Babymoon to California - 21 weeks prego!

Last week we left for our first "babymoon" to California. It was a trip 4 months in the making and we were headed to San Diego, Laguna Beach, and LA.

We arrived in San Diego, prepared for sunny, warm weather, but unfortunately were greeted with a frigid cold front. Making the best of it, we headed to the San Diego Zoo where we had so much fun losing ourselves to our 3rd grade imagination.

David stopped a Mom with 4 kids to take our picture - I know she was about to kill us! It was so chilly and I had just bought the hoodie that I'm wearing... by the end of the day, I went back to the Hotel Del gift shop and bought a fleece!

It took all I had not to tap him on his shoulder!

Precious Angel!

Taking a pic with my family members!

After 3 nights in San Diego, we headed up the coast in a rental to Laguna Beach, where we spent our Saturday admiring the Pacific Coast and wishing that oil and gas companies would relocate!

Laguna Beach

21 weeks prego!

That evening, we arrived in LA to stay with one of David's fraternity brothers, Sitara, and his wife, Jaime. Sitara is a comedian/actor for National Lampoon, so we got to visit his set, which was the same set where Gilligan's Island was shot. He also said that Dave Navaro was shooting a TV show there too! I decided to be the full-fledged tourist and took pictures of the cool set!

The National Lampoon set

Dave Navaro's Set

Out for dinner and drinks

Sunday we navigated our way over to our brother-in-law's house. Bill lives in Studio City, right down the street from Nicole Richie and Queen Latifa!! (I was on the lookout, but didn't see either.) Bill has just finished gutting out the home he bought, which looked as if it was straight out of Veranda. After visiting, we headed to the Bel-Air Hotel for a late brunch. On Monday, we went to The Ivy for lunch... No stars were spotted, but we absolutely loved LA. It's so green and well kept. We'll definitely be back for more!

At the Bel-Air Hotel

View from Bill's Outside Living Room - The tall building is part of Universal Studios.

Sweet Bayle - what a princess!

Lots of kisses from Bayle!

Our last night of the trip was Monday and I was sure that we would see some celebrities - Britney or maybe even Linsday. Unfortunately, I picked up a violent stomach bug and after not being able to keep even gatorade down for 12 hours, with a high fever we headed to the famous Cedars-Sinai Hospital. Talk about an amazing hospital... within 20 minutes, I was hooked up to an IV and having 2 bags of fluids pumped into me. I was dismissed the next morning and we headed straight to the airport, hopped on a plane and flew home.

It was an amazing trip - lots of adventure for Mom, Dad, and Baby Slye! We're definitely headed back to Laguna Beach/LA one of these days!

IT'S A BOY!!!! 20 WEEK ULTRASOUND

Today we had our fun 20 week ultrasound and confirmed we're having a little BOY!! We pretty much new that we were having a boy, but they develop/morph so much that I wanted to wait until this ultrasound to buy anything blue!!

The anatomy ultrasound was super cool. My doctor measured the growth of the baby, including bones, heart, brain, and even looked at his feet! The machines are so amazing today that we were able to tell that our baby has no cleft pallet, a healthy brain (no hydrocephalus, downs, etc. that we can tell), a strong heart (all 4 chambers, aortas, veins), good bone structure, and even eyeballs!

We were especially thrilled when we saw that his 2nd toe was longer than the rest, just like his daddy's!!! Today, he was playing with his ear, just hanging out... and kicking me a bit!
Big Baby Boy - he's still measuring several days further along than my October 5th due date. YAY!


Getting Ready for the news...

+19, +9, -5.00, - 2, +5

It's official! I'm a week away from being halfway through!!! :) YAY! I'm +19 weeks as of this weekend, with a healthy baby boy, who is making me crave red meat, salty olives, cheese, and huge cheeseburgers! (and french fries, but I'm trying REALLY hard to stay away from them!)


Big Belly! My girl, Amy, and Me celebrating a girlfriend's birthday.

It's truly amazing how much your body changes during pregnancy... not only am I +9lbs, but I've increased my contact prescription from -4.75 to -5.00. If you have good eyes and don't know what this number means, I'll explain: I'm blind as a freaking bat! My eyes have been stable for probably 10 years until now!!! The doctor said that most of the time they will return to normal. Either way, I was blind before pregnancy, so it really doesn't matter, but I think it's so wild how my eyes are even changing! On asking him what blind (Aubrey) and blinder's (David) chance was of having a child who was also blind, he responded: "Um, pretty darn good. Sorry." So, expect our little one in glasses by 2! (I'm picturing the cute little boy from Jerry Maguire... awwww!!!)

This week, I've felt him move so much. It feels like someone is tapping me from the inside of my belly button. David got to feel it too, as he yanked his hand back like something bit him, almost falling off the bed with excitement! For all the exciting movement going on and bad body temperature regulation, I'm about -2 hours of sleep a night.

But, all is GOOD and I'm such a smitten kitten. This week, I went for a quick checkup with my OB and saw 5 healthy fingers on his little hands. He was busy scratching his head with his index finger when we saw him... probably deep in thought... definitely his father's son! I fell in love all over again.

More Commentary!

I talk to Megan everyday, whether it's by email, text or phone. We have started calling each other with funny remarks that people say to us when we're out in public because it happens so often.

Below are a few that Megan's gotten this week while out shopping:

“You look like you are just about due!"

“Are we having 2?” no “Oh, when are you due?” end of the summer “Oh, well you just got big, uh huh.”

“Are you having twins?” no – just a healthy baby “Oh, well you got a big baby.”

I felt much better knowing that she got the "twins" comment, too! And, the one that stands out the most from my week came from one of my favorite doctors' wife... she's clueless!

"Well, hey fatso!"

Need I say more? :)

Round Top Trip

If there's been one piece of baby advice that's been consistent, it's been to squeeze as much traveling/together time in now before the baby comes!



This weekend, we went to a little town about an hour and 1/2 outside of Houston called Round Top. The little "farm house" that we rented was precious and the breakfast was excellent!

Relaxing before we fired up the grill

Big Belly... gaining weight everywhere!


Beautiful wildflowers




The farmhouse




We found this taxi in town - someone actually drives it!

ZTA Pants - 18 weeks!

Oh, the days of the glorious ZTA pants... yes, we all had a pair. We were 19, and going to the mall every Wednesday to get a new outfit for the weekend festivites. There were 6 of us living in a townhome in Atlanta. Luckily we all had our own rooms and bathrooms. Clothes were always strewn everywhere, and we could always find a cute top to wear.

The staple? ZTA PANTS!!! You might recall the pants from about 10 years ago, before "Sevens" hit the Atlanta scene, and you'd better believe that we each had a pair. You could buy them from anywhere... they were our "going out pants" - black with lycra!! They had an elastic waist, and came in a variety of styles, colors, and lengths. WHAT WERE WE THINKING?!!??!!

Well, I am happy to report that I just invested in another pair! Everytime I pull them over my round belly, I smile thinking back to the ZTA pants/Moondogs era! These are called "Noppies" - and they come in several colors and lengths... sound familiar???!!!?? If we'd only known the market for mommies-to-be 10 years ago, we could be millionaires!

Below is a pic of my roomies and best gals! We lived in this townhome for 2 fabulous years, sharing tops to match our ZTA pants! Yes, those are speakers pointing outside. (We must have been having a small, intimate get-together that evening!)

My new ZTA Pants - oh, how lovely!

By now, you're probably wondering why we called them ZTA pants. Well, I'm not quite sure!! I saw Melissa Claugus, a fellow Techie, at the running trail last weekend and we decided it was probably because some of the ZTAs wore them EXTRA tight!!! (this excludes you, MB!) I think our buddies, the SAEs, came up with this name... correct me if I'm wrong.