Baby D is a GIRL!

Yup! We're having a GIRL! I'm still a little in shock. Now that we are referring to our little Butterbean as Baby Girl, it all seems way too real! The gender reveal cake was a hit, and went off exactly as we had hoped! Here's a a couple pictures of what the cake looked like before we cut it ...

Our neighbor did a great job! She dropped it off Thanksgiving morning very quickly, as she didn't want to hang around us too long. She said she was afraid she'd give it away!

Now here's the cake after we cut it!

Our very pink, "baby girl" cake! It was delicious by the way!

I'm going to attempt to upload a video of us cutting the cake here. Hopefully this works for y'all, so you can see the initial reaction. We were having dinner at our friends' Eric and Kristen's house with some of our grad school family. We were also able to Skype with both sets of parents so they could "be there" for this.

After doing this, I'm so happy we decided to wait an extra two days and share this with our friends and family. It made the moment that much more special to find out with people we care about.

The Tuesday before Thanksgiving we went to the doctor for our anatomy scan. Here are some close-ups of Butterbean.

This is one of the best pictures our little girl would give us. She's looking directly out, which is why her face looks like an alien. The ultrasound tech assured us this was normal. In this picture you can also kind of see her spine, which I thought was pretty cool.

Here our little girl is flexing. This is an arm and fist. As you can tell by the labels... I like that she's already a fighter.

Baby was chillin' here. Feet up and crossed.

Thanksgiving morning we ran in the Lansing Turkeyman Trot 5K. It went really well. There was a group of about 8 of us who ran/walked it. Here's a picture of Paul and me before the race.

So that brings us to this week. Yesterday we took a 19-week belly picture.

And here we are. Good gracious I'm large. I'm up about 9 pounds, which is apparently right on target. Almost halfway. I'm feeling some sporadic movement in there.

Also, I ordered my first pair of maternity jeans. Yup, I'm officially there. I can still rock the hairband around my jeans if I want, but it's more comfortable to just accept the fact that I'm large and in charge.

We ordered our crib and got that all set up! We've been putting up some more details in the nursery, so next week I'll have a post with a detailed tour of that. I'm also planning on posting again this week (I know, what a treat!), with our Christmas decorations. Paul and I went and got our tree this weekend at a local farm! The house now looks, feels, and SMELLS like Christmas!!!!!

That's it for now, but I'll be back later this week!!

18 weeks!

"A ship under sail and a big-bellied woman are the handsomest two things that can be seen." - Benjamin Franklin

I mean, in case there was any doubt, good ol' Ben cleared the air for us! I've started reading my first pregnancy book, Mommy IQ, by Rosie Pope. I figured it's about time, as I'm now about 4 months into this journey. At the beginning of each new chapter, there are a couple of quotes about pregnancy. One is typically from someone important (e.g., Ben Franklin), while the other is usually from someone, um, less important (like Snooki). So this quote came from that book. I like it.

Since updating this blog a few important things have happened: the soon-to-be nursery got a nice coat of paint and the guest bed was decked out, we put up Christmas lights outside, we took an 18 week belly picture, and, for the first time, I felt little Butterbean fluttering about!

So let's start with the nursery. The walls are no longer that lovely dark tan/brown color, but instead, a calming light grey (Sherwin Williams, March Wind). You'll see this in the belly picture. My mother-in-law came up and spent the week fixing up the nursery and organizing our garage. The guest bed in the nursery also has some snazzy new linens, but I'm going to wait to take pictures of that until the crib comes! That's right, we've ordered a crib! Should be in this week!! So, if you can all forgive me and wait a few days, I'll have some pictures of the nursery up! But believe me, it's awesome!

This weekend the weather was ridiculously nice. I mean Sunday, we were up around 60 degrees!! I decided to take advantage of that and put up my Christmas lights outside. I did this partially because our neighbor's son keeps asking Paul why our lights aren't up yet, but mostly because I am a 6-year old at heart and LOVE decorating for Christmas! So here are a few pictures of what is up so far. I plan on adding more and getting more festive after Thanksgiving.

This is off our back deck. I put up white lights around the railing. Straight back is the pond. One of our neighbors has put lights on the trees around the pond, which I'm hoping he'll turn on after Thanksgiving, so it'll look like a Christmas Wonderland!

This is our front entrance. Red lights down the columns, with white icicles around the top. I need to cut down the tall grasses in front, but we don't have large hedge clippers. I will be going to Lowe's on Wednesday to take care of this. The icicles are brand new, so they're not quite dangling yet, but Paul assures me gravity will take care of this. I will also be taking down the fall wreath and adding a Christmas wreath soon enough.

The inside of the house will get decorated on Wednesday. I also will probably add more outside! On Friday, we will be going to get our Christmas tree! I'm so excited I can barely breathe.

Since the last post, we also took our 18-week belly picture...

Is Baby D a boy or a girl?!?!?!?! Tomorrow we go to the doctor for the ultrasound!!!! We're having the doctor write it down and put it in an envelope. We will then head straight to our neighbor who is a baker, and give her the envelope. She is making us a cake, dying the inside blue or pink. We will be cutting the cake at Thanksgiving dinner with our grad school family. Some people have suggested this seems like an awful lot of work, but my response to them is this is really nothing compared to the work of having a baby. I can wait an extra two days to find out in a more memorable way than just sitting in a cold doctor's office.

I love Thanksgiving, I mean, what's not to love? Amazing food, amazing friends and family, Christmas season officially starts, and now, Thanksgiving will be the day we find out if we are having a little baby boy or a little baby girl! This is going to be the LONGEST week EVER!

Now, onto equally exciting news. The other night I was driving home from coaching, listening to Band Aid's "Do They Know it's Christmastime," singing passionately (obviously), when I felt something in my stomach. At first I just assumed it was normal stomach things, but that didn't seem right. It felt different. Like nothing I had felt before. Apparently, our little Butterbean likes Christmas music as much as I do!!! (On a side note, I am fully aware of the subtle racism in this song, but man is that tune catchy. In fact, if you haven't heard the song, or just need to hear it again, because, well, who doesn't, here it is: Do They Know it's Christmastime. I especially like when they cut to Sting, singing "the bitter sting of tears." Nothing says "Christmas" like "the clanging chimes of doom.")

Next time I post I will be (hopefully) uploading a video of us cutting our gender reveal cake!!! Only 3 more days!!! 

Christmas Photos

This past weekend Paul and I took some pictures for our Christmas cards this year. I got a Groupon for Vistaprint, and given our current situation and the size of my belly, we figured sending out cards might be a nice idea. However, because we can't send out Christmas cards to everyone, and because we couldn't fit all of the pictures we took on one card, I'm putting some on this lovely blog for y'all to enjoy! Also, this will take the place of a "belly" picture for week 17.

Man, we are good looking. :) I've officially entered the realm of "I choose family photos based on how my 'children' (in this case, Layla) look, instead of me." It was bound to happen, and let's be honest, Layla looks adorable here. And yes, that is her "I'm going to be a big sister" bandana previously featured.

I wish Layla had been looking at the camera here, this had the potential to be cute, but alas, she had to be difficult. That's so like her.

Here, we were trying to get Layla to "say 'hi' to Butterbean!" This is a game we like to play at home, which gets her all excited and sometimes she barks! I've read some places where it's good for your dog to bark while you're pregnant, so baby gets used to hearing a dog bark. I kind of think this is a bunch of malarky, but whatever the books say, I guess. She was, however, less than pleased with my attempt to hold her up on her hind legs.

So, I came down to her level. I wanted to properly introduce Layla to her new brother or sister. She really wasn't that interested in this, and actually, believe it or not, more interested in playing with her flippy floppy (a cloth frisbee, for those who don't know). She really is going to be completely blindsided when we bring this baby home. But you know, that's not really my fault. I've tried to introduce her to the idea, but she just doesn't seem to care.

No, Layla did not take this picture. I was actually pretty pleased with this picture. We had the camera set up on our kitchen chair on a self-timer, when our neighbor came over to bring us Christmas cookies, unsure why we were standing together smiling. So we continued to smile, but were kind of talking/laughing during this one.

The above-mentioned neighbor felt bad for us and our pathetic attempt at taking family Christmas photos, so she offered to help. Which resulted in this picture. Layla with her tongue out, as she was tired from chasing that flippy floppy.

I hope you enjoyed that brief trip through our first family Christmas photos. I informed Paul that next year I will be paying someone to do this for us. Not with a camera on a self-timer, propped up on a dinning chair in the backyard, but with proper equipment.

Tomorrow my mother-in-law gets into town and will be painting the "nursery." I'm very excited to get rid of that dark tan/brown color you've seen in all the previous weekly pictures. I'll update this blog again in a few days with another "belly" picture and maybe a couple pictures of the new paint!

Some 1st Trimester Faves!

I'm getting almost good at remembering to update this! I'm so proud of ME. :)

For today's post, I thought I'd share some of my favorite things during my 1st trimester. I know I have a handful of friends who are thinking about trying for a baby, some already are, I'm sure some are pregnant and haven't told me, and some will at some point down the road be thinking about thinking about trying... So for all of you, I hope this is in someway useful!

Neutrogena Make-up Remover Cleansing Towelettes: I loved these things even before I was pregnant. As it turns out, I'm pretty lazy and HATE washing my face at night. These things are great to get off all of your make-up, dirt, and grime from the day. I would use them after a late night of drinking, but I love them even more now after a long day of being awake. You have never been tired until you are pregnant. End of discussion. At the end of the day, when all you want to do is crash, it's great to have these things handy to clean up. You know, when the 2 minutes it would take to actually wash your face is far too long.

Body Pillow: I actually just got this, so it's kind of cheating to put it under 1st trimester, but I wish I had this earlier. You can spend $60+ on a "pregnancy body pillow" if you want. Go right ahead. I instead got one just like this bad boy for $10 at Target. Helps me get used to that whole sleeping on my side thing. It does, however, take up some extra room in the bed. Between this pillow and my ever-expanding belly, Layla is none to pleased with her lack of space.

Bath & Body Works Winter Candy Apple Body Cream: They say there's no way to prevent stretch marks; if you're gonna get 'em, you're gonna get 'em. Genetics or something. I still choose to lather up constantly, hoping that every bit of lotion and oil makes me less likely to develop those war wounds. I had some of this body cream left over from a previous holiday season, so I really have been using this since day one. I love the scent of Winter Candy Apple - it smells like Christmas! (On a side note, this is what our house smells like right now. Thank you B&BW wallflowers!) I prefer the body cream to the lotion, it seems a bit heavier. Whether or not it will prevent stretch marks, it's still good to moisturize and now I get to smell like Christmas. Win-win in my opinion.

Bath & Body Works Iced Gingerbread Hand Sanitizer: I like carrying hand sanitizer with me. Especially now during cold & flu season. Washing my hands every 5 minutes isn't really an option, so this is helpful. Plus, again, it smells like Christmas. Winning.

Perrier Sparkling Water: Pellegrino is just as good, but I really like the lemon and lime flavors Perrier has to offer. It's tough cutting out things you used to have a lot of. Beer for instance. Having a sparkling water at a tailgate is not the same, but it's an alternative to plain water. Plus, it hydrates you just as well as regular H20. I also found some canned sparkling water at Meijer, as well. I liked those because they fit in my koozie.

Tervis Water Bottle: Apparently I need to be drinking approximately 847352985 ounces of water a day. Well, not quite, but it is a lot. Carrying a water bottle around really helps me get enough water each day. Actually, our midwife saw me carrying a water bottle and about passed out she was so happy! The picture here is a Tervis with Sparty on it. Quite festive. I don't have this one. My Tervis water bottle has a Topsail Island patch in it and is even cooler.

So those are just some things I've found helpful on this trek. Couple of other things I didn't mention:

Extra Strength Tylenol: It's really all you can take. I had crazy cramps early and the headaches were not what I'd call fun. Carry this with you.

Hair Ties: As many hair ties as you can. Always have them on you. They're great for keeping your pants on when they just don't want to button. Because before you have a real "baby belly," you're gonna have some massive bloating which may as well be a baby belly. Of triplets.

If any of you veteran mamas have other suggestions to help make this journey as seamless as possible, I'd love to hear them!

On to this week's "Belly Picture."

More like 16 1/2 weeks... I'm up about 6.5 L-Bs last I checked. I'm not sure why I typed that L-Bs, other than I actually said "L Bs." Wow. 6.5 pounds. However, by the end of the day, I look like 30 pounds heavier, or "awfully pregnant." :)

In about two weeks we'll find out if our little Butterbean is a baby boy or baby girl. Pretty much can't wait. That also means it's Thanksgiving and I get to eat my weight in delicious food. Which, by then, should be a few more extra pounds!