Today is the last day of the second trimester. It has flown by! I have pre-registered for our maternity hospital stay and have registered for a 4 week course on childbirth education. Andy and I have also started our baby shower registration. Just over three months to go!

A week ago today, my neighbor had her second son. He’s adorable! Andy and I stopped by for a quick visit on Saturday. We dropped off a little congrats and the hat I knit for him which looks a little big (for now!). It’ll be nice to have boys so close in age for future play dates and hand-me-downs!

Andy and I spent an extra long weekend last week in Sugarcreek, Ohio in Amish country with my family. We had some really good weather on Sunday. Andy, my dad and I took a long hike along a creek. We saw a waterfall, wood peckers and 3 snakes. The landscape was similar to Old Man’s Cave. It was neat because it was so warm and sunny but there were no leaves on the trees yet so you could see pretty far. It was quite a hike for me though. I was sore for several days. Next time Andy’s carrying the little one!

I started knitting newborn hats from some blue yarn I got for Christmas. Since I’ve already gotten a couple handmade blankets for our baby, I decided that I would make our little one a knitted hat (or two or three or more). I finished one and started one while we were away. Its so great how fast these projects go. It was my first time completing a project with circular needles and the first time I’ve ever used double pointed needles. I struggled with the decreasing on my first hat. The second one (pictured) turned out perfectly and I can’t wait to give it to my neighbor’s for their newborn baby boy. I’ve since started a matching toddler size hat for the big brother. I will probably make this same one over for our baby boy.

I drove to Dayton on Monday to visit my cousin Jessica who is also pregnant. She’s due in late August. I think we’re just 5 weeks apart. We talked about baby-stuff and she tried on some maternity clothes. Jess and her husband Lance want the gender of their baby to be a surprise. I really hope they have a boy. Jessica knows why.
We had another doctor’s appointment on Wednesday. Andy has been to every appointment with me. I needed him there to support me while I got my blood drawn. The nurse always says ‘you’ll be a pro at this by the time your baby comes.’ But it was only my second time. And the first time I cried and they gave me crackers and apple juice. I was just nervous about fainting since I had vomited for the first time during the pregnancy right before we left for the doctor’s office. This time I didn’t eat much before because I was taking the glucose tolerance test. But I was fine. (Maybe I will be a pro someday.) The taste wasn’t as bad as I had heard. It just tasted like orange-pop that wasn’t sweet to me.

Andy felt the baby kick for the first time last Saturday. The kicks have been getting really strong. I can see them through my shirt if I watch long enough. They were usually really low but now they have been all over the place. Last night they were on my right side. And while I’m writing this, the baby’s kicking my left side. (He likes scrambled eggs as much as his dad.)

If you know Jocey and I at all, you know that we love to find good deals. So you can imagine our excitement when we found a $300 JC Penney crib on Ebay with a mattress for only $65.00!

Now there was a catch to this deal. The little boy who previously resided in this 4-in-1 convertible baby bed was related to beavers! Any part of the crib accessible to his teeth had turned into a tasty, paint chip treat for this little rascal. This, however, did not stop us from snatching up the bargain find. After a little patchwork with wood putty and a few coats of paint, our son’s bed is now ready to be used and is currently sporting a beautiful baby blanket hand knit by his grandmother.

The nursery has turned into an opportunity for me to exercise my woodworking skills or lack there of. Other projects are currently in the works and will hopefully be done by his arrival.

I found this quote the other day and wanted to post it:

“There is no way to truly prepare for the birth of a child, except to expect the unexpected. Expect your heart to explode with emotion in ways you have never anticipated; expect to be more tired than you ever thought humanly possible; expect times of genuine sadness even in the midst of this greatest joy, as one life chapter ends and another begins. Expect to grow and change and be willing to do things for your child you would never do for yourself. Expect it to change every day, every minute, and remember what a huge responsibility and blessing it is all at once.”

Laurel Fay, a licensed clinical marriage and family therapist in Washington, DC, and mom to twin girls

Oh — and here’s a photo of me at 21 weeks. I update “The Belly Book” page every other week. You can click on the link or find it in the navigation under “pages.”

Definitely wearing maternity clothes now at 21 weeks. At least on my bottom half. If I wear my pants too tight at the waist, especially if I’m sitting, the baby kicks and it makes me even more uncomfortable! But now, thanks to my sister, my mom, Marcia and Colleen, I have a maternity wardrobe!

A lot of my pre-LA-Weight-Loss clothes have come in handy the last couple months. Especially the long over-sized shirts. They have been mistaken as actual maternity wear, so that works for me. Its been great for the in-between stage.

My last day working at the grocery store was Monday. Everyone assumed I was quitting “because of Tim.” It was my first opportunity to announce it was not because of Tim, but because I was going to be a mom! (And standing in the seafood sink is not healthy for me or baby.) It was fun sharing our good news.

As a last note, I noticed yesterday that my belly sticks out a little more on the right side than the left. Hm. And its still that way today. As far as I can tell, he’s still breeched because I felt 6 or more times yesterday very low kicking. He’s going to be a swimmer.

As of today the votes were 11 for girl and 8 for boy. We had an ultrasound today and saw our very energetic baby BOY!

Yes, its definitely a boy. I have 5 ultrasound photos of the “boy parts” (as the doctor referred to them) to prove it. (You can click on the thumbnails to see larger images.) He started the photo shoot with his legs crossed and his head up by my belly button facing outward. He stretched out his legs and started to move around a bunch - waving his arms every where and kicking his feet. It was just amazing being able to see all the movement. When the doctor tried to get a view of the face he turned around.

It was really neat to see the baby again - oh how he’s grown! And he looks less like a lima bean and more like a human being now! He weighs between 10 and 11 oz and dances on my bladder about 40 minutes after I eat.

We are really looking forward to finding out if our baby is a girl or boy. Andy wants to be able to start referring to the baby by name. We are set on a girl’s name but haven’t quite decided on a boy’s. Hopefully it will be obvious at our sonogram on Wednesday. Andy and I will be happy either way - boy or girl.

I personally have been rooting for a girl. (Have you voted yet?) But based on these photos, I sure hope it looks more like Andy! Such a sweet smile and all that hair! I thought it would be fun to post these and then later we’ll see if the baby resembles one of us more.

I’ve been feeling some little movements the last couple weeks. I told Terri that I have been convincing myself that I can tell the difference between baby movement and gas. Last night though, lying in bed I felt some major moving! I was so excited! I happened to have my hand on my tummy and I am pretty sure I felt it through my abdomen. I tried to get Andy to confirm, but he’s not sure if he felt anything or not. It didn’t help that I kept gasping with delight and exclaiming, “Did you feel that?!”

With the appointment coming up to find out whether our bundle of joy will be a boy…or a girl, we have been thinking a lot about names. For a girl we are definitely set on the name “Ella May Zeidner” after Jocey’s Great Grandmother Belt. The name for a boy however has not been quite as easy. We have a couple of middle names picked out that we really want to use honoring family members. Jay, after Jocey’s father, and Maxwell, after my mom’s father. For some reason Hebrew names have been the most popular for us so far for a first name. Both “Judah Maxwell Zeidner” and “Ari (pr: Ar-ee) Jay Zeidner” are at the top of our list as of right now, but we’re not completely settled on that and are currently looking into other family names as well. I really like the meaning of Judah: One who praises God, and also the symbolism of the Lion of Judah. Ari means “resembling a lion or eagle”. I’m not sure how those two animals are related, but that’s what the baby name book said so it must be true! I guess the name search will continue until we are completely satisfied with a boys name…or we find out we’re having a girl.

We are scheduled for another ultrasound on Wednesday, March 4th where we will hopefully discover the gender of the baby. You can cast a vote below on whether you think it’s a boy or girl. Thanks for participating!
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