Progress

We have been working on the nursery! We decided it is a "go" with the Wendy Belissimo blue camo crib set, so with that in mind Betsy headed on down to Home Depot to get some color patches. We decided on Bear "Boston Fern"... a nice shade of deep green. Not to deep that it makes the room feel like a cave, not to light that it isn't bold. We like it. And I got some Boston in the room, even if it isn't Red Sox oriented...

We batted around the idea of wainscoting. In the end though, we decided on a chair rail with an accent below it.

So with the room cleared out, the trim taped off, the drop cloth dropped.... we began. Betsy did the corners, Mike handled the roller and we knocked it out pretty quickly. Mike patched some holes here and there from old stuff no longer hanging on the walls (goodbye Osceola turkeys, for now!) and also touched up the original paint on the top half.

This weekend we'll install the chair rail.

Pregnancy Ticker

Hints

We want your hints. Do you have something that you'd like to pass on, some little bit of wisdom, maybe a "if I would have only known" piece of knowledge?

We have heard some, and this one in particular has stuck in my head. I actually heard it well before we were pregnant, but it has seemed like good advice ever since I heard it. "Make sure all your bottles, sippy cups or whatever you are using at the time are from the same company. There is nothing more frustrating than waking up in the middle of the night and finding ten different bottle tops, but none that fit!" I don't even remember who told me that gem, but thank you.

Anyway, thats the kind of good solid advice we are looking for. We'd love it if you'd share some of your best baby advice!

Halfway

Yesterday marked the halfway point in our journey. Halfway being defined by 20 weeks, since full term is 40... but we might be early or late.

But we are halfway.

At this point we have had two ultrasounds, four doctor's appointments with dopler ultrasounds at all of them; We have two more monthly exams, then it turns to twice a month, and finally, every week check ups until the big day. We know the gender of the baby. We know what room in the house the baby will be sleeping in. We aren't sure about the name yet.

Thanks!!

We just wanted to give a great big thanks to all of you who have given us baby gear of all kinds. Clothing, monitors, swings... the list goes on and the closet is filling up! We really, really appreciate it all. I have been teasing Betsy that her new favorite hobby is opening the closet to look at all the cloths the baby will be wearing, the bedding the baby will be sleeping on, the toys he will be playing with. Its a lot of fun.

The nursery has been cleaned out. The desks are gone, my bottomless pit-of-a-corner with fly tyeing and archery gear and other projects is gone. Well, not really gone, just moved. So we are ready to begin the task of building a cute cozy little corner of the world for our little bundle of joy. We have debated on a theme (my idea for a Boston Red Sox locker room was shot down immediately, can you believe it?!), and have still not come to a firm conclusion. But we did find some bedding we both really like. It's not a definite 100% keeper, yet, but we both really like it.

Anyway, Thanks again for all the great stuff, as well as your thoughts, prayers and support.

Names

Just a quick hit...

We will use our child’s name about 2,735,000 times in their first 18 years – so you have an important decision to make! Found this fact on the internet, so it must be true, right? Anyway, the number has to be way up there.

Important decisions in the near future. We have been checking out this great baby name website (thanks Sondra!) and have come to the conclusion that we don't yet know the name of the baby. One of our favorites is Ezekiel, check out how specific babynameworld.com gets! Pretty cool.

Middle names are a whole 'nother ball game. Use it to carry on a family name like Boda or Paquette? Use it to remember someone special? Use it for a name that Mike might really like but Betsy isn't crazy about (like Blaise, pronounced blaze, is one of Mike's favorites). Or, how about using it as a verb instead of a noun? "Adventure is my middle name!" How cool would that be? Love, peace, etc....

We're having a.....

Our ultrasound experience went well.

As far as the doctor and the ultrasound tech can tell, the baby is healthy. Ten fingers, ten toes, four chambers in it's little beating heart (150 beats per minute), spine, ribs, tibia, fibula, femur, a lens in both eyes (yes, you can see it during the ultrasound! Amazing). The baby rested during most of the procedure. Betsy was comfortable, although her back is just starting to give her trouble...

So without further ado, the pictures!


Didja catch that? Look again at the ultrasounds and see if you can figure out what we are expecting....

We are happy. A healthy baby! What more can we ask for? We are also happy that you are celebrating our new healthy baby boy with us. Thank you all for your continued support, encouragement, love, prayers and friendship!

Betsy has commented a couple times that next week we are "halfway" through this pregnancy. But we found out more than a month into it... and it already seems like a long time to wait. Kind of like how a child waits for Christmas, so much anticipation, the days drag on. That disappears as we age, and I am working towards savoring the anticipation, but then again, I don't have a bay in my belly, playing trampoline on my bladder. I think Betsy is ready to have the baby boy right now...

Tomorrow, tomorrow,...

Not much has happened, baby wise.

Betsy continues to feel better and better, although she still is quite tired at times. Some days she can go, go, go for quite a while, others.... not so much. But she continues to be a trooper. Waves of nausea are becoming increasingly rare, and all in all, she is feeling good. Mainly feeling of impatience and "nesting" impulses.

I felt the baby kick on July 4th. Besides the obvious national birthday, the 4th holds a special meaning for meas it was my maternal grandmother's birthday as well. And now, a day that I will remember always as the day I first felt the little critter growing inside Betsy! How cool was it? Well, if you are a dad who felt it, then you know. If not, I would guess it's a little like the Jeep saying.... "it's a dad thing, (if I had to explain,) you wouldn't understand."

But tomorrow is the big news today!

Tomorrow is the 20 week ultrasound! OK, OK, it is actually the 19 week ultrasound. But it is the US where the gender of the baby is typically found out. So, if it goes smoothly (sometimes the baby doesn't cooperate and no determination can be made), after tomorrow, the baby won't be baby, it will be baby XXXXXXX or baby XXXXX! And how exciting is that?!!

In other news, the nursery is about to rise from the ashes like a phoenix. Only the ashes aren't really ashes, it's mainly just junk. We are in the process of combining the office and the guest room, and the future nursery has been cleared out of the big stuff, but we (I) have a ways to go to organize my "gear."

Anyway, tomorrow there will be more, so drop back on in then!

Butterfly kisses

Yesterday Betsy felt the baby move! She has been paying attention to how her belly feels for a couple weeks, probing and poking, hoping to feel the baby's movements.

She has read in a couple baby manuals that a woman can begin to feel the baby move anytime after 14 weeks. Most often it seems that a first time pregnant woman mistakes the first movements for gas or hunger pains.

But she was pretty certain she really did feel the baby move and was even interacting with it, poking and feeling it poke back.

Hooray!

For some comic relief check this out:






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Names!!!

Well, although we don't know the gender of the baby, we have discussed options for names. We aren't going to tell you which ones are the winners (yet), but if you ask really nicely, well, we just might.... we are looking for a distinct name that won't be lost in the crowd, something that (hopefully) won't get mispronounced too much. How does it sound as a whole?

There's a lot that goes into a name. You don't want it to be a mouthful or too unusual. There's the initials to consider, and something without "L" since Miller already has two
Here are the contenders so far, along with a (M) if it's not Betsy's favorite, and a (B) if it's one of Betsy's but not mine...

Girls:
Savannah
Tabitha
Molly (yes I know this has a "L" but we like it anyway.)
Noelle

Boys:
Wyatt
Ezekiel
Dylan
Gavin (B)
Lance
Owen
Riley
Hudson
Blasie (M)
Quincy
Jaxson
Leopold (M)

Upcoming posts include details from the 20 week ultrasound (this is THE ultrasound where the gender can be distinguished), hints and helps, the guessing game, nursery ideas, planning and execution... so stay tuned!