Welcome to the World, Baby Girl!

So on Tuesday, October 13th our baby girl decided to make a surprise entrance! Since I was one week past my due date, D and I had scheduled a birthday for Miller on the 15th. But I guess my body had it's own schedule.

After a questionable "was that my water breaking?" moment, we decided to go to the hospital to get checked out on Monday morning. We were 99% positive we would be returning to the house because I had absolutely no other signs of labor: no contractions, no dropping, no pain whatsoever. After sleeping in and having a nice breakfast, we made our way to the Labor & Delivery floor of Vanderbilt Hospital, joking that it would be a nice way to deliver a baby if it was the real thing.

One hour later I was prepped and ready for induction. My water HAD broken...which we couldn't believe! (Less than 15% of women have their water break before going into labor and reaching the hospital.) I was having contractions 5 minutes apart and not even feeling them. Thank God for good genes- this kind of painless labor also happened to my mother when I was born. I love you Mom!!!

20 hours, one episode of running out of the epidural, one allergic reaction to Penicillin, and 2 1/2 hours of pushing later....baby Miller came out to play! Face up, the only thing I remember is D laughing at the top of his lungs when her little chubby cheeks finally made an appearance. We had an overall GREAT experience and are really enjoying "learning" her. She definitely has a lot of personality. (And she looks JUST like D....what a cutie!)

I was back on my feet that day and doing spectacularly. (Well, other than the grotesque swelling that still makes my legs and feet look like giant sausages...ironic, isn't it? I thought that the last 6 months of cankles would be sufficient, but I guess my legs have other ideas.)

Stay tuned for more updates and pictures...and welcome to the world, baby girl!!

Baby Shower!

So it's been a little while since I've posted, but believe me, I've had a good reason....let me tell the story from the beginning.

BAM! Flash! Ears pop and my hair stands up on end. Yes, my house was struck by lightning (while I was upstairs on the couch, nevertheless) Of course Darren is out of town on business for the rest of the week and I'm left to freak out and make sure the house isn't on fire. (Thank God for good neighbors!) Anyhow, we officially lost 2 satellite receivers, 1 phone line, 1 digital phone, and the internet for about 2 weeks. So that is my excuse...if excuses are even necessary in the blogging world.

So I'm back on line and have some baby shower pictures to post! Thanks to Chrissy, Heather, and Gina for hosting! It was a beautiful day at Gina's beautiful house....I really couldn't have asked for more! Thanks to everyone again for making it such a special day!

Outside on Gina's deck...it was 70 degrees and sunny!

Presents! Look at the cute duckie feet!

Putting the stroller together....one of my favorite moments from the day, I don't think I've ever laughed so hard!

okay, so maybe I did laugh harder that day....Dale and Darren putting together the pack 'n' play

Southern Food & Wine Show

So this weekend my company kicked off our very first partnership with The Food Network at the "Southern Food & Wine Show." It was exhausting, but fun...and I'm really proud of us for pulling off such a top-notch event in so little time. (They gave us a little over 3 weeks to prepare!!) Next year is already on the schedule, so make your plans to come and mingle with winemakers and celebrity chefs from all over the country!

This was before I logged about 8 miles walking around Opryland

Yay for our Florida friends! So glad to have Chris (aka Snowflake) working in Nashville now.

Larry David Spills Seinfeld Reunion Secrets...

Okay...so I just stole this from E! Online....how exciting!

"The context is that for years I've been asked about a Seinfeld reunion," he says. "I would always say, 'No. There's not going to be a reunion show. We would never do that. It's a lame idea.' And then I thought it might be very funny to do that on Curb. I kept thinking about it. I started to think of different scenarios and how we can pull this off. I called Jerry and Jerry was game. I said, 'Well, I'll call the others.' And I did and we did it. So we're doing a Seinfeld reunion show on Curb."

What exactly will we see during the creation of a faux reunion special? "We're going to see writing. We'll see aspects of the read-through, parts of rehearsals. You'll see the show being filmed and you'll see it on TV. You won't see the entire show. You'll see parts of the show. You'll get an an idea of what happened 11 years later. It will be incorporated into regular Curb episodes, so the castmembers will be playing themselves on Curb while all of this is going on."

Though it seems this could take up the entire season, he explains, "The reunion is scattered through the season and I think the cast will be on five shows. All four won't be on all five shows. Jerry is on five shows; the others will be on at least four. The season finale will be about the reunion show. It could very well be [a one-hour episode], but I haven't finished editing it yet. But that's a good possibility."

Friends don't let friends drink friends....

So you might say that D and I are slightly obsessed with the new HBO series TrueBlood. If we don't catch the new episode on Sunday night, you can be sure it's on our DVR. I've even gone so far as to read the books (which I will warn you are addicting. I swore not to get ahead of the show, but now I'm on #6, go figure...)



But we both agreed that this is taking it a little too far.

The fictional beverage "TruBlood" has now been officially launched through HBO.com. You can order it from the website, but word on the street is that this sweet, fizzy, blood-orange flavored drink is already making its way to the Happy Hour scene for TruBlood vodka martinis and other fancy cocktails. Can you believe it?

I don't think we'll be seeing this in Nashville, but I have to admit I might try it if I did. For right now I think I'll have to pass on ordering it from the net...my weekly dose of True Blood is enough to get me through.

For those of you who are a little late catching onto this show, a little advice: watch from the beginning. And if you haven't already been convinced...maybe this pic of Ryan Kwanten (who plays stumbly southern sweetie Jason Stackhouse on the show) will tempt you to check it out:




What a cutie!

Get a load of this....

Meet Miller! So it's taken my latest supercreepybutawesome ultrasound pictures to get me out of my posting funk. So here's our little angel! (Of course, take a look at those hands...I think she's rubbing them together plotting how to jab me in the rib or roundhouse me in my spinal cord. She's going to be a handful!)

She has Darren's nose

We call this one the "Beauty Pageant" picture...her umbilical cord looks like a "Miss Tiny Womb" sash

Don't worry...she doesn't have a hole in her head, she's just squished up against my bellybutton in this pic.

And for those of you who got really creeped out by these pictures, let me assure you that I did too! There's a real baby in there!

Big Baby

Okay, so this is my greatest fear, people....

On the left- Meet Chelsea Rose Mackay, the largest baby ever born in Australia, weighing in at a hefty 14 lbs. She looks like a toddler sumo-wrestler! This is a picture taken in the infants ward of Townsland Hospital in Queensland, Australia, showing Chelsea next to a 2 lb. preemie named Melissa. This picture scares the crap out of me!