Catching up...

As we were ending the month of January, I realize it's been over a month since I've last updated! Ooops.. :) Although we have been ridiculously busy this month, only a few things are different. I'll start off with the most recent happening... and the scariest. A little over a week ago (January 23rd) a tornado came TOO close to our home in the middle of the night. UAB woke us up with a call, text, AND email at about 3:15am...Glad I signed up for that automated thing when I first enrolled! Came in handy! (Not that both sets of our parents  and some of our friends would have failed to wake us up or anything, but still..any extra can't hurt.) Wes turned on the tv and I immediately got my blanket and pillow and doggie and sat my hind-end in the closet...it was still pretty far away from us, but I am terrified of storms!! Once we heard it was getting close to Center Point, Wes got in the closet with me. He was still not unnerved by the storm and was trying to keep me calm. A few minutes later our lights started flickering and once they and the tv went out...we heard the wind. It was AWFUL and LOUD and I can't even describe the way it spooked me. This is what got Wes to the back of the closet with me. We were trying to connect our legs and cross them together in case the wind tried to pull us apart or something, but thankfully, it didn't even poke a hole in our roof. We had zero damage!! Thank God! But that wasn't the case for about half of our neighborhood.
It's still so eerie to drive into our neighborhood and not to see the two story houses that used to be at the front of our entrance...they are completely gone! Just like that..makes me sick to my stomach that it was that close to me, my husband, our first home, Pip, and my baby!! While we heard the wind screaming and the walls were rumbling as the tornado was happening, Wes and I were praying and squeezing each other and Pip. The louder the wind got, the louder Wes screamed at me to, "PRAY LOUDER!!" haha! It's funny thinking about it now, but he was serious as a heart attack!! I did as I was told too! And boy, do we believe that is what kept us safe that morning- God's favor and protection. I just kept thinking, I am SO glad Teddy Graham isn't here yet, bc I would have been even more of a nervous wreck with that baby outside of my body. I know storms will come once he/she is here, but goodness I pray they are never that close to us again!!!! I can't begin to tell you  how many times I've thanked God for keeping us and our family safe. It was a weird, SCARY feeling...but makes us realize what is important in life and what's not. I kept saying "I don't even have my rings on!!!"...not that that mattered in the long run, but I'm so thankful that I still have my wedding rings! And everything else I own.
Changing subject to a few days before the tornado, but Wes and I heard Teddy Graham's heartbeat for the first time!! SWEETEST thing I have experienced thus far. Made it seem real that there IS a baby growing in my tummy! Not that the ultrasound, sickness, and daily app updates on my phone haven't made it seem real, but this put a stamp on it. I heard the sweet sound of my baby's heart--the same heartbeat I'll hear when I put my head on it's chest when I'm loving on my baby once they are finally here! We heard the hb on Wesley's birthday, Jan. 19th at about 10:00 at night. We were going to wait to hear it at the doc for the first time, but as soon as he brought that at-home doppler home for the first time, we couldn't resist. Aaand figured it'd be pretty cool to hear it on his birthday. Aaaand thought it'd be neat to video it. Aaaand thought it be cool for it to be just Wes and I there. Needless to say, it was super special. So glad we ended up doing it that way. I'll love to show Teddy Graham the video one day. Hopefully he/she will be able to tell how excited their mommy and daddy were about every phase of their life, starting from the beginning.
I am 11 weeks and 2 days as of today. Since about 9 1/2 weeks, the sickness has really eased up! Instead of an everyday battle, it's become about a 1 or 2 day a week battle and doesn't last all day anymore. THANK GOD! I am starting to have a bad headache every other day or so, but I would much rather that than tossing my cookies every time I ate. My appetite is coming back too! I still can't eat just anything, but it's much better than it was! Things are looking up, and I'm getting MORE and MORE excited about the weeks to come! I'm so close to my 2nd trimester, I can taste it!
 This is going to be the best spring/summer ever, and I'm so ready for it! :)