the end of an era... showering of love... and nights of insomnia

I have recently passed a major life milestone that merits mentioning. As of last Friday, I have completed all of the schooling I will most likely undertake...EVER. I finished medical school! So now I have tons of time to finish getting things in order for the next adventure.

Sleep... I have already begun to appreciate the rare, uniterrupted night of sleep. Tonight I went to bed around 9:30, only to wake up before midnight and not be able to fall back to sleep. I am not sure whether it is the weird position Lilly has placed herself, or the indigestion that appears without any relation to what I eat or when I eat it. It is now 4:19am, and I have been out of bed since 1. I tried to lie there for a while, but hearing blake sleep so soundly just made me jealous, and I thought my tossing might wake him. After a couple hours of perousing old Southern Livings (thanks emily), reading the happiest baby on the block, in hopes of charming lilly out of excessive crying, and switching lastly to March, the latest novel by Geraldine Brooks, which is about the father's experience from Little Women during the civil war, I have now resorted to watching The Bachelor: After the final rose, and thinking how much more productive sleeping would be. This confirms it... I hate the bachelor. Oh my gosh, this is the most pathetic passage of time I have chosen in quite sometime. In order to make myself feel a little better about my choices, I have chosen to blog simultaneously and only occasionally switch to see the screen. I mean this episode is dripping with all the drama and emotion I typically dispise! I am so sorry that things don't work out when you court 27 women at once... big stinking surprise that you are a little confused. ~whaterver.


Now onto more productive topics: Blake and I have had the tremendous blessing to be given two baby showers to help us prepare for Lilly. Still having one more to go, I find myself overwhelmed by the generosity and love of our family and friends. The first shower was hosted by Blakley Fowler, Kristen Bowman, Erin Sturdivant, Anca Sommerville, and Lauren Chipman. The shower was hosted at Blakley's house and was attended by many of Blake's fellow residents, as well as our moms
My mom gave a little spa treatment to each guest to help us all relax. It was terrific, and we received so many great gifts. Lilly now has a diaper bag, carseat, bouncey chair, onsies, pretty dresses, socks, toys, blankets, and more.

The second shower was thrown in Nashville by Kera and Pam. Pam had spent a ton of time preparing for this event. She is one of the craftiest, most creative people I know, and the spread for the shower was no disappointment. She made the most beautiful diaper cake ever, the table was set with silver, crystal and everything was accented by pink.








Having such parties starts to make you realize that there is actually a little one on the way. Many friends and family attended from the Nashville area. We were again blessed with laughter, games, and many gifts. High chairs, baby bjorns, oneise, bathing supplies, jumpers.... The list goes on. The house has been transformed and taken over by Lilly, and she is not even here! (this take over is not helped by the fact that currently all of our furniture is in our main room while we are redoing our floors, which are almost done!)


With one more shower to go, we are unable to adequately express our gratitude for all the gifts and love of our friends and family. We hope that the love will continue on the emotional rollercoaster we are about to encounter.

Man, are we handy....

I have been meaning to catch up on the rest of the events since the beginning of february, but for now, I will post some pictures of our newest project. About a week ago we decided to buy hardwood laminate flooring for our house and lay it ourselves. This has been quite and experience, and I must say gives me a little chip on my shoulder for what a tough pregnant girl I am... sawing, hammering etc. However they get down, the floors look great. We have been working a little at a time because I don't do any of the frustrating hard stuff so I have to wait until blake gets home to make the difficult cuts. Thanks to Joe who gave us a hand and lent us his saws. Hopefully the house will be in order before Lilly gets here. (you can see her bed no longer looks the same) I am beginning to get a little nervous on that end, but hey, what can you do?

Stay tuned for pictures from my first, and probably second shower, by the time I get them written, and Monica's wedding experience :)

Lilly goes to DC and the Big Easy...

I have been chastised for not adequately updating my blog. I had no idea I had so many fans! Just kidding. We have been crazy lately fitting everything into a finite amount of time we have before the baby comes and I have tons of pictures to show, but have not had the time to sit and write.

All that being said, writing has become slightly more difficult these days. I think I am beginning to understand the "brain drain" other women talk about. I have had to begin proof-reading my emails such that the recipient does not assume I have been drinking upon reading what I wrote. Flight of ideas does not even begin to describe how a sentence begins normal and then sounds like gibberish. I suppose that is my disclaimer for all posts starting now.

With every week I continue to get bigger, but thankfully am still holding on to somewhat of a normal sleep schedule, exercise routine, and daily life. I am holding my breath, as is Blake, for when this becomes obsolete. I once told Blake, that I don't really mind being pregnant, now that the nausea has passed, (during which I was wondering how anyone got dooped into having more than one child) so long as the pregnancy does not drastically affect my daily life. I still do most things I have always done, including spending every free moment I am not in school traveling to keep in touch with good friends. I think, though I might have one more trip in me if I can convince Blake, that my traveling days have finally ended, but they ended with a BANG! I have since been quarantined to the Memphis area if Blake is not traveling with me. I think he is scared that I will go into labor and he will not be able to get there and he will miss the entire experience. Normally I would tell him to stop being so sensitive (I know, you are thinking... wow Jaclyn, that is so sensitive of you) but given the gravity of becoming parents and the fact that this is a huge life changing experience, I have decided to be considerate.

About a month ago I ventured to Washington DC to visit one of my best friends from college - Robyn, who is getting married in May. How I am going to manage to fit into that dress 4 weeks post partum will, I am sure, be a subject I will talk about when this becomes a reality! Anyways some of her friends were hosting a bridal shower, and as the matron of honor I thought I would try to help/attend. So Lilly and I fly to DC and arrive in a winter wonderland of ice. While this slightly derails my fitness routine (uh-hem loose routine at that) we had a great time and it was great to have some pictures with Robyn before we both go through huge life changes :)

The shower was lovely, Jill and Michelle did great jobs, and despite the fact that the theme was wine and cheese, a theme somewhat lost on me, Lilly and I survived the horrid temptation. Some of the highlights included making me into the shotgun bride with toilet paper. I think my team was at a definite disadvantage given the extra girth, and the fact that the dress could in no way resemble the wedding dress she will wear. I might note that my team should have been at an advantage given the fact that I was one of two people having already seen the gorgeous gown! We had a great time, I miss seeing her more often, and can't wait to fit into that dress and dress Lilly up for her first big event!

THE BIG EASY..... 2 weeks before Mardi Gras

I had never been to New Orleans. This is something most people in Memphis find hard to believe until I remind them that I grew up in VA, and we went to New York, not Louisiana, to go to a big city. Nonetheless, when my friend Stephen Choate married my friend Kathryn and they moved to NO for residency, I knew a trip was in my future. I had been telling Kathryn that I wanted to come visit for quite sometime, and as the time grew closer for Lilly to arrive, the time for my girls trip to New Orleans was drawing to a swift close. Somehow we managed to get our schedules together and her mom drove me down to have a girls weekend.

Upon my arrival I declared my intent: To eat my way through the Big Easy! I mean what better time to be in a city with great food than when you can almost eat guilt free! I had bignets, Po'Boys, and the most delicious Cajun red fish EVER! The meal at Jacque-mos was quite possibly the best food I have eaten in a couple years. Needless to say the cuisine did not disappoint.

We spent time walking around the French Quarter, looking at architecture, the occasional palm reader and steering clear of all the sketchiness including the bars and voodoo. (that junk is scary) One of the coolest things was discovering the above-ground cemeteries. Because New Orleans is actually below sea level, they are unable to bury people in the ground. Weird huh?

We had fantastic weather- unlike DC- it was 75 the entire weekend. I went running/trotting in the garden district, and just enjoyed spending time with Kathryn and learning about her new home. All in all it was such a great weekend, a perfect end to my single excursions. Kathryn gave me a beautiful hand made outfit, and her mom generously funded all the fun and bought Lilly one of her first smocked dresses! Smocking is a big deal down here, as are embroidered spit-up cloths (yet again another story for another day).

William Woodrow Jones IV

Well, yet another hurdle down in my
pregnancy. Yesterday my good friend Emily Jones, also in her fourth year of medical school, had her baby. We have been pregnant together for the past 7 months, so I have been able to call her when new things that no one tells you will happen to you happen. It has been great fun to share in the experience with her.




Whenever I felt like the impending birth of Lilly was a little too close, there was always a part of me that said..."emily still has not had her baby." As of yesterday that comfort has been traded for a beautiful baby boy.


While we are very happy with his safe arrival, he came one day too late for one of our friends. Despite our best efforts, William did not come on MLK day. Malinda, my other great friend had been in town from Knoxville and we took emily out to dinner long with Anju and Katie P for a spicy induction of mexican food and to celebrate Anju and Emily's birthdays. Although William did not come quick enough, I think we would all like to think that our one last ditch spicy effort had something to do with his safe arrival!

a taste of what's to come

We went for another doctors visit today and had the amazing opportunity to receive a 3D US. It is really late and my week in the ICU is about to kill me because I am getting up before 5 to get to the hospital, so I will comment on my thoughts about the craziness that is recognizing your nose on the baby that now seems real later. For now we wanted to post these pictures so others might share in the amazement.

Ben's Birthday and New Year's Eve

2 nights ago, we were invited to Ben's 28th birthday party where Kristen made her unreal chicken pot pie (something about a full can of alfredo sauce makes anything delicious), complete with individual initials on the finely egg-washed flaky crusts. Dinner was amazing, then it was followed by a strawberry cake complete with made from scratch strawberry butter cream icing. So delicious! (wow, i feel like i could work at a magazine writing captions!)


We had a great night of just spending time together, and although Willis didn't demonstrate his newly developed tricks we still got some good pictures. Scott Adelman stopped by and brought his typical excitement and commentary on most conversation topics. It was fun. This also gave me a chance to try out our new camera, including my first attempt at uploading video onto the blog so that when our daughter comes, I will be an old pro. So here it is, a video of Willis laughing at the camera and holding his head up (but no rolling over...)


For the new year, we spent the evening at Hunter and Emily Jones' house and the Brotherton's were there and it was a low key night of just hanging out. Emily was 37 weeks pregnant and Jac is now 27 weeks today, so we took the obligatory pregnant belly picture. Stupid ABC did not replay the ball dropping in central time, so we were watching Ne-Yo singing or something stupid, and Jaclyn looked at her watch and noticed it was 12:03, so we missed the new year. I may write ABC an angry letter. Who knows?