21 weeks

Perhaps I can breathe a bit easier now. After work, Shane met me at a local baby shop and we ordered the crib and dresser for the nursery. I am very thrilled with it!!! The one thing I don't understand is she told me it takes 8 to 12 weeks to come in. UGH!!! But she said the company has it in stock, so usually it is coming in about 8 weeks. OK, if a company has it in stock, what the heck takes it 8 weeks to get here??? I had contacted a company on-line that had the exact furniture and it could be shipped here in a weeks time, but you had to pay the shipping, which is about $175. So, since I am tight with my money, I opted to wait out the 8 weeks. I may regret that before too long though since I am a planner!!! Oh well, I know it will all come together - at least it HAS been ordered.

Of course this bedding is not what we will be using, but at least you can see the bed and dresser we picked out.

20 Weeks 5 days

Isn't life all about the little things??? Shane and I always go out to eat after church, and usually it ends up that we alternate who picks where we go since we are both so indecisive. Well today was my turn, but much to my surprise when we got in the vehicle, Shane never asked me where I wanted to go and just started driving. So I just rode along and waited to see where we ended up. Well I am more than happy to say that it was the one, the only, IHOP!!!! Woo Hoo!!!! I was beside myself and as giddy as a school girl when I ordered my food!!! Of course I got the bacon omelet and chocolate chip pancakes, and Lisa and Lorrie, you will be happy to know that I had about half of the omelet to bring home in a doggy bag!!! Now let me tell you why this luxury was given to me!! On Mondays and Wednesdays Shane eats at school between classes and the place he eats offers breakfast up until one o'clock along with lunch type foods. He usually eats bacon, eggs, a biscuit and then lunch foods. Well this past Wednesday, they had a waffle bar that you could make either a chocolate, regular or blueberry waffle and of course all the fixins. So when I received a text message from my husband saying " You do not want to know what I ate for lunch," and then found out what it was, I informed him he was going to IHOP!!! Well, anyway I can get to go to IHOP I will take!!! Thanks Honey!!!

By this time next week I WILL have my baby furniture bought. I say it like that to help my peace of mind, it HAS to be done this week so I feel like I have something accomplished! As far as the bedding issue goes, no change. On HGTV's website they have a nursery section where people send in photos of nurseries, and there are probably over 5000. I have made it through 1500 and still, no great ideas. Now let me just say, the majority of pictures are of girls rooms so I have got to skip over quiet a few. So if any of you have any fabulous ideas, please, please let me know. I am just about at my wits end with the room!!

And lastly, stay tuned this week for Baby Boy Hood's name revealing. I believe that even thought we can't agree on a nursery, we can agree on a name.

20 Weeks

It is so hard for me to believe that as of today I am half way through my pregnancy. In all honesty, it is making me a bit stressed due to the fact that I feel like I have not gotten very much done at all in respect to the nursery. I have told you my struggles previously about baby bedding and well the furniture issue seems to be at a stand still also. But I am bound and determined to get my husband to look at furniture this weekend and order it! If I do get it from the local baby store, it will take 6 to 8 weeks for it to arrive, which makes me a bit nervous. I will keep you posted regarding that whole situation.

I found it quiet appropriate that since I am at my half way marker, I actually saw the baby move tonight while we were sitting on the couch. I am starting to feel him more and more, which I love, but for some reason I was not expecting to see my belly move. So for me, that was a great joy!!!

How our baby is growing:

Our baby weighs about 10 1/2 ounces now. He's also around 6 1/2 inches long from head to bottom and about 10 inches from head to heel - the length of a banana. (For the first 20 weeks, when a baby's legs are curled up against his torso and hard to measure, measurements are taken from the top of his head to his bottom — the "crown to rump" measurement. After 20 weeks, he's measured from head to toe.)

He's swallowing more these days, which is good practice for his digestive system. He's also producing meconium, a black, sticky by-product of digestion. This gooey substance will accumulate in his bowels, and we will see it in his first soiled diaper (some babies pass meconium in the womb or during delivery).

19 Weeks 5 Days

Well, I am becoming my mother - which I suppose in some respects is not all that bad! : ) My father has never received a haircut from anyone other than my mother since they have been married, which is over 40 years. About a month and a half ago, Shane informed me that we were buying clippers and I was going to start cutting his hair. Talk about bravery on his part and mine!!! So today was my third attempt at cutting Shane's hair. Now the first and second attempts were only a week apart due to me not "cutting it short enough" but it has been about a month since the last hair cut. My problem is the fact that I can never remember what guard we use for what, but I think today I made it easier on myself (which we shall see next time around). Anyway, I believe my mother makes it look easier than I make it out to be, but I will tell you I laugh a lot while doing it. So, next time you see Shane, even if his hair looks to be a little shorter on one side or the other, tell him his haircut looks nice!!! I bet he doesn't let you know who did it!! ; )

Baby boy Hood went to his second Alabama football game yesterday, this time against North Texas, which we left in the third quarter due to the beating Alabama was putting on poor North Texas. We truly expected to sit in the rain the whole game, but much to our surprise, there was very little drizzle, and even the sun came out to shine! Roll Tide!!!

Yesterday, we received another gift for the baby, one of which I am far more excited about than is Shane. Thanks to Shawn, Melissa, Mason and Braden (my sister and her family) my son will now really be styling! Hook 'Em Horns!!!

How our baby is growing:

Our baby's sensory development is exploding! His brain is designating specialized areas for smell, taste, hearing, vision, and touch. Some research suggests that he may be able to hear our voice now. He weighs about 8 1/2 ounces and measures 6 inches, head to bottom - about the size of a large heirloom tomato. His arms and legs are in the right proportions to each other and the rest of his body now. His kidneys continue to make urine and the hair on his scalp is sprouting. A waxy protective coating called the vernix caseosa is forming on his skin to prevent it from pickling in the amniotic fluid.

18 Weeks 5 Days

This week has been a week filled with preparation for the baby and his room. On Monday, we went to a few stores in Birmingham and looked at furniture and baby bedding and then Friday I went to a local baby store and took a look at their nice furniture. I think I have made a decision on the furniture, but will get Shane to go take a look with me at the store here in town to see what he thinks. As for bedding, I am no closer on picking out a thing!! If all else fails and I can not find something we agree on, then I guess we can pick out some material and have someone make something to suit the both of us.

Our house is a 3 bedroom home, which one of course is the master bedroom, one is Connor's room and the other is the guest room. Since the guest room is at the front of the house which faces east, the sun comes beaming in during the mornings and pretty much stays hot most of the day until the sun goes down. Due to the temperature of the room, we decided it would be better for Connor's room to turn into the nursery, which of course being the great kid he is, he did not object to. So today I spent a bit of time moving all sorts of things I had stored in his closet to the guest bedroom closet (of course after I redistributed a lot of the items I had stored in the guest bedroom closet to other closets in the house). So I at least feel like I am getting somewhere with nursery preparation!

On Thursday, we received a package in the mail from Shane's parents with the following contents:

I can assure you that he will get more than his wear out of these outfits!! We love them and appreciate them so much. Thanks Ron and Derenda!!!

Baby boy Hood attended his first Alabama game yesterday! I believed he liked it and was cheering 'Roll Tide' with all the other fans, as he seemed active during different parts of the game! (Either that or he thought things were too loud and was getting frustrated! For Shane's sake, we will say that he was inside cheering!!!) This was the first of many in-utero for him, and I am sure during his life, he will be attending lots more!!

Shane, me and baby at Alabama vs. Florida International


Me at 18 weeks

How our baby is growing:

Head to rump, our baby is about 5 1/2 inches long (about the length of a bell pepper) and he weighs almost 7 ounces. He's busy flexing his arms and legs — which I am feeling and will notice more and more in the weeks ahead. His blood vessels are visible through his thin skin, and his ears are now in their final position, although they're still standing out from his head a bit. A protective covering of myelin is beginning to form around his nerves, a process that will continue for a year after he's born.

17 Weeks 5 Days

I would first like to give a huge 'Thank You' to my good friend Lorrie who helped me with the original header for my blog and now has helped me give the blog a new look that is more fitting for a boy!!! I appreciate all her hard work!!!! If it wasn't for her, I could assure you, the blog would have stayed the same orangey color!

I realized that I did not post any pictures from the ultrasound on Friday, so here are a few. Hope you enjoy looking at them as much as I do!!! (I am not a proud mommy or anything.....)

This is a side view of the baby. It almost looks like he is blowing a bubble.

This is a 4-D view. He has his little fists up in front of his eyes and his legs are crossed.

He is showing his flexibility with his feet right above his head.

Finally, the view we had all been waiting for!!!

17 Weeks 4 Days

I just need to share with you a few things that I have learned from my husband today that perhaps the rest of the world needs to know so it can be corrected. According to Shane, baby blue is a girl color. Yes, a girl color. He says that pink and baby blue are girl colors, so there will be no baby blue in the nursery! Has he taken the time to Google baby boy bedding???? I have and let me tell you that at least 85% if not more of the baby boy bedding is baby blue. So where does he get this theory??? Who knows. I have been informed that there can be dark blue, but no baby blue. I have also been informed that they do have Alabama bedding and that that would be the perfect choice. That for sure has been vetoed by me!!! So now that at least 85% of the bedding sets they have available for boys are not allowed in our nursery, I should have a really easy time, right? Not hardly. I am pretty much a plain Jane type person and really do not want bedding that has a theme like animals, sports, or the like. So, what I thought would be a relatively easy task has turned into a time consuming search. Wish me luck!!!

17 weeks 3 Days

Well, today I picked up Shane from school and headed to the doctor for the ultrasound. Shane has an eight o'clock and a ten o'clock class and the ultrasound was scheduled for nine, so I ran by school and picked him up and then we headed to the doctor. I made sure to drink orange juice on my way to the ultrasound as recommended by some of Shane's friends to get the baby active. On the way to get Shane I could feel the baby fluttering around and I had a talk with the baby encouraging it to make its mommy and daddy proud by cooperating during the ultrasound. Well, be it the prayers, the orange juice, or the talk, the baby did cooperate and it is a boy!!!! He seems to be developing well according to the tech and I was so excited to know exactly what to prepare ourselves for.

Now many people have asked me how Shane reacted. Well, first you must know that on Wednesday night I asked him if he was excited to find out the sex of our child and he just chuckled and said, "I guess I'm interested." Interested???? Seriously???? I am interested in how Alabama is going to do at the football game, or how the weather is going to be, but when it comes to finding out the sex of my child, "interested" is not the word I would choose! I just had to laugh because that is typical of my husband. So when she did announce the sex, he may have had a slight grin on his face, but nothing like the smile that was pasted on my face. As we left the doctor's office, I told him that it was OK, he could show some excitement, his response was, "What makes you think I am not excited?" He kills me!! I honestly think he was beaming on the inside though. He was proud to call his family and let them know. When we went to the grocery store later this evening, I asked him if it had soaked in with him that he was having a boy, and he said probably not.

As for my group of friends and family, the baby pretty much proved the most of them wrong. Like I said before, if he did prove them wrong, he is definitely taking after me!! Aren't we in trouble! I didn't realize that so many people were really rooting for a girl! For those that were rooting for a girl, hopefully we will try again. Just say some prayers that we can talk Shane into another one!!!

So, now the true planning begins - picking out how the nursery will look, what type of stroller/carrier, a name, and plenty of other odds and ends. I know we are not even half way through the pregnancy yet, but time is going to fly right on by, especially with the holidays coming up. So I am looking forward to doing a little shopping this weekend be it on-line or in the stores to get some good ideas!! Thanks goodness for this three day weekend - it is coming at just the right time for me!!!!!

By the way, I must say that even though everyone was wrong regarding the sex, the Drano test was correct. So now our friends that told us to do the test, who were 13-0, are now 14-0!!!

17 Weeks 2 Days - Fourth Appointment

Well, I suppose we can say that this baby takes after Shane and me since we are both stubborn. We went for the ultrasound today to determine the sex, and there sat my child sitting Indian style (or criss-cross apple sauce as they like to say these days) with its knees stuck together. We saw great pictures of the head and spine, which appeared nice and straight, it appears to weigh about 1/2 pound and the heartbeat was 138. Now, the ultrasound tech said if she HAD to guess, she would go with boy, but she was extremely unsure. So I saw my doctor for the routine appointment and then she let us go back into the ultrasound room to see if the baby changed positions, but no, it was still nice and comfy with its legs locked together. So, luckily we go back in the morning at 9:00 to take another look!!! I was a bit disappointed with my weight gain, but kept trying to justify to myself that I normally go in the mornings for my appointments and this was in the afternoon. She says I have gained another 5 pounds, which brings the grand total up to 10 pounds, but if I go by my scale here at home, it is 7. Luckily, my next appointment is back on the normal Friday morning!!

17 Weeks

First let me start by saying that in 2 days we will know the sex of our child!!! I am sooooo excited about it, I can hardly stand myself. I keep telling everyone that if this is truly MY child, then it will be a boy to prove every person in this world that is convinced it is a girl WRONG!!! : ) People have asked me if I have any feeling one way or the other as to the sex, which I do not, but I have had 2 dreams related to the nursery and they were both for a boy! I had to chuckle a few nights ago when Shane and I were watching an Atlanta Braves baseball game on TV. The announcer was congratulating one of his fellow coworkers who just had a baby girl, and his comment was that "only manly men have girls." I had to chuckle at that. Made me think to myself, that maybe everyone will be right about the girl!!!

This morning about 7:00 am I was sitting at a computer at work and felt a different sensation in my lower abdominal area. I stopped for a second, not sure if what I felt at first was the baby, but then it happened two more times and was different than anything else I have been feeling, so I am thinking baby!! Now since that time, I really have not sat down long enough to think about it and see if I can feel that feeling again, but look forward to more of where that came from!!!

This past weekend we had the pleasure of having Shane's grandparents from Georgia here to visit for a few days before they continued their drive on to Texas to stay with Shane's parents for a bit. I absolutely love when they are here, or when we go visit them in Georgia. They are just a truly genuine, loving couple who still are so in love with one another as well as with God. It is so refreshing to be around them and know that love can and does last for many, many years!!! His grandmother reminds me so much of my Grandma Key, who is such a wonderful woman in my eyes. I have learned so much from her through the years and appreciate her positive perspective on life in general. We are so blessed to have such wonderful role models!!!

Anyway, stay tuned for what Thursday has in store for us. Whatever the sex of our child is, it is just exactly what God has had in store for us long before we ever even knew one another - amazing isn't it????

How our baby is growing:

Our baby's skeleton is changing from soft cartilage to bone, and the umbilical cord — her lifeline to the placenta — is growing stronger and thicker. Our baby weighs 5 ounces now (about as much as a turnip), and she's around 5 inches long from head to bottom. She can move her joints, and her sweat glands are starting to develop.