Great Report from the Doctor

I went to the Doctor last Wednesday for my first visit since the ultrasound. Dr. Brooks said that the ultrasound pictures looked great and it looks like Emma is doing wonderfully! They can detect all sorts of problems during the sonogram procedure, such as spinal cord development issues, Down's syndrome, etc. I was very glad to know that all is well. She also is very pleased with my current state of health and progess in the pregnancy. I've gained just the right weight and my belly is growing as it should, though many people tell me I'm still not showing. Don't worry that's quickly changing. I can tell a difference in just the last few days. All in all, she said that everything is perfect! Very good news to hear! Now, I will dread my glucose test (to check for any problems with gestational diabetes) for the next two weeks until I must go in again.....

Tiffany

Baby Registries

First of all, we certainly don’t expect everyone to get us a baby gift. We know that everyone has their own financial responsibilities. But, for those who would like to buy a gift, here are some helpful suggestions for what we need. We have already purchased the baby furniture and have received all the bedding and room decorations. We have registered at Babies R Us and Target for everything else.

You can click on the Babies R Us & Target store icons located at the top of the baby blog to directly access our registries! Let us know if you have any problems at thegrandersons@yahoo.com.

Babies R Us has stores all over Texas, but none in Arkansas or North Louisiana. You can purchase gifts from our registry in a local Babies R Us store or online, if you do not have a store in your area. You can also access our registry at any Toys R Us store locations that have baby items also. Now, Toys R Us has a much more limited baby section than Babies R Us, but they will have some of the items we have registered for also. Be sure to tell them that we are registered with Babies R Us, not Toys R Us.

The Target registry can be accessed online or in the store also. Target has stores in Texas, Arkansas and North Louisiana.

If the registry says the item is "unavailable" for online purchase, you can check back later or go into the store to find it.

Another great gift idea would be a gift card to either Babies R Us or Target. These gift cards can then be used to buy disposable diapers or for a registry item still needed.

Thanks to all who are considering the purchase of a baby gift. We appreciate it very much since it’s so expensive to have a baby and we have so much to get before March 1st. But, we are very excited! Thank you for sharing in our joy!

- Brad, Tiffany and baby Emma

Emma's an Astros fan!

Last night as Tiffany and I were just laying down to go to sleep, Tiffany asked me to put my hand over on her belly...and I felt Emma kick! That was so amazing. I'd heard that babies sleep almost the whole time, but that they tend to wake up just as the mommy gets quiet. The thought is that the mommys activity during the day lulls them to sleep, but the sudden quiet wakes them up. Well, whatever the reason, she went to kicking around last night and it was the first time that I could feel something.

I think she was really upset about the Astros losing and wanted her daddy to know he wasn't alone!

Brad

More Emma pics

Here are a few more pics from our ultrasound. It just really doesn't capture how much you can see when you are there and viewing it "live and in real grayscale"! Anyway, we'll have the real thing here soon enough! How cool is that?!?

The first image shows the bottom of two little tiny feet. Her right foot is on top and you can tell that each little toe gets bigger as you go down. Her left foot is not as easy to make out, but I'm sure she has all five digits! :)

The second image shows a profile from her right side, you can easily see her spinal column with her head over toward the right. She is face down and the light-colored (white) area below the right most (upper) end of her spinal cord is her jaw. To the right of her jaw you can make out an eye socket and to the left of her jaw is a thin, dark colored vertical line that is her mouth.

The next image shows a tiny little hand with a thumb sticking up and fingers slightly curled. Unfortunately it's all the way over to the right of the image, but hopefully you can still make out a hand from this.

The next image shows her little arm and you can really make out the bones in her hand and fingers. It's easy to see that she has two light-colored bones in her lower arm (radius and ulna) and one in her upper arm (humerus)...just like she's supposed to!

I wish we had some pictures showing her heart and even better if we had a little video clip of the heart pumping away. That was really neat to see.

That's all the pics we have that are worth sharing. The others are similar or even harder to decipher. We are very proud to be having a girl and can't wait to see her face to face, bring her home from the delivery, and hold her.

The Doting Father

Introducing Miss Emma Caroline Granderson

It’s a girl!
We had our ultrasound appointment today and

found out that we are having a girl!

Her name will be Emma Caroline Granderson!

We are so filled with joy!

Picture 1: Hand to Face

As you can see Emma has her left hand over her left eye. Isn’t that cute? The sonographer wanted to get another, even better full body picture, but couldn’t due to the position of the baby. She was head down and facing my back. Isn’t this a great pic? (Does she look like me or Brad? Ha Ha!) Brad says: Let's hope she looks just like mommy!!

Picture 2: Legs Crossed
This was one of the first pictures taken today. It’s taken looking down on Emma. Her legs are crossed with her knees to the right of the photo and her feet toward the left. You can see a part of the umbilical cord in the dark triangle area above her legs, just below her tummy. I guess she was being modest since these were her first baby pictures.

Picture 3: It’s a Girl
This is what you might call a “between the legs” shot. It may be a little hard to make this one out, but give it a try. Her bum is on the left side and the view is from "below" looking up at her. Her right thigh goes out of view toward the top of the shot, and her left thigh goes down to the right. The sonographer said she was VERY sure it was a girl. She has 11 years experience, so I guess she does know her stuff. And as you can see from the picture there is nothing between her legs to make us question her knowledge!

The Name
Emma Caroline was mainly chosen because we just liked the names. Both are clearly feminine and more traditonal. But, we also think the meanings are great and love them also. Emma means “all embracing one”. Isn’t that a beautiful meaning? Caroline (that’s Caro-LINE, not Caro-LEN) means song or melody. Brad and I have a deep love for music, so that’s cool! There are no family connections to either name to my knowledge. We have only been settled on this name for about two months or so, whereas the boy name was selected about two years ago.

FYI – the boy’s name was going to be Jonathan Andrew Granderson. Both names are Biblical and each has a connection to one of each of our grandfathers: John Frederick (Tiffany’s paternal) and Hugh Andrew Green (Brad’s maternal). Maybe we can use it next time!

Pollsters were right
We had 16 votes for girl and 4 for boy. Most of you guys guessed correctly! We seriously would have been happy either way and frequently flipped back and forth on what we thought the outcome would be. Brad’s family was convinced that we were having a boy b/c the Granderson family is so male dominated. There is usually only one girl per generation. I guess that’s Emma for this one unless the trend changes!

More pictures
We did get several more ultrasound pictures from the doctor’s office. They were very generous. We might post them later. Some would be difficult to make out, especially after being scanned, etc. We have a great one of the spine and a sorta grainy one of the bottoms of both feet. There's also a neat close-up of her right hand.

How cool!?!
All in all we are just thrilled. It was such a neat experience to see the baby and see her moving around. She was even sucking her fingers at one point! Awww!

Note from Proud Papa: The still shots just don't capture how neat an experience this is. I've seen other ultrasound photos from friends and it just doesn't compare to being there and seeing Emma move around and squirm in her temporary home. And, of course, being the daddy makes a difference too! Tiffany did great too, and was so excited she couldn't take her eyes off the screen. I don't think either of us wanted to miss a second of watching her! I'm so proud of both my girls!

Brad, Tiffany & baby Emma...

“For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother's womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well. My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place. When I was woven together in the depths of the earth, your eyes saw my unformed body. All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.” Psalm 139:13-16

Our horrible experience at Burlington's Baby Depot

Did you know that Burlington Coat Factory has an absolute no return policy? Even if you have the receipt? Even if you never opened the boxes of the items you purchased? Even if you bought it less than 24 hours beforehand? Well, we do....now! We just got back from there. Yesterday, Brad was off for Columbus Day so we did some baby shopping. We have been looking around quite a bit and finally settled on a crib from Burlington. We went there last night to buy the crib and got a couple other things. Then, today I went to Target and found a much better deal on a matching crib and changing table. Buying our crib at Target would end up saving us $130. So, Brad and I bought the items from Target and loaded up the things we bought yesterday to return. When we finally got to the register the manager said we could only have a store credit - no exceptions. They do not do returns at all, only exchanges. We could have returned the other stuff to Target and just stayed with what we originally bought, but then we still would have "lost" the $130 we were going to save. So, we ended up with a $415 gift card to a store we never planned to really shop at again. We weren't planning to register there. We were furious and did all we could to try to get our money back, but they refused. Everyone was staring at us b/c Brad and I were both "yellling" at the manager. We were mad, but also shaking at the same time. We couldn't believe they were "stealing" from us! One lady was in line behind us and overheard us, of course. She came over to us, said she was glad she heard everything and walked off and left a cart full of kids' clothes. She told the manager she wouldn't be back. All in all, it was a horrible experience, but we tried to make the most of it. We bought several items that we were going to register for at Babies R Us anyway. We got the bedding set and a matching lamp, a bassinet/co-sleeper, diaper bag, and baby sling. So, all this to say....PLEASE don't buy us any baby gifts from Burlington. We are NEVER shopping there again! Besides, exchanges must be within 14 days of purchase anyway...

Tiffany & Brad

Celebrating 3 years of marriage!

Brad and I were married on October 5, 2002. I'm so thankful for him and love him even more than I did when we got married. He's my bestest friend.

For those that don't know, Brad and I have known each other for a long time. We met in the Spring of 1994, our freshman year of college at La Tech. But, we didn't start dating until September 2001. I moved to Houston (into my own apt) from Dallas in February of 2002. We got engaged in May of 2002 and married about 5 1/2 months later. So, I guess you could say that once we FINALLY got together - things moved rather quickly! We still debate over when we had our first date. I think it was to a dinner theatre in Houston in early Sept 2001. I came down here for a college recruiting trip the week of Sept 11th and we got together while I was in town. He says that wasn't a date, even though he paid. He thinks the State Fair of Texas was our first date when he came to see me in Dallas. Well, I guess it doesn't matter. What matters is that we are together and learning new things everyday. I just found out last week that he doesn't like macadamia nuts! Guess I won't be trying that new white chocolate chip macadamia nut cookie recipe! Whatever the case, I thank God very regularly for the most wonderful husband in the world. He's the sweetest, kindest, most self-less person and we are having a lot of fun together. How great that we'll soon have a new edition to our family who will share in this also!

Pictured with us are: Scott Wright, Director of the Wesley Foundation (Methodist campus ministry where we were both involved) and Karen Granderson, Brad's mother, who is also a Methodist minister. Scott and Karen officiated the service.

Tiffany