Gender Reveal Party!

The day is finally here!  I was so excited to have this party with some friends to all find out the gender of our little tater tot together.  Leading up to it I definitely thought this was over rated and was dying to find out the gender with just me and Derek.  But, the day of the party with our friends and some family around it definitely added to the excitement and fun and I would probably do this again.  Even with the wait!

This might win the award for post with the most pictures in it!  

I decided to have a little low key brunch to have everyone over.  My good friend Terri made the Old Wives Tales board below.  I was at a 6 for girl and 7 for boy according to these.  In front of the board were pins for people to wear their guesses after seeing the board,  a pink bow for girls and a football (obviously) for boys.  

 Finally using our china cabinet a little bit.  I got some gorgeous gender neutral hydrangeas to brighten up the space and used my crystal vase from a wedding shower.  The candle sticks were an after Christmas World Market find last year.

We decided to go with a cake as our way to find out.  We went with a local bakery, Once in a Blue Moon , and they did a great job.  Lemon icing, lemon filling and either blue or pink icing between the layers inside.  The question marks on top were a nice surprise and I topped it with a little pennant banner too.

The spread: pink and blue table cloths sharing the space.  We served: mini french toast with either maple syrup or blueberry syrup, mini donut holes, baby quiche (still in the oven for this picture), and fruit- strawberries, blackberries, blueberries and raspberries.  Keeping as much as we could in the color scheme of pink and blue!  Pink lemonade was served in the kitchen.

All the girls.  I'm so lucky to have such sweet friends that shared this moment with me.  I didn't even mention wearing pink and blue- they are such sweethearts that always go above and beyond!

 After everyone got some food and visited it was time to get down to voting!  With Derek's genetic interest and lots of scientists at the party it was a given to indicate xx vs xy on the board.  Everyone pinned little cut out onesies under their guess.

Shayna- vote one for boy

  
 Grandma Ginny- convinced it's a girl!

 I love our puppies dearly and they were of course involved in the party!!  I went to a sweet little dog bakery, Gourmutts (the website doesn't do it justice), and got special treats for them: 2 blue and 2 pink.  We decided to have them vote by holding the dogs back, showing them each treat, one pink, one blue.  I then put the treats a bit a ways from them, one on each side and Derek let them go to see what color they chose-thus indicating their choice for either boy or girl!

 Mingo went first.  He made a dash for it and inhaled the pink treat!!  Vote girl for Mingy!

 Little Haplo went next.  He also went straight to the girl treat.  The cutie pie gobbled it up and almost beat me to the blue treat to eat that one too, but I got there first.  We saved the unpicked treats for later.  Vote girl for Happy.

 I had told Derek what I thought the gender was but he had kept tight lipped about his guess.  After everyone put their guesses on the board Derek and I put our shirt pins on at the same time.  I had no idea what his guess was going to be.  We played this game where I would ask him what he thought the gender was going to be, and he would say " a happy healthy baby."  I was a bit surprised when he pulled the little football pin out of his pocked and put that on to show his guess!  Here we are after just showing our guesses and putting our pins on the board.  Two guesses for a little prince!


Finally it was time to cut the cake.  So much anticipation had built up to this moment and I think we were all eager to find out about our little tot!  I let Derek cut the cake while I held his other hand.

He cut soo slowly and you couldn't see the icing right away.  It's a good thing he was in charge here, I would have made a mess trying to find out now that it was time!

 After our first peek!  Pure happiness

Celebratory Kiss!!

Have I kept you in enough suspense?.....
























  Okay,  here's the cake for you to see!

 It's a BOY!!!!  BOY OH BOY!!!

We then opened the envelope and looked at the sonogram picture.  I have no idea what we are looking at, we tried it at several different angles.  There was a little arrow pointing at something in the picture and above the arrow it said "boy" so we're trusting them.  Then of course, the obvious next step is to use the sonogram pic as a pseudo portal into my belly- he looks just like this! :)  Derek is holding up the little note from our ultrasound tech that said "it's a boy!"

 Time to pop open the "champagne!"  Sweet Shayna and Katie brought some sparkling juice and we all had some while chatting and I smiled so much my cheeks started to hurt!

 Chatting afterwards.   Mostly about how I'm in a house with 4 boys now!! Derek, two boy dogs and now our little baby boy on the way!  The girls promised to take me out for cocktails and have glitter throwing girl get-togethers!  I'm definitely going to take them up on this offer in the future!

A little impromptu shot.  I'm totally loving my growing belly these days.

Proud Grandparents.

Proud Parents!!  We are both so excited to welcome this little boy into our lives!  It's going to be like nothing we've ever experienced and we're ready for all the love and the little challenges.  

19 weeks

Sweet Tater tot: size of a large heirloom tomato.
How far along?  19 weeks 

Total weight gain: none yet
Maternity clothes? totally. so comfortable and my belly was peaking through my normal shirts
Stretch marks? not yet. but belly is definitely growing
Sleep: interrupted by dreams constantly
Best moment this week: ultrasound with Derek!!!
Miss Anything?:  coffee, iced coffee, lattes, sweet tea
Movement: a bit more than last week
Food cravings: ice cream, cheese
Anything making you queasy or sick: thankfully, no
Gender: written down on a card- will find out at reveal party with friends and family on Sunday!!
Symptoms:  dry skin, crazy dreams, growing belly, little kicking feet, fatique, funky skin, itchy itchy eyes, hurts to sit, hips hurting
Belly Button in or out? in
Wedding rings on or off? on
Happy or Moody most of the time: errrr, emotional?  always a moment away from tears. makes for interesting conversations.
Looking forward to: Gender reveal party on Sunday!!  Then I can craft to my  hearts content for our little one and we can start on the nursery!!

Old Wives Tales

I don't know if there's anything to these but as we get closer to the gender reveal party I can't help but think about them!  Here are some old wives tales and how I fit into them.

1. Is baby's heartbeat above or below 140?  above=girl
2.Do you crave sweet or salty?  sweet=girl
3. Did you have morning sickness? yes=girl
4. Are you moody or happy?  moody=girl (hate to admit that one!)
5. Is your skin soft or dry?  dry=boy
6. Do you sleep on your right or left side?  left=boy
7. Do you have more headaches?  no=girl
8. Do you eat more? yes=boy
9. Can you tell you're pregnant from the back? no=boy
10. Acne? yes=girl


Total: 6 girl, 4 boy
The Chinese gender predictor says it's a boy.
I have no idea really- so much for mother's intuition. sometimes I think boy, sometimes I think girl
Also, the baby hangs out super low, like, couldn't get any lower.  Is that like carrying low? because the wives tale for that one is carrying low=boy

What's your guess?   I wanna know?  I'll share the reveal next week with the party wrap up!

Gender Ultrasound

Derek was unable to come to my first ultrasound due to his job. We made sure he could come to my second!!  I was so excited for Derek to see our little Tater Tot!  And hear the heartbeat.  We got up bright and early this morning to go in to the doctor's office.  The ultrasound was first.  This is the ultrasound.  Where the tech can see the gender!  So, we're of course excited about that too. 

 I got settled in and the tech gooped me up.  Derek was sitting next to me and we could both look up at the tv screen and see our little baby.  That first sight got me to tears- technology is amazing.  Little hands, little feet, big ears!, little knees and a mouth that opens and closes.  We were in there for about 45 minutes, just gawking at our precious little angel, still in disbelief at how lucky we are.  Our little baby is still hanging out low and likes to nuzzle in there.  I got to roll on my side and practically stand on my head to try to get Tot to move so the tech could see everything she needed.  Derek and the tech saw the baby playing, sweet tater Tot grabbed the umbilical cord for a second playfully.  I missed this but it was apparently really cute and Derek instantly decided the baby needed a rattle!

There had been a lot of debate up to this point about having a gender reveal party-where we don't know the gender and it's sealed in an envelope and we find out with friends and relatives.  This all sounded fine and dandy a month ago and my big mouth told everyone we were going to do this.   However, the last few weeks I've realized what a bad idea this is.  Friends don't care that much.  Family can find out over the phone.  I'm ready to know now!!  Derek reminded me how many people were excited to find out with us and kept me to my word.  When the time came to find out the gender we just looked at each other while the Tech did her job.  For awhile there, she didn't think she was going to be able to tell us as Tot was not being cooperative.  This gave us a few moments of panic- how do we buy clothes, what about the nursery?  I don't know how people don't find out beforehand.  Derek and I are definitely planners. Eventually the tech got it though.

I got a sweet card from Aunt Ellen just the day before and she had included a special little card just for Tot.  We reused this envelope,  Ellen is such an artist and always pays attention to detail.  This seemed like the perfect secret holder for us.  So I brought the envelope in and the tech wrote on a little card the gender and even included a picture in the envelope for us.  Here it is all stuffed with information.  Derek promptly put it into his wallet and kept my  hands away!

Derek and I went out for a celebratory lunch afterwards.  Just to spend some time being giddy and happy and letting it all soak in.  I was a bit ridiculous but Derek is always calm.  You can see the happiness peaking through though-he's not fooling anyone!  

So, it's decided.  We're having a gender reveal party on Sunday.  I've promised not to peak, even though it's killing me not knowing when it's right there!!  

18 weeks

Sweet Tater tot: size of a sweet potato
How far along?  18 weeks 

Total weight gain: none yet
Maternity clothes? totally started rockin' them this week, they are just more comfortable.  I got a few things from old navy and then some cotton dresses from ann taylor loft that work with the bump.  I don't have that many summer clothes to begin with so these were all needed.  Still wearing shorts and shirts from before- really shows off the bump!  On the lookout for some exercise shorts I can wear because the elastic waist on my running shorts isn't working so well anymore.  
Stretch marks? no
Sleep:
Best moment this week:  Derek feeling the baby kick.  We finally got a moment and I put his hand on my stomach.  He felt three good kicks and his eyes lit up and a smile beamed across his face.   Tears poured down my face as I saw his love and beginning connection with our child.  I don't think I'll ever forget that moment. 
Miss Anything?: falling asleep on my stomach, having my skin tone on my face all the same color,  not having to force veggies down throughout the day.  (always a challenge to get enough in, mostly because I just can't eat that much)
Movement: yep!  lovely little nudges from Tater Tot
Food cravings: Ice Cream!!,  new food like: grapefruit.  Lovin' it and couldn't stand it before 
Anything making you queasy or sick: thankfully, no
Gender: hoping for a healthy baby. 
Symptoms:  round ligament pain, acne, emotional, sinuses, itchy eyes
Belly Button in or out? in
Wedding rings on or off? on
Happy or Moody most of the time: errrr, emotional?  always a moment away from tears. makes for interesting conversations.
Looking forward to: ultrasound with Derek on Tuesday.  First time he'll get to see nutter butter and the gender will be written down on an envelope for us!




a little then and now for ya:

 

Pregnancy aka a lesson in anatomy

Our sweet little nutter butter has a favorite spot.  Looking back, it's where Tot was hanging out in our first ultra sound.  On the right, on my sciatic nerve.  The tingling feeling that wouldn't go away for hours and me worried my leg was going to fall off sent us straight to the computer. 

Once we knew what it was, I loved little Tot for growing big enough to put some weight on my nerve and was glad Tot was comfortable.  I threw out the necessary one liner- "the baby is starting to get on my nerves" Then after several more hours of a numb leg the calisthenics ensued with Derek's help.  Handstands and dancing and hip shaking to try to move our little angel.  Gotta keep things interesting.  Summer Sander's labor lunges did the trick late in the night (lovin' that workout).   Good to remember, as I'm sure it will happen again!

Hilton Head Mini-Vacation

I love the beach.  It warms my soul and hearing the waves cleanses my mind and washes away all the stress and worries that build up over the winter.  It is here that I breathe in deep breaths.  It's what makes me smile from the tips of my toes to the last hair on my head.  The beauty, the peace and the perfect memories from times spent at the beach past. 

I was so thankful for our four day jaunt to Hilton Head this past weekend.  It was just what we needed.  This picture might have to get framed.  It was supposed to rain but we had clear sunny skies during the day. Only a bit of rain at night. Perfectness.  The trip wasn't picture heavy as I just tried to soak it all in, but we caught a few of the activities.  We mostly hung out by the water and ate good food.  What else does a vacation need?

 Usually we head out walking at night to catch the little crabbies, but they came out to say hello in the daytime.  This was the first time we saw them, but on our beach walk they were everywhere.

 I've only been to Hilton Head one other time before and I don't think I took in all of it's beauty. The path above wandered through most of the island and the beautiful trees and spanish moss were everywhere.  Perfect for a jog in the overcast weather at night while gator huntin' in the lagoons that came up.  This is what I loved about the island.  Nature was everywhere.  It wasn't about big beach houses and shops everywhere, but the nature, the animals and the pure beauty that exists around us.  (bump alert in the picture above! the baby bump is here to stay, people were noticing it for sure this weekend)

 horseshoe crab on our beach walk.  These and jellyfish were everywhere.  No sea shells, but that's ok.

 The above and below picture were taken in the resort- some wildlife hanging out to keep us happy.  Turtles in the river and a heron I think below.

                                              Parrots in the shopping plaza.

We made it out shopping on the island once, had to pull me away from the water.  I found lots of sweet things for the baby.  I wish I had known the gender.  I poked at the baby a bit and asked Tot to tell me if he/she was a boy or a girl but I got no response so all the sweet clothes and toys stayed on the racks-probably a good thing for our budget.

We were able to fit in some good food: got some fresh shrimp, po boys, a delicious breakfast, treated myself to a few sips of sweet tea and got caffeine drunk (first caffeine in the pregnancy) and read about some sushi nachos which will have to be  made at home once sushi can be eaten again!


We headed back and got in late last night after stopping at some outlet stores for maternity clothes for me and jeans for Derek.  We also weathered a horrendous storm the likes of which I haven't seen before.  Rested and relaxed and ready to find out the baby's gender in a little over a week.  Already looking forward to our babymoon too!!


How was your weekend?  What place or activity restores your soul?  Any baby gender guesses?  We'll add them to the party list!

17 weeks

                                                                           Bump!!

Sweet Tater tot: size of an onion
How far along?  17 weeks 

Total weight gain: none yet
Maternity clothes? nope, not yet- ordered some this week though
Stretch marks? no
Sleep: pulled out the preggle this week for a bit of use, but sleep ok overall
Best moment this week: feeling the baby  move more,  saying hello to my baby bump, telling everyone, finding out a good friend of ours is due on the same day - I can't wait to talk to her!
Miss Anything? coffee, meatballs/hamburgers/ground beef
Movement: yep!  lovely little nudges from Tater Tot
Food cravings: eating lots of vanilla wafers (but totally shouldn't be)
Anything making you queasy or sick: 
Gender: hoping for a healthy baby. 
Symptoms:  feeling pretty good this week
Belly Button in or out? in
Wedding rings on or off? on
Happy or Moody most of the time: errrr, emotional?  always a moment away from tears. makes for interesting conversations.
Looking forward to: vacation tomorrow! we need it. 

The word(and my belly) is out

I'm putting these gorgeous announcements in the mail today to most of our friends and families that don't live nearby.  I worked with Ashley after finding her cute Etsy shop to put these together.  They are just what I wanted and it was fun to use these colors together. 

 I put the bloggy address on the back so we'll see if anyone joins in from the announcements.  I have this idea that family will follow along and want to know what's going on with me and then can see pictures of the baby weekly and it'll be a springboard for us all to just get closer and know more about each other's lives.  Also thankful for awesome friends to share life with, (hi sweet Terri).

Today I also told my Principle Investigator (P.I. aka. "the big boss") that I'm pregnant and I told another co-worker.  I told my immediate boss last week.  Everything went smoothly and I'm off work for a little vacation for the next few days so we'll let word spread.  

Belly bump picture tomorrow!

16 weeks

Sweet Tater tot: size of an avacado
How far along?  16 weeks 

Total weight gain: none
Maternity clothes? nope, not yet- ordered some this week though
Stretch marks? not yet
Sleep: is the best thing ever, can't get enough
Best moment this week: Derek singing to the baby, starting my scheduled time with the baby
Miss Anything? caffeine- could use something to help me wake up, sushi
Movement: only if I focus and then it's hit or miss. I still think I could be making it up.
Food cravings: 
Anything making you queasy or sick: randomly I have to stop looking at pinterest b'c the food grosses me out, but nothing in person
Gender: hoping for a healthy baby. 
Symptoms:  round ligament pain, fatique-but definitely more energy this tri mester, dry itchy eyes
Belly Button in or out? in
Wedding rings on or off? on
Happy or Moody most of the time: errrr, emotional?  lots of happy tears this week.
Looking forward to: decorating the nursery, starting to show (grow baby grow)

 *is that a little bump starting to form?  I came out in this outfit and Derek said my belly was poking out so we grabbed a picture.  No makeup- shows how tired I really am and a sweet reminder to wear makeup! *

Moving wrap-up

Moving was a whirlwind and absolutely insane.  I would never recommend moving while pregnant!  Derek really stepped up to the plate and did most everything.  It was a weird time because I was ending my first trimester and starting my second, so when we started moving I was still quesy a lot, then I got better and had a smidgen more energy but then would get up to move around and the round ligament pain or back pain would put me back on the couch.

 Yesterday we turned in the keys to the TW townhome, affectionately known as tdubs, and are officially done.  Well, minus the unpacking and the new house!

Here's a 'brief' re-cap of our moving into the house weekends:
On the first weekend we scoured the stores for a good deal on washer and dryers and celebrated after closing on the house.  Then Derek got quickly to work on the laundry room before the delivery men came to set up the washer and dryer.  He had seen my pinterest posts and surprised me with suggesting that we paint the walls with a fun stripe for me!  I was so thrilled.  We splurged and got some Pantone honeysuckle-squeeee.

My sweetie was up late for two nights marking and taping and painting.  Everything looks great and I love it.  The funny part is, that there were originally two doors that closed off the laundry room, however, the washer and dryer were so large we had to take the doors off. So, now you can see the laundry room from the living room.  Probably not what Derek had planned, but I love it.  The doors will go back on eventually with some adjusting so I'm enjoying it while I can!  I can't wait to finish up the "room" with a little chandelier and some pictures and etc etc.  Definitely a great start.

The next weekend after a few meltdowns (ahh pregnancy)  we finally settled on paint colors at the last second and the painters came to get rid of the sellers beige and add our own style.  We had them paint all the common areas and we'll go back and do the rooms later once we figure out what we want (trying to avoid more meltdowns).

These guys were so awesome- I'd never seen professional painters before and I loved it.  They puttied all the holes, lightly sanded the walls, took off the light switch plates, covered everything then proceeded to pain like champions.  They got it all done in under 6 hours and cleaned up.  When they put the light switch plates back they even made sure all the screws were aligned up and down- ahh they know how to make this girl happy. I couldn't get into the house while they were painting.  We chose no VOC paint but we wanted to be careful.  While they were painting, I'll admit I mostly slept, but I also worked on the yard some.

And then moving day came!  Yay?!  We awoke to Haplo's little goodbye to Tdubs.  I couldn't stop laughing- I guess he's definitely ready to go.  Derek was not laughing but at least we had already planned on carpet cleaning. (pardon the crass picture but it still makes me laugh and I don't want to forget his goodbye)

 All ready to go with our little reindeer friend keeping me company.

Packing up the truck.  We got two college students to help us move since we don't have any amazing pieces of furniture yet.  They were helpful for their strength but definitely needed direction.  We hired them through sweeps and I would definitely recommend trying out the company for your needs.

Unpacking into the new house.  Funny story- as little as I was helping that day, I still managed to hurt myself.  When we pulled up to our new home, Derek had a question about parking so I jumped up all nimble like onto the step of the big uhaul to talk to him and then sprightly jumped off backwards.  or, not so sprightly.  I keeled right over and twisted my ankle.  Scared the bejeesus out of Derek and the movers just looked down at me like "how did you even do that?"  A shining moment for sure.
Our friend Katie came over about lunch time and brought some refreshments and joined us for our first al fresco lunch.  It was nice to catch up and relax a bit before getting back to work.  She helped us put together some furniture and we got the basics ready so we could live.  Ya know, like the tv stand and the bed and the dining room table and we were good to go!
I gave her the tour of the house and got to tell her we were pregnant when I showed her where the nursery was.  

The night slowed down and it was finally time to celebrate our first night in our first home!  And we did it in style- a little bubbly(sparkling grape juice), take out pizza and a movie.  I couldn't have been happier!