Babymoonin'

Last week we got back from a vacation that I referred to as our babymoon. If you've never heard that term, it basically just means a vacation you take alone before the baby comes, like another honeymoon. We went back to Aruba (we had been before, in October 2009) and knew we would love it. We picked a different hotel this time that has it's own "private island" that you take a short boat ride out to every day. It was a pretty fantastic vacation. We were both burnt out with work and needed to get away anyway, but knowing a baby is on its way gave an added layer to the trip. Nothing like knowing your life is going to change forever to make you want to sleep as much as possible, relax, and read a few books. We made sure to "savor" it. Of course there will be vacations in the future but there was something special about this trip.

Relaxing on a hammock together.

Just hanging out on the beach, surrounded by flamingos.

Aruba always has the best weather.

The hammock was at the end of a jetty, so it was isolated, just the sounds of the waves.

It's a....

BOY!!

 cupcakes by Celia of Delightful Cakery

Note the little gray + yellow elephant topper with a question mark :)

We had the ultrasound on Friday morning and it was absolutely breathtaking to see how everything is developing. It blows my mind to see little organs and a tiny spine and itty bitty feet! We saw the mouth opening and closing a few times. The baby was stubborn though (just like his momma) and was at a bad angle for most of it. The ultrasound tech has a laundry list of pictures she needs to capture - each arm/hand/leg/foot/etc - and the baby was not cooperating for some of them. She had me try a few of her tricks (empty my bladder, lay on one side for a while) and ultimately got what she needed. And we ended up with this nice profile of the baby's sweet face.

Then she wrote the sex on a piece of paper and taped it up an envelope. I brought it to Celia and she made a batch of cupcakes for us this weekend. I picked them up Sunday morning and we had our families over in the afternoon. First we watched our wedding 'feature film' from our videographer that we got last month (if your remember, we got the 3 minute 'trailer' back in August that shows the highlights). This was the ~25-minute-ish film of the full day. We absolutely love it and it really brings the day back to life. Our families enjoyed watching it as well. Then we had dinner and for dessert...cupcakes! It was so exciting to have everyone surround us for that moment. We all bit into the cupcakes to find out what was inside and saw blue! It was so much fun to have that moment and so nice to finally know instead of guessing!

I really enjoyed the suspense that grew in the time since the ultrasound. It was important to us to include our families in this experience since its the first grandchild and everyone has been so thrilled with the news. I think though, in the future, that I would like to do some version of that every time. It seems kind of anti-climactic to be laying there on the hospital bed and having the ultrasound tech matter-of-factly announce it. It would be fun just to have them write it on an envelope and rip it open together later that night to share that special moment. Who knows, maybe next time we won't find out at all. Either way, we are thrilled with the news that we are having a son! We're so excited!

Boy or Girl?

Tomorrow is our ultrasound to determine the sex of the baby. We won't find out until Sunday though, when we'll enjoy delicious cupcakes (by Celia) with pink or blue filling. And yes, I'm sure I'll scramble to get a post up first thing Monday to share the reveal with you all. With the news so close, I've begun wondering about the outcome. Neither of us have a strong preference one way or the other and we haven't since the beginning. I spent a while convinced it was a girl because of how sick I was feeling (a few people had told me girls can make you very sick) but then Matt's cousin found out she was having a girl and she wasn't that sick during the first trimester, and I know of someone else who found out she was having a boy and had been very sick. So that theory was out. I don't have any other intuition about what my belly's occupant might be, but knowing we find out in a mere few days means I've been thinking about it a lot lately! 

A boy... We know we want to ultimately have more than one child so there's something comforting knowing a boy would be first to be the "protective older brother" for whoever comes next. I have a friend  with a son going on 3 years old and she had a (half-joking) theory about having a boy first. She reasons that boys are more resilient, meaning you can get your "practice" in with the boy, with minimal lasting damage, and you'll be a pro in time for a girl later on. I don't know if there is any scientific proof to that but it's a fun theory to consider nonetheless! Also, in a purely superficial way, I tend to like boys clothing better overall. There is cute stuff for girls but I think it's harder to find because I don't like a lot of the overly girly options. For example, last night I was browsing Gap.com and almost nothing on the Infant Girl site got me excited, but look at the super cute boy outfits!

(both images from Gap.com)

Although I think both of these are so stinkin' cute that I would consider buying them in the other colors for a girl anyway (the polo comes in a bright green and the romper comes in purple or light green). Lastly, if this weekend we find out we are having a boy, my absolute first boy-specific baby purchase would probably be this:

I mean, RIGHT? Fake beard on child's hat, for the win. Image from Etsy.

As for a girl... I think it's only natural for women to picture having a little girl. I'm a sucker for pigtails; I wish newborn girls had them right away, haha! And girls do have cute dresses and shoes. Also I'm fairly confident that Matt will be a sucker for a little girl and she will have him wrapped around her itty bitty finger, so it would be fun to see that 'daddy's girl' dynamic now instead of a few years down the road. And just to make my point about girls clothes here is a dress from Gap that I saw yesterday. Maybe because my personal style doesn't lean towards frilly dresses and ruffles? Maybe it was made worse because it's all their new spring stuff on the front pages? I don't know. 

(picture from Gap.com)

I like things like this a bit more. They're still dresses for girls and super cute, but not overly frilly.

(both outfits from Bodenusa.com)

As for the baby's room, it's not that we're waiting to paint the walls of the room pink or blue, in fact a lot of the things I've found myself liking for the room are mostly gender neutral. If we were painting the room today, I think I'd pick a light gray for the walls and have accent colors depending on what the sex is. Here are some pictures I've bookmarked for inspiration:

(image link)

 I think gray with pops of red would be great for a boy's room. And for a girl, I think I'd lean more towards yellow for accents. Gray and yellow, probably surprising nobody that I would lean towards that after our gray and yellow wedding.

(image link)

Soon we'll know. Keep in mind that the baby needs to cooperate during the ultrasound (i.e. not keep his or her legs crossed!) and that it's really still just an educated guess. The daughter of a woman I work with went to the hospital last February to give birth to baby Sophie. They had the name chosen, they had a pink baby shower, the whole nine yards. They left the hospital with their son Owen! So, what do you think it will be? Boy or girl??

Tuesday Tapas (week 18 check-in)

This past weekend marked 18 weeks! Soon will be the halfway mark, I can't believe it. A lot has been going on, so here are some updates: 

• I've been feeling better. The last two weeks have definitely felt like I "turned the corner." The dry heaving, gagging and throwing up have gone WAY down and I am less dependent on ginger ale to ease my stomach. My appetite has lagged behind though. It is far from back to normal. I am eating more but still not a lot of variety. Slowly I have been working in small versions of the salads I loved for lunch to get some vegetables in me. 
• We have a vacation coming up! We're heading to Aruba and I couldn't be more excited. We both really need a break (our last vacation was our honeymoon) and it will be our 'last hurrah' before the baby comes. We've been to Aruba before, in October 2009 and loved it. We picked it so we'll know what to expect and won't have to do any research or anything.
• Pregnancy apparently affects your hair and nails. I've read that for most women, it makes their hair luscious and thick because they temporarily stopped shedding. Of course, I've found the complete opposite to be true. My hair has always been really thin and I think I have shed more in the last few months than ever before. This wouldn't be so bad, but I feel like it has barely grown at all, either. I'm wishing for long hair again so I can easily pull it back and have a nice pony tail and it's taking forever to grow. My nails however are setting records. I think I am filing them every other night. I like to keep them really really short so this has been a bit of a pain.
• I think the 'nesting' kick came a little late for me. I didn't even think it was affecting me at all, but then one recent Saturday morning before Matt was even out of bed I had completely purged our pantry and spice shelf of unused and expired items and re-organized them both. The other thing my organizational energy has been focused on is my internet bookmarks. I guess it's electronic nesting? :) Since long before we found out we were expecting, I've been saving baby-related websites, articles and blog posts that I've found interesting. I've been sorting through the mess of them lately to make some sense and using Pinterest to keep track of inspiration for the baby's room.
• Speaking of the baby's room, we haven't made any headway. When it's a bit warmer out, (hopefully in March) we'll start cleaning out the hodge podge of furniture that has been storing in our second bedroom and painting it. We've narrowed down our crib choices and this weekend we settled on one but haven't pulled the trigger yet. All of this will kick into high gear as soon as we know the sex. As for non-nursery items, I've started to do some research into what items to register for but it is really overwhelming. At least with the wedding registry it was just a matter of style or preference. Maybe there was a bit of research involved into what material to choose for your plates (bone china vs. porcelain vs. stoneware, etc). But deciding on a stroller or a car seat is daunting. There are SO MANY and there's the safety aspect to research as well as usability. It's a lot.
• Besides our upcoming vacation, the exciting future event is finding out the sex! We have the ultrasound on Friday and they'll put the result in an envelope. Then my friend Celia will bake cupcakes with pink or blue filling and we'll have our families over on Sunday to all find out together. I can't wait to find out. I think most of the stuff will stay fairly gender neutral but it will be nice to personalize the baby instead of saying "he or she." We also have held off on any name discussions so that will be fun to start! I'm also looking forward to the ultrasound because they do an in-depth look at the development of everything so far. Ironically enough, the constant nausea of the past four months was reassuring that everything is going well, and when it faded away I realized I worry more and am anxious for the comfort of knowing things are okay.
• I'm not 100% in maternity clothes yet. I'm still in my regular pants (with a baby band, which is essentially spandex that helps hold your pants up). I have a few maternity shirts that I rotate through between regular tops. I like the maternity shirts, though. It feels like the difference between hiding the bump and accentuating it. The maternity shirts have shirred sides so they make my belly look better, like it's supposed to be there (ha!) instead of something I'm trying to hide in regular shirts that just look frumpy. After taking and uploading this week's bump picture though, there's no wonder why I've been feeling like a whale lately! I can't believe how different the side view looks from week to week. 

It's a good day (Week 16 check-in)

Today is shaping up to be a pretty good day. Lately, the hallmark of a good day can be very fluid for me.  Mostly all of the indications are physical, and usually revolve around the state of my stomach for that day (although the body aches that I've been feeling - back pain, tailbone pain - can make or break a day). My appetite has still been very sensitive - I've barely veered from the few "safe" foods that I've been eating the last several weeks. This past Friday was considered a good day solely based on the fact that I had a small piece of cake after lunch (the cafeteria at work had it for free as a Superbowl thing). And yes, it was chocolate. Mmmm. Lest I get too excited that my queasiness is officially behind me, Saturday night after pizza at a friend's house I was kneeling in front of the toilet again. So, it's definitely a day-by-day thing.

Today started off as a "good" day simply because I handled some calcium-fortified orange juice with my morning peanut butter toast. This may not sound like a big deal, but trust me - it is. I was pretty excited about it, but then when lunch came around, I could barely wrap my head around any of my usual safe bets and ended up picking at a personal cheese pizza and being thankful the free soda machine spouts ginger ale. Sigh, back to normal, breakfast was a fluke I guess, womp womp. 

Except, then I was in a meeting after lunch, trying to avoid having the technical presentation put me to sleep and I felt something...I'm 99% sure I felt baby movements. This past Saturday marked 16 weeks, which technically is the start of being able to feel "quickening." Honestly I hadn't thought much about it,  most resources say that first time moms don't feel it this early. But here's what I do know: I haven't felt anything like that, ever. It wasn't gas. It wasn't a stomach growl. I wasn't nervous and didn't have the butterflies. Somehow I recognized it for what it is, fairly quickly because a huge goofy grin spread across my face right away. It happened a couple times in the next few minutes while I tried to convey through text messages to Matt the momentous occasion was happening. And then I sat through the rest of the technical meeting pretending to focus but instead just smiling from ear to ear and thinking about the magic of what had happened.