Hit the ground running

It is very fitting that Holly's sport of choice in high school was cross country because her life has paralleled that sport in many way.  Let me explain.  One reason why Holly like cross country is that course is more than just going in a circle around a track and that each course she ran on was different.  A cross country runner has to be ready to deal with inclines, declines, smooth ground, rocky ground, sink holes, trees and many people trying to fit on a path whose waist line grows or shrinks at the drop of the hat.  Needless to say, it's unpredictable and challenging to participate in and master.  As we close out Holly's first month as a resident I feel that Holly has finished her first cross country course (med school) and is now beginning her second course (residency).  Of course she started off with one of the most difficult rotations, in patient pediatrics, and it has been a trying a long month for the both of us.  Holly has been working 12-16 hour days and has had a few days of call (30 hours straight).  She usually leaves the house around 5:30 AM and gets home around 7 PM.  As you can imagine she is pretty exhausted when she gets home and treasures the few hours that she has with Karis and I.  Luckily we can see the light at the end of the tunnel with this rotation.  She actually has a day off this week (not too many of those so far) and we will be leaving spend the weekend with her family since she will be free on Saturday and Sunday.  Let's hope that our time with family, especially the few hours on the lake that we will have, will be refreshing and relaxing for the both of us.

As for Karis, she is developing well.  She loves to get on all fours and look around.  It won't be long until she starts to crawl.  She is talking more than ever and uses the full scope of her range while doing so.  She has also begun to notice her hands and will stare at them while open and closing her fingers.  Lastly, we are starting the process of introducing solid foods.  The first week that I started rice cereal with her, she would look at me like I was playing a prank on her.  Her facial expression was priceless.  She also would choke on the cereal and get really mad at the whole situation.  So we gave her a week off and I am proud to announce that she ate about 8 spoonfuls of cereal for me tonight.  She is growing up like crazy.  I'll try to post some pics from the lake next week.

The Family That Eats Together Stays Together

One of the priorities in our relationship during med school has been eating dinner together.  This has become somewhat easier as Holly progressed into the rotation phase in her 3rd and 4th years of med school.  But at her last rotation she had a few late nights at the clinic that caused our already late dinner hour to be pushed back a few more hours.  So I was home patiently waiting for Holly to let me know when she was going to be able to leave and as 6, 6:30, 7 and 7:30 came and went I began to wonder if we were going to eat together tonight.  Finally Holly called me around 8 and I started the grill on a cold and very dark night so that we could eat together.  Here is a picture of me outside in the 40 degree weather grilling with a small flashlight.

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Holly I hope your veggie burgers were cooked how you like them!

Baby shower!!!!

Last weekend Holly and I were given a baby shower at her parent's house.  In attendance were many family and friends from the area.  We had a great time and received some cool gifts as well.  Thanks to all of you who were able to come out.  Below are some pictures of the event.  Notice there are men at the shower...Holly likes for there to be men there to even out all the estrogen :)  Thanks Brenda, Marina, Lori, Ash and Lynz for planning such a fun afternoon!  [gallery]

24 week pics

Here are a few pictures of Holly at 24 weeks.  She has been doing great and the baby has been very active at various times in the day, especially at night which I love!!!  We still have not picked out a name yet, so keep on holding your horses.  We're really close to figuring it out though.  Thank you for your continued prayers and words of encouragement.

[caption id="attachment_71" align="alignnone" width="225" caption="From the side"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_72" align="alignnone" width="225" caption="Front view"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_73" align="alignnone" width="225" caption="Other side view"][/caption]

Half Way Point...Whoa!

It's been a whirlwind so far, but Jared and I are at the halfway point (20 weeks) in this pregnancy.

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I did not expect it to go by this quickly, but I imagine it will "slow down" during the third trimester when I am waddling more than I am now.  I had a patient ask me yesterday if I was pregnant.  This is the first time someone has asked me outright.  I should have said "no" just to see what she would do when she realized she had just called me fat.  Instead I said, "Yes, but you should never ask someone that, just in case they're not pregnant."  She said that she had done that before when the woman was not pregnant and almost made the woman cry...some people never learn.

[caption id="attachment_47" align="alignright" width="225" caption="20 wks side"][/caption]

At this point, I am definitely feeling the baby moving around/kicking/hiccuping several times a day...and night.  I told Jared I thought the baby wasn't supposed to wake me up at night until after it was born.  I can sleep through a great many things, but it is difficult to sleep when I am laying still and it feels like there is a hamster running on a wheel inside of me!  I am definitely not annoyed by the new sensations, though.  I admit, when I am laying there awake, I want to nudge him awake and say, "If your baby and I are not sleeping right now, then neither are you!"  I let him sleep though.  After the baby is born, I will just tell him he owes me a few months of getting up with the baby at night :)

[caption id="attachment_48" align="alignleft" width="225" caption="20 wks other side"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_49" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="Jared and Holly"][/caption]

Pressing Question

So last night Holly and I were watching an episode of Extreme Makeover: Home Edition that we had on Tivo.  To be fully truthful we were trying not to watch the Phillies stink up the joint out in LA.  Anyways, we're sitting there getting wrapped up in this story of a mother of 4 who took in her sister's 10 kids after her sister died from cancer.  (A pretty crazy thing in and of itself.)  As we watched our emotions are really building up in compassion for this family and all that they have been through the past year or so and out of no where Holly's leg kick up like she's having a spasm.  It really caught us both by surprise since we in the midst of this heavy moment but Holly claims that the baby had the hiccups.  Over the course of the next few minutes Holly experienced this sensation over and over again every few seconds.

Now if you know Holly this is truly par for the course.  Holly does not do too well with heavy emotional situations and usually reacts to those situations in the way that is culturally unacceptable.  Here are a few examples:  Holly and her mom tell a story of when they were at a funeral and something out of the oridnary happens and Holly starts silently laughing uncontrollably but visibly shaking.  Holly's mom is trying to get her to settle down and in turn grabs her leg above the knee, squeezes it and pushes Holly's head below the pew so as to not draw any more attention.  Which of course causes Holly to laugh even harder.

Here's another one.  After we had just gotten married we were praying together one night and I wanted for us to recite the Lord's Prayer together.  We get about two lines into it and Holly starts laughing.  How is it that I am the one able to feel emotions in these times since I'm the one who is more stoic by nature?

Here's my concluding question.  Was Holly really feeling that baby or just diverting attention away from the present situation?  Those of you who know her well chime in and let me know what you think.

By the way, we'll be 20 weeks this Thursday so look for updated pics this weekend.

4 Years Later...

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A couple of days ago, Oct. 2, marked our 4th wedding anniversary.  We celebrated a little early in mid-September when Jared came to see me in Knoxville, TN where I was on rotation at UT Medical Center for a month.  We went to our first Tennessee football game together, even though we had watched countless games together as a couple.  We went to the TN vs. UAB game, and can I just say we are glad we didn't schedule to go to the Florida game for monetary and other more obvious reasons...  We still support our orange team, but considering the way things are going, we are starting to pay even more attention to our undefeated Titans team and undefeated Vandy...for sanity purposes.  (Jared wants me to be clear that he is not necessarily paying more attention to Vandy.)

Now

Prego Premiere

Ok, so many of you are really far away from us and have not witnessed Holly's transformation into a pregnancy.  As of today, we are 18 weeks along and things are progressing smoothly.  Our due date is March 2 (or March 6, depending on who you ask).  The first trimester was actually fairly uneventful, with the exception of about 2 really rough weeks.  During those 2 weeks, she was nauseous, not eating hardly anything (except peaches, some eggs and popsicles), and was simultaneously doing last minute cramming for her last set of medical school boards, experiencing migraines for which she could not take her migraine meds, and I was hundreds of miles away in Pascagoula, Mississippi doing annual Katrina relief.

We are now a few weeks into the second trimester, and Holly is starting to feel the baby move.  She was away in Knoxville, TN for the month of September, and the first time she felt the baby move was when I came to see her for a couple of days.  She claims that the baby heard its Daddy's voice for the first time in a few weeks and got excited.  She also thinks the baby may be residing in her bladder instead of her uterus, since she has been visiting the bathroom very frequently since a few weeks into the pregnancy.  Several of you have inquired about past food cravings, so here they are:

First Trimester:  peaches (this was the strongest, longest craving), eggs (only lasted a week or so, but was strong), anything icy, and the really cheap pizza at the grocery store, you know the 10 for $10 type, not the kind with fresh ingredients or even DiGiorno's!

Second Trimester (so far):  Indian food (which she had only had maybe 2 or 3 times in her life before), rice crispy treats, peppermint flavored things that are cold/icy, but not actual peppermint now :)

More interesting than the food cravings has been the fact that since the first trimester, Holly has not wanted to eat, smell, or see anything chicken, especially "processed chicken."  The smell of chicken (not that it's strong) turns her stomach.  If you know Holly, you know that this has always been the main staple of her diet, so trying to come up with meals we can both eat together has been challenging, considering her new list of restrictions!  Also interesting is the fact that since the first trimester, she has put Chili's the restaurant on the "No List."  She still refuses to step foot in that restaurant, which she used to like.

We will find out the sex of the baby in a few weeks at our 20 week ultrasound, and are very excited.  So without further ado, here is Holly at 16 weeks, with more pics to soon follow:

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