this blog could now be titled, "mommy's lil baby BOY blog." we are excited to have found out that we are having a precious little baby boy!! i am so relieved to know the sex. not only can i now plan better--thinking of names, planning for the nursery, shopping, etc--but i also feel more emotionally connected to the baby now that it is no longer an "it" but can be imagined as a little boy!

kind of a big deal...

so we kind of went over board in making the sex unveiling a really big deal. but it was fun! david and i took a trip to louisville for the doctor's appointment last week. david took his first two days of vacation since he started in june... so that itself was a treat. our trip to louisville was fun, but busy. there were lots of people we wanted to see and were thrilled to be able to do so!

after a weekend of anticipation, we went to the doctor on monday for the big ultrasound. we immediately told the ultrasound tech that we did want to know the sex, but not right away. we asked her to write down the baby's sex on a post it and put it in an envelope so we could open it later. lots of people apparently do this, so the u/s tech was familiar with the process.

we wanted to see the baby during the u/s though, and we were able to do so. omg, it was absolutely amazing!! it was so much different than seeing the baby at the last u/s at 8 weeks. at that point, we couldn't see much, but this time our baby was SO developed. it was incredible!

the first thing i saw on the ultrasound was his feet. i teared up. i mean, they were like REAL baby feet!! it looked just like a human foot, only tiny. i couldn't believe it. then we got to see how our baby is developing. we identified two kidneys, two arms, two legs, and a four chambered heart. it was so amazing! we also saw his spine. it's incredible how you can see bones. we were relieved and ecstatic to hear and see that he was healthy!! he was moving around and kicking a lot!

once the u/s tech was ready to identify the sex, she told us we might want to look away from the screen, which we did. neither one of us cheated or peeked!! david then asked her, "can you tell what it is?" and she said, "Yep, I got it." she then took some great pictures, put the sex in an envelope and let us meet with the doctor.

the big announcement...

my mom made a special dinner that night, and with our family, we opened the envelope and discovered the sex. the post it said "congrats! it's a boy!" and the ultrasound picture gave such evidence~~ i don't think either one of us were too surprised it was a boy. david is thrilled!!

my family made both pink and blue desserts and of course, the boy treats were served. it was a great night! after dinner, we drove from louisville to david's parents house to share the news with them. we talked about names in the car, but we still are not having much luck in that area : )

our favorite ultrasound pictures...

his profile...

his ADORABLE foot!!



one of his hands!!

planning...

i've now started to think about the nursery decor. we should be ordering nursery furniture this week, which is exciting! im trying not to go overboard with it, but its hard to do :) i told david that the baby's nursery is very important to its development!! i think a well designed nursery makes the baby feel loved and secured, and that's the best learning environment :) in other words, how cute the room is matters! im planning on grandma cathy and papa gary to come in town and help.

thanks to everyone for their excitement and congratulations. we are very excited to see that our baby is a boy and more importantly, HEALTHY!!

yay for half way!

whew. today i am officially half way!! the past 20 weeks have been quite the journey and i can only imagine what the next 20 will be like. in some ways i feel like i've been pregnant for a lot longer, and other days i feel like it was just yesterday we found out the news. 20 more weeks seems like a long way to go until we get to meet our precious little baby!!

i've enjoyed being pregnant, but what i will really enjoy is being a mom. i'm already getting impatient for that time! it is a very special feeling to have a human growing inside you. it's amazing how the body provides the baby and the mother everything they need naturally. it's really a miracle. but it still doesn't seem to compare to what comes after the pregnancy... meeting the baby, holding it, playing with it, and watching it grow (outside my belly!)

enough with the "its"!!

i am tired of calling our baby it. we cannot wait to find out the gender and give "it" a name. david and i will be making a trip to louisville next week for a doctor's appointment where we will receive such news. i did have a dream that it was a girl. if it is a boy we have a lot of work to do to come up with a name. i mean... a lot of work! (suggestions welcome!)

the search for day care:

at the advice of some of the mommies in my yoga class, i decided we better plan ahead and get on some waiting list for day cares. apparently, waiting until you are 20 weeks pregnant to get on waiting lists is NOT planning ahead! for part time care, here in lil ol morgantown, wv, we were told the waiting list was 1 to 1.5 years. geez!

there is a great day care which is actually attached to the hospital. this excited me! it made me feel good to know that daddy would just be around the corner if our little one needed anything. so, we went to go view it. as i stood outside of the day care center waiting on david to meet me, i started tearing up just thinking about leaving our baby with anyone but me. i don't want the baby to be in day care all day every day, but i also want it to get the social benefits of interacting with other kids and people besides me and david. so we are hoping to do some kind of part time day care 2 days a week or so. many of these placess don't have part time day care though, so we are not sure what our plan will be. im just praying and trusting that, like always, God will take care of me and figure it out : )

etc...

we are still enjoying morgantown. i joined a mom's group and met some really nice people that way. david and i went to our first WVU game (see evidence below.) it was a perfect day for football. however, we were a little disappointed by how tame the WVU fans were! we saw no burning couches or no one get arrested : ( not what i expected.

my mom came in town and we started painting the house. we finished a few rooms but still have a lot more to do. pictures to come soon!

i will post again as soon as we know the gender. 10 more days!