr. even prescribed me Zofran which I took occasionally so I could make it through work. This 2nd trimester has been a breeze thus far. I've had a few bloody noses and unfortunately, headaches are becoming more of a daily occurence around 2-3 pm everyday. Other than that, feeling great. I'm still attempting to run, wearing my HR monitor, and lately it's been more of a jog/walk vs run, but it's still nice to get out around the lake and "run" socially.

We had a sonogram yesterday....and we're having a boy! I don't think Caleb has stopped smiling since we heard the news! We're both thrilled. I really had it in my mind it was a girl---it wasn't really a preference, just a hunch, that I'm a-okay with being wrong about. I've had a ball looking at boy nursery bedding and all things "boy"--THRILLED.

So, folks, that's our update. I will try to keep this blog a little more up to date as things progress and we become a family of 3! We head on a mini "babymoon" a week from tomorrow for a 'lil Cozumel, Mexico getaway, ahh...can't wait.

I'll leave the blog with a few pics of the 'lil guy. I'm also taking a few belly pics, but it was a big plunge to announce on the blog/fb...not sure I'm ready for the blogworld to see my growing tummy!

This is baby boy chillin', you can see the ribs really well (head is on right)

He is active just like his Daddy....here he is tumbling around upside down:

Ready for vacation :)

I just booked us a trip to Cozumel 7/1-7/4. It was a fabulous deal, but of course there's a catch....we will find out our hotel once we board the plane. It was through applevacations.com and we know we're going to get a "5 apple" deal which narrows it down to the top 5 hotels in Cozumel. A good beach, a good read, a pool, and lots 'o sunscreen will keep this girl happy for 4 days. I'm very excited. I didn't think Caleb would go for it since he is crazy busy at work right now, but I think he just needs a break....it will be perfect, and he was all game after I told him the price. He has been gone 5 of the last 6 weeks traveling. The first 3-4 weeks weren't too bad. We all know that I cherish my "alone" time, so it was kinda nice for a while to have more time to myself. Of course I missed him, but it wasn't terrible to be home by myself either. But geez, it's getting old and I'm SO GLAD that he comes home tomorrow and should be here to stay for awhile. I make it sound bad on me, I know it has to be worse on him--I love me some hotels, but I know hotel "living" gets old fast. He also hates checking bags, so just imagine Caleb attemtping to pack 5 days worth of suits/ties + work out clothes + casual night clothes all in a carry-on. Of course he does it, then comes home with a wrinkled mess that I try to help him de-wrinkle and put back together for Monday morning and another week of it. Oh well, we are blessed that in this economy he has a job and he's actually getting great experience taking depositions and no longer being "low man" sitting at a computer doing legal research for 10 hours/day. Less complaining now....I think of friends who have husbands that deploy overseas for years, changes perspective. I admire military families so much, I just can't imagine.


In other news...

The hospital has picked up and it's been nice. I am supervising a graduate student intern this summer, so far so good. It's crazy to read back on this blog to my student intern days and now I'm supervising, makes me feel old. It's good for me though, keeps me on my toes. I'm back with the cardiac babies whom I adore---the cardiac rotation is by far my favorite. We should be switching in the next month, and for my student's sake I'm going to request trauma/ICU so she can see some teenage cognitive language and swallowing stuff. Not my fave, but know it will be good for me to brush up on those skills as well.

We're both still running, Caleb a little more than me. He's actually signed up for marathon training and will likely be running a 2nd marathon in November or December, I will happily cheer him on from the crowd! This heat is already brutal, I've been sticking to 6 am lake runs or the treadmill, not pushing it too much.

Not sure if I'll update before Mexico.....if not, be ready for some fun photos up next :). Adios amigos!

Proud to be a Longhorn

A couple of weeks ago we may the trip down to Austin for my cousin Ali's graduation from UT. I was excited to be back in Austin and hang out with family and friends, but wasn't thinking the graduation would be much of a highlight....we all know, graduations are notoriously boring. However, UT does it right and makes the Saturday night university-wide graduation quite entertaining. So, sitting in the audience with thousands of other people, listening to graduating students, faculty, and alumni speak about what is going on around the University and the impact it's making world-wide made me proud to be a longhorn. And yes, I did get a little teary as I stood up that night to sing the Eyes of Texas to this in the background.....