Long Lost Blogger…

Hello everyone!  Yes I am still alive and still very much pregnant.  We have had SO MUCH going on since our recent move to Knoxville and I have neglected the blog.  I feel terrible and apologize.  I swear that I will try my best to be a better blogger as we welcome our baby boy into the world.  I am working for my mom now and we have been slammed with work.  I am not complaining though…it feels good to be busy and passes the time quickly until I get to meet my baby boy!

On March 24, my best friend Jennifer, her mom Janet and my aunt Vicki threw me an AMAZING shower!  I had so many ladies there that love me, B and Lil Moon and we RACKED up.  My In-laws came in for the shower as well and they got to see our new digs here in Knoxville.  It was a fantastic weekend and we are so blessed! 

Me and my lovely hostesses…the shower was perfect! 

We got so many great gifts, but one super special gift was from Gigi (my mom) and Lynnie (B’s mom).  They went together and got us an awesome piece of artwork for Lil Moon’s nursery.  It says “I Love You to the Moon” and it looks fantastic hanging over his changing area in his room.  ( I swear to post pics of his nursery soon!). 

It was a great day and we SO appreciate all the love and support!

Easter Sunday was wonderful!  We went to church with my sweet Papaw Herman and then had a delicious lunch at Calhoun’s.  So much to be thankful for this Easter and we really enjoyed the gorgeous day and the great family time.  Now that we are back in Knoxville it is so easy and great to have family close!

On April 14th we traveled back to Nashville for another FANTASTIC shower thrown by my wonderful Nashville “family”.  Six of my besties went together and threw me a shower that finished off our wish list of items.  Jenna hosted it at her home and it was BEAUTIFUL!  After that shower we were more than prepared for the big guy (well, prepared with stuff, not mentally prepared :)  It was great to go back and see everyone and Lil Moon and I got loved on all over again.  I miss all my Nashville ladies and they were super fantastic!  The food was ridiculously great (the cupcakes even had little moons on them!) and the company was even better!

Below is a picture of me with all the gorgeous hostesses.  Couldn’t have asked for anything better. 

So I am officially 38 1/2 weeks pregnant.  I just went back to the doctor yesterday and I am 1 cm dilated and 50% effaced.  No real progress.  Seems as though Lil Moon is content in there.  The plan is that if he hasn’t arrived on his own by May 11 (the due date) they will induce me that day.  Please pray for us…I am a bit nervous about being induced and hope he just decides to exit on his own terms.  B and I are so SUPER excited to meet our baby boy.  Thanks for all the love and support from everyone! 

-E

I'm Not Certain...

...But I think Erica may have forgotten about the blog she created. Truthfully, we've both been very busy with our careers and the blog takes a backseat to all that is going on with us in Knoxville. Just a refresher: We've officially settled back into Knoxville and are anxiously awaiting the arrival of our baby boy on May 11th. Erica had another checkup today and although I couldn't be there, the reports are all positive. Both E and the baby are doing great and on schedule for delivery in Mid-May. He's getting so big in there that you can now see his movements from outside of Erica's belly, which is pretty cool and weird at the same time. And he moves constantly. Below are a list of things that usually get him kicking:

• College basketball games
• Sammy barking
• Re-runs of 'The Wire' on HBO
• 6am cups of coffee

I don't even know him yet, but already he sounds like my kind of guy. I've been busy traveling with work in preparation for what is going to be a crazy next few months. I travel frequently, but have loaded my April with overnight travel so that I can have some flexibility for May. My customers need me, but my family needs me more. Therefore I'm working hard to prepare for a big summer sales wise while ensuring I'm there when, in the words of Led Zeppelin, "...the levee breaks...". Erica has the room ready for Lil Moons arrival, save a picture or two being hung and the absence of a glider, but that will all come in due time. We've also paired it down to three names, but you're just going to have to practice patience as we will reveal his name after his birth. (My money is on Ed...kidding). Stop back often for more updates. Oh, and I'll be live Tweeting from the delivery room, which links directly to my Facebook page. Erica doesn't know this yet, but I guess she just found out. Follow me @TennesseanB. Enjoy your day.

-Brennan

Back in Knoxville

We are finally starting to settle into Knoxville after our move on Friday March 16th. Our friends and family were great in helping us load up the 26' Penske truck and unload it the following morning. There are still a few miscellaneous items left to be unpacked, but I'd say 90% percent of our belongings are in their place. Lil Moon's room is starting to come along nicely as well. He now has over 700 outfits, 14 pairs of shoes, 17 stuffed rabbits and 3 Diaper genies. I'm going to starting wholesaling those things if we get any more. And Erica still has one shower left in Nashville so my rough estimate is we'll end up owning somewhere in the neighborhood of 7 Diaper Genies. (Side note: His name is not going to be Lil' Moon. I know some of you who read this probably wonder if that is going to be his birth name, but it's nothing more than a family nickname. He's going to be a normal, middle class kid, not a rapper.) Erica now starts going to the doctor every two weeks and has an appointment today. She's currently 33 weeks and doing and feeling great. Last Saturday she shot up in bed writhing in pain. I, of course, freaked out only to find out she had a Charlie horse. So I'm getting to that pins and needles stage where every aching muscle inevitably means she's going to give birth in the car on the way to the hospital. Only 7 more weeks to go!

BTW- I'm organizing a baby pool starting April 1st. $25 dollar buy in and make all checks out to 'Cash'.

-Brennan

Showering Lil Moon and Oakley

This past Saturday was my first baby shower. Most of you know this already, but one of my VERY best friends, Jenny (Ferguson) Johnson is pregnant as well and due on May 7…as in 4 days before I am due. It is pretty nuts but so amazing to be going through all this with her, sharing stories/cravings, etc.. Not to mention, Lil Moon is going to have a built in bestie when he is born. Jenny and her sweet hubby Ryand are having a boy as well and naming him Oakley after Jenny’s great grandfather.

SO…our FANTASTIC friends Auburn, Stacey and Amanda all went together and threw Jenny and I a joint baby shower on March 10. It was so adorable and fun…they are all three super creative. Also, Lil Moon and Oakley RACKED UP!

The food was all so delicious and Stacey made the most adorable diaper cakes for Jenny and I! Look at the ridiculous stack of presents…that was just one of our piles. These boys are already SO loved!

Stacey made these adorable cookies for the favors, not only are they precious, but they taste AMAZING!

Our beautiful hostesses

Jenny and I with our gorgeous moms!

Our awesome friend Candice flew in from Florida for the shower. SO great to see her!

And I had to post this picture…I have no idea what they are laughing at but I love this pic so much!

The shower was perfect and we had a blast! Thanks ladies!

In other news…I had my first doctor’s appointment with my new Knoxville doctor on Monday, the 12th. We had an ultrasound and got to see Lil Moon again. It was so great to see him again and he is GROWING! His head is huge and in the 90th percentile which makes me a bit nervous and he weighs 4.1 pounds already. Big boy! I really like my new doctor and she seems perfect to take us into the home stretch. We are moving all of our stuff tomorrow so please pray for us. I’ll be 32 weeks tomorrow. It’s getting really real!

Moving On

For those of you who may not know already we are moving back to Knoxville in two weeks. After shrewd negotiations on Erica's part and some monetary concessions, we reached a deal to sell our place to Nashville and are closing March 22nd. We'll be moving the weekend before and have already begun the arduous task of packing boxes and coordinating a moving van, hired help, etc. Erica has secured a new doctor in Knoxville via referral and we signed a lease on a 3 bed, 2 bath house in West Knoxville. This house has a nice fenced in backyard which will allow Sam to run, Lil Moon a place to play and me a yard to mow in the nude (kidding). With this, in conjunction with the baby coming and some intense sales training I have scheduled at the end of the month, it's easy to be overwhelmed. However, I like the pressure and business of it all. I hate waiting around and waiting for things to happen, especially when it concerns life altering changes with my family. Erica's laid, back go with the flow mentality is a nice balance to my "go,go,go" demeanor. She's done a nice job of rubbing off on me as I now only need two drinks and one Xanax to go to sleep at night (down from the previous 6/2 combo). However, before leaving Music City for the town Peyton Manning built we had to dodge one more bullet.

The weather here in Tennessee has been unseasonably warm this Winter. It's not as if we get 12" of snow, but freezing temps and an ice storm are not out of the question during the Winter months. This week it's been in the high 70's, even as high as 83 yesterday. Growing up in the Midwest I know exactly what this means: Tornado weather. While people are running around here in shorts and cutoff sleeve airbrush t-shirts, I'm stockpiling pillows, blankets and scouting a safe spot for the family to hide during the unlikely event of a devastating tornado. Yesterday was supposed to be Armageddon here. I talked to people all day on sales calls that were writing their wills out of napkins and grabbing every last bottled water and flashlight they could find. Around 4pm the storm hit West Nashville with 70MPH wind and golf ball sized hail. But when the storm literally reached our doorstep, it took a sharp turn Northeast and missed us completely. The damage at our place mounted to our two garbage cans being knocked over. If I hadn't known any better, I'd have told you we just had an overly aggressive raccoon in our midst. This is second time in 6-plus years we've dodge a weather bullet. In Spring 2010 a devastating floor crippled Nashville. It was especially harsh to West Nashville and specifically Bellevue, where we live. Everything around us was destroyed, except for our neighborhood, which aside from a few waterlogged patios went unscathed. I'm not a big "faith" person, but it's tough to call our situation blind, dumb luck. We have been very lucky, very fortunate and very happy living in Nashville. But it's time to move on and Erica and I are very excited for the next chapter(s) in our lives.

By the way, here's a 30 week picture of Erica. Enjoy!

- Brennan

Our First Son

While the impending birth of our son is the #1 topic these days, let's take a minute to recognize our first son, Sammy. A short bio on Sam:

• He's almost 50 (7+ in dog years)


• Has no job


• Still lives at home
  


• Sleeps in our bed


• Barks at everything


• Refuses to wear pants


• Has helped me beat two speeding tickets
  

-Brennan

29 and feeling FINE

My birthday is February 22. This year I turned 29. For those of you that know me well, know that when it comes to my birthday I usually celebrate for a week straight. This year was no exception. It fell on a Wednesday this year so my mom decided to whirl into town on Monday night with her best friend, and my second mother, Janet. Those ladies arrived in style with about 42 bags full of clothes, food, shoes, and hair/makeup products. My best friend Jennifer (Janet's daughter) is a crazy big whig attorney and just so happened to have some work in Nashville last week, so spur of the moment mother-daughter time was a MUST.

Since I couldn't enjoy any libations this year due to Lil Moon, I decided to eat my way through my birthday week. Tuesday night we went to J. Alexander's and I enjoyed prime rib with brussel sprouts, and the most ridiculously AMAZING carrot cake you can ever imagine. This stuff is serious. I thoroughly enjoyed that night with my girls and my sweet hubby B.

Wednesday was the actual day and Jennifer just so happened to have most of the day off to play with us. I woke up to a showering of fun gifts from my parents, in-laws, and husband. Then the 4 of us went to a delicious lunch at Cottage Cafe here in Bellevue (where we had dessert of course) and then on to Bellevue Nails where Jennifer and Janet treated me to a manicure/pedicure. It was so great to be pampered! That night we (all the girls and B) went to another amazing dinner at Red Pony in Franklin. This restaurant is SO FANTASTIC. I have never had a bad meal there and everytime I go I have excellent service and leave with a smile on my face and fully belly. This time was no different...we did it up right! We had a tempura sushi roll and smoked salmon nachos for appetizer. Jennifer and I split the brussel sprouts salad and filet for our meal and then we enjoyed 4, yes 4 different desserts between the 5 of us. They were all fabulous but the stand-out was a bread pudding with a salted caramel sauce. RIDIC!

Friday it just so happened that I had a doctor's appointment, and celebrated 29 weeks down. I am officially 29 weeks pregnant now and feeling GREAT. Everything at the doctor was normal and moving right along. Lil Moon's heart rate was 135 which is great and all my vitals were normal as can be. Brennan had a meeting that morning so my mom got to go with me. That was really cool to have her with me and she got to hear LM's heartbeat for the first time. We are officially in the 3rd trimester now and heading for the home stretch. It is nuts when I think how fast this pregnancy has gone by.

Friday night we went to dinner with a bunch of our friends to Bonefish to celebrate my birthday. Yes..another fantastic meal with fantastic company. After dinner Amy and Brian were so kind to invite us back to their house to have birthday cake and play the Xbox Kinect. It was HYSTERICAL! We first played a dancing game and I haven't laughed that hard in a while...then we played some sports games that were equally funny. It was a blast.

All in all 29 was a great birthday and I was super spoiled as always. I am so looking forward to what this year will bring in my life.

28 Weeks...

... And counting. In the third trimester and heading for home.

September 11th, 2011...

...Is when we found out Erica was pregnant. She took four pregnancy test...four! I said, "You realize those things are 99.8% accurate, correct? My assumption is you don't fall in that 0.2% percentile." Erica's reaction was, "Dammit. Now I can't drink at the tailgate party in October." Clearly her motherly instincts hadn't kicked in at this point. Regardless of the circumstances we were both excited to learn that we were about to become parents for the first time. The last six months have been a blur as we try and prepare for the life changing moment headed our way this spring. I've been soliciting advice from anyone who will give it to me. Just last week, I asked a panhandler on the streets of downtown Nashville for his parenting advice. He advised me to go with Similac formula over Enfamil...said it was a better value. He then asked me for some spare change and a ride to the liquor store. Anyway, I digress. As the father (Don't laugh, if Gary from 'Teen Mom' can do it...) Erica has asked me to contribute to this blog, to which I'm more than happy to oblige. Thank you for visiting and come back often as we try and navigate the waters of parenthood.

We're Having a Baby!

As most of you know by now, Brennan and I are expecting our first baby on May 11. Yes, that is 3 months away (INSANITY!). We are having a baby boy and although we don't have a name for him yet, he is referred to as "Lil Moon".


B and I are so blessed to have family and friends all over the country that are super supportive and interested in what is going on with us and Lil Moon. I am not always the best with updating everyone so we decided to create this blog to keep you all updated and informed on the latest with all of us. Brennan and I will both contribute posts and hopefully we will keep it fairly up to date.


So far my pregnancy has been very by the book and extremely easy (I am currently knocking on wood.) I feel really good, am eating lots and trying my best to stay active. Up until about 25 weeks of pregnancy I was continuing to do my kickboxing class but now I am just mostly walking as it is a little easier on my back. My "week change day" is Friday and as of this past Friday (2/10) I am 27 weeks pregnant, therefore currently in my 28th week. I had my last doctor's appointment on Friday as well and everything looked good. I now start going every 2 weeks instead of 4.


As of right now, Lil Moon is the size of a head of cauliflower and weighing in at roughly 2.5 pounds. He is very active and constantly moving around in there. I LOVE feeling him move! B can feel him move now which is super cool for him as well. We couldn't be more excited to meet our little man! He is already SO loved by SO many.


Here is a picture of me that B took on Saturday to show my growing belly...well, let's be honest, growing BODY.