Baby's first pics

So we had an ultrasound last week and can now share with you our baby's first pics.

Here is the baby's profile picture.  Isn't it cute?  It actually looks human!

Here is a profile shot that is a bit further away.

The baby's mouth is open in this picture.  If you can't tell the face is in the middle of the picture and the dark circle is its open mouth.  It kept opening it's mouth like it was yawning and telling us to stop bothering it.  Holly said that baby was singing like daddy.  I think it was probably talking like mommy.

There are more pics that show vital organs, the spine and such but these are the best.  We know that some of you are dying to know the sex of the baby and we will tell you, in a couple of weeks.  We want to notify the grandparents and close family first.  Holly's parents will be with us next weekend and we will tell them then in person along with my parents on the glorious invention of ichat.  So hold on to your horses.  Below is a fun exercise in seeing if you can predict what we are having.  Enjoy!

[polldaddy poll=1054362]

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 :)

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[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.

Truly remarkable

So I (Jared) am leaving for a staff retreat today that will keep me away until Thursday evening.  Luckily Holly didn't have to be at the hospital today until 11 so we decided to sleep in and hang out this morning.  When we finally awoke we went into the living room to watch one of our favorite shows that was on our Tivo, My Name is Earl.  I can't begin to tell you how much Holly and I laugh at this show, mostly because it reminds us of home and people we know or know of.  But today as we were watching Holly told me that the baby was going crazy.  I should tell you that for the past few weeks Holly and I will be talking and then she'll just get really quiet.  She claims it's because the baby is distracting her as it does yoga poses, pilates and works on its crossover dribble move for the basketball court.  I believe her because the only other explaination is that I'm boring to talk to and we all know that's not true.  Anyways, we were watching the show this morning and Holly put my hand on her belly and I felt the baby kick!  I will have to say that it was really cool.  I know that it will get more pronounced as the baby grows, but today I felt the baby kick and didn't have to take Holly's word for it.  Just thought you might want to know.  We'll try to post some 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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Hello world!

Welcome friends and family to our blog.  We hope to keep you updated on our journey into parenthood, residency and beyond.  Feel free to leave comments.  Thanks for the part that you play in each of our lives.  We love you!