The nursery

     Tim and I have been looking at cribs and nursery bedding since we found out we were pregnant. This last week while we were in Athens visiting for Thanksgiving, we found the crib and dresser that we want. And we've also decided which nursery bedding we'd like. We have to wait to order the crib and dresser until after we've moved, and we haven't ordered any of the bedding yet either. I'm glad we finally made a decision. 

  Here is the crib with the dresser (though we don't plan to buy the hutch attached to the dresser). It's made by Bona Vita and is called Hudson. We like it best in the chocolate color. It's a convertible crib, meaning it can be turned into a toddler bed, a daybed, and finally, a full size bed. I also like it because it looks masculine enough, but not too much that we couldn't use it in the future for a little girl if we decided to.

This is the bedding we've decided on. It is from Pottery Barn Kids. It is called Eli's Elephant. I really like elephants, but I'm not a big fan of really big cartoon-looking bedding for nurseries. This one is a little more simple and classic, I think. And I love the combination of blue and green.

Here is a close-up of the design on the bedding. 

And last, but not least, here is the matching crib mobile. I think it is really cute. The other thing I like about the mobile is that it plays Henry Mancini's jazz piece "Baby Elephant Walk."

Pottery Barn no longer carries the matching rug and window valance, but I think not having everything matching perfectly will keep the nursery from looking too theme-y. What do you think about our choices?

Meet our little man

     After our visit to the doctor for our anatomy screening, I was disappointed that we had so few pictures and no video to show our family and friends. So when I got an e-mail from an ultrasound imaging center in Buckhead, I called Tim at work and begged him to let us go there where you can get a 15 minute ultrasound, a DVD of the session, and a CD of pictures taken during the ultrasound. And boy, was it worth it!
     When we got into the room to do the ultrasound, the sonographer brought up the image of our son on a huge 42" screen. It was amazing! 

     This is just a clip of the almost 13 minute video we have of the sonogram. It is amazing to watch. Tim and I have seen it more than 10 times now. Our little boy is just so cute!

It's a...

Are you ready to find out?

We're excited to announce that we're expecting.....

A super cute, sweet and cuddly......

little.... 

BOY!!!!!!

This cupcake...

contains a big secret...

and a special filling.

Stay tuned for the big news and pictures from our gender reveal dinner!

Our little blessing at 19 weeks

How far along? 19 weeks

Baby’s size? The baby is the size of a mango (about 6 inches long and 8.5 ounces). Our baby, based on the ultrasound Tuesday, weighs closer to 12 ounces. Vernix caseosa, a greasy white substance made of lanugo, oil and dead skin cells (yum) now coats baby’s skin, shielding it from the amniotic fluid. (Picture yourself after a nine-month bath, and the need for protection makes sense.)

Maternity clothes? Still not big enough for maternity shirts, but I definitely am wearing the maternity jeans a ton. Otherwise you can find me in a pair of Tim’s gray sweatpants.

Sleep? Good for the most part. Sometimes I have trouble finding a comfortable position, but I still fall asleep relatively quickly (especially if Tim is rubbing my back.)

Food cravings? Pancakes. Pizza. Texas Pete. Grapefruit.

Food aversions? Nope.

Symptoms? None.

Best moment this week? Finding out whether our baby was a boy or a girl! And seeing how cute the baby is on the ultrasound.

Movement? I feel some tiny flutters and the occasional more forceful (yet still tiny) kick pretty much daily now.

Any ideas about the gender? I know! But I’m not telling just yet.

What I miss about not being pregnant? I kind-of miss being able to wear normal clothing. Tim and I went to an outlet mall today and walking past the Ann Taylor store and knowing there was no point in buying new clothes from there was kind-of sad.

What I’m looking forward to? Telling our families the baby’s sex. I cannot wait! 

The long-awaited appointment

     We have a secret….

     Our anatomy screening appointment went really great. The baby is actually measuring at 20 weeks, versus the 18w3d it was supposed to be. The doctor is not changing my due date though because starting in the second trimester, babies start growing at different rates. The sonographer said the baby weighs about 12 ounces (almost twice what the baby books say for this time). The heartbeat was around 150 beats per minute.

     Here's a somewhat blurry picture of the baby's precious face and round tummy.

     Here are basically all the details from the scan:

     We saw the baby’s little spine quite a bit. The baby stayed in pretty much the same position the whole time with its back up and its head curled underneath it, hiding its face.

     We did get a quick peek between the baby’s legs to see if it was a boy or a girl, but after that the baby kept those legs together tight. We were so excited to finally know the baby's sex, that we went to Target after the scan and bought one of these sets of onesies. You'll have to wait until next week to find out whether we bought blue or pink!

 

The heart looks great from the views she was able to get, though it was tough because with the way the baby was positioned, she had to look through my abdomen, through the uterus, through the placenta, and through the baby’s back to see the heart.

     We saw the baby’s teeny tiny stomach and the kidneys. She even said the baby’s stomach and bladder were full.

     We saw all the limbs and checked to make sure all the bones looked good, which they did. We even saw its little hands and feet.

     She examined the baby’s head/brain/skull and tried over and over to get a good shot of its face. It turned towards the screen briefly once and she took a picture but not a good enough one.

     So…because Baby Rumely is either very stubborn or just wants to see mommy and daddy again, we have to return for another ultrasound in two weeks so we can get a good shot of the baby’s face. I am so not complaining. I just saw the baby two days ago and I already want another peek!

     Sadly, the sonographer only gave us three pictures from the scan, one of its face and two of its feet. We also were not allowed to videotape the sonogram (due to HIPAA rules or something like that). Either way, I thought it was pretty lame and I’m disappointed we don’t have more to show our parents and siblings next week.

     We have a gender reveal dinner planned for next Wednesday (the day before Thanksgiving) to tell our parents and siblings. We’ve planned a fun way to reveal the news. I can’t wait!!! We will tell our extended family on Thanksgiving and then I will put the news on the blog.

     It’s been pretty hard not to slip up and spill the beans when we’re talking on the phone to family and friends, but so far Tim and I have kept our lips sealed.

Menu Monday

Monday night: Chicken and rice pot pie. This is a recipe I found in some magazine. I can’t remember which. It is supposed to be a healthier version of chicken pot pie and is perfect for this rainy day.

Tuesday night: Sweet and spicy tilapia with green beans and roasted red potatoes. This is a recipe from the August 2010 Cooking Light magazine. It is really tasty.

Wednesday night: Eat out

Thursday night: Roadhouse steaks with ancho chile rub with roasted potatoes and peas. This is a Cooking Light recipe.

Friday night: Pancakes and bacon. I’ve really been craving pancakes this week.

Saturday night: Sausages with sautéed apples and cabbage. We still have some sausages from south Georgia in the freezer and I figured we should use them.

Sunday night: Taco meat loaf. This is a Paula Deen recipe and one of Tim’s favorites.

Our little blessing at 18 weeks

How far along? 18 weeks

Baby’s size?  The baby is about the size of a sweet potato (about 5.6 inches long and 6.7 ounces). The baby has become amazingly mobile, passing the hours yawning, hiccuping, rolling, twisting, kicking, punching, sucking and swallowing. And, baby’s finally big enough that I'll be able to feel those movements soon.

Maternity clothes? Just maternity jeans and regular tops.

Sleep? Sleep is good for the most part, though sometimes it’s hard to get into a comfortable position and I wake up every few hours to use the bathroom.

Food cravings? Still fruit and juices. Currently craving a chocolate peppermint milkshake from Chick-Fil-A. Tim says we can get one on Tuesday to celebrate finding out the baby's sex.

Food aversions? Nothing really.

Symptoms? Nothing this week. I’m feeling good.

Best moment this week? Hearing the baby’s heartbeat at my new doctor’s office where pretty much everyone was really nice. I think we chose the right place! Also, when my friend K.’s hairdresser told me I was, “Soooo tiny for 17 weeks.”

Movement? Nothing really. Sometimes a little flutter, but nothing substantial.

Any ideas about the gender? I have no idea, but I don’t have much longer to wait until we know. Our anatomy scan is Tuesday! That's less than 36 hours from now!

What I miss about not being pregnant? Not a thing!

What I’m looking forward to? Our appointment Tuesday to find out if this little sweet potato is a boy or a girl! Also, the last time we had an ultrasound (at 7 and a half weeks), the baby looked like a lima bean basically, so we’re excited to see a little person in there.

Name that baby!

     Here at the Rumely household, we’ve been getting pretty antsy waiting for all those big milestones of pregnancy…first kicks, finding out the sex of the baby, getting a big round basketball-sized bump…so we were drawn to an idea we found in one of our many baby name books. Think of it this way, you have a group of names competing to find out which one is best…remind you of anything that perhaps takes place every March? That’s right, it was baby name bracket time!
     Our “play-off” system worked similarly to the NCAA basketball championship. We made one bracket each for boys and girls with 16 names we liked. We matched them up initially based on similarities, for instance biblical names like Caleb and Josiah were matched up and names with similar sounds like Charlotte and Juliet were pitted against each other. The best of each pair were chosen, eliminating the rest until we were down to one name for each sex.
     We passed out the brackets to family and friends so they could get an idea of the names we like and we could get an idea how our name choices might go over with others. Each of them filled out their bracket to find their favorites of our names. The results were interesting and it was great to get our family and friends involved. We can’t promise that the top names will be what we ultimately choose for our little one (in fact, I can pretty much guarantee that they won’t be—sorry!), but I can say that when Tim and I filled out our own brackets separately, we agreed on both a male and female name. And once that squirmy little cutey is in our arms, I think whatever name we chose will seem perfect to everyone. Except maybe my Uncle Joe, who insists that the baby, should it be a boy, be named after him, and if it’s a girl, be named Valerie. Again, pretty certain that’s not going to happen either.
     For those interested in how our favorite names fared with our family and friends, I will list each of the names that won the championship at least once. We had a total of 15 brackets filled out in the end.
     For boys, the name that won the championship the most (3 times), was Lucas, followed by, with two championship wins each, Caleb and Oliver. The other names that won the championship one time were Noah, Owen, Josiah, Landon, Levi, Ian, and Ezra.
     The girl name that won the championship spot most was Meredith (3 times). Amelia, Olivia, Aria, and Charlotte each earned two championship wins. The other names that won the championship once were Hannah, Violet, and Abigail.

     In other news, after my visit to the doctor on Tuesday, we now have an appointment this coming Tuesday for our anatomy scan where we will hopefully find out the sex of Baby Rumely! We are waiting until Thanksgiving to tell our families so we can do it in person, but stay tuned to the blog because I’ll announce it on here soon after we’ve announced the news to our parents and siblings. So…in case you haven’t had a chance to make your guess in our poll, you only have four more days to vote!

Menu Monday

Tuesday night: Oven-friend chicken parmesan. This is a recipe from Cooking Light magazine. We'll have it with sauteed green beans. 

Wednesday night: I'm going to Athens to visit my friend K. from Florida who is up here visiting her parents. I may come home late or stay in Athens overnight so Tim is all set to fend for himself.

Thursday night: Bratwursts with sauerkraut.

Friday night: Taco soup. This is a recipe from a blog called For the Love of Cooking. I’ve never made it before, but it looks pretty tasty.

Saturday night: Taco soup leftovers.

Sunday night: Pan seared chicken with apricot sauce. This is a recipe from the Eating Well website. We'll have it with brown rice and steamed broccoli. 

So, tomorrow is my first appointment at my new doctor since we've moved. It should be a pretty routine appointment, but I will update everyone with any new information I get. 

Our little blessing at 17 weeks

How far along? 17 weeks

Baby’s size? The baby is the size of an onion (about 5.1 inches long and 5.9 ounces). Another book compares it to a grapefruit, which sounds a lot cuter and also, coincidentally, is what I've been craving this week. The baby’s skeleton is hardening, changing from rubbery cartilage to bone, and fat is finally accumulating around it. The umbilical cord is getting thicker and stronger, and those little fingers and toes are now topped by one-of-a-kind prints.

Maternity clothes? Still wearing maternity jeans and stretchy shorts and yoga pants. No maternity shirts, though, because they are still too big for the most part.

Sleep? Sleep has gotten better again. I haven’t felt the restless leg feeling for a while and I sleep really deeply. 

Food cravings? Juicy fruits like oranges and grapefruits (my new favorite). And grapefruit juice. And Longhorn's chicken strips (Thanks, Aunt T. for the gift card). 

Food aversions? Nothing really. I'm not a big fan of vegetables right now, but I eat them anyway because I know they're good for me.

Symptoms? I’ve been getting pretty frequent headaches. They are not cured easily, not even with sleep. But I did read somewhere that a little bit of caffeine can help so I have a bottle of Cherry Coke Zero ready for the next one. I have to go to the bathroom about a million times a day. Also, my belly button is actually getting shallow already.

Best moment this week? I feel like I’ve “popped,” meaning I actually am starting to get a pregnant tummy and not just a chubby tummy. Also, we found out this week that some friends of ours are also expecting, which is really exciting!

Movement? Sometimes I feel a little fluttering feeling in my lower abdomen, though it is fleeting. The other morning I felt what seemed like an actual (albeit tiny) kick, but who knows?

Any ideas about the gender? I have no idea at all. We should find out in a few weeks though! Last night I had a dream that it was a little boy with curly brown hair who was watching a kid's show on TV and signing the alphabet in sign language. 

What I miss about not being pregnant? Nothing compared to being pregnant. 

What I’m looking forward to? I’m looking forward to going to the doctor next week and hopefully hearing the baby’s heartbeat again. And I can’t wait to make our appointment for the anatomy screening so we can see if we’re having a son or a daughter!

Also, have you noticed our poll to the right? Boy has pulled into the lead, but we still have a few weeks for final votes to be cast!