Not Yet

Amy had her 38-week appointment yesterday, and not much had changed from week 37. Her next appointment is scheduled for Friday, January 5th. She'll be 39 weeks, 1 day and will be eligible to be induced if conditions are favorable. If not, we will likely schedule an induction for the following Tuesday or Wednesday, which are the days that her doctor will be on call that week. Of course, Emily could decide to come at any time, but so far Amy hasn't had a single contraction. I'm glad that she has not had any pain so far and has avoided a doctor mandated bed-rest, though we've been taking it pretty easy this holiday season.

I hope you all have a Happy New Year!

Merry Christmas!!

Well, it's almost Christmas and Emily has not yet graced us with her presence. I wonder what she's thinking in there. I know she's definitely growing. Amy thinks Emily weighs at least 7 lbs. now. If she says that then I believe her. I'm ready for her to come this week. On Wednesday, Amy will be 38 weeks pregnant, and her next appointment is Friday, the 29th. At her last appointment on Wednesday, the 20th, she was already showing signs of early labor. That's not early as in "too early", but early as in the first stage of labor, which could take days or even weeks. I'm hoping days! If she comes by this time next week then she'll be daddy's little tax deduction!

Well, I hope you all have/had a Merry Christmas, depending on when you are reading this post. In year's past, post-Christmas has been a bit of a downer for me, but this year is totally different. Emily has given us something so wonderful to look forward to. Who knows, she may decide to come tomorrow and be a Christmas baby! When she does decide to come, I will probably be doing a lot of calling to let folks know. If you want me to call you, then let me know. You can either post to this message, or send me an email at jeremysprickett@yahoo.com, with your phone #, if I don't already have it.

Merry Christmas,

Jeremy and Amy

Nursery Complete, Almost...

The nursery is almost complete. All it needs now is a baby girl!
















Thanks to Papa and Granna Whitt and PawPaw and Nana Prickett for the crib! The crib is solid parawood and had a natural finish when we got it. However, we couldn't find any naturally finished, or unfinished parawood, so we primed it and painted it white. We sat out on the back deck and painted Emily's crib while we listened to Christmas music. That is a weekend we'll always remember.
















The dresser/changing table combo and the chest of drawers are from Unfinished Furniture Megamart. Amy and I spent a Saturday painting these items as well.
















I found a great deal on the glider. It had a white frame, but the fabric was blue. No problem for Amy though. She just bought a sewing machine and some pink fabric and made slip covers.















Emily is 35 weeks today. She'll be here soon, and I can hardly wait! If she decided to come just a few days early, that'd be fine with me...maybe sometime between Christmas and New Year's Day. Wow, that's only 3 weeks from today!!

Shula Out, Gump In...

Name: Forrest Gump
Hometown: Greenbow, Alabama
Education: University of Alabama at Tuscaloosa (UAT)
Work Experience: Shrimpin Boat Captain
Awards/Honors: Congressional Medal of Honor, Played football for the Bear, Ping Pong World Champion
Memorable Quotes: "But you ain't got no legs, Lieutenant Dan", "I'm not a smart man, but I know what love is", "She tasted like cigarettes", "I must've drank me fifteen Dr. Peppers.","Mama always said..."

Iron Bowl

Excessive Force...




















War Eagle.

Preparing for Parenthood Class

Friday night and Saturday, Amy and I took a crash course in parenting at St. Vincent's. They taught us everything we needed to know to be parents. Yeah right. They did cover some major topics such as safety, labor, delivery, bathing baby, etc. They also thought it would be helpful if I put on a 25 lb. "empathy belly", complete with bosom. It was very heavy, and I am very empathetic now. I am actually holding the belly in the picture b/c I really felt like it was going to bend me over. I grabbed my boobs one time trying to keep myself up. That got a nice reaction from the crowd. After lunch on Saturday we toured the birthing suites. They were very nice, at least the nicest that I have ever been in. Just think, we'll be there in less than 2 months!

After the tour we got to practice bathing and diaper changing. I've actually changed a diaper before, but never bathed a baby, much less an infant. It was pretty easy to catch on, but this baby was very well behaved. Among the things we learned is that (since we are 25 minutes away) we should leave for the hospital when the contractions are 10 minutes apart, though I can't imagine waiting until that point. I'll be ready to go when she has the 1st contraction! One thing I have to mention is that Amy was one of 7 Amy's in the class. There were only 18 couples in the whole class. Also, 11 were expecting girls and 7 expecting boys. Almost all were going to be first time parents, but there was one couple expecting their 3rd child. Their youngest is now 12, so they felt like they could use a refresher course. Overall, we thought it was a very helpful class, and our pregnant teacher/nurse did a great job, but I'm really looking forward to on-the-job training.

Nursery Makeover in Progress...

No more gray walls and dirty beige carpet. The old office is looking more like a nursery. The nursery is a little smaller now that 2 more coats of paint have been added to the wall and a thicker carpet has been installed, but I honestly can't tell any difference.
























We have started working on getting a dresser, chest of drawers, and a crib in the new nursery. Hopefully we'll get to post pictures of a fully furnished nursery before too long.

Emily in 3D

Here are a few pictures from yesterday's 4D Ultrasound. They made a VHS tape and snapped several pictures in the process and printed them out for us. These are scanned images of the printouts.

Happy Emily:


















She looks a bit Gerber in this picture, at least to me.

















Little hand in the picture. By the way, her foot was measured to be around 2 1/4" long.

















Chubby cheeks??














The nurse said she had a little Elvis lip going here.



















There were many more pictures, including one with even more proof that Emily is a girl. By the way, the nurse circled it and said, "There's her cheeseburger." Didn't really feel comfortable questioning that, but figured that in the case of a boy they'd say something about a hotdog. Not true...they call it a turtle.

Overall we were very impressed with how well the 4D went. It's well worth the $125. It's amazing that before we were born our parents didn't know whether they had a cheeseburger or a turtle and now a generation later, we can see the baby move in 3D months before birth.

Auburn Homecoming

Yesterday, we went to Auburn's homecoming game versus Tulane. It was a great day for football. Accompanying us for our gameday drive were our friends, Rick and Janna Bearden (I wish Hanna and Emma could have come too!). They really helped make the 2-hour drive not seem so long at all.















Once in Auburn we all met up with our friends Ben and Dr. Amanda Amos, both Auburn Chemical Engineering graduates. Ben was my first roommate in Auburn and is pretty much a life-long friend of the Bearden's. I actually met Ben at Rick and Janna's wedding rehearsal. He and Dr. Amanda now live in Atlanta where Ben will soon (he hopes) finish at Georgia Tech and become Dr. Ben. Maybe they'll move to Birmingham at that time to be closer to friends and family.















After a 38-13 Auburn win, we all went to Buffalo Connection and watched the end of the Alabama/Tennessee game. Sorry Janna, I just had to mention it. Janna is a Bama fan, but we let her come along b/c she's actually a great Auburn fan when we're not playing her beloved (for whatever reason) Crimson Tide. Rick is one of the few Auburn fans I know who neither went to Auburn, lived near Auburn, nor had a close family member attend Auburn (there's probably a million Bama fans who fit that description). We're glad to have him!

It was a great day all around. Life is good.

Emily's Nursery

I know, it looks like an empty office. That's because it is for the moment. But soon, the elephant gray walls will be gone. The crimson futon is already gone. What a color scheme for the office! This room is long overdue for an extreme makeover. Agree? By this time next month there will be a light shade of yellow on the wall, and some new carpet on the floor. I hope Emily likes the room well enough to sleep for long periods of time in it, even though she'll probably spend the first few months in our room. We won't let that go on too long though. I don't want to end up on Nanny 911 with a 6-year old Emily and three or four of her brothers and sisters all sleeping in the bed with a pregnant Amy. Just kidding honey, sort of ;)

Rook Tournament

Saturday night the Lambert's hosted a Rook Tournament at their house in Helena. Matt and Jen had a great set-up - 3 card tables, a big screen TV, pizza, wings, and plenty of desserts. I encourage them to host more Rook tournaments. Amy and I finished a grueling game with the Horton's, during which both teams battled to very large negative scores early on. We managed to come out on top about an hour later, about the time everyone else was finishing their second game. We played Jon and Danya next. They edged us by a mere 10 points, which was a moral victory for us. This didn't appear to be their first Rook tournament.
Kevin and Rachel Horton in good spirits after taking it on the chin from the Prickett's. I think they enjoyed a little time away from sweet Shelby, even though she is beautiful. Playing with Shelby at the Seahorn's a few weeks ago got me even more excited about becoming a Dad.








Courtney Whisenant and David Couch. David is holding up pretty well after his Bulldogs suffered a crushing defeat at the hands of the Tulane Green Wave. Courtney has been very supportive during this tough time, being very careful not to gloat as her Alma Mater took care of the Bayou Bengals earlier in the day. What pass interference?






Curt and Anna Atkinson. Another MSU grad, Curt looks pretty exhausted after taking his frustrations out on a few dove earlier in the day, Anna, thanks for keeping your eyes open for this picture. I think we took 3 or 4! Evidently this is pretty rare. Curt says she's asleep 20 minutes in to their drive up from Lake Charles, La.







Jon and Danya Wright, worthy adversaries. We shall meet again. We will take down the card shark and his wife, who by the way, like Jen, is also a great hostess.


Thanks again to Matt and Jen for having us all over!

Hanna and Emma on Auburn's big win...

Saturday was the Auburn/LSU game at the Bearden's. In case you missed the game, here's Emma and Hanna to bring you up to speed. As Emma is saying, the game was very intense from the beginning. I have to say, we were all a bit on edge the entire game. We all stared in disbelief as John Vaughn missed a 26-yard field goal that would have
given Auburn an early lead. But when Vaughn came in and nailed that extra point after Cox's 1-yd touchdown, we were all relieved; some were even pleasantly surprised. We knew that we were going to have to play some good D the rest of the way if we were going to have a chance to win. When Brock made that final tackle at the 4-yard line as time expired, we realized that we had survived. Auburn 7, LSU 3. Emma and Hanna say, War Eagle! Or at least they will soon.

New Church Building!

Sunday, September 10th, marked the first service in our new sanctuary. The new sanctuary has seating for 1,300, and approached capacity Sunday morning. Click on the link for the Birmingham News article:
http://www.al.com/search/index.ssf?/base/news/1157880712260920.xml?birminghamnews?nmet&coll=2
Amy worked in the nursery where she and 5 others took care of 15 infants. I worked in the audiovisual booth as is usual on Sunday mornings. In addition to a new church building, we're also beginning a family ministry that will focus on topics such as parenting, family finances, etc. Pastors Terry and Lisa Moore have joined us from California to help lead this new ministry. Pastor Terry is an Auburn grad and played football with Bo Jackson. Our first teaching series will be Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace University. It begins Sunday night, October 1st and will last 13 weeks. I'm a big Dave Ramsey fan, so I'm pretty excited.

By the way, Amy is now 5 months pregnant and she's in a registering mood! She has registered at Babies"R"Us, Target, and Wal-Mart. Links to the registries are on the side bar. Please buy us stuff :)

Gameday...

During our trip to Auburn this weekend we stopped by the Loden's new house and introduced ourselves to the newest member of their family, Nathaniel McKay Loden. Nathaniel is just over 7 weeks old in this picture with his mom and dad, Nathan and Raquelle.

Nate has taught me some swaddling techniques that are sure to come in handy when Emily comes in January. Check out their tightly wrapped bundle of joy. Nathaniel also agreed to let me hold him long enough for Nate to snap his picture with me and Amy.


I'll be sure to hold on to this picture as it may be worth some money when Nathaniel becomes the youngest American to be potty trained. It seems Nate has happened across some secret Japanese potty training techniques. I'm probably not even supposed to be telling you this, but if it works, look for little Emily to be flushing her own by this time next year ;)

Emily either slept through much of the Auburn/Washington St. game, or was just very quiet like many of the tailgaters we saw across campus on Saturday. It didn't appear that many of the fans had forgotten the opening week loss to Georgia Tech last year and/or the loss to USC in 2003, which was the last time the Tigers were ranked this high to begin the season. Hopefully the big win this weekend will ease the nerves somewhat, but LSU is less than 2 weeks away.

An eagle and two cranes. Both very symbolic of Auburn University.

Emily's First Date?

Friday night Emily went on her first date, with a younger man nonetheless. Elijah Creed Harris (above), son of Ben and Wendy Harris, is only 19, while Emily is almost 21...weeks that is. I guess you could call it a blind date, since they didn't even see each other at dinner, which was at the locally renowned Cafe Avanti in Pell City. Emily had the lasagna and Eli had pizza; Amy and Wendy had the same. I can hardly wait for Emily to be born, but I am not looking forward to her first real date. I'm sure Papa and PawPaw can attest. I hope the years in between won't go by too fast, but I hear that they always do. Maybe if I'm always mindful of that, I'll appreciate her even more.

Check out the radiant mothers-to-be! Who knew that when they taught together at Eastside Elementary only 3 years ago that they'd be pregnant together, and even be due the same month! Congratulations to Ben and Wendy!!

Emily Has Bedding

Pink Dragonfly baby bedding from Beyond Bedding is on its way. After an exhausting 2-week search for baby bedding, Amy discovered this online store in Sunshine, FL. They use Ebay to auction their products, and offer very good prices compared to the competition. Big Thanks to Papa and Granna Whitt for picking up the tab!!

Hello World...

Baby Girl (Emily??) Prickett would like to say hello in the only way she knows how. In this first sonogram image at 18 weeks and 2 days, she weighs approximately 9 oz. and is about 6 inches long. She is in perfect health and is due on January 11th, 2007. We are already in love with her! She's already got us making plans to trade the truck for a more baby-friendly car or SUV. Also, the search continues for baby bedding (not my area) - then comes paint and new carpet. I can't wait to hold her in my arms!! In the meantime I will be brushing up on my wrestling technique so that I'll be prepared to defend myself against any potentially desperate grandparents :)