Human Pincushion

or the latest person on Intervention...not sure which I resemble more after today. Here's 3 things Thursday.

1. I failed my one hour glucose tolerance test on Monday, so I had to do the 3 hour today to see whether or not I have gestational diabetes. For those of you who don't know, this involves a fasting blood draw, drinking a really syrupy sweet drink, then 3 more blood draws on the hour for 3 hours. My veins were not being cooperative so I have needle marks on several places on both arms. Ouch! The good news is that I passed this one!!! At least I'm fairly certain I did. I work at the hospital so I see my lab results before my doctor does, so after googling them I conclude that I passed..I'll let you know if the dr thinks otherwise. I celebrated with a cookie;)

2. Running-hurts. feels like a constant side stitch throughout my entire stomach. Ouch. Although some days it doesn't hurt much at all, so I just have to run when I can and walk the rest.

3. I am SO ready for warm weather. We had a tease last week with some 60 something degree days but now we're back down to lows in the 20s and 30s. Boo!!

6 1/2 Month Belly Pics and 5K

2 of my very best friends came to visit this weekend, and we walked a 5K Saturday morning. Here I am at 26 weeks...and about to outgrow one of my maternity running shirts. I'm still LOVING the skirt!

It's impossible to take a picture without at least one dog in it.

Shelley, me, Darcy getting ready to leave for the race.

Over half of the 5K was actually on the beach along the water. Shelley is 9 weeks pregnant and wasn't feeling well, but she was a trooper and was able to finish the whole thing without puking on anyone!

5 Things Friday

1. I had a bit of a scare yesterday because I wasn't feeling Lucy move much at all. The past couple weeks she's been really active and I could pretty much put my hand on a certain part of my belly and she would kick it. Yesterday she was really still and drinking sugary cold drinks, poking her, talking to her..nothing got a response. I went to the doctor after work to be monitored and she immediately kicked the monitor on my belly...of course! I was so glad she was fine, they said she must have just moved positions and now her kicks and wiggles are going towards my back so I'm not able to feel them nearly as much from the front. I think she got tired of me poking her and shining a flashlight on my belly to wake her up and make her move, so she is giving me the finger by rolling over and facing backwards. Hopefully she'll turn again soon, I miss being able to feel her all the time.

2. My friends Darcy and Shelley are flying in today to spend the weekend in Charleston. I haven't seen them in a few months and I'm so excited that they'll be here when I get off work this afternoon.

3. Molly, the World's Worst Cat, apparently has Irritable Bowel Disorder/Chronic Colitis and will require long term antibiotic therapy and expensive grain free canned cat food for life to try to prevent or minimize the episodes of vomiting and bloody diarrhea she's been experiencing daily. I can't trust Rich home alone with her, I'm afraid she'll "wander off" while I'm gone..just kidding..mostly.

4. My latest obsession is couponing and bargain shopping. It's amazing how many of the name-brand products we use all the time that we can now get for free or really really cheap just by being educated on when things are on sale, and using coupons then to really stack the savings. I'm working on a "Couponing is Sexy" post in my head to share with you guys a little of what I've learned the last month.

5. Last night we met with our doula, or birth assistant. I'm hoping for a natural, drug-free birth and she will be there with Rich and I throughout labor and delivery to help out with that. We're also signed up for Breastfeeding Class, Infant CPR Class, and Childbirth Class. I tried to sign up for Newborn Care Class but it was full until July...so anyone have any newborn care tips to share since we can't take the class?

Happy Friday!

Baby Girl Morris will be named...

Lucy Susannah

Here's how it came to be: I had seen "Lucy" on several name sites and liked it, but really hadn't given it a second thought. Then one day my friend Darcy sent me a text message with some name suggestions, and Lucy was one of them. It then dawned on me that my mother-in-law's middle name is Lucille, so Lucy could be named after her. I wanted to incorporate my mom, Susan, in there too of course so that's where the Susannah came from. After I suggested it to Richard, he loved it, and it just felt right. I was like "Ah ha...Lucy, that's who is in my belly" like it had been her name all along and I just had to discover it, if that makes any sense.

Anyway, we told our families and then my mom told me that I actually have a great-aunt named Lucy (she goes by her middle name so I never knew it was her first name) and my Granny's grandmother was also Lucy, so there's lots of Lucy connections on both sides of our families.

So there you have it, Lucy Susannah Morris should be here in about 3 1/2 months!

I also wanted to say a big thank you for the warm welcome back to Bloggyville and for all the kind and encouraging words. Everything will work out fine, pregnancy hormones and all. Last night I had a meltdown and cried because I couldn't get our printer to print, and because I can't text as fast on my new Blackberry Curve 2 as I could on my old Blackberry Pearl..you know, really earth shattering catastrophes:)

The Baby Name

We've had the name picked out for a couple months now, and I feel pretty confident that we're going to stick with it. I'll post it tomorrow, but today you get to see some of the names that didn't make the cut for one reason or another.

If you or someone you know/love/like/hate have any of these names, please do not be offended.

1. Audrey - I loved this one but I got some icky faces from friends about it, and one friend said that every Audrey she'd ever known had been really stuck up.

2. Isla - pronounced "Eye-luh" exactly why it ended up getting rejected, we didn't want to forever have to spell and/or tell people how to pronounce her name. I do truly think it's a beautiful name, and love the tropical, beachy vibe it has.

3. Emmeline - with Emmy as the nickname. I thought it was really cute, but truly I got the idea based on the boxer/pit bull foster dog we had named Emmy and I'm not sure I could live with naming our daughter after a dog. Plus, as much as I like the name Emma, it is insanely popular there right now so I was afraid it would blend in with all the Emmas too much.

3. Stella - this was actually our first choice and we almost stuck with it, but we found out some friends of ours were naming their baby girl, born a few months ago now, Stella. I still really like it, even with the associations of How Stella Got Her Groove Back and Stellllllllaaaaaaaa from A Streetcar Named Desire. I wanted Stella Caroline, as a tribute to our time in SC, but Rich loved Stella but not Caroline.

4. Mabel - yep we both liked old-ladyesque Mabel, but not quite enough to commit to it.

5. Clementine - I actually wanted Clementine as a middle name for Mabel, but when I suggested Mabel Clementine both Rich and one of my coworkers laughed and thought it was a joke.

I searched through so many websites and books looking for the right name, and while I liked a lot of them, none felt perfect...until The One. We wanted something that wasn't really popular (like anything on the Top 25 list for the year) but also something easy to spell and pronounce that wasn't extremely eccentric. So check back tomorrow to find out what Baby Girl Morris's name will be. Anyone have any guesses (and if you're on Facebook and have seen it, don't guess!). The initals for the first and middle name are:

L S

I'm Alive!

Hi world, so sorry I've been MIA for the past month. Life got a little overwhelming there for a minute and I had to withdraw and focus inward on sorting some things out, and there just wasn't enough mental energy left for blogging. I think we have things figured out, or at least have a better handle on things, so I'm back. Basically it was just a lot of stress about trying to sell a house that we owe more on than we could sell it for right now in this economy... to move to a new state where we have to find a new place to live and jobs. Do we try to sell anyway and take a loss? rent? rent to own? Do I look for a job now? Wait til after the baby is born? Do we buy a new house? rent one? We both make good money, so can someone please tell me who gave the Spending Fairy access to my bank account because I'm pretty sure we should have more saved in there than we do. In hindsight, we would have realized that since the economy was turning crummy and we had a finite amount of time in this house, we needed to be a lot smarter about budgeting things and preparing for a cross-country move and new baby before said baby was wiggling around in my belly and said move was looming closer every day. Eh, whatcha gonna do? Hindsight's 20/20, wish in one hand and shi$ in the other and see which fills up first, that's life...lots of great cliches apply here. Anyway we're not going to be living in a cardboard box or soley off ramen noodles anytime soon (I however am existing on lots of salt and vinegar chips and oatmeal pies, but that's by choice), so don't worry...all is good, it's just an extremely stressful year for us. So that's where I've been...doing lots of thinking, planning, stressing, eating, some running, some walking, some elliptical, and lots of couponing..but I'll save that for another post. I've missed you all and will do my best to try to catch up on how ya'll have been the past month but if I've missed anything too major in any of your lives, please let me know in the comments so I'll be up to speed.