Our little basketball

26 weeks and counting... As you can see I am starting to look like I have a basketball hiding under my shirt! Our little girl is growing quickly and we have been enjoying feeling her wiggles and kicks and seeing them too! I have been feeling really good and have lots of energy. Ian and I had a chance to get into Boston this past week to walk part of the Freedom Trail, enjoy relaxing massages, and experience the beautiful, spring weather we have been having. It is hard to believe we have less than 100 days until we meet our little girl!

Daddy Felt the Kicks

Friday night was the first night that I was able to feel our baby girl's wiggles and kicks from the outside. It truly is a moment of awe and wonder.

Now I have just the barest inkling of the wonder Lauren must feel every time our baby wiggles and dances and reminds her mommy that she's truly there and growing happy warm and safe as can be.

We're Having a Girl

What wonderful news to find out on a bright sunny, although brisk and windy, Saturday afternoon in March (March 29th)!

After starting out with wanting to know the gender of our baby we went through some changes of heart about knowing and not knowing. From talking with Nick we started considering not finding out and enjoying one of those true and so few "surprises" in life. We discussed it and agreed that we would wait to find out and that we wouldn't change our mind. At our 18 week ultrasound, Lauren asked if I wanted to find out and I responded "We said we wouldn't change our mind" instead of saying my real response which was "Of course I do!". So, we stuck with our original decision and told the ultrasound technician that we didn't want to know our baby's gender.

Then, after 2 more weeks with Lauren having a really rough time with a nasty cold which had her fighting off a rough bout of bronchitis, we had our next scheduled OB/GYN visit. We decided that we would just really enjoy finding out the surprise sooner, so we asked her to tell us. She apologized for her ultrasound not being nearly as good as the one we had at 18 weeks and told us she was 80% sure we were having a girl.

Lauren did some searching on line out of curiosity and found that there was a well reviewed non-medical ultrasound place in Boston which for a modest fee would provide "gender determination". We decided that we would schedule an appointment because 80% certainty just wasn't nearly as good as 1,000,000%. That's how this ultrasound technician put it when she told us we were having a girl. She said "I'm 1,000,000 % sure you are having a girl".

We then enjoyed sharing the news with our parents and the grandmothers were quite excited about going out and buying little outfits for their future granddaughter. We did the same on the way home and started thinking about all that we have to look forward to.