The Nursery

The nursery has been a work-in-progress for about 5 months. We hemmed and hawed over which room to convert (the guest room or the Steelers room) and when Ben finally agreed that the Steelers room made the most sense, I wasn't about to argue. He began the (slow) process of cleaning it out sometime shortly after the holidays, and my mom & Christian (AKA "Gigi" and "Sweetie") came down to paint in early February. I knew I wanted gray walls regardless of the gender, and we decided on Voyage by Valspar. It actually ended up a bit blue for my liking, but once the furniture went in, I was good with it.

In the meantime, we've been slowly purchasing her furniture (ouch!) and putting things together ... and then completely rearranging them because my pregnancy hormones make me indecisive.

The Nursery, Before:

I know what you're thinking - why wouldn't you just leave it as is? What baby WOULDN'T want this room? (Yes, my husband actually said those things)

I'd love to use this post to tell you about all the great crafts I did for her room, or the designs I used that were inspired by Pinterest, but honestly ... I got pretty lazy. I guess there's still time, and I'm going to need something to keep my mind occupied for the next few weeks!

The Nursery, During:

We did a few renovation projects (besides just the paint). We bought her crib (very similar to this one) from a consignment sale, so Ben touched it up before putting it together with his dad. I forced asked Ben to paint the closet, which he then took to the next level by adding an additional bar and shelf - so grateful for all that space!

After several failed attempts at ordering cute bedding sets online, I finally gave up and ordered plain white separates and bought some pink patterned sheets at Target. Just a head's up:

• Tadpoles Pink Gingham is a dusty pink, not baby pink
• Pottery Barn Kids Dahlia is fuschia and taupe, not lavender and gray
• Tadpoles Pink Tulle is lavender, not baby pink
• Land of Nod Pink With a Flourish is salmon, not baby pink

I finally landed on Tadpoles White Tulle curtain and crib skirt, Super Soft Dot Crib Bumper from Carter's and a variety of Circo pink crib sheets (stripe is pictured, and we got the gingham and the lattice)


As you might remember, the dresser search was one of my greatest pregnancy woes, but I am so pleased with what we finally settled on. The pink gingham knobs Ben put on (to match the pink gingham curtain rod finials and pull-back) are some of my favorite touches! We decided that, given the small space of the nursery, it made sense to use the dresser as a changing table rather than having two pieces of furniture, so we added a changing pad (passed down from Sloan) and we're good to go!

The "final" touches were all the wall-hangings. Actually, that's not true, the final touch will be the rocker recliner that is scheduled to arrive about a week after her due date (oops! #parentfail). But before that, and before putting together the nightstand (that I decided we needed after rearranging the room ... yes, I moved a 150lb dresser at 8 months pregnant!), we needed to hang all the beautiful wall-hangings. The letters were something I've wanted forever, but Ben was very particular about the font, so I found a custom site where he could order something to his liking and I painted them white and attached pink ribbon with a glue gun. The distressed wood sign came from "Aunt Kiki" (my best friend Kelly) with one of my favorite verses. She was there for me during the devastation from my ectopic pregnancy last year and knows very well how much this little one means to us - and to her! It was actually ordered before we found out we were having a girl - that's how sure she was that she was going to have a niece. The prints actually started as a contest that I won from a friend's blog several months back. I contacted the etsy vendor and asked if we could wait until we had picked nursery decor, and she gave us a wonderful deal on the additional custom prints so we could do a set of three.


The Nursery, After:
I'm so pleased with the way it all came out. It is such a calming feeling to walk in there and just "be" - anticipating the precious girl that will soon inhabit those walls. The room is just as much for me as it is for her at this point, and I feel very serene when I walk in. And it's feminine without being too girly, young without being too babyish, and easily convertible to a guest room (if we sell) or another baby's room (if we don't sell) should the time come.

the view walking in

the view from where the chair will go

Lucy seems to enjoy it too - we've left the door open so she can get used to the changes and she has yet to mess with all of our sweet girl's toys - I'll take that as a win!

Baby Betting and a Bonus (Pregnancy Confessions: Volume Eight)

If you know my husband, you will not be surprised to learn that he's set up a gambling opportunity surrounding our daughter's birth.

http://babybookie.com/pools/90-london-s-baby-pool

You can guess her birth date and time, weight (lbs and oz) and length.

Half the winnings go to you, half go to her college fund. So basically, if you don't make a guess, you're saying you don't want my kid to go to college - that's pretty messed up.

(kidding)

If you don't want to put in the $5, feel free to make your guesses here - just for fun. You won't win anything, except for my admiration (especially if you predict that she's going to come before her due date - mama's not trying to be pregnant all summer, ya' heard?).

OK, that's all.

No wait, I lied. I promised a Pregnancy Confession. So here it is:

30 weeks, before my shower in Virginia

My gift to you, for being a loyal reader: a little pregnancy secret I got from Trinity.

FAKE EYELASHES.

They help combat fat face in pregnancy photos. Especially during showers, when people take 10 million photos of you saying "aww!" at tiny baby socks or laughing at a card about how you're never sleeping again.

Shh, don't tell!

Letters to London: Volume One

I wrote this post yesterday, but then this happened last night and (inspired by my friend Kelsey), I had to share:

Now then, back to the original post...

I have seen lots of people write letters to their unborn children (Page over at It's Marvelous being one of my favorites), and I've really wanted to do it but was waiting for the right time to start. 30 weeks seems like a good landmark to me ... it'll force me to really put my thoughts down and capture the feelings of these last few months before she's here. But, given the pregnant brain / chaos at work / chaos of preparing for her arrival, it's likely going to be stream of consciousness and may not be anything you want to read. That's ok, at least I have it.

Also, secret's out, her name is London. I haven't announced that yet, have I?

London Claire Eckerson

What better place to start these letters than the story of her name. To be honest, I'm not sure there are three words I enjoy writing more. But let me start from the beginning.

London,
Before we even thought about trying to have a baby, I had a long list of names I loved (most girls do, don't let them tell you otherwise). You probably will too, and that's totally normal. It will change as you get older or as certain things become inspirations to you, and that's normal too. As a couple, your dad and I had very little commentary about names we liked, so I was nervous that our tastes would be totally different (they were!) and we'd never agree on something.

We didn't discuss names with the first pregnancy - honestly, we didn't discuss much of anything, everything happened so quickly. But with you, sometime in the first trimester, I got the urge to start talking about it. Your dad kept saying no, it wasn't time, we couldn't get ahead of ourselves, let's find out the gender first, etc. Finally, after what felt like ages (but really was only about 6 weeks after we found out I was pregnant with you), your dad gave me the sweetest birthday gift - we could spend the day talking about what to name you. So we went to a sports bar around the corner, he ordered a pitcher of beer (and a water for me, of course) and we went through the list, narrowing down to about 25 options. Still overwhelming, but it was progress!

We agreed that we wouldn't talk about it again until our gender ultrasound, which was scheduled for the middle of January. We took the day off work, had our appointment first thing in the morning, and planned to spend the rest of the day doing all the things we hadn't let ourselves do - go shopping for you, buy you clothes, pick your name. Those things were physical manifestations of the fact that we were about to have a child, and we could finally let ourselves accept and get excited about that! As soon as I found out I was having a daughter (an emotional moment, as you saw in the video!), I was ready to give you a name, an identity. You weren't just a baby anymore - you were our baby, our girl. You needed a name.

We spent the next few hours running through our list and before I knew it, we had it narrowed down to about five choices - London being one of them and your dad's favorite. We weighed the pros and cons, and your dad brought up the point that we would be taking you to London just a few weeks after you were born, and if there were ever a time to use the name it was now. It wasn't just a perfect name, it was perfect for YOU! He was right, your name would be London. I never imagined having a daughter named London but from that moment on, it seemed to make perfect sense, and we both couldn't stop saying it.

Your middle name was my decision - your dad seems to think that middle names don't matter (he forgets that you will be raised in the south, where middle names are pretty much just an extension of your first name). As we drove around the next morning (shopping for you, of course), I kept saying aloud the various combinations we were considering, but London Claire just fit. It's feminine - just soft enough - it's classy and it's unique all at the same time ... all things we knew you'd be! So within 24 hours of when we found out we were expecting a sweet baby girl, it was decided - London Claire Eckerson would be your name, and we both couldn't have been more thrilled about it.

London has a few different meanings, but the one we found that day (and the one that's our favorite) is Wild. Combine it with Claire, meaning Clear - Wild & Clear. Let your name be a constant reminder of who you were destined to be. Others may not know where you're going, but you always will. Sometimes you'll march to the beat of your own drum, but you'll always know exactly who you are. Your personality may be wild, but you'll always have a true sense of clarity about the things that matter most - Your God and Your Family. You're going to be incredible - you already are, honestly, and you're not even here yet.

I cannot wait to meet you London,
Your Mom

24 weeks

I was going to make this a two-fer, and include a recap from my baby shower over the wknd, but since my craftiness / recipeness is at a minimum these days, I need to save all the posts I can. Besides, the baby shower was too much goodness to share with a weekly update!

1. How far along?: 24 weeks 3 days
2. How big is baby?: According to What to Expect, she is the size of an eggplant. The app says she is 9 inches long and 1.7 lbs, which makes perfect sense because on Friday they told us she weighed 1.6 lbs. Sweet girl is measuring just a few days ahead (so pretty much right on track) except for her big head (Ben says it's for her big brain) and she's in the 54th percentile - could she be more perfect?
3. Weight gain?: UGH 8 lbs. in 6 weeks. The doctor says it's fine but ... it's still hard to swallow (obviously not hard to swallow anything else, I'm eating everything in sight!)
4. Stretch marks?: None, as far as I can see! I'm starting to lose sight of certain areas, so Ben will have to be the new stretch mark watch dog. I was in such a rush this morning to get read for work that I didn't do my cocoa butter ritual, so I'm certain they'll be everywhere when I get home (just kidding)
5. Maternity clothes?: Bought even more. This really has to stop. But I've been purging old clothes, so that helps, right? Still loving (regular) leggings, but I bought some adorable red maternity jeggings - be on the lookout for those on the regular. And some more cute tops from Old Navy - ON Maternity FTW!
6. Sleep?: Not enough, that's for sure. Work is rough, but it's good to know I still have the ability to work until 1am and function off 4 hours of sleep. 
7. Best moment last week?: The past week was amazing (minus 60+ hours of work), so this is a tough one. L has been kicking like crazy, and Ben gets to feel her pretty much every night before bed. We had our first baby shower and got to visit with all my girlfriends from HS. And we got to have an hour long ultrasound on Friday as part of the fetal echocardiogram. So much fun to just "hang out" with our girl for so long! They measured everything and said she is absolutely perfect (we already knew that)! They did a few shots with the 3D ultrasound machine and it was amazing to see that level of detail - I think she looks like Ben! Probably my absolute favorite moment was when the u/s tech tried to poke her to get her to move (she was sleeping, per usual) and she yawned and then snuggled up on her side. Cutest thing ever. I love that baby so much I can't stand it!
8. Food cravings?: Nothing in particular, but if I have something salty, I have to have something sweet to follow, and vise versa. Which basically means I'm eating a ton.
9. Symptoms?: My gums bleed at the slightest thing! It's so annoying / painful. And I've been having some tooth pain that they think may need a root canal :( Cross your fingers it's not that (I have a dentist appt Thursday). Not sure if I've mentioned this, but (sorry for TMI) my nipples get so swollen. Visibly swollen. It's awful. Aaaaand I have this weird pain / tenderness / swollen area down there that apparently came from a cut. So that's really fun.
10. Exercise?: Had to miss yoga again last week, this time to go see Portlandia (fun!) but I went this week and it was wonderful. We were never on our feet! Worked the arms and core the whole time, it was called "restorative yoga" and it was so relaxing.
11. Gender?: They reconfirmed for us on Friday - no question about it, she is very much a girl.

    

    Good thing she's still a girl, we got so many cute girly outfits at the shower!
    These are a few of my favorites (from my mom)

12. Movement?: All the time! She sleeps in until about 11, and is normally not too crazy during the day. She likes (or hates?) ice cold water and sugar. But she really gets going in the evenings, sometimes as late as 11pm. Girlfriend is not a morning person and that is all right with me.
13. Belly button?: Oh buddy, shallower by the day.
14. What I miss?: Kicking back with a beer. Bending over normally (and without pain).
15. Labor signs?: Nope.
16. What I'm looking forward to?: Doing some work on her room this wknd. My nesting has kicked in, I think, and the lack of organization in her room is making me crazy. We've just been dumping all her stuff in there and it's a DISASTER.

The second picture here is really embarrassing ...
but the first one is misleading, since the tank is not tight under my (giant) boobs
So you get both, so you have an idea of how big I really am!
No making fun ...

Better late than never

I don't have my 24 week post ready for you yet, so I decided to post some videos that should've been posted awhile ago. These are both from our anatomy ultrasound on January 13. Pretty vulnerable stuff here, bloggies - baby girl's most intimate parts and me, blubbering like an idiot. Enjoy!

18 weeks

Did I really just skip 17 weeks altogether? Because I was too busy complaining about pregnancy or perhaps obsessing over the gender of our babe? My deepest apologies to you, bloggies, and to Baby L with whom I will one day share these weekly updates.

1. How far along?: 18 weeks 1 day
2. How big is baby?: According to What to Expect, a mango (6 inches long, 8 oz in weight - holy cow, half a pound?!)
3. Weight gain?: 0 lbs! So excited to be back even with my pregnancy weight and not gaining anything yet. Also, my skinny jeans still fit!
4. Stretch marks?: None. Using Body Butter religiously after showers
5. Maternity clothes?: I'm actually wearing maternity jeans for the first time today. Not because I need them, because I wanted to try them out. You should ALL invest in a pair. I returned my $200 designer ones (couldn't deal with the guilt, and there was a rivet digging into my hip) and got some from Gap on sale for $50 - awesome. Full panel is key, that's the stretchy part that comes all the way up to your boobs.
6. Sleep?: I fall asleep on the couch almost every night between 9:30 - 10:30, and sleep there for a few hours until Ben is ready for bed. It works out, because my bladder can hold it from 12:30 / 1am until 6:30 am so I'm not waking up in the middle of the night just to pee.
7. Best moment last week?: Finding out our sweet little one is a GIRL! And naming her :)
8. Food cravings?: McDonald's cheeseburgers (I know, awful). And popcorn! I've never cared for popcorn but the past two times someone's had it out, I can't stop eating it! I think I'm moving away from the fruits / sweets and into the salty cravings. Oh helloooooo water retention!
9. Symptoms?: Hips are killing me! I got a prenatal massage on Monday thanks to my amazing sister, and it helped some. The heartburn is still awful.
10. Exercise?: Taking a prenatal yoga class once a week and it's AWESOME.
11. Gender?: IT'S A GIRL! In case you missed that blog post. I'm so so so excited to be having a daughter. And by the way, it's so much weirder to say "I'm having a daughter" than "I'm having a baby".
12. Movement?: I'm pretty sure I've only felt her twice - once, laying flat on my back, and another time in church while I was singing. Other times I think I feel the "flutters" / rolling movement they talk about, but it's so faint I can't be sure.
13. Belly button?: Still in, but not as deep.
14. What I miss?: Sushi in general, especially tuna. Occasionally I miss coffee.
15. Labor signs?: Better not have these yet.
16. What I'm looking forward to?: Picking out her nursery bedding! And there's a huge consignment event at the fairgrounds next weekend that we're going to check out, so I am excited to possibly pick out some furniture.

Not a great one, but I took it just for the blog.
The belly is definitely getting rounder / more extended!

Y'all, Friday was awesome. I can't express to you just how awesome, but man ... it will go down in history as one of my favorite days. I couldn't sleep, it was like Christmas morning! Ben had an early doctor's appointment before our ultrasound, so we were both up and excited for the day. We arrived at the doctor's office at 9:15 and sat in the waiting room until almost 10:00 - agonizing! But Ben was playing with the camera, taking silly pics & video taping my thoughts (which, BTW, were boy. Ben thought girl). Finally we got called back, and the u/s tech (who is SO nice) did all the anatomy stuff first - kidneys, bladder, brain, heart, etc. Amazing to see all these working organs on our little one! Baby was standing on her head the whole time, not willing to move, so things took a little longer than expected but no complaints from me! Finally the u/s tech told us to get out the camera, and asked if we were ready - oh man, were we! Even though she was uncooperative about the overall anatomy scan, she had no problem showing us her girly parts, putting her butt right on the screen. 

"It's a girl!" - commence to bawling. I cried for probably 15 minutes, I absolutely couldn't believe we're going to have a little girl. Still can't, I woke up Saturday thinking I had dreamed the whole thing. We spent the rest of the day Friday shopping, picking out her name, and getting ready for the "big reveal" with our families. What a blessed day to help us celebrate the arrival of our sweet little girl!!

TAG! You're it!

Sweet Fran over at The Jenkins Family tagged me in this fun post, so what better way to spend a Sunday afternoon than telling you a little more about me? Especially now that there are actually a few "virtual strangers" that have started following my blog since the pregnancy. So thanks, Fran!

First Things First, The Rules:

• You must post the rules.
• Post eleven fun facts about yourself on the blog post.
• Answer the questions the tagger set for you in their post, and then create eleven new questions to ask the people you've tagged.
• Tag eleven people and link them on your post
• Let them know you've tagged them!

Eleven Fun Facts About Me:

1. I was born with a dislocated hip and a dislocated elbow, so poor little baby Aubrey had to have a brace and a cast. To this day, I have a gigantic scar on my arm from the surgery that the elbow condition eventually resulted in, and if I'm sleepy or drunk my left foot turns in pigeon-footed from the hip thing. I'm going to demand that they check my baby girl for both of these when she's born.
   
2. I AM HAVING A BABY GIRL. In June. I don't know if I've ever been more excited about anything than being a mommy to a sweet baby girl.
3. My husband Ben & I are taking said baby girl to London next summer to go to the Olympics. We had already planned the trip with friends, and going to the Olympics is definitely on our bucket lists, so when we found out we were pregnant we decided that we'd try to make it work so as to not miss out on this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. Hopefully it works out!
4. If I had been a boy, I would've been named Frank Edward Harris, Jr. YIKES! But my mom wanted to call me Teddy, I guess it could be worse. They had the same boy name picked out for my sister.
5. I had a lot of "best friends" at various points of my childhood, but I met my lifelong best friend (besides, of course, my husband. and then my sister) when I was 14. We became especially close when I got mono from sharing her Chapstick.
   
6. My favorite color has been pink since I was old enough to talk. I am the ultimate of girly girls, and baby will be too (at least until she's old enough to protest it, but I hope that never happens).
7. The one food I will not touch is sweet potatoes. My uncle made me eat them when I was four and I vomited all over the Thanksgiving table. Ben also cannot stand sweet potatoes - that's how I knew we were perfect for each other. The bad news? Baby is currently the size of a sweet potato. The good news? At least we know I won't eat her...
8. I can always always find something to buy in the Yankee Candle store. I love candles and am terrified of my house smelling bad / weird.
9. I'm a sympathetic vomiter. As is my best friend. This has made for some horribly painful hungover mornings for us.
10. I was proposed to in front of nearly 60,000 people. My husband is amazing.
11. I love falling asleep on the couch. I think our couches are so comfortable, even though I hate that they have couch covers on them (because they're from the Goodwill). I'm not sure if we'll ever find couches we love as much as these ... we've been looking, but so far, no dice.

Fran's Questions For Me

1. Favorite Blog you follow? Momastery - Glennon is amazing.
2. Favorite Pandora radio station? Wicked, I am a sucker for musicals.
3. Last thing you ate? A lamb gyro and some potato soup from this adorable little cafe in downtown Cary. It's like 3 minutes from our house and we just discovered it last weekend!
4. Last thing you bought? A really freaking cute outfit for the baby to wear while we're at the Olympics.
   
5. Favorite date spot? Any restaurant that's new to both of us. I love trying out new places and trying to find something delicious on the menu. It's always funny to me how adamant Ben is that we not order the same thing when we go out to dinner, even though normally our first choices are the same. Luckily he normally lets me order first.
6. Pets?  Do you have any?  If so, what are they? I firmly believe in adopting dogs and cats from the pound. Our sweet pup Lucy, who will be six on Valentine's Day, is a pound puppy that we rescued when she was about 6 weeks old. We named her Lucy because we had seen The Chronicles of Narnia that weekend. We think she's part pit bull and part border collie.
   
7. Favorite book you have read? Divine Secrets of the Yaya Sisterhood, I think. But I also love Summer Sisters, Fahrenheit 451, The Shack ... most books I've read in adulthood, I love, because if I don't love them after the first few pages I don't continue reading them.
8. Favorite kid friendly apps {if this applies} or favorite app in general? Not sure yet about kid friendly apps, but the apps I check most frequently are Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest and What To Expect When You're Expecting.
9. Who is your favorite actor / actress?  Why? I love Julia Roberts, she's so quirky and cute. I also really love Kristen Bell, but she reminds me of my husband's ex-girlfriend and that's slightly irritating, even though his ex is really sweet.
10. Favorite baby names? boy & girl? I would love to name a boy Benjamin Colt Eckerson, Jr and call him Colt. I'm not crazy about the idea of a "junior" but I think my husband's name is awesome. And for a girl, my favorite name will be forthcoming in an overly dramatic blog announcement ;) But second favorite is Eisleigh Grace.
11. Favorite Sunday afternoon activity? Falling asleep on the couch while watching football with Ben.

Who's Next?

• Yaeli at Mummy in Progress
• Page at It's Marvelous
• Ginna at My Pretty Pennies
• Megan at Wades of 108
• Mary at The Rook Family
• Megan at Los Dos Daubertos
• Kelsey at Ode to Fetaus Dirte
• Jessica at Who's That Girl...It's Jess
• Caroline at Clumsy Crafty Happy
• Brett at The Bakery
• Kara at Burrell's Plus One

My Questions For You

1. What's your favorite color?
2. What's your favorite thing about your husband / significant other?
3. Do you have / want children? How many?
4. What would you choose as your last meal?
5. What's your favorite bible verse, if you read the bible?
6. Where is one place you'd like to visit before you die?
7. Which room of your house is your favorite and why?
8. What's your favorite day of the week and why?
9. Which store can you never go in without buying something?
10. What is your favorite physical quality about yourself? Emotional quality?
11. If you could be any animal, what would you choose?

14 weeks

I'm 14 weeks 1 day today, and Baby E is the size of a naval orange. S/he jumped from a lemon last week (3.5 inches long) to an orange this week (4.5 inches long) - talk about a growth spurt!

Fun little pregnancy survey: 

1. How far along?: 14 weeks 1 day
2. How big is baby?: According to What to Expect, a naval orange (4.5 inches long, 2-3 oz)
3. Weight gain?: Lost 4 lbs (oops)
4. Stretch marks?: None yet.
5. Maternity clothes?: I have one maternity tunic that I've worn a couple times because it's so cute and comfy, but I have no need for maternity clothes yet
6. Sleep?: Can't sleep in late (any time after 8:30) no matter how late I go to sleep, but naps are very welcomed on the weekend 
7. Best moment last week?: Always love getting to hear the heartbeat (12/20)
8. Food cravings?: It changes hourly
9. Symptoms?: Still vomiting, but feeling crappy less frequently
10. Exercise?: none (boo)
11. Gender?: finding out 1/13!!
12. Movement?: None that I can feel!
13. Belly button?: Still in
14. What I miss?: Feeling good, having energy, Jersey Mike's
15. Labor signs?: Better not have these yet.
16. What I'm looking forward to?: Christmas!! Last one without kids, I cannot wait until the baby's first Christmas next year

We had a quick check-up yesterday (quick check-up = 40 minutes in the waiting room, 30 seconds of hearing the baby's heartbeat) and everything sounds great. I decided to experiment a little, since we had such a sleepy baby on our hands at the last appt, and had a root beer before our appt - it worked! Baby was moving around "woosh, woosh" and had a nice strong heartbeat.

Mommy, on the other hand, is in trouble. Apparently all this "morning" (again, bullshit) sickness has caught up with me and instead of gaining the 4 lbs I was supposed to at 14 weeks, I've lost 4 lbs from my normal weight. Oops. "Eat More," the doctor says ... I feel like I eat NON-STOP. I'm eating a chocolate chip cookie as we speak. So for the first time in my life, I'm on a quest to gain weight, which I'm certain will be short-lived and they'll probably lecture me for gaining too much at my next appt.

AND SPEAKING OF THE NEXT APPOINTMENT!!! We find out if Baby E is a "man or a woman" on January 13th.

I. Cannot. Be-Lieeeeeeeeve. It.

We're going to have my mom come down and a few friends & family over for a fun "gender reveal" party that evening. I always thought it was so cliche for expectant mothers to say they don't care what they're having, "just as long as it's healthy" ... No, you care. You have a preference. You just don't want the kid to later find out that you wished s/he was something else. Well boys and girls, I was wrong. I genuinely can say I would be thrilled with either a boy or a girl. And (I saw this on another mommy blog) the good news is, the laws of reproduction are in my favor that it'll be one of those two, so I can't lose.

Of course, Ben wants a little boy, so I would be thrilled for him to have a son. Plus I've always loved the idea of having a boy first to be the older brother. But then again, every girl (woman?) wants a little girl of her own I think. Somewhere deep down, I've always dreamt of tutus and bows and pink bedding. So really forreal, I will be 100% thrilled whatever the case. Just so long as our little Bacon keeps growing strong and healthy.