"Snips and snails and puppy dog tails..."

Our ultrasound went well today...except for the fact that our SON likes to lay with his ankles crossed, knees together and all squinched up. That makes for a very difficult gender prediction! The ultrasound tech made me lay on my right side, flip to my left side, drink a bunch of orange juice, jump around a bit...then we finally got the shot. It was quite obvious, left no room for doubt and was crystal clear that this baby was a boy! Ben's so proud. :) We are so, so, so excited that we have a little boy on the way!!!

Baby's profile with his hand on his nose:Imagine the baby is sitting on a Xerox machine...that's what this shot is. Solid white circles on either side of the boy parts are his hip/pelvic bones:

"Boys are found everywhere. On top of, underneath, inside of, climbing on, swinging from, running around or jumping to. Mothers love them, little girls hate them, older sisters tolerate them, adults ignore them and Heaven protects them. A boy is truth with dirt on its face, beauty with a cut on its finger, wisdom with bubble gum in its hair and the hope of the future with a frog in its pocket."

- Alan Beck

Sing-Along Time!

"The sun'll come out

Tomorrow

Bet your bottom dollar

That tomorrow

There'll be sun!

Just thinkin' about

Tomorrow

Clears away the cobwebs,

And the sorrow

'Til there's none!

When I'm stuck a day

That's gray,

And lonely,

I just stick out my chin

And Grin,

And Say,

Oh!

The sun'll come out

Tomorrow

So ya gotta hang on

'Til tomorrow

Come what may

Tomorrow!

Tomorrow!

I love ya

Tomorrow!

You're only

A daaaaay

A waaaaaaay!"

Patience is a virtue. I think I'm out of luck.

One week from today, we get to see our little Bean again!! This wait to find out if it will be 'snips and snails and puppy dog tails' or 'sugar and spice and everything nice' is killing us. We're counting down the days until it's time. Thank goodness I got the first appointment of the day! I don't think I could stand the wait if our appointment wasn't until the afternoon.

Today is not only special because it is T minus one week until we see Bean, it's special because it's my mom's birthday. Yay! All together now...

Happy Birthday to you,

Happy Birthday to you,

Happy Birthday dear Mom/Marcy/Nana....

Happy Birthday tooooooo youuuuuu!!!!

Have a wonderful day mom! We love you!

Today is just a good day all around! We're finally getting some much, much, much needed rain, I made a huge pot of yummy soup for tomorrow's dinner so I don't have to cook tomorrow, I'm roasting a chicken for tonight's dinner and the house smells divine. Better than all these things though is feeling Bean move around! Yesterday, he/she did a somersault and I felt the roll around my whole stomach. Today, I've been feeling more somethings...it's hard to explain. Kind of like someone put a pager in my stomach and it keeps going off. Except its a much faster vibration and only lasts for a few seconds. I didn't realize that the vibrations were the baby...honestly I thought I was having regular muscle spasms. Yeah, I'm a little slow. But today, as I was sitting with two of my neighbors (both are pregnant) it happened and I stopped talking to press on the "spasm". They asked if I was ok and I told them what was happening. At the exact same moment they both said "It's the baby!". Duh Jamie. Oh well...so now I know and I'm sitting on the couch willing it to happen again. How wonderful this pregnancy thing is! :)

How do I spell relief? N-E-W P-A-N-T-S!

You know how tight your pants feel after a big Thanksgiving meal? After eating all that turkey, stuffing, sweet potato casserole and green beans, pumpkin pie, apple pie, chocolate cream pie? The feeling that makes you unbutton your pants because it hurts to sit down with them buttoned? That's pretty much how I've felt everyday recently. I didn't want to buy maternity clothes too early, so I waited until I couldn't take it anymore. I reached that point on Friday (see Friday's post!). So yesterday, Ben and I went to the mall to walk around and find me some new pants. I walked into the store, bought the first pair I tried on and walked out wearing them. Ohhhh, how I love them. They don't squish Bean, which I'm sure he/she's thankful for, and they let the bump roam free. See?Can you see it? Now if you're thinking that I just look pudgy, my husband will come to your house and scold you like he scolds me. "Jamie, stop it. It's a baby...not fat. And it's cute." Then he rubs my stomach in little circles. Just like you'd rub a Buddha for luck. :)

Arrival of the bump!

It's finally here! I have a bump! Ok, ok...I realize it's not very exciting for you, but it sure is for me. It means our baby is growing and getting bigger! Way to go, Bean!! The bump has been easy to see for a while if I was lying flat on my back, but now it's hard to miss in any position. Of course, to the casual observer, this bump that I'm so proud of probably just looks like I've been drinking too much beer. Either way, this weekend we're going shopping for maternity pants. :)

Yes, it WILL be a very Happy Halloween!!

I had a checkup today. It took the doctor all of 2 seconds to find the heartbeat and she said it was strong and sounded wonderful. Best news of all...I scheduled our BIG ULTRASOUND! Big ultrasound = Boy or Girl!! Let's hope our baby is a little exhibitionist and wants to show off his/her parts. :) So on October 31 at 8:15am, we will *hopefully* know if we're having a boy or a girl. I think the next four weeks are going to kill me!

Totally not about Bean...

I have a program that analyzes visits to this website. It can tell me how many visits the site has had total, how many each day, where the hits are coming from, and even if you're using dial-up or broadband! It's really fun to see all the reports. The one thing it can't tell me though, is who is visiting. For example, since I installed the program a week ago, we have had visits from Rochester (Hi Mom & Reeves Family!), Ft. Bragg (Hi Jodi & Jay!), Syracuse (Hi Nodines!), various places in Pennsylvania (Hi friends!), San Francisco (Hi Diana!) & No. California (Hi Gina & David!). The most confusing hits, however, are the visits from someone in Tampa. How exciting! I had no idea we knew anyone in Tampa! Ben thinks it could be his uncle & aunt, but we're not sure. So rather than driving myself (& Ben) crazy trying to figure out who's checking us out from the Tampa area, I'm just going to put up this message. Whoever it is visiting our site from beautiful Florida, would you please either email us or put up a comment on this message so we know who you are? We'd be ever so appreciative. I love that Bean is going global. :)

***UPDATE*** We know who is hitting us up from Tampa! Turns out they're not in Florida or anywhere near it. It's Len, Suzy & baby Griffin in Iowa!! Why if they live in Iowa does it show they're looking at the blog from Tampa, you ask? We don't know. Maybe it's just wishful thinking now that they're getting closer to those horribly frigid northern winters. :)

Too Wonderful For Words

We had an ultrasound today and it was incredible!!

I am in awe. We were in the ultrasound watching our baby for about 30 minutes. Honestly, I don't think I've ever witnessed something so miraculous. Hearing the heartbeat was amazing, but seeing this perfect little one bouncing around like an astronaut in space was indescribable. Our baby is still so tiny, and yet we could see each finger, each vertebra, each little rib. We watched as he/she moved, jumped, stretched, & somersaulted. We watched the heart beating (145 beats/min!) and saw him/her opening and closing her mouth! The doctor said everything looks wonderful. Bone structure is good, nuchal translucency is normal, baby is measuring 13w2d...right on schedule.

After we left, Ben just sat in silence, shaking his head. I asked if he wanted to call anyone to tell them about it. His reply? "No, I don't. I don't think I could even come up with words to describe it. Wow." Exactly how I feel, honey. :o)

The empty "hole" in the middle of Bean's body is the stomach! It's full of amniotic fluid so it appears black. A little further down is another tiny "hole"...that's the bladder.

Shhh...the baby's sleeping!

When I was born, my dad built me a cradle. It's made of solid oak and it weighs a ton! Ok, not a ton, but around 50 lbs. He shipped it to mom's house and it arrived without a problem or any damage. Woohoo! So this wil be Bean's first bed. Ben is currently trying to devise a support system for it so it can sit up higher, closer to the level of our bed. I love this cradle. It will be the most beautiful piece of furniture we own, by far. It's the kind of piece that you pass down for generations. We're waiting for mom to find the liner she had made for it when I was born as well. How's that going, mom? :)

In addition to the cradle, Bean has another bed. We've purchased a crib! A little early...I know, I know...but it was such a great deal that we decided why pass it up?! So this is where our little one will lay his/her (honestly, I think it's going to be a her) head when they arrive. Maybe it's wishful thinking that the baby will actually sleep in the crib, but it sure does make us feel like this whole baby thing is really happening!

More beautiful than Jodi in her wedding dress...

Jodi and Jay's wedding (#2) this past weekend was beautiful. Jodi was the most beautiful bride I've ever seen - myself included! Jay looked amazingly handsome in his uniform too.

Even more beautiful than my sister in her wedding dress, however, is the sound I heard at the doctor's office again today. Our baby's heartbeat is so strong and so steady! :) I didn't get to have an ultrasound at the office, but the doctor is sending us for a screening ultrasound in two weeks. Hopefully we'll get to see our little jumping Bean then. Until then, take a look at THIS website! The ultrasound shows a baby at 10 weeks which is where I am now. Isn't it amazing that all that movement is going on already?! This pregnancy thing will never cease to amaze me. How unbelievably blessed we are that we get to experience it!!!

We told the rest of our family and friends about our baby this weekend. Jodi got Ben a "Dad-To-Be" button and me a "Mom-To-Be" button that we wore to tell my side of the family. The award for the best reaction goes hands-down to Aunt Lisa! I'll just say that screaming, yelling and lots of tears were involved. Anyone who knows Aunt Lisa can imagine how exuberant her response was! :) Both sides of the family have been so supportive and so excited about this baby. We've loved telling everyone. I've been asked often how I'm feeling. I'm feeling really really good! A few weeks ago, I was pretty miserable. As a result, I've lost weight so far. When they did the dreaded weigh-in at the doctor's office today, I was surprised at how much weight I've lost since this pregnancy began. The doctor didn't seem worried though. She figured I'd start gaining soon enough. I always wanted to be that beautifully glowing pregnant woman, but at the beginning I was afraid that I might be green and nauseous instead! Maybe the fact that I only felt really sick for a week or two is a little perk since it took so long to get pregnant. :) Maybe I'll get to glow. Either way, I'm thankful that I'm feeling so good and so thankful for the technology that allows me to hear my baby's heartbeat!!