Gender Reveal Party

On July 5th we got to tell our families (and a few friends) together what our sweet baby was going to be! My mom was nice enough to host the party. My entire family was already in town to celebrate the 4th and throw a surprise 60th Birthday Bash for mom. She sent out some super sweet invitations and everyone was invited to come and join us for a fish fry and then the gender reveal. 

I decorated with light blue and light pink with just a touch of chevron and gold. The onsies hanging on the wall say "He or She". The gold frames and chevron napkins are from Hobby Lobby. The baby's 18 week and 15 week ultrasound profiles were framed as well. Since mom had a big lunch planned, I only got fruit, spicy crackers, pink and blue punch and the MOST DELICIOUS cookies ever made to put on the table. A precious mom from my classroom seriously makes the best cookies. She made cookies for both the girl and boy name monogram and then some black and white chevron cookies. I'm really obsessed with them, and I didn't get to eat one…I'm not bitter about it though…

Mom also outdid herself by hiring a photographer to come a take a few family pictures before the party and then take pictures of the reveal. Unfortunately, the photographers camera had a malfunction and the pictures were lost. I was really sad about this, but it is NOT the end of the world because my awesome SIL made sure to get a few on my camera as well, and some family members got iPhone pics and video! There are a few things that I don't have pictures of, but I will cherish the ones that I do have. 

We had our guests wear a blue or pink clothespin to show their guess about the baby's gender. We had the photographer take "team" pics. These are the only pics I'm sad about not having. I do however have a candid boy team pic! The majority of the guests thought boy, and according to my family's history, I don't blame them! I thought boy, too!

(The girl team was: Andrew, Dad, Doug, Katie, Lauren, Annie, Mama Jo, Aunt Mary, Keely, Mrs. Carol and Mr. Herald. **Michele and Nate had to be in both pics because they KNEW what the baby was!**)

Our plan was to do the reveal by suspending a box in a tree, pulling a rope, and then balloons and confetti would drop from the box. Simple, right? Wrong. The box required a lot of tape to hold the confetti in. This extra tape caused the box to not open when we pulled the rope. Whatevs. Andrew had to get in a chair and open the box himself. (By the way, Andrew told me earlier in the morning that something was going to go wrong with this box…I should learn to listen to him.)

(We are looking at Annie who was totally pumped about another girl cousin!)

I'm not going to lie. The overall reaction is not quite what I was expecting. I'm going to write it off as "shock", but there were not NEARLY has many shouts as I thought there would be. BUT the pictures of faces are priceless. We all knew Mary Lou would have a great expression, but Caliway and Annie are a close second for best faces. 

(Look at Annie and Caliway…my heart.)

After the reveal we all talked about how wonderful and beautiful Claire is going to be. We did talk about that, right? I got to spend a little time with Brooke and Warren and Parker who took time out of their Saturday to come and celebrate with us. We took a few more pictures and then spent time together as a family swimming in the pool. It was the first time for all Goodson's and Curtis' to be together since our wedding. I loved it. 

(Claire's "Goodson" cousins.)

(The girls.)

(Lauren is excited for a "baby"!)

(Thank you for coming Seals family!)

(Thanks to Keely for taking time away from studying for the Bar to come and celebrate. And I guess thanks to Kevin, too..)

What's In A Name?

You wanna know what's tricky? Choosing a name for a person. You want to love it. You want him or her to love it. You try and think of any possible way for it to be made fun of. You (or at least I) think of how it will sound for a baby, a teenager, and a grandparent. This is a permanent decision, it needs to be a good one.

Well, for my sweet boy, we found a name we loved a while ago. 

RHETT HODGES 

It's classy. It's southern.  It's not commonly used. The only way to make fun of it is to call him "Rhett Butler", and that's not so bad! Hodges is perfect because it's Cherri's maiden name which makes it Pappa (and nana's) last name. Pappa was the only boy, he had girls, and when he passed away there was no one left (in our immediate family) to pass on that name. I love it. It's the perfect name for a gentleman. 

Now for my sweet girl. She's a tricky one. I've always liked different girl names and could never settle on just one, until I heard it...[CLAIRE]. Can you hear the hallelujah chorus? I did when I said the name out loud. It's stunning. It's timeless. It's perfect. Claire is not so easy to come up with a middle name for. We've bounced around a million: Maryl (nickname for Mary Lou), Avery, Ellis, Layne, Katherine, even Davis. I am dead set on her middle name being a family name, so I was determined to pick one and fall in love. The top contenders were Claire Katherine (the name of my cousin who passed away), Claire Avery (the middle name of Pappa who passed away), or Claire Ellis (a last name from my maternal grandmothers family tree). We juggled and juggled said them together and looked at monograms, and we chose our name. 

CLAIRE AVERY

Ahhh, it's just so sweet! The ONLY thing I don't like about it is that I know several people that have used one of the 2 names. However, we now have 2 perfect names to help us always remember our sweet Pappa! 

We can't wait to meet you, Rhett Hodges or Claire Avery! 

Our family (and eventually everyone else) will find out on Saturday what our little one will be!

The BEST day!!!

First, we have to back up a month. Starting in March.

After 2 1/2 months with no doctor's visits or phone calls, Andrew and I were feeling good. He had finished the Bar Exam, Jamie and Ben had Millie, Kaitlyn and Jacob had Harlow. I was getting my baby fix in (this really didn't make me sad, I loved having little babies to snuggle). We were getting ready to go to Charleston for an amazing get-away. Life was good!

We were ready to get back on fertility medicine and finish up our last round of Femara. At cycle day 31, I still was not having a period (to be expected from someone who doesn't ovulate). I took a NEGATIVE pregnancy test and had a NEGATIVE blood test on March 12. My doctor prescribed the Provera. This is the medicine that forces a period. I took this pill for 10 days…nothing. It didn't bother me much. Then it was 12 MORE days after the medicine (April 3)…NOTHING. That's when I panicked. The medicine wasn't working. Something else was wrong! I called the doctor's office probably 10 times and text my friend, Lisa, trying to get a hold of Dr. S. She was very busy that day and also wanted to look at my chart before talking to me about next steps. She finally called me back that evening around 5:30…I was in the middle of a newborn shoot, and was totally rude and answered my phone (sorry Liz). Dr. S was very sweet and said that I had a LOT of info in my chart for her to look over. She wanted to me come in first thing the next morning to talk about the next steps for what was going on. These were my options: 1. I had no uterine lining and therefore nothing to shed. 2. There was a cyst or other possible mass growing in my uterus preventing a period. That was it.

Now we have made it to April 4, 2014. A day I will ALWAYS remember.

I went by myself to this appointment. Andrew had just started work as a "real" employee. He had already left several times during his clerkship to join me. These appointments were very routine. He just wanted to make sure that I asked certain questions about when and how we would be starting the next process - Artificial Insemination. He told me to call him as soon as the appointment was over. I drove to the appointment listening to my songs and praying for the miracle that I had been praying for the last 10 months.

I went back to the room and got ready for the appointment. Dr. S walked in and was very encouraging about her plans to help us conceive. She wasn't sugar coating anything, and I liked that. She was factual but also caring with her plans and information. After a few minutes of her talking to me, she prepped and got ready for the ultrasound. She told me that she was going to look at my ovaries and tubes and then my uterus. If there was a "problem", she would be able to find it through the ultrasound. She started with my right ovary. She said it looked fine, still PCOS, but no major problems. Then she scanned over the left side. This is the part I will NEVER forget!!!!

While she was scanning to the left ovary, she had to pass my uterus. Something seemed to catch her attention. I believe she said, "Wait, what. What's that?" Of course I'm lying there a little concerned. In my mind I was thinking that she had to have found something huge and wrong! I said, "What is it??" She was basically silent for a few hours (I mean seconds…but you know how that feels). Her eyes and her mouth were WIIIIIIIDE open. She grabbed the computer screen and pulled it close to her face. That's when she looked at me and said, "That's a yolk sack. That's a yolk sack!" I had no idea what that meant, but thankfully she kept talking. "That's a pregnancy! YOU'RE PREGNANT!!!!" Shock and tears came from me. I do believe I told her that she better not be joking because that would be really messed up. She said, "You're pregnant! That's your baby! Look at the heartbeat!" I looked and I saw a teeny-tiny little flutter. Right there in the middle of the screen. Then I started bawling. Like ugly cry (also, this is a vaginal ultrasound…I'm crying. I'm laying down. My legs are up…). I don't even care. Dr. S looked at me and said, "Stop crying so I can print a picture of your baby! Pull yourself together!" I love her. She measured my sweet little thing and found that I was 6 weeks and 1 day pregnant. The baby was the size of a grain of rice. That means I was one week away from having a POSITIVE blood test earlier in March when it showed negative. It was just a little too early!

I asked the doctor, "How did this happen?!" Her response, "There is no medical reason for this pregnancy. It really is the Lord's awesome work and timing." That's what she said. The doctor. I loved it. I left the room. Lisa Franks was waiting for me and gave me the best hug. Then I went to have some routine blood tests done.

The sweetest picture I ever did see. 

Now, let us remember that Andrew was not with me at this appointment. I called him when I was waiting for the blood test, but made up this SUPER elaborate story about not knowing what was going on and I was waiting on blood work. He believed me. I called him again when I left the hospital. I asked if I could bring him a Sonic drink. He kept telling me not to worry about. Finally I said, "I am bringing you this drink so just tell me what you want…geez!". He could tell something was up. 

Side note: Andrew was waiting to find out his Bar results on this day! He was already a nervous wreck because the Bar Association posts a countdown clock on their website that he had been watching all day. 

He thought that I was just being pushy so that I could bring him a "you can make it through this day" surprise…little did he know ;). 

I called him when I got outside the office. He met me in the car to get his Sonic drink and "surprise". All I did was hold up the ultrasound picture. I can't remember if I even said anything. I think he asked if I was showing him pictures of some egg follicles that were ready (which he was excited about). I shook my head "no". Then it registered with him. He was looking at a BABY in the picture. OUR BABY! He said he got misty eyed, but I just remember his smile and his hug. It was so wonderful. I was a mess. 

After I told Andrew, I called my sister…duh. All I said when she answered the phone was "Hey Aunt Chele". It took her a minute and then she got excited! I had to go back to work after this. I went back to work after seeing my baby for the first time and I didn't say anything to anyone. Luckily we were going on a field trip to the park on this day, so I didn't have to really concentrate on what I was saying.

I got home from work and Andrew was already home watching that blasted Bar results countdown clock.  We were excited but nervous about the results…even though we both knew that he would pass. He's a genius. But now, we had a baby that he needed to work for. The stakes were higher. 

We found out at 4:00 that day that he did indeed pass the Bar Exam. With flying colors! 

We had already planned for Andrew's parents to come up for the weekend to celebrate Andrew's passing. Like I said, we KNEW he would pass! When we found out about the baby I called my parents and asked them several times to come up for the evening and join us for a celebratory dinner. I really wanted to tell them in person! They kept turning me down…sheesh. At 4:01 my mom sent a text asking for Andrew's results. My response was "come up here and find out". She LOL'd but said they couldn't come up. This is what followed:

Me: Andrew passed! But that's not the only good news today!

Mom: ?

Me: (sent picture of ultrasound) Your grand baby is coming on Thanksgiving Day!

I do believe she said that she tried to call me, but dropped her phone. When she did call she was so happy. And they were at the car dealership…that's why they didn't come up! I talked to her and dad for a while. Good stuff, but I don't remember. Mom did say that she told the car dealer…that was the only stranger to know before 12 weeks. 

Doug and Cherri Came over that evening. We talked for a while and they settled in. Then we had Brody come out with a "big brother" sign. Doug was the first to see it and he cried. When Cherri saw it she was so excited! We spent the rest of the night celebrating the baby and Andrew! We had an amazing dinner at Ruth's Chris… Just yes. 

What. A. Day.