Today was suppose to be another big day.  It was, but it didn’t start out as expected.  We were suppose to hear the heartbeat using a doppler listening device.  Well, Baby Woodruff was not cooperating today.  Evidently, he/she has not moved up and out of the pelvic area just yet.  This makes it hard for the doppler device to pick up a heartbeat and makes for two very nervous parents-to-be.  The doctor says this is normal and that by our next visit, we will be able to hear the heartbeat.  Great…another thing I have to wait for.  😉

Jaime warned us that it would be hard to find the heartbeat and said it may take a little while.  After a couple of minutes of trying, the doctor decided to do an ultrasound so she could make sure everything was fine.  Again, it took a little while.  Victoria and I were starting to get nervous and then all of a sudden there he/she was — big head and the fluttering heartbeat!  That was a major relief for the both of us.

Previously, I promised that we would have the next ultrasound on the camera phone but I ran in technical problems this go around.  So, no videos this time either.  Most of you are probably going to think I am technically challenged and probably don’t understand how I can hold down my job if I can’t get my simple camera phone to work.

Victoria tells me I need to practice more with it.  Honestly, it recorded this time but when I tried to read the file from the disk it said it was corrupt.  If I have some free time, I’ll see if I can somehow get the files off the disk.

For now, just imagine a big head on the left hand side of the ultrasound screen and the heart just fluttering away.

Victoria weighed 109 lbs today and her blood pressure was 110/60.

Victoria and I attended Jaime’s baby shower this weekend.  Jaime is the girl that works with me and has moved into our neighborhood.

Jaime knows that I keep up with pregnancy information and that I am not afraid to ask her stupid questions about being pregnant.  She had a few friends at her shower as well as her mom, mother-in-law, and some other people we both know from work.  They started to play those baby shower games and I joined in (my first mistake).  The first one was to venture a guess on the baby’s weight, length, and birth date.

How hard could this be?  3 women went before me and I had inside information from Jaime per our baby discussions at work.  I couldn’t screw this one up.  Right?  WRONG!  It gets to me (the only guy sitting in the room — her husband had stepped into the kitchen — smart man).  Everyone is looking and listening and I say, “19 pounds 4 ounces”.  I didn’t even realize what I said.  Jaime shoots me a look and says “19 pounds” and I say “yeah”.  Then I realize how stupid I just sounded.  All my credibility with the women and my wife was wiped away in an instant!

So, let me explain…  I intended to say 19 inches and 7 pounds 4 ounces.  That all merged together into “19 pounds 4 ounces”.  Oh well, everyone had a good laugh at my expense.

A side note, I did horrible in “guess the type of baby food” — I got one right (and I cheated on that one).  I guess I have a lot of learning to do.

It is funny to watch how Victoria has approached announcing her news to people. One of those times was when she announced it to our dentist. Sure, most of you are saying that is no big deal and probably necessary (so no x-rays will be taken), but let me give you the whole story…

It was Friday, May 25th and it was only about 6 hours since our visit to the doctor’s office and the “official confirmation”. We were in Maggie Moo’s in City Center getting some ice cream. Dr. Blaney our dentist was standing in front of us. Victoria said hello and decided to tell Dr. Blaney she was pregnant. He congratulated us and then treated us to some ice cream. Ok, what was wrong with this? Well, consider for a moment that we hadn’t told anyone in our families just yet (that was still two days away). All I could think of was that her parents might run into Dr. Blaney the next day and he might say something about seeing Victoria and her being pregnant. Thankfully, that didn’t happen and the secret was safe.

It is funny to watch her when she tells people. She kind of has a knack for just dropping it on people. I guess there is really no ice breaker when it comes to announcing your pregnancy to friends, co-workers, or even strangers. Maybe you can start with…”I’ve been really tired lately” or “I’ve been urinating a lot lately” — and then drop it on them — “I am pregnant”….

Or maybe Victoria’s approach is the best way…

I mentioned in an earlier blog entry that we take walks around our neighborhood. We used to jog quite a bit around the neighborhood and most of the active people in the neighborhood know who’s who. We don’t actually know any of the “regulars” names but say hi as we walk or jog by. There is one lady that we see jogging all the time. Since we see her all the time, its almost as though she is a friend of ours. Remember, we don’t know her name. Well, we went for a walk tonight and this lady was out walking with a couple of her friends. As we approached her she says, “Are you walking to keep it fit.” [Pointing to Victoria’s stomach.] I smiled and Victoria smiled. Then I looked quickly at Victoria’s stomach to see if there was a neon sign on it that said “Baby on board”. Nope, no sign. Ok, maybe she had grown several inches since I last checked. Nope, no large increase in the stomach. Heck, she is still hardly showing. So needless to say, I had a perplexed look on my face. How did she know Victoria was pregnant?!?!?

Well, I turned to Victoria and asked her how the lady knew. She informed me that during Victoria’s walk this morning, this lady was out jogging. Some quick background information about this lady — this lady normally trains for marathons and when she runs she is in a zone and does not say hi too often or acknowledge you’re there. She is really zoned in on her jogging. Well, sweet and glowing Victoria was out taking her morning walk as the lady was jogging. All in a flash, Victoria said, “Hi, hi. How are you? I am pregnant.” The lady didn’t even stop, but turned and said “Congratulations!”. That’s my wife and the future mother of our child. Loves to share her pregnancy with anyone and everyone no matter what they are doing.

The most we have ever said to this lady in the past was “hi” or “how are you”. Now Victoria has decided to drop the “big one” on her.

I got a laugh out of this and we are still laughing now as I am typing this entry.

As most of you have figured out, we have not been keeping up with the blog too much lately. We have had 3 weddings in the past 5 weeks and it has been keeping us busy.

We have one more wedding later this month and then we can get back to enjoying our time together as parents-to-be.  Our next wedding won’t be until late in October and then we will probably take a break until next April.

Victoria has been sneaking a couple of my brownie bars that I eat for a snack at work.  I am convinced the baby is going to be a chocolate lover.

To stay healthy, Victoria has taken up walking.  She misses running but continues to try to exercise as much as she can.  She takes walks almost on a daily basis in the morning.  We also walk in the evenings a few times a week.

She went to Dyna-Moms for a 2nd time last week and plans to go at least twice this week.  She has not had any morning sickness and we feel it is because she has managed her pregnancy pretty well so far.  Only 6+ months to go…

On Thursday, we visit Victoria’s doctor and hopefully will hear the baby’s heartbeat for the first time. They sell doppler listening devices and we are thinking about picking one up so we can listen to the baby’s hearbeat whenever we like.

On Friday, we go to Riverside and have our genetic counseling and a couple of tests. Basically they are going to tell us that our child will be an athlete when he/she grows up. (An Olympic gold medalist.) 😉

I’ll try to record the heartbeat and get it posted this week (if I figure out how to use my phone).

Victoria and I went back to the gym tonight for the first time in a while.  Let’s just say it is the first time since we found out we are parents-to-be.  (Truth is, it has been months since either one of us has set foot in the gym.)  I worked out by myself and Victoria went to the Dyna-Moms class.

Dyna-Moms is an aerobics class geared towards moms-to-be and new mothers.  Our doctor’s office recommended it and it lasts one hour.

I  worked out for the first 1/2 hour by myself and then ventured upstairs to watch Victoria.  (No, I wasn’t tired from my workout — I just wanted to see how Victoria was doing.)  😉

She was having a good time and made a couple of friends while she was there.  They all saw me in the mirror and gave a wave to me.  One woman took a break and asked me to join in.  I declined and said I would just watch.  I don’t know, something about squatting on a big red ball and breathing deeply just didn’t appeal to my manly side.  So, I turned on my iPod and watched Victoria.  I began to dream about our future gold medalist that is growing inside Victoria and how this first workout was going to shape his or her life.  Ahh, I can see it now — I am going to be one of those “lunatic Little League parents” that is all nuts about his child.

Nahh, I am just having fun with you guys!  😉

My mom is officially in baby-mode. Here are a few more outfits she picked up.

Victoria and I spent the day together. The weather has been gorgeous here lately (low to mid 80’s and sunny). We had breakfast outside this morning and then went up to Newport News park for a paddle boat ride. We took a few pictures there and then came home and cooked out. We spent some alone time on the hammock and now we are just listening to Dave Matthews and sitting on the deck. I thought this would be a good time to update the blog some too.

Here are a few pics of the Mom and Dad to be on the 4th of July.

Hope everyone is having a wonderful and safe 4th of July.

Victoria and I went to Kohls the other day to pick out some maternity clothes for her. While she was trying on some of the clothes, I wandered over to the baby section. I looked at a few outfits and came across one that I had to buy. Click here for baby’s first outfit from Daddy.

It is green (one of the gender neutral colors), so I felt I could not miss with this one. Most of you are going to think I want a boy based on this outfit, but that is not true. I am just hoping he or she likes golf and plays more often than my cousin does (where in the world is Buck Long?)

Victoria also picked out an outfit. The first one she picked out was pink (imagine that). It was cute, but I told her that we don’t know if it will be a boy or a girl so I sent her back to pick out a BLUE outfit (just kidding). 😉 I told her to pick out another outfit that was either green or yellow. This is what she picked out. Click here for baby’s first outfit from Mommy.