A Celebratory Weekend

We went to Dothan this past weekend to celebrate Douglas's 24th birthday, Juleann and Sam's 56th wedding anniversary, and to find out the gender of the little miracle growing inside of me. Dr. Martin arranged for me to have an ultrasound Friday morning at 8am at Flowers Hospital. We weren't sure if we'd be able to find out the gender of baby Davis, but we did and it's a BOY!!! Our sweet little boy was being a little bashful to begin with so the wonderful ultrasound tech, Brooke, suggested I drink a real coke and walk some laps around the hospital. Well, that's all it took for us to get a really good look at Baby Boy Davis.

Before leaving the house for the ultrasound...I didn't sleep a wink because I was so excited!

We got to watch our little boy move around for 1 solid hour during the ultrasound. None of us could take our eyes off the screen. He had the hiccups and kept bouncing up and down :) We decided not to reveal the gender to the rest of the family until Friday night. It was hard to continue referring to our baby as an "it" when talking with everyone throughout the day. Finally, everyone arrived at the house on Friday evening and it was time for the big reveal. My mom wrapped a gift for each person to open in pink and blue paper. 

After everyone got a gift, we (including Grant and me) all ripped in to our package. Douglas was the first one to yell, BOY!!!

We passed around all of the sonogram photos so everyone could get a good look at Baby Boy D.

He's going to be one spoiled child!

After our gender reveal party, we had pork chops for dinner.

Mom's festive decorations

 Boy time around the fire.

Pastry Art cake bites for Douglas's birthday!

 The whole crew minus Julie

On Saturday, we watched football all day at Douglas's new crib. It was a lot of fun, even though Auburn got slaughtered by LSU! Saturday night we ate taco soup and watched the AL/TN game at our house.

We had a Thanksgiving lunch after church on Sunday since Grant and I will be in Texas for Thanksgiving. The menu included ham, squash casserole, sweet potato casserole, oyster casserole, green beans, Savages Bakery rolls, and an apple tart with vanilla ice cream! YUM!!! It was the perfect ending to an amazing weekend. I'm going to post some sonogram pics of our precious baby boy in the next post....

12 Weeks and Genetics Screening Appointment

Today I had an appointment at the UAB Women and Infant's Center for routine genetics screening. It is such a nice facility and Baby Davis will be delivered there. Grant went with me because I knew an ultrasound was part of the visit :) Our baby actually looks like a human now. The doctor had to push around on my stomach because the baby wasn't facing the right direction for her to do the nuchal translucency test but it finally flipped. It was so fun to watch it wiggle around. We give thanks and praise to God for a healthy baby with no problems!

April 22nd is still an accurate due date for the baby's current measurements. 

So excited to finally say I'm in the 2nd trimester!

I'm counting down the days until my ultrasound in Dothan next Friday! They may be able to determine the gender!!!

Girls Trip to Highlands

This past weekend was one of the best weekends I've had in quite some time! Joined by some of my closest sorority sisters from college (Kat, Kori, Jenny, Elaine, Sarah, and Stephanie), I spent the weekend in Highlands, NC for an impromptu KD reunion. We hit the road early Friday morning just in time to get settled at the house, do a little grocery shopping and get pretty before dinner at Paeoletti's.

We had a wonderful dinner at Paeoletti's! I had a delicious pasta dish called gnocchi and it was a great carbalicious meal before our "big" hike we had planned for Saturday morning. We went back to the house after dinner and stayed up just catching up on life. There is nothing better than sitting around with close friends, cutting up with each other and reminiscing on old times. They are such special girls to me, and I hate that we don't get together more often! Anyway, enough of the sentimental babble.  After a good night's rest, we woke up for a protein filled breakfast prepared by Steph and then hiked Whiteside Mountain.

 View of Whiteside from the house

 Sarah went back to Atlanta Saturday morning so we had to get a group shot before she left. 

 One of many beautiful views on Whiteside Mountain

 Taking a snack break!

After our hike, we went to the Old Edward's Inn for lunch and then walked around town perusing through all of the shops. After a little shopping, we headed to Sweet Treats for an ice cream fix. 

Sunday morning, my grandparents treated us to brunch on the patio at HFCC. I had a Monte Cristo ham sandwich and it was just what my pregnant self needed :)

 We snapped a couple of more group shots before hitting the road to head home. We were all so sad to leave! I'm already looking forward to the next reunion. I love my girls!!!

10 weeks (Written on 9/25/11)

Today I'm on week 10, day 0 of my pregnancy. Thankfully, I still haven't had any nausea and I'm feeling great! I tire easily and retreat to bed between 8:30 and 9 every night, but I feel very fortunate that I'm not sick to my stomach 24/7! I cannot imagine having to work 40 hours a week while nauseated!

I don't really think I'm showing yet, but my appetite has definitely kicked up a notch. As far as cravings go, I've been craving MORE than one 12 oz. diet coke per day! Cutting down on my caffeine intake has been a little bit of an adjustment for me but it's getting better. I have my second prenatal appt. on Thursday with Dr. Gleason at UAB and I'm already anxious for it to get here! I doubt I'll have another ultrasound but I'd be thrilled to see/hear the baby's heartbeat again.

This weekend Grant and I babysat Evie and Liles Morton. We always have so much fun with them! We took them to the McWane Science Center, watched football at Jenny and George's house, and then went to Olive Garden for dinner. They were very excited about our news! Evie drew a picture of "Pregnant Caroline" this morning during church. It was precious - I definitely saved it for the special box.

I cannot wait to share our news with the rest of the world! Come on 12 weeks!

First Prenatal Appointment

Phew...what a DAY! Grant and I went to my first prenatal appt. this morning (Thursday Sept. 6th) at Henderson and Walton. I was a little disappointed because Dr. Woods was unexpectedly out of the office today so I had to see someone else. It was quite a chaotic 2 hours to say the least! It all started with a urine pregnancy test to confirm that I am indeed pregnant. After this I was triaged (weight, height, blood pressure), given a Henderson and Walton pregnancy goody bag, and then taken to a room with Grant in tow. Shortly after we were put in a room, Dr. Woods' nurse practitioner came in and introduced herself. She did a couple of tests (I'll spare my 3 readers from going into details) and then we were sent for lab work. Of course I was very dramatic about getting my blood taken and had everyone in the lab laughing! I managed to not pass out but they had peanut butter crackers and Sierra Mist on hand. Then I was sent to ultrasound which I was VERY excited about. Before we knew it, we were looking at our little miracle's heart beating away. I don't remember much because I was still in a state of shock but Grant said it was quite the experience :) The ultrasound technician said I am 7 weeks and 4 days along and baby Davis had a heartbeat of 138. Everything looks great! I'm already counting down the days until my next ultrasound!!

Telling the Davis Family

While we were in Texas for Memorial Day weekend we told Greg, Dana, Payton and Brenda that we were expecting. Grant's mom picked us up from the airport in Dallas and I was about to burst I wanted to tell her so bad, but I decided to let Grant take the lead on telling his side of the family. As we were driving to the lake house, Brenda started talking about a family trip to Disney World in early May. After she explained her rationale for choosing May as the best month to go, Grant casually said, "Mom, what do you think about a one week old in Disney World?" She quickly turned to the backseat and said, "OH MY GOODNESS, I'm going to have another grandchild!"We will probably postpone the Disney World trip a couple of months :)

Payton shared the exciting news with her Mommy and Daddy by writing this in sidewalk chalk....ok, maybe she didn't actually write it :)

Aug. 16, 2011 (The Day)

As I sit here reflecting on the past 2 weeks, so many emotions flood my mind but more than anything I feel an immense feeling of joy. Grant and I found out we were pregnant on Tues., August 16th. I will NEVER forget that feeling of pure happiness and shock that I felt when I saw the + on the pregnancy test. I screamed for a solid 5 minutes while running around the house in circles. I wanted to call everyone and spread our wonderful news, but I knew that we needed to wait!

I had a typical day at work that day, but as I was driving home I started thinking that I may be pregnant. I told Grant this as soon as he got home. We went to Seki Sui for dinner and stopped by CVS on the way home to get some pregnancy tests. After seeing the first +, I instantly took the remaining three, and then we went BACK to CVS to purchase a different brand of test. We both felt that the + sign wasn't enough...we needed to see the word "PREGNANT" on a test to believe it. Another 3 tests later (6 for the night), it was official...we are going to be parents!

The next couple of days I couldn't focus on anything but the little miracle growing inside me. We decided to go to Dothan for the weekend (Aug. 19-21) to share our wonderful news with my parents. We got into Dothan Friday evening. I had picked up an Olexa's birthday cake for Grant's birthday on Saturday. I bought a Beatrix Potter nursery rhyme book to give my parents. We put the book in a box under the Olexa's cake. I insisted my mom look at Grant's beautiful birthday cake immediately, but then told her that the real surprise was in the box under the cake. She knew immediately what was happening.  It took my Dad and Douglas (Julie was in Birmingham for a wedding) a little while to catch on. My mom squealed with delight that all of her hard labor smocking will finally be put to use.

I think I am around 7 weeks pregnant and I'm feeling great! I have a little nausea when I first wake up in the morning for about 15 minutes, but other than that I really don't have any symptoms. I hope this will continue for the remainder of my pregnancy but I've got a long way to go!

Grant and I are beyond excited to share our big news with his family in Texas this weekend! My first doctor's appointment is Thurs. Sept. 8th! I cannot wait for it to get here!!!

I wrote this entry mainly for me so I will never forget these special moments.