Happy Friday all!

Well it’s official, Fetus Lovering is in fact a boy. So much so, we caught him playing with his first toy in uteruo. You got it, the little dude already found his penis.

It’s amazing to be able to see the difference after four early weeks. This time he looks much bigger and very human (hey, we all looked like little freaks when we were 10/12 weeks into growth). All of our testing seemed to go well. He has a good nose, non-cleft lip, good bones and a full belly. So he earned his gold star for the day.

I love these appointments. It really allows me to get that closer connection to everything going on. Mandy is starting to feel him move around. I’ve just started trying to feel him myself, but I think he’s a little too small for us to feel it from the outside right now. Soon, I can’t wait!

I’m hoping that feeling movement will help ease the nerves. Yesterday and last night I was wound up tight. Even when you know everything is okay, it’s that little bit of fear that you are about to find out something wrong. I’m not sure what it is, maybe it’s innocence lost from the last pregnancy not working out. Maybe this is parenthood and I need to learn to ignore the nerves and start drinking more. Either way, I’m already excited to see him again in five weeks.

Oh, names. We have two picked out and we’re waiting to see which one fits his personality. Don’t bother asking. No one is going to know his name until he’s breathing the same air as the rest of us.

Cheers!

Coming Soon: Registry and online baby pool. That’s right, we’re Lovering’s, we’ll put money down on anything!

So here we are in our 2 1/2 story house, 3 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms, 2 living rooms, you know, enough room for 3 to 5 people, easy.  We went to a Divine Consign sale this past weekend. Our first baby shop-fest!   I was so stoked that we found a baby jogging stroller for half price.  It’ll be perfect for walking around the neighborhood and to use camping and what not.  We found a few other cool things, a bunch of onesies, wiper warmer, the tiniest Crocs I’ve ever seen, and some maternity clothes.  A successful shop!

We went to leave and out in the parking lot we were staring at the stroller, in all it’s massiveness, then looking at the new mommy mobile.  It was dark, we were clueless and suddenly totally embarrassed.  Mandy jumped in the front, I jumped in the back.  We threw down the seats and stuffed the sucker in the back as fast as possible, unfolded, still in one piece.  I know there were seasoned parents in that parking lot completely entertained by our ignorance.  We silently (and quickly) drove out of the lot.  A minute or two later we both laughed and realized we were just initiated into a world that is totally foreign to us.

When we got home that night I ignored the beast in the back.  We are surrounded by parents in the neighborhood, I really wanted to wait until 3 in the morning to take that thing out, trying to avoid the ribbing.  The next morning I got the bags out, put all the clothes in the laundry, feeling great about everything.  Look at the size of a onesie, you could fit 100 of them in a drawer.  This is gonna be a piece of cake!  I finally gave in and went to get the stroller out.  In broad day light I still couldn’t figure the stupid thing out, so I threw it over my head and just carried it over the car into the house.  Whatever, it worked.  Nothing felt that wrong until I brought it up stairs into the guest room, put the stroller in the corner and looked around.  If it was a scene in a movie you’d hear a sucking sound and watch the house collapse into a tiny room.  H-o-l-y c-r-a-p, this house is about to go from half empty to full.  Reality smacked me in the forehead at 9:30 am this past Sunday.

Shit.

Now even though everyone has had fun adding in their little bits of crazy, we’re successfully piling on some extra ourselves. There are a few things Mandy has taught me over the last couple of months. First and foremost, never let a pregnant woman get hungry. WOW, really, really bad idea, especially if you aren’t within 2 minutes of her current craving. Now I will say, Mandy hasn’t been bad at all, I know she has at least 8 more potential crazy levels (luckily I’ve only seen one or two of them), but that eye of hunger, baby hunger, that’s some crazy. Another, watch where you touch and always ask first. This poor kid, the “I walked 2 miles up hill, both ways” list is growing, daily. I don’t think there is a place that isn’t sore, swollen or ill-functioning. I can’t wait to tell her when she gets home that her sister-in-law wanted to reminder her of leaky boobs!

I can’t tell you everything Mandy has learned from me, that’s for her, but I have learned a couple of things about myself. First, I have a limit of how much I’ll do before I pitch a hissy fit. I’m exhausted from all the running around lately pulling the weight for both of us. I truly love doing it and I know by the end of the day, regardless of what I do, Mandy is more exhausted than me. By about 7 o’clock however, if you ask me to do anything, I may try to eat you for dinner. Even if I feel it coming, I can’t stop it, a can of crazy just comes flying out. I tend to stop when Mandy looks unfazed (not unphased people) and tells me to buck up. You know how I deal with my stress now, I knit. See, it’s all fucking crazy (booties, booties, hat)!

Cheers!
Kim

This morning we woke up to a winter wonderland. I really wish this stuff was remotely normal around here. It makes Texas so beautiful.  Above is a photo from the nursery. I’m hoping the little guy isn’t going to have to wait until he’s 25 to see this much snow again (yeah, it’s been that long here since this much has fallen in one year).

Everything is going smoothly here on the home front. We’ve been busy getting things organized – AKA nesting. I’m off my holiday break on the remodeling, so I’ve been busy painting. Hopefully, fingers crossed, we’ll have the kitchen wrapped up by the end of next weekend! Photos will follow. After that we’ll be finishing up the flooring in the nursery so we can start getting the little man’s room ready.

Mandy had another checkup yesterday. We got all her blood and sono results, and it looks like we are at the lowest risk for any of the complications they test for, mostly Downs, so, so far, so good! I must say, as an innocent bystander, it’s pretty cool watching Mandy and Heather grow. It’s truly amazing to see how all this works!

I hope you are all well! I’m off to build a fire, get another cup of coffee and watch the snow fall while getting some work done.

Cheers!

With this news here are a couple of the first things we are looking at getting. Which one do you think should be first?

A	B	C

We are making sure that this kid is raised right from day one!

Cheers!

After an hour of pulling out our hair, we finally got the video from the VCR to the laptop. VHS should be outlawed at this point. Half the time spent was looking for the freaking VCR. I’m very happy they told us today they are upgrading the burner to DVD before our filming next month. I really can’t complain though, we got to watch the little one over and over again.

Last baby pics/video for a bit. Cheers.

Well, here are the photos everyone has been begging for. We have from day 5, which to me is just insane, all the way to today, week 13. For those of you that are REALLY interested, I hope to have a video up here soon too. Enjoy the blurry, grainy, have-no-idea-what-you-are-looking-at photos!

Cheers.

All I can say it is was totally awesome.  We have some pictures and videos that we’ll put up here once they are off the damn VHS tape (Seriously?!).  I guess it’s good I didn’t sell that fourth VCR at the yard sale last year…

Oh, and to answer your question, yes, we were given a sex guess.  80% positive of what it is… I’m totally pumped.  Oh, and so is Mandy

So here’s to hoping!  Cheers.