Lemme Lemme Upgrade Ya

We have gone through a serious technology upgrade at the Fields house. Thank goodness! In preparation for Baby Fields, we have decided only the best when it comes to documenting our little one's new life.

Baby or not, we really were in the market for these items. My Dell laptop that I used all through college and grad school has just about hit the bucket. With tax-free weekend in Tennessee, we

saw this as the perfect time to upgrade to a Mac. Also, my little digital camera, while great and only a year old, just did not live up to my future obsession of taking pictures of our first born.

So check out the before and after photos...

BEFORE

Dell Inspiron circa 2003

AFTER

Macbook with all the bells and whistles

Another incentive this past weekend was the fact that we could get a free iPod Touch with our new computer. Why, thanks!

BEFORE

iPod nano

AFTER

iPod Touch

Now for the camera. I can't thank Leslie enough for helping us on this one and selling us her "old" camera! There are many pluses to having friends who are professional photographers. :)

BEFORE

Panasonic digital camera... we'll still use this occasionally because it has video too

AFTER

Canon 40d... there are no words for how great this camera is

50 mm fixed lens... gets great shots!

I want to get an additional lens for the camera, but good things come to those who wait. I shopped around like crazy for all of the items you see above (well, except the free iPod). In fact, we went last winter and picked out the Mac we wanted, but knew it would be smarter to wait. Because we waited, we got it tax-free, with a student discount (technically I'm a student for a few more days), and a free iPod to go along with it.

Can I also just say that Mac has the best customer service ever? First of all, the guy at the store in the winter told me to wait because better deals would come around. He also told me I didn't need the Macbook Pro unless I wanted several specific programs that take up a lot of space (none of which I wanted). When we went this past weekend, a girl helped us. She said the same thing, and also encouraged us to just get the basics... we can always upgrade later. I really appreciated this sales approach, considering we were prepared for them to try to sell us the store. It was really great, and made me like Apple even more.

We're enjoying our new toys, and can't wait to take more pictures and play with them in iPhoto. We are officially geeks over our new technology!

14 Weeks

The baby is the size of a lemon!

This week, the baby is busy sucking its thumb, wiggling its toes, and growing lanugo (thin hair all over its body) to stay warm. The liver, kidneys, and spleen continue to develop. I am almost positive I felt the baby move the other day. Babycenter says I won't feel it until 16 weeks, but if you are thin, you can feel it sooner. I swear I felt three little kicks!

And here I am!

Heat Wave

109 degrees in my car! Seriously? That is too hot. Glad I am due in the dead of winter!

Moving On

I love the house we live in. Brian bought it 4 and a half years ago. It is on a quiet little street with nice neighbors. I moved in a little over 2 years ago when we got back from our honeymoon. Brian and I are very old fashioned. I had a dream in my head of not living together until we were husband and wife. Thankfully, my parents let me live with them until that day came.

On August 3, 2007 (3 years ago today!) Brian proposed to me in our house. We celebrated our first Christmas there and have so many special memories in our house. After many backyard parties, holidays, lazy Saturdays, and overnight guests, we have officially put our house on the market.

If you know of anyone looking for a house in our area, please send it on! Here's all the info and pictures... Shiny and clean and ready for potential new owners.

Listing Price: $138,000

• Great East Memphis location in Colonial Acres - convenient to everything!
• 3 bedrooms, 1.5 bathrooms, Living Room, Dining Room, Kitchen
• Corner Lot (.27 acre)
• Central Heat/Air Conditioning with Built In Humidifier
• 30 year Algae Resistant Roof
• Heated/Air Conditioned 2-car Garage
• Insulated Garage Doors
• Updated Circuit Panel
• New Hot Water Heater and Gutters
• Alarm System
• Security Doors
• Updated Interior, Neutral Paint
• Newly Refinished Hardwood Floors
• French Doors in Kitchen
• New Kitchen Appliances (Purchased in 2009)
• Separate Laundry Area
• Spacious Attic
• 6 Person Hot Tub
• 6 Foot Privacy Fence
• Large Backyard with 2 Patios, Nice Landscaping
• Large Storage Shed with Electricity
  

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

13 Weeks

Woohoo!!! Time to celebrate because the first trimester is over! I hear that the first is the worst by far, and the second is the best, so I am looking forward to hopefully getting a little more energy and being able to go back to eating normally.

So, the baby is the size of a peach!

The baby now has its own unique fingerprints (how cool!), if we did an ultrasound we could see the gender because it is now clearly visible, and the baby can suck its thumb. I am already amazed by this kid.

And here I am!

13 down, 27 to go!

Telling the grandparents

We told our parents they were going to be grandparents on Father's Day. At this point, we were about 8 weeks along. This was exciting for us, because this is the first grandchild on both sides. For several weeks, we couldn't decide how we wanted to tell them. After bouncing a bunch of ideas around, we finally decided on this...

In case you can't see it, it is a Father's Day card with our first ultrasound picture inside. The card says "Happy Father's Day! You're going to be a GRANDPA!"

We went to my parents house first. The whole ride over I thought I was going to be sick. I was so nervous to tell them! I don't know, I can't really explain it. I knew they would be shocked and were not expecting this, so I was prepared for blank stares and "are you serious? no really, are you really serious?" So, holding true to my predictions, that was pretty much what we got from my parents and brothers. It was classic. Before this, my parents had not ever mentioned a word to me about having a child, or giving them a grandchild. I felt no pressure, which meant Brian and I could start a family when we were ready to start a family. This is probably why shocking them with our news was so fun. Personally, a month later, I think they are still in shock.

Several hours later, we headed over to Brian's parents house. Remember what I said about my family? Now think about the complete opposite. That pretty much sums up the Fields' and their reactions. They always talked about how they wanted us to start a family, so I knew that they wouldn't be as shocked, but instead, start celebrating pretty much immediately. It was pretty funny. Especially since it took Brian's little sister a few minutes to figure out what an ultrasound picture meant... haha! Maybe we should have just come out and said "we're pregnant!" instead of implying it :)

After we told them, we made them promise to keep it a secret for a few more weeks. Like most first time moms, I was freaking out the majority of the first trimester that something was going to happen to the baby and we were going to lose it, even though we saw a heartbeat and I was experiencing all the normal symptoms. I just wanted to make sure everything was going to be okay. Making our families promise to keep a secret as big as this was really not nice of us. We pretty much received a daily phone call from both sides of the family asking if they could tell anyone yet, OR "just let us know when it's okay to tell." This was torture for them. We think that the second time around, we'll wait longer... until we are ready for the world to know.

Now that the world DOES know, we feel relieved and finally excited about the reality of being parents. Breaking the news was fun for us, but having something so sacred and special that just the two of us got to share for a little while was probably the best :)

The First Ultrasound

After telling Brian, a few weeks went by before our first doctor's appointment. The day of the appointment we were both really nervous. We just wanted to hear a good strong heartbeat.

The nurse called us back to ultrasound. Brian got to sit next to me as I had a vaginal ultrasound... his first real experience in a woman doctor's office and this is what he experiences. I told him to get used to it real quick. This would be nothing compared to what he will eventually see. His concern for me was sweet though haha!

Quickly after the ultrasound begin, we both saw a big beating heart on the screen! I lost it and cried through the whole thing. I had no idea how emotional it was going to be. Brian just kept saying wow over and over again. At that moment, I felt like I became a mom. It was crazy. I will always remember that day.

Here is our baby's first picture at just 6 weeks with a heart rate of 143!