The Story of a New Wife

Last week I started on my weekly doctor's visits so yesterday was the 2nd weekly visit.  The doctor had ordered an ultrasound at the last appointment because I am measuring about 1.5 weeks small. I wasn't very worried about this because I had been measuring small  in November and everything was ok, but I became a little more apprehensive for the appointment since Damon wasn't going to be able to make it (having him at the ultrasound appointments is a great comfort to me).  Luckily though the trial he was the lead attorney for got continued so he was able to attend.  Even better is that everything looks good with the baby.  She is measuring slightly small, but nothing out of the norm.  The ultrasound tech estimated her weight to be around 5lbs 15 oz. which means that if the estimate is correct and she gains .5 lb a week she should be more than 7 lbs when she is born, so perfectly normal.  I am a little more than 1 cm dilated, but still thick (sorry TMI).  

My coworkers told me yesterday that they are hosting a shower for me on the 18th so I'm looking forward to that.  

Last night Damon and I attended a class at the hospital where we are delivering.  The class was conducted by a Pediatrician and Pediatric Dentist.  The class was helpful, but not overly so.  The information the pediatrican went over was basic and was covered in the infant care books I have read.  I do think that Damon found the information to be very helpful though since he hasn't been reading along with me.  :) The pediatric dentist covered a wide variety of topics which was very useful.  I'm glad we went to the class, now all we have to do is finalize who the pediatrician will be.

Tomorrow is my off Friday and lots of baby related tasks are planned for this weekend.  Tomorrow Damon and I are going to take our cars to the police station for car seat checks.  We have to put together the pack-n-play with the bassinet that we will be putting in our bedroom for when the baby first comes home.  I hope to get the curtains and shelves hung in the nursery and then finish washing the baby's things.  Everything is washed except for her clothes.  Then I have to pack my hospital bag and I will be getting my last haircut before the baby arrives.  Should be a busy weekend!

I have to say that I am starting to get very anxious for the baby to come.  For me pregnancy has been really easy, with the exception of morning sickness during the first trimester, and I never thought  that I would get to the point where I would rush the last few weeks of pregnancy away.  Now though I find myself counting down the days until my due date and praying that she doesn't arrive late.  I have been so uncomfortable lately and am just ready to meet our baby!!  So after this weekend when we get all of the last minute baby preparation completed, you can come at any time baby!

So my New Year’s resolution to keep this journal more up to date didn’t even last a day. Well, since this week marks the start of February and I always look at the beginning of the month as a new start I’ll try again. ( An update )

Happy New Year!

One of my goals for 2006 is to actually keep this journal up to date.  With everything that was going on towards the end of the year with my family and a job that was keeping me way too busy I really did not feel up to posting.  All of that changes this year though.  The wedding is a little over 9 months away so lots is starting to go on withthat.

I hope that everyone had a wonderful holiday season.  Thank you to everyone who responded to my last post.  I really appreciate all of your thoughts.

Update to come tomorrow.  Off to watch the National Championship game.

I have to post one wedding related thing right now though.  The beautiful STDs that the very talented Ashley designed for Damon and I.  We are absolutely thrilled with them.

The Ring

Excuse the fist I am making.

~Karen

No wedding planning journal would be complete without a wedding recap so here is mine.  A lot of the background information is just copied from my WC journal.

Boy Meets Girl

Damon and I met over 5 years ago when we were juniors at the University of Florida. I wish I had some really romantic story to tell you how we met, but we basically met in a bar. It was the first week of the fall semester and my roommate and some of her sorority sisters, who I was also friends with, decided to go out to a bar. At first I really didn’t want to go, (My sorority had just finished Rush the night before so I was really tired and just wanted to stay home and relax) but she convinced me to go so I did. Little did I know that this would be the night that I would meet my FH. When we got to the bar one of my friends saw some guys that she was friends with that were celebrating a birthday so we went and sat down with them. I ended up sitting right next to Damon. The funny thing is that we really didn’t talk that much that night. Instead, he talked to one of my friends and I talked to his friends. At the end of the night one of his friends invited all of us girls to a party that his fraternity was having later that week. It turns out that Damon was in the same fraternity. The night of the party my sorority was also having our beginning of the school year party, so some of my sorority sisters and I decided that after we were at our party for a while we would go to Damon’s fraternity’s party. Once we got there the first person that I run into is Damon. This was pretty amazing since there were at least 200 people at this party. We immediately started talking and continued most of the night. At the end of the night he asked for my phone number. The next week we went on our first date and the rest is history. We have been together every since.

Here we are at a Gator Game this season:

and me at a wedding last summer

The Proposal

October 8, 2004

Friday was my off Friday from work so I headed up to Gainesville on Thursday night. I was really excited for the weekend because a lot of our friends that we haven’t gotten to see much lately were going to be in town for the big game. The possible proposal was definitely on my mind, but I actually wasn’t as worried about it coming as I had been. Damon had mentioned to me earlier in the week that we were going to dinner on Friday night, but I really didn’t think much of it since we usually go to dinner at least once over the weekend and when I asked him what I should wear he said I didn’t need to get dressed up. I have to admit though that in the back of my mind I was hoping that it was going to be the night. During the day on Friday, Damon went to class while I stayed at his apartment and studied. He had told me to be ready to go out by 6:00 that night and absolutely would not tell me where we were going. At that point I was almost positive that it was going to happen that night and oh my gosh did that day drag on. I never thought that 6:00 was going to come. When 6:00 finally came, we first stopped at the law school to pick something up. Damon kept apologizing that we had to stop there before we went out, but it wasn’t a big deal to me. Then we headed off to the restaurant. In my head I was trying to figure out where we going, but he totally threw me off. He drove the opposite way that I thought. When we finally got to the restaurant, it turned out to be the restaurant that we went to on our first date. We had a really nice dinner and talked a lot about our relationship and the memories that we have of the past five years. After dinner we headed off to my favorite place for dessert. Again we just sat and talked for awhile. Once we were done there we headed back to Damon’s apartment. I walked the dog while he stayed back in the apartment. When I got back inside the lights were all dimmed and the movie that we saw on our first date was playing. Damon had poured glasses of wine for us. At that point I knew that it was going to happen that night. I was so incredibly excited that the movie seemed to drag on for days. When it was over, Damon told me that he had something for me and he started to read a letter to me that he had written (I could tell that he was really nervous). It was the most romantic letter that I have ever heard. Filled with all of the reasons that he loves me (he said that he had been working on it for awhile). About one minute into it I was crying. When he finished the letter, he got down on one knee and asked me to be his wife!! I was so excited that I handed him the wrong hand to put the ring on. He looked at me funny and I realized what I had done and gave him my left hand. The ring is even more beautiful than I had imagined. The stone looks absolutely gorgeous in the setting, but even more importantly, Damon I are engaged. EEEEEEEEEEEEE!!
That night I couldn’t sleep at all. I couldn’t wait to call our parents and tell them the news. When we did the next morning, they were all so excited for us. My mom cried, his mom wanted to start planning right away. The weekend was definitely one of the best in my life. We had an absolute blast telling the news to all of our friends before and after the game on Saturday. Everyone was so excited for us. It is definitely an amazing feeling to be engaged and to call Damon my fiancé now. I catch myself still calling him my boyfriend though. I guess after five years old habits are hard to break.

Next up pictures of the ring and wedding plans.  I still have to transfer my pictures from snapfish to photobucket.

~Karen

So many hours later I think my journal looks like I wanted it to.  I have to say finally figuring out how to customize my journal made me so happy, maybe too happy :).

~Karen

So I'm officially starting my LJ. I'm not very good at journaling but I'm hoping that the privacy of this journal once it is friends only will allow me to feel more free to post what is going on in my life. Being engaged has definitely been an exciting time in my life. The changes that I have expereinced since commiting to spend the rest of my life with my FH have been very significant, more so than I could have ever imagined. I hope that this will be a place where I can talk about those changes, wedding planning, working, getting my MBA, and life in general.

Next up the story of my FH and I and the wedding recap.