Pregnancy diary

A sweet friend gave me this pregnancy diary/journal. It's been great and something I probably would have never purchased for myself. I'm so glad she was thoughtful enough to anticipate what a expecting mom might need. I highly recommend if you are looking for an easy to use maternity record book that's cute, basic, and not at all complicated or overwhelming.

I love the way there are small spaces for photos and for journaling - mainly to fill in the key details. It's not overwhelming (like trying to fill in your life story) but a nice, easy-to-follow way to keep track of the special details. I've actually been able to keep up to date pretty well with each stage, big event, etc. I doubt Trey will every look back at this, but it will be nice to remember and reference, especially for any future pregnancies. It's been great for this journalism major mom who never ever journals. Thanks, Caroline!

Birthdays

Both my dad and youngest brother have birthdays in February. We were able to get together for both and actually managed to snap a few pics. Here's the gang at Johnny Rocket's (because yours truly was craving a hamburger) for Ryan's 18th birthday before we went to the Comedy Club (yes, I'm not joking, the Comedy Club in Hoover) to see our favorite comedian, John Pinette. He's hilarious. Just pull up one of his stand up routines on YouTube. Anything about a buffett will have you rolling in five minutes. If not, maybe it's just a Summerville thing. But this guys can make us laugh like no other. It's clean comedy, mostly cracking fat jokes. This was actually our second time to see him live. We're slightly addicted. And we don't normally do comedy or stand up. We just happened upon this comedian and have made him somewhat of an honorary member of the family.

A couple weeks back we had a small party at our house to celebrate dad's birthday. Mom made a delicious chocolate dessert.

We opted for two candles instead of 57. Dad was a good sport about it.

All in a Name

Baby Boy Adams has a name! We can't wait for the arrival of our son,

Robert Stephen "Trey" Adams III

It is very special, even a great privilege, to be able to pass along a family name. Trey will be named for his father, paternal grandfather, and even his paternal great-grandfather (who is a Robert though not a Stephen).

With the help and patience of my parents, in-laws, grandmother, and cousin, I was able to go back five generations on each side to create a family tree for Trey to hang in his nursery. There's any a little extra space at the top should we be blessed with other children in the future, so hopefully our tree will grow over time.

God has been teaching Robert and I more about what it truly means to be in the family of God as sons and daughters of the King. Our church this past weekend held our annual outreach conference, this year focused on adoption - primarily our adoption in Christ and the church's call to care for orphans, widows, and others who are the "least of these."

Though slightly different than our normal focus on global missions, it was a refreshing time of gospel reminders. Foundational to our call to care for orphans and widows, whether through adoption or other means, is the truth that we are all orphans adopted into the family of God, made sons and daughters of the King, heirs with all rights and privileges thereunto appertaining. How? By Christ becoming an orphan on our behalf, forsaken by his father, cast aside.

What better motivation to serve the least of these? What better picture of salvation, the gospel in our lives, than the physical adoption of those in need? The bringing in of someone who has no family, no place, no known heritage into a family unit built on Christ and a community of believers through the local church. This is done not by those who have means serving those without - but by fellow orphans, once enemies of God, undesirable yet chosen for holiness, made righteous in Christ.

The doctrine of our adoption in Christ is just as fundamental in scripture as our justification and sanctification. What a great reminder of that truth - to be God's sons and daughters. It was also a special reminder of God's covenant nature. We serve a covenant-making, covenant-keeping God who promises to be the father of us and our children.

Robert and I look forward to Trey's baptism into the church, the visible sign and seal of God's covenant to him, as we - in humility and faith - acting in obedience take God at his word to be both our father and Trey's, look to God for Trey's salvation as we do for our own.

In these truths, as sinners saved by God's great grace, we have the motivation to seek justice, the welfare of orphans and widows, and act in obedience to care for those less fortunate whom God as put in our lives - for our good and his great glory. What a privilege.

20 Weeks

I can't believe we are Half Way There to meeting Baby Boy Adams!!! Only 140 days to go.


New developments with baby this week:

• Baby weighs about 10 1/2 ounces now. He's also around 6 1/2 inches long from head to bottom and about 10 inches from head to heel — the length of a banana or cantaloupe.
• Permanent teeth are starting to form behind his baby teeth.
• He seems able to differentiate between morning, afternoon and evening and starts to become more active at certain times than at others.
• He's swallowing more these days, which is good practice for his digestive system.

New developments with mom this week:

• Your uterus is now about in line with your belly button. From now on, the top of your uterus will grow toward your rib cage at a rate of one centimeter a week.
• You've likely gained around 10 pounds. Expect to gain another pound or so each week from now on.
• Make sure you're getting enough iron. During pregnancy, your body needs more iron to keep up with your expanding blood volume, as well as for your growing baby and the placenta. Red meat is one of the best sources of iron for pregnant women. (Good thing I ate that rib plate at Full Moon BBQ.)

(Technically I'm 21 weeks in two days....so this post is a little behind. Also closer to 21 weeks in the pics above.)

Our Valentine's Day

This year we forewent our usual night out at one of Birmingham's many nice restaurants for a Valentine's Day date at Buy Buy Baby. (For those of you who haven't heard of this store (it's new to Birmingham), it's a Bed Bath and Beyond partner store dedicated solely to baby stuff. Think of it as Babies R Us' larger, big brother - on crack.)

Though we didn't really plan it, this turned out to be a pretty wise move on our part. Do you know how many less crazy, stressed, deer-in-the-headlights because "holy crap do I really need all this stuff????" parents-to-be are in this mega baby store on a Monday night, let alone the Monday night that happens to be Valentine's Day? About as many as you can count on one hand.

We practically had the store to ourselves. Which was great because it honestly takes a very long time to wade through all the options for strollers, travel systems, pack n plays, swings, bouncers, etc., etc., ....EVEN when you have an amazing husband who has already done all the research online and has his Consumer Reports app pulled up on his iphone anyway so you can compare the ratings for the Graco, Chicco, and Peg Perego infants carseats side by side -- while you literally try to lift each one after the other to figure out which is lightest. It doesn't really matter because apparently you put an 8 to 35 lb baby in them anyway and then the light factor goes straight out the window.

Case in point of how overwhelming this store can be: the photo at the beginning of this post. That's just the stroller and carseat section. But wait, there's not just one type of stroller - there's umbrella strollers, jogging strollers, and your travel system that's the special stroller that also holds your carseat. Then there's the carseat itself. You can opt for an infant carrier that will be outgrown in a year or a carseat that can grow with your child. Plus, there's at least eight different brands for all these options. It's a little overwhelming to say the least. Not to even mention the whole WALL of pacifiers (PACIFIERS!) they have on display!

But, we survived. And managed to put together a decent registry for Baby Boy Adams, primarily because my sweet friends are throwing me a baby shower on March 13 which is less than a month away, thus the need to get those registries in place.

It is much easier to register when you have great friends who are experienced moms that are willing to share their wisdom and guide you to the stuff you really need, the "can't live withouts," versus the "nice-to-haves" or "completely useless," "total waste of money," and "just takes up space" items.

Case in point: we registered for two ultimate crib sheets. Not just one. Great moms swear by them. We also decided against a travel system and instead opted for the Chicco infant carseat with the baby trend light and easy to collapse stroller base. Too many parents had told us they never use their travel system because it's just too bulky and heavy and nine times out of ten the mom can't carry it and put it in her truck by herself anyway, which renders it a pain at best and an expensive useless baby item at worse. (Some of you out there may love your travel systems. That's awesome. I honestly couldn't figure out how to collapse most of them, so this girl's got to go with what works for her.)

The surprise of the evening? How much fun we had registering - selecting the best items for us, being confident in our research, and in what seemed a very real way preparing for Baby Boy Adams, who is going to be here before we know it.

And it all somehow happened to be romantic too. Nothing will make you more thankful for your dear husband than seeing all the time and effort he puts into preparing to welcome his baby boy and ensuring he is well taken care of - all while calming his hyperventilating wife who is realizing for the first time she can't shop on her feet for more than two hours without having back and feet pain from the eight extra pounds that have amazed in her midsection.

So even if we didn't get that night out a Highlands, or have a gourmet home-cooked meal on our fine china, or even get to swing by Chick-fil-a for Robert's favorite chocolate milk shake like I had planned because we closed out the store and, well, by then even Chick-fil-a was closed for the evening....we still enjoyed a very special Valentine's Day as parents - who get even more excited about the coming arrival of their little man.

Baby Jack

Leigh and Justin brought their sweet (and brand new) baby boy, Jack, by to meet us a week ago Friday. Leigh and I were college roommates, and I can't wait for our little guys to be able to play together. Jack was just precious - so tiny and small it seemed to me (perhaps I haven't held a newborn in a while???) - but so precious. He had the cutest expressions. What a sweet little man! Welcome to the world, Jackson Isaac Stricklin!

Gender Reveal Party

We decided to host a fun gender reveal party for our families to reveal the big news of whether Baby Adams is a boy or girl! We thought it would be more fun if we also didn't know the gender until the big reveal at the party.

To pull this off, we decided to order a cake that would either have pink or blue icing in the middle. Our sweet friend Laura graciously called Edgars Bakery for me after getting a text from Robert's phone which the ultrasound technician sent to her earlier that afternnon during our doctor's appointment. She actually called three bakeries/bakers for us since we ordered cakes for Robert's family in Florence, South Carolina and Lexington, Kentucky too. With the wonderful technological wonders of skype and three-way calling from our iphones, we were able to all share in the moment together - and then enjoy delicious chocolate cake! Hopefully I can get some pics of the other two parties and share them on the blog too.

I decided it would be fun to decorate with a pink/blue theme and set out to find all the fun pink/blue candies, sweets, goodies, drinks, and decorations I could round up.

We asked everyone to wear the color representing the gender they thought Baby Adams would be. From day one of this pregnancy, the vast majority of our friends and family predicted girl over boy. Our blog voters did too. You can see that reflected in the size of "Team Pink," which included my parents, grandmother, and brother David and his girlfriend Emily - who drove up from Tuscaloosa to be with us on a Monday night for the party.

"Team Blue" - my brothers Ryan and Kyle

The star of the party, Baby Adams at 19.5 weeks in two ultrasound pics taken earlier that afternoon. Baby's growth measured in right at the 51 percentile (talk about average!) with a weight of eight ounces and a length of about six inches. We were so grateful for a healthy report, even though Baby was face down the whole time, which resulted in strange looking ultrasound pics with nice shots of the spinal cord.

Ready for the big reveal - time to cut the cake!

Trying to figure out exactly what color that pastel icing was....

It's blue...IT'S A BOY!!!!!!

I think there was as much excitement and screaming from the speakerphone Robert was holding as there was in the room.

We can't wait to welcome our little man in July!!!