Christmas Time is Here

Merry Christmas!!!!!!I didn't get to do as much shopping this year due to the crazy crowds of people, my fatigue, and a busy work schedule. Christmas excitement brewed up and came all the same. We celebrated the season with Christmas parties, the down town loft tour, the Singing Christmas Tree, and the candle light service. We spent Christmas morning at the Logue's house with the traditional present opening, lunch feast with family, and the Christmas movies. Later we went back to our house with my mom and dad for the continuation of gift exchange and Wii gaming. Santa claws made his appearance too. Above are pictured some of my and the baby's favorite Christmas gifts. Whitney gave me this awesome PJ-onsie-perfect for my pregnancy cozy wear, Caroline and I both got one. Cousin Will got us the cute baby booties- our favorite team!!! My mom got us the Christmas bibs. And Jason's mom got us a few T-shirts for a little Logue B-baller.

How I'm feelin update.

So I was solid in the first trimester getting ready for Christmas. Foods are preferred in large quantities with mild and bland flavors. I love soups, pastas, and home cooking. First of all I will start by saying that relatively speaking, it has been an easy first trimester so far. I have been reading up on what to expect in my new baby books and compared to all that could be happening, I've got it pretty good. I have only been sick twice (both of which times seem to have come on a dreaded Monday.) I called in sick to work those days and was glad I did. Most of all, I have been tired. I usually get ideas of activities I want to do: organize this, make that craft idea, play outside in the yard, or even an occasional chore. Usually I dig right into the activity of the moment. Lately the idea comes, I take a few steps, and decide I need to rest and don't feel up to it anymore really lethargic for me. Thankfully, I was able to take it slow on one of my Fridays off and decorated the Christmas tree, hung the wreath, the stockings, and a few of our favorite Carolina ornaments. Jason was put in charge of the icicle lights and the Christmas village. The cats were really glad to see the decorations. They loved to sit under the tree and play with the low level ornaments. Luckily, this year, all ornaments remained in tact. (Last year we lost a Santa head and we think it may still be stored inside Isaac's barrel of a belly.) Other health updates include, I had acid reflux at night, switched from the Vitamins that tasted like a burnt tire, and swapped bed spots with Jason so I can hang my limbs off the side and sleep on my left. That is the side recommended to sleep on throughout the gestation period. I'm anxiously awaiting the second trimester when these set of symptoms subside. I'm tired of being tired. (Also tired of this stinkin' dreary, cold, Fayetteville winter weather- I need a vacation)

Baby's first pictures

These are some of the first pictures from the ultrasound that we got of the baby. The baby is estimated to be about 5 weeks here. We could see the baby's heart beat which beats so much faster than a regular heartbeat. This is the moment when it starts to sink in that this is for real. It was an awesome day to first set eyes on what will grow to be our baby. No telling the limitless potential of this little ball of cells. Jason and I are discussing if we will try to find out the sex of the baby when we can. We think we will leave it a mystery. It gives us more to wonder about and leaves more to surprise. I love surprises. Especially since I don't have a preference either way, boy or girl.

Our first Thanksgiving

Hey everyone!!! So it is taking me a while to catch up to date on the posts but I'm back at it again to give it another try. This year was the first year Jason and I hosted a Thanksgiving meal at our house on Thanksgiving day. We had plenty of ham, turkey, and sides. Jason cooked the turkey on the grill outside which could not have worked out better. This left the oven available for all our casseroles. The food turned out great and it was a good time with family. I got to dust off some of my cooking skills and actually could eat most of what we had on the menu, which for me is often a challenge. Those of you who know me well, know my strange vegetable aversions. I was excited to get to use our dining room with all the blue dishes I've been collecting for years and the big kitchen island made a perfect buffet. Jason recently had his birthday on November 23rd and he got a Wii. Mom and Dad stayed late as we played a few rounds of bowling and tennis. It was lots of fun.

We later had the Logue, Miller, Kosterman, Scofield Thanksgiving in the mountains. It was such a large gathering. Mom, Dr. Dad, Steve, Whitney, Caroline, Greg, Mark, Beth, Will, Victoria, Shelby, Nune, Melanie, Mike, the Scofields, Jason and I (and Toaster and London). We spent the weekend after Thanksgiving at Red Oak. We watched a lot of ball games and movies. We barely had enough room for everyone to sit during the dinner. There were 2 turkeys, ham, fixings, sides, and desserts. I ate A LOT of food. I am glad I could use the excuse that I was eating for two. I noticed that although there were no cravings for certain foods at this point, when I was hungry, there was not a lot of time to waste. I got really hungry! With so many people around, Jason and I got a little shy. Neither one of us wanted to stand up and make the announcement. Leave it to Nune-bell. Before the close of our festive feast, Nune called everyone around for an announcement. "We're going to have a baby!" I think someone said, Nune, we didn't even know you were dating. Then there were looks around the room to figure out who it was. Then all eyes fell on me. Wow, that was a lot of attention. Jason got a little credit too :-) It was nice to have the cat out of the bag. Whitney said she should have known because of my caffeine free cokes I had brought with me:-) It was a fun weekend.

Baby's First Gifts

As mentioned in the last entry, upon telling the grandparents the baby news, grandmothers take off to their hidden stash to find the items they had bought for the right time in the future. My mother returned with an adorable baby blanket and outfit. Jason and I love the gender neutral colors and the precious animal design.

Jason's mom, found these cute bumble bee galoshes. It is no doubt that there is going to be one spoiled but hopefully not rotten grand baby in the future.

Telling our parents

We wanted to tell our parents the weekend after we found out but Dr. Dad was out of town on a beach golf excursion. I had been to lunch at Olive Garden earlier in the day with my mother. It was my Friday off. Mom flat out asked me if I was pregnant as she knew Jason and I had been talking about it some. I had to lie and say no because I couldn't tell her then and there without Jason or Dad. She has an uncanny way of guessing things.

Mom and Dad had recently gotten a new kitten, Merlin, so as a cover up we went over to my parents house to see the cat. We were planning to tell them, yet when we got there the conversation was going in a very sarcastic direction. It was very difficult to find the right time to bring up something so big and exciting. Mom was talking about moving into town in a small house and then mentioned maybe when I had a baby. I seized the opportunity and chimed in that it would be in a little less than 9 months. They looked confused and kept on talking. Jason and I started to giggle. Mom then says, "What are you laughing about?" We explained that they must not have heard us correctly, that we were going to have a baby in a little less than 9 months. She looked with Surprise and then asks "YOU'RE PREGNANT?" I said yes. All the while Dad sat in his recliner not saying much but grinning. Then mom started talking a mile a minute as usual. It wasn't long until she shot upstairs to bring down baby's first gift. We knew she was ready to be a grandmother. They are trying to figure out what the baby will call them. To their dismay, Jason and I tease, we will do everything we can to teach the baby that they are "MooMoo" and PooPoo."

The following night Dr. Dad returned from his beach trip and we went over to tell Mom and Dr. Dad. We got away with general conversation for a while and then Jason told them that we had some big news. They were going to be grandparents. They were very excited for us and gave us some words of wisdom followed by the question and answer session. It must have been my new haircut they thought. Apparently that is a Logue tradition. Get a big haircut and have a baby. Once things calmed down a little, we decided in big news fashion, we would all pile into the car and go over to Nune's, Jason's grandmother's house. We gathered around and talked for a little while, then Jason gave the news. I knew this was really special for him, as I think he was most excited to tell Nune. I got a little emotional, and if I remember correctly, she said, "Thank goodness, I can't wait to tell my friends. They are all buying stuff for their great grandchildren and all I can buy stuff for has been the cats." She was so cute. She went to call her neighbor Dorris. We decided to wait until the family was together at Thanksgiving to tell the others. - Caroline may have had some suspicion as I had mentioned to her previously that we were thinking about planning for a baby and we would know by November. I had asked her for her opinion since she asked me to be the matron of honor in her wedding in June (close to the planned due date). I told her that it was to be her event and that I didn't want to be waddling down the isle or potentially be stealing any of her excitement over her wedding. She sounded genuinely excited to find out we were thinking about a baby and said that we should go for it. She added that she thought it would be cool that the baby, even unborn, would be at the wedding. I was so glad that she was OK with the idea because if she had seemed hesitant at all, we would have waited until the following year.

Could we be having a baby?

Shortly after we decided that we were ready to have a baby, we threw all caution to the wind. I was so excited at the thought that I could be pregnant. I would tell Jason that I just knew I was. I began referencing myself as "we." I told Jason that my stomach felt funny one day, and about ten minutes later I got up to go to the bathroom. Jason thought this was hysterical as I couldn't tell the difference between my baby and a turd :-) Being the inexperienced couple we were, and still are, we thought we would just go buy a pregnancy test at CVS and it would immediately tell us + or -. Not the case. Upon reading the instruction booklet, we discovered that you have to wait until just before your missed period to get any reliable results. The wait was going to be so hard for me as I can't stand not knowing a secret.

On the earliest possible day that I could take the test I did (against Jason's advise, as he thought it would be more accurate if I waited a few more days.) I get up at 5:30 am for work and Jason doesn't have to get up until after I leave the house. I got a positive test result. Instead of waking him up and risking getting the confused, OK, I'm going back to sleep response. I left him the test results on the bathroom counter, how to interpret them, and a note that said, " We love you and we hope you have a great day." (Will confirm test again later). I was so excited to see what Jason would say. He called me from work in a state of shock and awe. He said when he found the note and the evidence, it took him a few seconds to figure out what was going on. He couldn't believe that it happened that quickly and he was really excited too. We waited until the second test confirmed the first and then told our parents.

Planning

We had been quietly discussing when the right time to have a baby would be for some time. We had decided that we'd been enjoying our honeymoon for almost 4 years and that it might be time to add another member to our immediate family. The timing was appropriate in that I could have the baby between finishing my residency program and making my transition into private practice. We were finally back home in Fayetteville with an awesome family support system to help us out. We wanted the baby to be able to spend some quality time with the grandparents while they will be able to enjoy it. We were both a little nervous but knew that we wanted to have a baby sooner than later. The question remained. Were we ready?

We went to the fair in October with our good friends, Jessie and Miguel, who had a 6 month old baby, Suzanna. She was and is so adorable. We knew Jessie and Miguel would not give us their first born, so we decided we would have to get our own. Little Suzanna was so cute in her bath, in her Jumper, and just doing all the cute things babies do. Above are some pictures with Suzanna, our inspiration baby.