Hi friends...the tiniest tyke and I just got back from a 5 day trip to Philadelphia and Cape May New Jersey for Dawn's wedding.  I left last wednesday morning with my friend Sarah.  Our plane left at 7:20 somethign in the morning so I had to be up by 5ish and wouldn't you know that I was still 8 minutes late.  It is official...I can not ever EVER arrive anywhere on time. I blame my mother (sorry mom, we're just notoriously late).  Our flight to Atlanta (for our connecting flight) was fine, although the airplane was tiny and the Delta guy Sarah talked to told us he changed all of our seats so we would be sitting together. We later imagined him talking to sarah and typing arbitrarily or playing solitaire with absolutely no intentions of changing our seats and high fiving his fellow customer service buddies afterwards.  We had about and hour layover in Atlanta where we grabbed some lunch and then smooth talked the flight attendant to seat us next to each other.  She did.  Take that Delta guy.  We arrived in Philly (we can call it that now because we've been there :) around 2 something and headed for baggage claim.  More like baggage lame if you ask me.  Sarah's suit case never made the flight and we were forced to sit around for almost 2 more hours for the next plane to come in with her stuff.  Jessica and Kristen (our other friends that were there for the wedding) went to get our rental car and shortly thereafter we were headed for downtown philadelphia to pick up Dawn from work.  Ok, so before I go on let me just say that it's been years, like a lot of years, since Sarah, Rachel, Kristen, and Jessica have all spent time together as a group and for any significant length of time.  So you might think we would be all "Oh Kristen how's your job going" and Jessica "did you have a nice flight"....but it was not.  In fact within about 20 seconds of being in the car I think we had all screamed, cursed, laughed, and yelled shut up to each other (in the lovingest of ways).  It was as if no time at all had lapsed.  My college sweethearts hadn't changed a bit.  So after several near head on collisions, a lot of jerky stops (because the car had sensitive breaks, a likely story), and a couple of bird signs from our Philly friends we made it to Dawn!!!!!!!!!  We smooshed into the car and the wedding squeals began.  Later that night we went to Dawn's parents house and had a nice little cook out with the rest of her family.  We checked into our hotel that night and all got a restful night of beauty sleep.  The next morning we went to Dawn and Joey's apartment and then off to buy some stuff for the trip, shop at H & M, have a philly cheese steak.  It took us 855 hours to get to Geno's for this stupid cheese steak and we drove the ghetto to get there. I mean really...it was the ghetto.  Someone tried to rob a bank right in front of us. People got shot and there was blood everywhere.  (at least that's how I remember it).  After our bread, slimy sliced steak with cheese wiz (which I fed mostly to a nearby pigeon) we headed for Cape May. I rode with Dawn and got to do some catching up with her during the 2 hour drive.  We arrived at Dawn's hotel, checked in and then to ours which was just a few blocks down the beach.  Our hotel was awesome and right on the beach.  We had a beach view and I was so excited be in this gorgious setting with some of the sweetest most wonderful friends of my life. 

That night we had some dinner, walked out to the shore for a while, and then headed to bed (we were exhausted).  The next day we spend mostly on the beach.  I love the ocean.  I like the pacific ocean but this was really an awesome beach.  There was hardly anyone else there.  I collected some sea shells, stuck my toe in the water for .4 seconds because it was freezing.  The only two crazy enough to actually get in was Jennifer and Rickey (Dawns brother and sister in law).  They boogie boarded for about 5 minutes.  I got a nice uneven (mild) sunburn after about 5 or 6 hours in the sun.  It was probably my second favorite time of the whole trip (the laying on the beach part not the sun burn part).  That night we had dinner, saw Sex and the City...Sex in the City...whatever.  It was totally lame and Sarah and I sat next to a crazy obsessed fan who make commentary every 4 seconds.  We had a nice little bachelorette party back at our hotel that night and Dawn got some cute skivies.  The next day was a little rainy, some of the girls got their nails done, and then we started getting ready for the rehearsal dinner.  Later that night all of the non pregnant girls had a night out and from the pictures it looks like it was quite a night.  Ella and I decided to go back to the hotel, I sat on the couch and watched her make ripples in my belly.  Then I said "we are two hard core party anim"  I fell alseep before I could finish the sentence. 

the next day was so much fun, we moved Dawn to her new room, ate pizza, Jenn did our hair, got the bride ready to walk down her sandy aisle and before we knew it  it was time for the wedding.  This was truely one of the most beautiful wedding settings I have ever seen.  Dawn looked incredible.  The beach was perfect, the weather was perfect, and there wasn't a dry eye in the house after the ceremony.  The reception was so much fun and I really was sad to think the trip was already over.  My trip back was short, sweet, and uneventful...just they way I like them.  When I got into to tulsa I couldn't wait to see my sweet husband.  He later told me that when he picked me up he felt like he was coming back from war to his pregnant wife...only he didn't go anywhere I did.  (what?)

He painted the nursery and put our crib together while I was gone which I kind of told him to do but I was still surprised to come home and see it nearly completed. He did such a good job and it looks wonderful.  Ok, this was probably long and boring for most of you.   My next appointment is in a couple of weeks and I am really feeling pretty good right now. I put up some pictures of the beach belly in the photo album too!

Wow.  Today was indescribable...but I'll still go ahead and try.  This morning at 10:15 I had a sonogram of my little tyke.  I was super excited but my lower back started hurting right before she lubed me up with ultrasound goo.  I soon forgot all about the pain when she turned the screen for us to see what looked like a spine and arms and legs going in and out of fuzzy waves of gray, white, and black.  Our US tech was wonderful and talked us through every picture she took.  We saw the four chambers of the heart, the bladder, kidneys, stomach, legs, feet (which was my favorite part), at one point the baby moved an arm up to it's face like it was deep in thought which we all (my mom, mother inlaw and husband) thought was unbelievably adorable.  The US tech measured the head and showed up the baby's palate and lips.  From the angle it was laying we couldn't see a profile but the face straight on which honestly looks very alienesk but whatever...it's our cute alien.  So next she scrolled on down to the hoo ha area and asked if we would like to know the sex of the baby.  Which we did of course.  Before you she could say anything I looked and I saw that it was a little baby.................................GIRL!!!!!!  She confirmed my guess and showed me the girly parts.  I can't tell you how awesome this day was.  She is amazing.  They think she's about 11 ounces and her heart rate was 158.  Both moms cried, I laughed a lot, and Waylon asked a lot of questions.  I could tell he really enjoyed it too.  So we're having a baby girl and I couldn't be more in love. 

woah...I've done some serious slacking on the baby blog the past few weeks.  And I still have a retarded camera so no pictures but soon..I promise. 

Nothing terribly exciting to report, other than lots of baby wiggles, and ever increasing love for my fetus and OH I did have a super scary dream the other night.  Pregnancy dreams are WE IRD.  I had a dream that I took my baby out (the method of removal was unknown in the dream).  I put the baby in a diaper and tried to make it climb some stairs..soon therafter I realized that it had zero muscle strength and that it was probably harmful to have it outside of my body. So I tried to put it back in but I couldn't figure out how until I found the latch on my upper abdomen that was on a hinge, so I simply opened it up and put (the baby BOY) back in.  Oh but before I put it back in it smiled at me with a mouth full of teeth and made a gremlin noise. It was strange to say the least. 

I find out tomorrow (if I have a cooperative baby) if it's a wee tee or a hoo haa.  And I can no explain the level of exciment that comes with seeing your babies feet, hands, profile for the first time. 

I leave for Philadelphia on Wednesday for one of my very best friends wedding and pre events.  The wedding is actually in Cape May, NJ (on the beach woot woot) and I get to spend about 6 days with my favorite lover girls.  So, I'll post again after my appointment and then probably not again until after my trip.

I am excited to announce that yesterday I felt an undeniable baby kick.  I felt one at work that caught me by surprise and I had to ask myself..."was that what I think it was?". Then later that day while I was driving home I felt another one that was even stronger and bigger.  Last night Waylon and I took a tour of St. John's labor and delivery department.  They remodeled about a year ago and it looks wonderful.  The RN that lead the tour was super smart and had super smart answers to all of my questions.  St. John allows that initial nursing assessment to be done in the room (after the first breastfeeding attempt).  You can also sign to have the baby room in with you.  They have labor tub but you can't give birth in it..which sucks because I really wanted to do that.  I might just get in and then refuse to get out :)  You labor, deliver, and recover in the same room which I like.  I feel pretty good about our choice (or rather Blue Cross Blue Sheilds choice).