Time flies by, maybe a little too fast.

As much as I want the time to fly by so that I can soon learn the sex of our little one and then meet him/her face to face. I was reminded this weekend that maybe I shouldn't wish for such things. This Saturday was Olivia Kate's first birthday.

I met her mom Jessica my first year in TX when we both worked for Deloitte. She had this beautiful baby last year and it was a definite reminder that time moves WAY too fast these days. I can remember very vividly where I was when Jess texted me she was at the hospital. I remember cooking food and dropping it by their house when they were home from the hospital. I can remember holding little Olivia for the first time. She was so tiny and petite like her momma. I also remember being Jessica's helper one day in August when I was between jobs. Olivia didn't even crawl then and slept in her baby carrier half the day. And now she is ONE ... walking, dancing, and getting everyone's attention. Olivia also became a cousin 3 weeks ago. So not only am I at this party thinking how big Olivia has become in just a short amount of time, I have her twin cousins to compare. The babies were so tiny and helpless, while Olivia was walking around and being the star of the show. So much changes in just 1 year!

Tyler and I are in week 17. The baby is the size of a female hand (or a sweet potato) and weighs 5 ounces. I turn my hand over each day thinking that there is a baby inside of me that is the same size. Crazy! And then I am reminded how fast time flies by again. Just a few weeks ago our baby was the size of small fruit and now the books are comparing it to human hands and veggies.

The Name Wars

As some of you may know, and some of you have already assumed, Courtney and I generally have very different opinions on quite a few things. And they always seem to be big, "important" issues; in this case, the name of our first born. Whether we have a boy or girl, we knew it would take a while to agree on something. The subject has risen before in general conversation over the years, and every time either one of us threw out a possible name, the common reaction was "What!? That's not gonna happen." And so the battle began.

Courtney's suggestions are sometimes good, but I'm too stubborn to cross over to the dark side of Ethan and Cooper (no offense to any Ethans and Coopers reading this). I'm more of a Jason Faison kind of guy. I like a name that has a nice ring to it. Richie Rich, Mickey Rooney, Alli Bama, etc. Those are all names that you can't forget, right? Apparently so, but not in the positive way that I thought. We're "supposed" to have something traditional that won't embarrass the child. So I backed off a little and went with some more tame names. For a girl, we actually both found one that we liked...a lot. Aeva. Or is it Ava? Well, we both thought differently for different reasons and I'll just leave it at that. We were both hung on our versions and decided, "If we're not gonna do it my way, then we're not gonna do it at all." So that was that. Who knows what name we'll end up seeing on the birth certificate? We definitely know what it won't be. Jane Doe. We're two very proud parents-to-be and will definitely find something that suits us...tradition and phonetics included.

Doctor visit #3

I had a doctors appointment today to hear the heartbeat, pee in a cup, and have my weight taken. All good news ... we heard the baby, I still have no problems peeing on command (thank you pregnancy), and my weight keeps escalating. Since I have no sonogram photos to share, Tyler and I thought we should share my first belly photo. The following photo was captured today (Feb. 24th).

Snow Day in Dallas

It is another snow day here in Dallas. Tyler and I are both home probably along with every other person in Dallas (excluding my auditor friends, of course). The temperature in Plano is currently 16 degrees. To put that into perspective ... it is only 30 degrees in Anchorage. When did I decide to live in a place that is colder than Alaska?!? But when I am sad about the cold, I just think of this picture that I took of Lucy watching the snow fall. She loves the cold and the snow is just the sweet icing on the cake.

Let the 2nd Trimester begin

Everyone says the 2nd Trimester is the best and I could already tell that it was going to be. The last few weeks I have been feeling normal (as normal as I can to have a rumbling tummy, hunger almost 24 hours a day, and tossing/turning in the night to get comfortable.) So today officially marks the first day of week 13 (The Second Trimester)! I guess I have been really looking forward to saying "sayonara" to nausea and my crappy energy levels, because my body played a cruel joke on me last night. Yes ... I spent my last night of the 1st Trimester hovered over a toilet. I've officially learned that everyday is a new day with pregnancy (I guess it is preparing me for having kids where nothing is planned or expected). Feeling great today ... bring on the weekend!

Courtney

Visit to the doc #2

Last week we had our second appointment with the OBGYN. Nothing exciting but blood tests, checking weight and blood pressure, discussing tummy issues, and more importantly hearing the baby's heart beat on the Doppler. I was super excited to hear that heart beat again. When the nurse put the Doppler on my belly all she could hear was my tummy gurgling. She reassured me that after 20 years of listening she did hear the baby move but wanted me to hear the heartbeat for myself. She ordered a sonogram. So after all my complaining about my tummy issues, I finally got something positive out of it ... an unexpected additional view of our baby.

The above photo is the best out of the 4 since our little rockstar spent the entire session moving about and waving its little arms. All the photos were a blur. But I will take a blurry photo any day just to look up onto that screen and see our baby dancing around in my tummy. He/She measured in at just under 2 inches. It is crazy to see the transformation that has taken place in just one month between our December 29th photo and January 27th. Our baby has developed so much and the cluster of white spots is their facial bones and if you look close enough you can see the left arm bent (elbow facing northeast) towards the face with his/her hand in a fist near its cheek.

Courtney

2 stripes on stick = Baby

In December 2010, we found out that we will be expecting a little one in early August 2011. We did what every non-planning adult does when they count the number of stripes on a pee stick, freak out a bit. Okay, so it was Courtney that panicked while Tyler seemed thrilled! After a quick trip to Barnes & Noble to stock up on literature and to Target for vitamins, the panic subsided. We are going to be parents! The realization really set in when we went to the doctors office together on December 29th to see our little raspberry (1/2 inch). It didn't look like much but it had a strong heartbeat and it was official. The next month would definitely be a journey. Courtney learned that morning sickness was at all hours of the day not just in the morning. Tyler learned that when Courtney woke up and wanted/needed grits that he better get out of the bed pronto. The baby was already affecting our sleep patterns. Courtney was going to bed at 9pm most nights. The pregnant lady had only 2 things that she had to stay clear from for a 2 week span and that was the seafood market at the grocery store and peppermint. Needless to say, Tyler went out and bought Princess bubblegum toothpaste.

We are now in our 12th week and Courtney has slowly started to gain her energy back. She now makes it to 10:30pm before hitting the sack. Our hopes are to update the blog at least twice a month to keep everyone updated with our journey.

Love,
The new parents-to-be