Cute decorations....or subliminal brain washing?

I know I've been promising nursery pics, and I promise I will post them, but I just had to put this up tonight. Our friends, Joel and Cari, made a stop by our house tonight to deliver a special gift. Can I tell you how excited Randy was when he opened this? And it even plays "Glory, Glory to ol' Georgia"! (I have a feeling it may be temporarily relocated to the den this weekend while we're watching the LSU game for some musical inspiration.) We learned in one of our classes that babies can only see three colors for the first few months of their life....Red, White, and Black!

One last thing....I think we figured out the Comments section of the blog. For awhile only people with a Google account could post but I think that problem is resolved. So feel free to write comments or say hi!

Six Weeks and Counting....

We've officially made it to week 34! Little Everette is about 18 inches long and weighs almost five pounds now. How can I have gained 30 and the baby only weighs 5?!?!? Oh right, those things the books call "maternal fat stores". Joy oh joy! Seriously, if that's what it takes for a healthy baby, it's a small price to pay. Randy has not really gained any sympathy weight, which is amazing considering how much junk we eat now, but I told him we are going on a diet together in January. Yes, together. We made this baby together and we will lose the weight together. Right, honey? :)

Here I am in all my glory!

Happy Friday. Have a great weekend!

Silly Goose

For as long as I can remember, I have been called "Silly Goose" by my grandparents. It was written on most cards I received. I got my own wrapping paper for Christmas and birthdays that had geese on it. I have a ceramic goose on my bookshelf that was a gift from them a few years ago. I had my own little theme. So when Kathryn and I were ooh-ing and aah-ing this summer over clothes at Baby Gap, how could I resist this one? (I actually did resist it once and left the store but had to go back and get it, knowing I would regret it if I didn't.)

Thanks, Grandmommy & Granddaddy, for giving me my own special identity. Can't wait for you to meet Silly Goose # 2!

Road Trip

Earlier this year, Randy and I decided we were going to fly back to Athens to see a UGA football game in Sanford Stadium. Those plans were all fine and good until I got pregnant. So what was the alternate plan? Let's drive to Stillwater, OK to see our Bulldawgs play in person. Better than nothing, right? Sure! I'm a good sport and who can't handle a 10 hour drive when they're 32 weeks pregnant? Well well well...we left at 2pm on Friday and got home Sunday at 11pm. In case you don't want to do the math, we logged 1400 miles in a 57 hour time span. Yep, we are dedicated fans. We made it to Ponca City, OK the first night (no, we had never heard of it either but there is a Fairfield Inn there with a great staff in case you're ever in the area), drove an hour into Stillwater on Saturday morning, walked around campus and watched the game, drove another 1 1/2 hours to Tulsa Saturday night, met some friends for breakfast on Sunday morning, and then got back in the car to head west again.

And though we didn't win on Saturday, we really had a great trip. Randy loves to drive and we always have the best conversations and most fun when we're stuck in the car together for hours at a time. Randy likes to play this game where you have to name the first line of the song on the radio before the lyrics start. We didn't keep score but if we had, it would have been roughly 20-1...in his favor. He's just so good at music and lyrics (whereas I'm lucky if I get the words of the chorus correct) which is fun until he started singing some Neil Diamond song called Cracklin' Rose or something like that. (Thanks to Marvin for that influence. Side note: Randy does know other music too in case I've caused you to doubt his coolness.)

Also, I must give props to Oklahoma State fans. They are by far the nicest fans we've experienced. I had women let me cut in front of them in the bathroom line and I was given a free comfy seat for the game. Admittedly, the 8-month-pregnant sympathy factor did help!
We had fans wish us luck in the rest of the season and tell us how much they respect Mark Richt. The people we were sitting around said "Good game" and "Have a safe trip home" as we left the stadium. The most haggling we got was due to the extremely warm weather....like "Hey did you bring this humidity with you from Georgia?!?! Hahahaha" (To which we responded, "No, we definitely left that behind when we moved to Colorado.") They were all beyond kind to us Georgia fans sitting amidst their sea of orange. And yes, we were wearing red and black and cheering at the top of our lungs for our boys. (The only thing that wasn't cool were some of the Tshirts we saw that said "Beat 'em like Vick" but I highly doubt they were OSU-sponsored....more like the ingenuity of some fraternity guys.) Even Mike Gundy and the commentators of the post-game radio show spent most of the time complimenting our team and our coach. Classy folks in Stillwater. (Apparently the fans in Norman aren't quite the same...so we hear.)

Baby Everette's first UGA game

The post-game prayer led by Mark Richt (yet another reason I love him).



(And though these people are wearing trash-talking shirts, they are the ones that gave me a free, cushioned, back-supporting chair for the duration of the game so God bless them!)

So would I do it all over again? Even with the ankles the size of softballs from sitting in the car for so long? (Sorry, Kathryn, I started my ankle pumps too late. I could have used your skills Sunday night when we got home!)

In a heartbeat. It was my first non-television watching UGA game since 2003 and definitely worth every moment!

Baby Class...

Tonight starts our week one of four Labor and Delivery classes at the hospital. I think we start off with a bang and watch The Miracle of Life video tonight...in its entirety...widescreen...with a group of strangers...all first-time expecting parents. I've tried to warn Randy but I anticipate his reaction being something like below:

Pray for us. (For Randy not to lose his dinner and me not to...call him weak-stomached and unsupportive! It is my body, you know, etc etc etc) This could be interesting. :)

Reactions

One of the only problems I've had during pregnancy has been back pain. Though it's not consistent throughout the day, it makes sleeping soundly through the night quite difficult. After lying in bed long after the timer on my sound machine went off, I decided I would at least be productive. Hence, here I am at 3:25am updating our blog and watching Sleepless in Seattle. Ironic, I know. (Randy bought it for me for nights such as this.)

So after taking two pregnancy tests at home, I called my doctor and set up an appointment to see what I needed to do next. But just so I wouldn't look like a fool when we went in there, I took one more test at home...it was still positive. Then came the official test at Dr. Baiza's office and you guessed it! I was four for four. Dr. Baiza obliged us with this video for my mom. (I felt like a moron for asking but he did say he's done crazier things for patients.)

Maybe it's just me but telling my mom that I was pregnant was one of the more nerve-wracking things I've done in my life. I don't know, it's once thing for just Randy and I to be in on our little secret. It's another thing entirely to start telling our family because there's a whole other set of expectations...and it means it's really going to happen.

So I told my mom that I had this hysterical YouTube video that she needed to watch and sent her Dr. Baiza's message. I waited, stomach churning, for her to download it. She started asking questions like, "Who is this guy? What's going on?" and I just shushed her. When she finally understood what was happening.....well, I don't know that I've ever heard that noise come out of her. It was a mix between screaming at the top of her lungs, with shrieks of "Becky, you're pregnant?!?", with some crying in between while jumping up and down...for at least 5 minutes. Honestly, I'm kind of surprised that the neighbors didn't come over to check on her. Really, she was that loud. That is one thing I do wish I had captured on video as my witness. Keep in mind, this is her first grandchild.

My father on the other hand.....He was driving home from work when I managed to get in touch with him. Looking back, that may not have been the best decision. I asked him if he had any plans this fall and if he thought he could come visit his newest grandchild. His reaction went pretty much like this:

"What?" "Dad, I'm pregnant" "What? YOU'RE pregnant?" "Um, yep." "You? Are pregnant?" "Yep." "Wow......Wow..... Really? You? Are pregnant? Like on purpose?" "Um, yeah" "Wow....congratulations kid....Wow.....wow...." "Dad, are you okay? Should you be driving?" "Wow...."

And for the same amount of time that my mom screamed her head off, my dad just sat there saying "wow." If you know my dad, you understand that he can hold his own in any conversation with any one. This speechless-ness was a definitely a first.

Telling all of our family was no small task. We did remark, after it was all over with, that we felt like we had just spoken to a small village. It was a bit exhausting. Among the other reactions we received:

"It's about time!", quiet tears, loud tears with joyful laughing, more shrieking, lots of enthusiastic "Congratulations!".... and my one friend screamed so loud she startled her toddler out of his chair.

Being that this is Randy's parents' seventh grandchild, they were a little more accustomed to receiving news of this sort but equally excited for us. Speaking of, grandchild #6 is due any day now. Randy's younger sister, Meg, and her husband, Chip, are expecting their second son sometime this week. It will be fun to watch our kids grow up together so close in age.

Everyone was so excited for us though which was really a blessing and made this season of our lives very special. Thanks for sharing our joy!

My eyelids are finally starting to get droopy....wish me luck.

In The Beginning

I know I promised nursery pictures this time but I figured I had to start at the beginning. So, in the beginning....It was December of 2008 when Randy finally gave me the go-ahead to stop taking my birth control pills. (He originally wanted to wait 7 years after we were married but that would have put us at 35 and 31 and I felt that was a little late for us.) To be honest, we weren't too eager about giving up our lives with each other but I was nervous about the thought of not being able to get pregnant, my 30th birthday looming, the possibility of going through the infertility process, yada yada yada. Well, I should have known better. Randy is one of four, I'm one of six, my family's got twins and triplets in the mix....no fertility problems in our DNA!

And so here we were six weeks later and I was pregnant all by mid-February. I warned Randy that I was late and to prepare himself for the possibility that I might be pregnant...he was calm and collected as usual. Meanwhile, I was terrified. I bought a few tests and took one first thing Monday morning. I don't think I slept a bit that night. Randy went to work, I got up took the test, and it was positive. I was in shock. I managed to make it through work all day with my little secret and didn't breathe a word to anyone. I wanted Randy to be the first to know and I knew calling him at work would not be the most appropriate time. So I went to Babies R Us that night and found this cute little Rockstar-looking-onesie that says "Born in 2009" and wrapped it up for him. When he opened it, he just looked at me and our conversation went like this:

"Is this for us?" (Two of our close friends were pregnant at the time.)

Me looking busy folding laundry awaiting his reaction, "Yep."

"Really?"

"Yep."

"Why do you look so scared, honey?"

"Because I"m going to get big and fat and have to push a baby out of me...and I'll never get to sleep again."

"Oh sweetie, that's not true. We can sleep when we're grandparents."

So there we were standing in our kitchen together ....very scared but very excited.

The next morning I took another test with Randy as my witness...just to be sure. (Girls, if you've never taken a pregnancy test before, you need to know this: Most instructions say when you see a second line, the test is positive. Well what they don't say is how big of a line? Should it be really dark like in the picture? What if it's ever so faint? Am I imagining something that's not there? The box needs a disclaimer that says: If you're taking this for the first time, don't overanalyze the quality of the little pink line. If you see anything at all, and we mean anything, you're pregnant.)

I tried to take a picture of our there's-a-little-baby-coming omen but made a video by accident. Here's our reaction to test #2.