Video link of surprising Leia's parents

Since Leia is posting about current events, I will continue to backfill the story of our baby secret and the big reveals. We decided to keep the fact that Leia was pregnant a secret for what seemed to be FOREVER. It was really hard to be with her family at Thanksgiving and not slip up and say something. I was sure I was going to screw it up, but somehow we both managed not to spill the beans. Time seemed to drag on forever, but eventually we got to Saturday December 20th. That was our first official day of vacation and we made the drive down to Fairhope to visit Leia's family.

We arrived at about lunch time and went out for some shrimp with Leia's mother. Her father was playing in a poker tournament down at the Elk's lodge, so we would have to wait until later in the evening to surprise them. It had been agonizing to wait for the previous 6 weeks, but once I knew we were so close to being able to tell them, it was actually kind of fun to sit across the table from Leia's mother at lunch and think to myself "You have no idea what's coming do you?"

Leia's father came home at about 6pm and after some short greetings we decided that we couldn't wait any more and decided to set the parents up for the big reveal. Leia had created a great plan for setting them up so that we could record the whole thing on video and get their reactions. This is the setup she came up with and we pulled it off without a hitch: Leia decided to repurpose a small photo album that her Nana (grandmother on her mother's side) used to carry. Nana had used it to hold baby pictures of Leia. Leia removed her old baby pictures and replaced them with copies of the ultrasound pictures that we had of our baby. For the first page of the album she created a coversheet that said: "Congratulations! Tim and Leia are excited to announce that your First Grandchild is due on July 7th 2009". Leia wrapped the photo album in tissue paper and placed it in a Christmas gift bag. The plan for giving it to them was that Leia would tell them she had a special present for them to open together and that we wanted to take a before and after picture. Once I had the video rolling on the camera (our digital camera will take short video clips which was awesome for this purpose), Leia would count down "1..2..3.. GRANDPARENTS!" and then get them to open the gift bag. Follow the link below to see the video of the reveal.

Tip: Watch Leia's father at the beginning of the video. His facial expression when Leia says "GRANDPARENTS!" is priceless. Leia's mother is a bit more skeptical and cautious at first, but once she reads the first page of the photo album it all breaks loose.

Video: Telling Leia's parents

Leia's parent's reactions made all of the waiting worth it. The big reveal was everything we hoped it would be and more, and I'm really glad that we were able to get the whole thing on video. I think it is really funny and I never get tired of watching it, especially the part where I get "mugged" by Leia's mom. The best part was realizing that this was just the beginning of getting to tell people that we were having a baby. Over the next few hours we got to tell Leia's three brothers and call her aunts, uncles and cousins. And of course Leia's parents went down to the lodge and told everyone there. Many of the people at the lodge have known Leia since she was a kid. It was a real rush and a great start to our Christmas vacation.

We stayed with Leia's parents until Tuesday December 23rd, and then we got in the car for a 7 hour trip to Augusta to see my family. Now it was my turn to set up my family for the big surprise. In my next post I'll have some more video links and the story of how that all went down. Then we should be all caught up with the past and I can start blogging about the present.

Latest Visit

Tim and I went to see the doctor yesterday. It was a short visit but still brought us a lot of joy. We got to listen to the baby's heart beat at a steady 155 beats per minute. We only got to listen to it in spurts as the baby was moving around a lot which also thrilled us. The doctor said that the next visit will be more in depth. They will draw blood for the quad screen to test for some genetic defects like Down's syndrome. We will also have a thorough ultrasound where we will get to find out the baby's gender. We are hoping that we will be able to get a recording of this one.


Everyone has been asking about how I'm doing. I'm doing pretty well. I feel like I've gotten off easy since I haven't had any morning sickness. I have had days where I didn't feel well but otherwise, I've been doing really well. According to my last visit, I have gained a total of 2.5 pounds even though myy home scale says 5. According to my book, I should start gaining on average a pound a week.


Last week was a bit difficult. I was very excited about entering the second trimester since my energy levels are supposed to increase. Well, I woke up on Monday morning with my TMJ aggravated. Apparently, my body is releasing a hormone that effects my joints. I had trouble eating all week. Things are better now but I imagine this will be a recurring problem. By Saturday, I was feeling really good. Tim and I had such a wonderful day. My energy was finally up so we went out shopping and checked out our local Babies R Us. I felt great! We had a wonderful dinner. Tim grilled steaks and I cooked potatoes and green beans. I hadn't felt that way in a while so I was rather disappointed when I got up on Sunday with a stomach bug.


Oh well! I'm feeling great now. We had a wonderful visit yesterday with the doctor. I bought some new maternity pants on Friday and I'm now a very comfortable pregnant lady. My sweet husband has been working very hard to complete our den projects. Our baby looks healthy. Oh, and I just bought a crib from a co-worker. It will convert into a toddler bed and then into a full-sized bed frame. It is our first purchase for our baby. Life is good!


Thank you to everyone for your well wishes.

Baby's First Pictures

Leia and I are just getting into this blog thing, but I figure the best way to start out is just to post up some pictures of the most important thing going on in our lives right now. We found out on November 2nd that Leia was expecting, so of course we immediately scheduled a visit with her OBGYN. At our first visit on November 5th there wasn't much to be seen on the ultrasound, so we had to come in for a followup on November 13th. The picture below is what we saw on that day.

At that point the nurse made some measurements and informed us that the baby was 5 weeks and 5 days old. That sounds really precise and scientific, but I wasn't very impressed because we had been told at the previous visit that the baby was 4 weeks and 6 days old. That means that 8 days had passed on the calendar but the nurse was telling me that my child had only aged by 6 days. (I occasionally find a practical use for my Mathematics degree.)

Even though you can't really see much in that photo, and you have to take the word of a math-challenged nurse that the speck she has labeled is, in fact, your "baby", Leia and I were still really excited. With two positive visits to the OBGYN under our belts the reality of the situation was starting to sink in. There was certainly no denying that our child was well on its way.
Our next visit was scheduled for December 15th and we could both hardly wait to get a chance to go see our baby again.

Leia was (and is) reading a lot and kept me informed about the growth and development of our little one. Consequently, I was aware when we went to the OBGYN on the 15th that our baby was probably about 1 and 1/2 inches long and that we would probably be able to hear the heartbeat. I thought I was pretty prepared for what I would see on the ultrasound. I expected another smudgy looking picture with an indistinct white area that the nurse would once again proclaim was my baby. However, when we actually got to the office and the nurse turned on the machine, I was completely surprised by the clarity of the image that immediately popped up on the screen. (See below)


My initial reaction was "Holy Moses! That's a baby!". I could easily make out the entire profile: head, body, hands and feet. In this photo the small white area directly in front of the face is actually the baby's hand. We could tell because it was moving around some and you could occasionally see most of the arm. It was just absolutely amazing to see my child so clearly for the first time. I didn't need any helpful labels from the nurse.

We also got to hear the heartbeat, which was thumping along at a perfectly normal 172 beats per second. The nurse informed us that everything looked really good and later when we spoke to the doctor we got the same story. All of Leia's blood levels look normal, the baby is developing on schedule and in every way they could tell we are having a totally normal pregnancy. This really did a lot to ease our minds and raise the excitement level for our impending "big reveal" to our families over Christmas.

Up to this point Leia and I had kept the baby as "our little secret", but soon we would be telling everyone we know and love, and getting video reactions of the news to boot! Check back for the next blog entry when I put up some great footage of our parent's and sibling's reactions to the big news...