17 Weeks

And: pregnant with Porter at 17 Weeks:

Its for sure...

It's a boy!

Ryan met me at my mom's work today so he could finally get to see his newest little boy. I had wanted to take my point and shoot camera to record and post a little video on here, but of course I forgot. (Our ultrasound in January we can take in a DVD to record it) He was measuring around 17w5days, so almost a week ahead of what he had measured before, and I believe that is almost 2 weeks ahead of what the doctors have me at. (Their due date is June 1, but the ultrasound keeps saying May 23). I guess when I go in in January they can decide what they want to do. I guess it really doesn't matter because the baby will come whenever he is ready, right?

Anyhow, we got a buttload of pictures. Baby Boy was all snuggled in cozy looking. We got to see a lot of his face, eyes, hands and cute little feet. He was moving his arms all around, stretching them over his head and playing with his face. I can't wait to meet him!


Sooo... this confirmation has given me "permission" to go forth with my nursery plans. I ordered 4 yards of the 2D Zoo fabric today and I plan to make his blanket (which should used 1.5-2 yards) and possibly a changing pad cover and maybe wrap some canvases with it. Who knows. I just figured if I was paying for shipping I might as well make sure I have enough for whatever I may want to make.

I'm going to check the local fabric stores for that super soft chenille "minky" fabric that all the baby blankets seem to be made out of (you know, the ones that are flat or sometimes with the raised dots?). I want to get a chocolate brown for the opposite side of his blanket. The only minky fabric I can find online is $13/yard. EEK!

I've decided to skip the bumper. I'm making the bedskirt though. I like the little extra decorative touch and its nice to hid the two bins of toys we store under the crib. As for additional stuff in the room... not sure yet.

I also bought Porter two quilts today. I'll post about them on my regular blog, though.

To Bumper or Not to Bumper?

That is the big question.

I'm settled on the nursery bedding. I'm going with Alexander Henry's 2D Zoo in pool. I am going to have to buy the fabric and either make or have it made. I love this set (as posted earlier), and I have even found someone to make the bedding for me. I'm going to make the quilt/blanket.... it looks easy enough. But the bumper and dust ruffle, I don't know. I know for sure I want the dust ruffle, but should I have it made? It'd be around $25 to have it made, plus the cost of fabric (which is running $10-12/yard).

I chatted with my mother in law and I am thinking I'm going to skip the bumper and attempt to make the dust ruffle. We made Porter's, although it didn't have the pleat or the trim, so hopefully I'll be able to figure it out.

The bumper.. I love it. I really do. But, I also loved Porter's $80 bumper from Pottery Barn Kids and we ended up taking it off and tossing it in the closet after numerous annoying sheet changes from pukey/leaky diaper baby. As much as I'd like to say "I *WILL* use the bumper this time, I know in reality that after I have to change the sheets twice in the middle of the night being exhausted and sleep deprived, it too will end up in the closet.

I'm going to have my mom scan me again tomorrow, just to get the "for sure" its a boy (Ryan will finally get to see an ultrasound... he's going to take a late lunch and meet me there) and once we have confirmation I think I'm going to get the fabric and start working on things in January.

If we're still in this house (which I'm hoping not, but there's a good chance we will be), we're going to move Porter into the play room and redo that for him in February for his birthday. The baby will move into Porter's room, and I'll keep the green/blue parts of the wall and paint the mocha brown a more chocolate brown to match the bedding. I'm going to paint the square canvases- I found blank ones at JoAnn's. I think I'll do the background a light blue instead of green since the top part of the room is green already.

So, questions for my three readers:

1) Did you buy a bumper for your child's crib? Did you love it or hate it?

2) Do you have any ideas on how to bring more of the zoo fabric into the room?

15w 5d

Well, I had wanted to post yesterday, but our internet was on the fritz. For the past week I've kept thinking I had felt the baby flutter a little, but I kept brushing it off as my imagination. Well, yesterday he was moving all about and there was no doubt that I was feeling little baby flutters. I just love this part of pregnancy... I'm going to try to enjoy the next 2 or 3 months and then the end-all hell will set in and I'll be miserable LOL!

Ryan and I are still discussing names. I think we're kind of getting settled on a name, although I told him I still don't want to commit yet.

I had a doctor's appointment today. Pretty uneventful. Heartbeat was 150bpm. I gained another 5lbs. Fun stuff. The doctor said I was measuring on time (I think they have me at 14 weeks, but the sonograms measure the baby to be close to 16 weeks by this point). I told Dr. P that my mom had scanned me a few times and we knew the gender of the baby, and he said "Oh well, its still early" as if I'm insane or something and hadn't seen the obvious penis inbetween the little guys legs. Oh well. Our "official" ultrasound is January 11th. Man, I'd have died waiting that long to find out! LOL!

Doesn't that look like an obvious boy to you?

The Name Game: Boy Version

Well, our next step is to name this little guy. I absolutely hate referring to him as "the baby"... it seems so... impersonal. We had decided on Porter's name around 20 weeks. I remember Porter being the only name that seemed to "fit", even though I tried for weeks to try to find another name, unable to settle on Porter. However, I'm so glad now that I did as I love his name and it fits him so well.

I have a few names for this little guy that I really like, and a slim few that are right at the tip top of the list. And possibly "the one" but, as I was last time, I'm not ready to commit just yet.

Ryan is stubborn, as always. He's unable to come up with any creative names that I haven't heard 50 million times (he was so proud of himself when he said he found the "perfect" name... Caden... Uh... yeah, right along with 500 thousand other Cadens, Aidens, Bradens, Jadens and Haydens. HAHA!). So, when I suggest a name he usually vetoes it right away, and then after I bug him with it 10 more times or so he starts to warm up on it. So, right now there are two, and only two, names that he will even consider. Everything else he shoots down right away.

So, let's pretend Ryan doesn't have a say in this. Really, he does, but for fun, let's just look at my list, ok? Now, not all of these names I *love* but they all have a bit of potential, and of course there are some I love much more than others.

I did have Graham on the list, but I think Graham Barczak reminds me of "Grandma Barczak" and a little bit of somehting like a graham bar... whatever that is... graham cracker mixed with granola bar??

I also really liked Tobin, but Tobin Barczak sounds too... "B-ish". Ryan, of course, thought the same.

So, here's my little poll. I'm sure I'll post again soon with an updated list and lots of these scratched off. Which name both a) goes well with Porter and b) sounds good with the last name Barczak.

Bedding

Surprisingly, I've had quite an easy time finding bedding that I absolutely love. The only problem... it is $618 from Posh Tots. Yeah right!

I found the zoo print fabric online, and the other fabrics I'm pretty sure I can get something similar from JoAnn's. I'm going to make this sucker! That, or maybe hire it out to have someone else do it? How would I go about finding someone to make it?



I also want to get this Jellycat Truffles blue elephant for him. In the picture it looks like a stuffed animal, but it actually is like a big, fat, round, squishy pillow when its laid out flat. And its sooooo soft.
(here's an example of how it looks all laid out)

It's a....

BOY!

Porter is going to have a little brother. A partner in crime. A buddy to build train tracks with and drive matchbox cars all around the house.

I'll be totally, 100% honest with you. At first I was a bit... bummed. Before I got pregnant I really wanted to have another boy. I figured we'd have 3 kids, and I've always pictured us with 2 boys and a youngest daughter. But, once I was pregnant I realized what a wench I am when I'm pregnant and that I had kind of hoped that we'd have a girl so I could say our family was done, complete, and I didn't have to go through another pregnancy. And, furthermore, I'll admit I did mourn for a few days... I mourned for the daughter that never was, the daughter I wasn't destined to have at this time.

(I've always wondered why boys seem to be the "not as wanted" gender. But... I think its because that opinion is coming from us women (if you ask men... they all want boys). Boys are awesome, but every woman wants a little girl, a daughter, that she can relate to... to relive her childhood of playing dolls and barbies and dressing up as a princess with. Its not that I think girls are better than boys, its that I just want to experience that mother-daughter bond/relationship.)

I'm getting over that, getting used to the fact that I won't be shopping in any of the 53 racks of girl clothes at Target but the minimal 5 racks of boy stuff. Getting used to the fact that I'll be the mom in the bleachers cheering on her sons in their basketball games, and refereeing sleepovers with goofy, wild boys playing pranks on each other and giving each other ball shots. Getting used to the fact that I'll be the queen bee in this house for the next few years. And, who knows what is in store for our family. Maybe my boys will get to have a little sister to look over and protect sometime in the future. I think in a year or two we may consider adoption as I'm not sure I want to go through pregnancy again.

I'm also getting so excited to see this little guy. I'm thrilled that, so far, he looks healthy and happy and as cute as a little 2D baby on an ultrasound can look. I keep wondering if he'll look like Porter, or if he'll have Ryan's dark eyes rather than my and Porter's hazel eyes. Will he have dark dark hair like Ryan, or medium brown like Porter and I? Will he have my nose or Ryan's? Will he be a good baby, as Porter was, or will he be my hellion child? Will he be a talker like Porter or quiet and reserved? All those things just have me so excited to see him in May!

*and if any of you thought "girl" just because I voted that on the ExpectNet poll.... you must have missed my post yesterday where I said "I'll also give you a tip of advice... I did vote on the baby poll, but that vote may or may not be correct. That was my hunch."

So... I still haven't told you the gender, have I?

I'm waiting for Kim to get her arse back from California and cast her vote. Some of you already know, so keep it hush hush. I'll also give you a tip of advice... I did vote on the baby poll, but that vote may or may not be correct. That was my hunch.