Week 27 Update

Long time no talk.  Things have been hectic around here!  We’ve had full weekends and busy season is picking up at work.  I had plans a couple weeks ago for a “99 bottles of milk on the wall” post where I told you that it was only 99 days until the baby was due.  But I really couldn’t come up with anything else for the body of the post, and I couldn’t just have a clever title.  I also have future plans for some “nursery DIY” posts.  The nursery is coming together quite nicely, if I do say so myself, and we’ve done quite a bit of the work/decorations ourselves.  I’m excited to share!  Until I get my act together and get those drafted (and actually take nice pictures rather than iphone photos), here’s a weekly (monthly in my case) update to hold us over.

How far along:  27 weeks 3 days

Size of baby:  A rutabaga (don’t know what a rutabaga looks like?  Neither did I.  The baby should be about 14 inches long and roughly 2 lbs at this point)

Total weight gain:  15 lbs (8 of which were gained in December alone).  The holidays were good to me, really good to me.  So I’ve been trying to make healthier food and exercise choices in the new year.

Symptoms:  Week 26 was a dizzy week.  Every afternoon without fail, the room would be spinning.  It was very weird.  I checked with the doc, and he said no concerns, just another fun pregnancy symptom.  This week has been characterized by intense back and rib discomfort.  Focused on the right side, on the same horizontal plane, below my shoulder blade in the back and lower ribs in the front.  There is seemingly no comfortable seated position to ease the pain, which is unfortunate since I spend the majority of my day sitting at a desk.  Laying down and standing up feel great, however!  So I paced around my parent’s house on Tuesday night while we celebrated my mom’s birthday, and I stood through our entire lunch at Which Wich yesterday with Tom :) 

Cravings:  Sweets still.  Although that really isn’t pregnancy specific for me.  I’ve always craved sweets!  I just give in to the temptation more now.  Last night, I mashed up Thin Mints in Maggie Moos better batter ice cream, wish a splash of Blue Bell chocolate brownie ice cream.  Can I get three cheers for Girl Scout cookie season!?

Sleep:  Pretty good.  Occasional tossing and turning, the usual nightly restroom break.  But I won’t complain for now, I hear it’s only going to get worse over the next 3 months (2 months and 29 days to be precise).  And downhill from there once baby is born!

Movement:  Our little cheerleader is a mover and shaker!  As she’s getting bigger, I feel her movements much more often.  Sometimes I wonder if she ever sleeps.  Oh and the hiccups.  Poor chick, she gets them all the time!  I personally HATE the hiccups, so I feel terrible when she gets them.  And equally as annoyed as I’m sure she is when they keep us both up at night!

Gender:  It’s a girl!

Name:  Madelyn Grace (aka Maddie).  Side note, it’s funny, everyone else (family, friends, coworkers) seem to call her by her name now.  But more often than not, I still refer to her as “the baby”.  As excited as I was to decide on a name, I don’t do a very good job of using it yet!

Style:  Maternity clothes.  But I’m not complaining, they comfortable, and I think they’re cute!  I have a lot of pre-pregnancy blousy tops that I thought would look awesome at some point during my pregnancy, but somehow I missed that week, because they’re all too tight now.  Or too short.  That’s a major issue.  Can’t have this little belly exposed to the world!

Nursery:  Still a work in progress, but moving along quite nicely.  And I am loving it!  Pink, green, polka dots, birds, it’s everything I love :)  I hope she’ll love it too.  Here’s a sneak peak:

Best moment of the week:  We had the best weekend last weekend!  On Saturday, we had a 3D ultrasound, and our moms joined us!  Maddie was such a little cutie, all curled up in a ball.  The sonographer kept saying, “she’s all hands and feet!”  It was true, her hands and her feet were all up in her face.  In fact, she really wouldn’t move her hands away from her face the entire time.  And for a little while she was holding her foot up there by her head too, hanging on to her big toe!  I just have to say, technology is so cool.  What a treat it was to get a sneak peek at the little munchkin in my belly.  And then, on Sunday, I had a baby shower!  The girls did such a wonderful job putting it on.  It sounds like everyone pitched in with decorations, food, and games.  And it turned out so perfectly!  I had a wonderful time, and we are so grateful for all of the gifts we received!  Here are a few pictures from the ultrasound and the shower:

Worst moment of the week:  When I realized my linea nigra  (dark pigment line that forms down a pregnant belly) is starting to show.  Which, in itself, isn’t all that terrible.  I know it will eventually fade away.  But, it’s crooked!  At first I was horrified, but now I just have to laugh a little at the belly button stretched to its limits and the crooked line zig-zagging across it.

Tuesday marked exactly 3 months until our due date, and we just can’t wait!  Everything is [almost] ready for her, and we’re so excited to bring her home!  Now if we can just get through these next few months of tax busy season….

Wish us luck! :)

Happy New Year! (and a silly post script)

Happy New Year!  Can you believe it is already 2014!?  A good friend of mine posted a very humorous photo yesterday that her younger brother had sent her.  It was a photo of the inside cover of his history book at school, where her name has been neatly written with the school year “03-04”.  First thought, that means we studied that book 10 years ago.  When did we get so old??  And second thought, sounds like the school needs to invest in some updated books!?

Surprisingly, I really don’t love this time of year. You’d think that with my propensity for planning, I would enjoy goal setting and new years resolutions.  But truthfully, I find it a little overwhelming and worrisome.  Setting out grand plans for a full year can be a daunting task.  In fact, I found these  depressing statistics on new years resolutions.  Only 8% of people are successful at achieving their resolution!?  At least I fall into the category of 39% of people in their twenties who achieve their resolutions.  But still, not very inspiring.

Nonetheless, I have set a resolution this year, that will probably only last until April, when everything in my life will change dramatically :)  Tom and I actually set the same resolution this year, and it is to: wake up earlier!  I am a notorious snoozer.  I smack that button over and over like a game of whac-a-mole.  I snooze snooze snooze then rush rush rush - to get ready, pack a lunch, feed the dogs, find a fast (and usually unhealthy) breakfast and get out the door.  It makes for a stressful start to the day and then it gets worse as I get frustrated by the dang traffic that’s making me late to work.  Except that it’s not the traffic making me late.  It’s me!  Me hitting the snooze button!  I’m doing it to myself.  I know that traffic is bad.  It’s a given.  I need to plan better to account for the traffic.  This I know, so why do I keep putting myself through the same terrible morning routine!?

I will usually hit the snooze button no less than 3 times in the morning, sometimes 4 or 5 times.  That’s close to an hour of interrupted, half-awake, worthless sleep.  Which really equates to an hour of wasted time during my day.  And there never really seems to be enough time in the day, agree??  So it is my goal this spring, to wake up earlier and utilize this valuable hour of my day.  I don’t have any specific plans for this hour.  Sometimes I might work out, or walk the dogs, or maybe I’ll cook breakfast, watch the morning news, or just get to work earlier.   Whatever I do in that hour, I will not STRESS.  I will not RUSH.  And I will not start my day FRUSTRATED.

I know that a successful goal must be: Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Time-bound.  But gosh that puts some real pressure to succeed at the resolution!  I know in my heart that I will be happier when I achieve my goal, so right here, right now, I am making my goal “SMART”.  I resolve to: wake up by 6:15am at least 4 out of 5 weekdays every week, until April 1, 2014.  In order to make this more attainable, I will be in bed with lights out by 10:30pm on weeknights. SO, wish me luck and help keep me accountable!?!

Best wishes to all of you for a happy new year and success with your new years resolutions!  And remember - early to bed early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise.


P.S. On a very random aside, I just have to tell you about that one time I called 9-1-1.  It was yesterday.  The first time I’ve ever dialed those numbers on my phone!  I was headed back from Dallas to Austin late last night, and as I was nearing the end of the drive on I-35 around 10pm, I came up behind a large, maniac, swerving bus - right blinker on, veering across all 3 lanes of the road.  I initially made up some excuses for the bus (it’s foggy, it’s windy, these lanes are narrow) but as the minutes and miles passed, the bus wasn’t making any driving improvements.  So I nervously decided to try and pass the bus.  I sped up, but just as I got close the bus, it swerved into my lane.  UGH.  Ok, nevermind, I’ll just take it slow and hang out behind the bus.  But even this seemed to be a little dangerous, as the bus kept changing speeds.  I contemplated my options and tried to estimate how long the bus has been driving erratically.  Finally, I decide I should report the vehicle, this is just dangerous, and aren’t the people on the bus nervous!?  So I dial 9-1-1 on my phone.  But I just can’t get up the nerve to press CALL.  A few more minutes pass.  A few more swerves, still with the blinker on.  I press CALL.  The dispatcher answers, I explain the situation, give my location and a description of the reckless vehicle.  I remain on the line with the dispatcher, and I kid you not, it is less than 5 minutes before a police office is pulling the bus over!  It was awesome!  I was very impressed with the timeliness of the response and action.  And I felt like a real newsperson: Casey Cooper, reporting live from the scene of the crime, where a crazed, drunken felon has hijacked a bus full of elderly men and woman and sends local police on a high-speed chase down the interstate as he tries to flee the country with a suitcase full of drugs and backpack full of stolen cash. It’s quite a scene out here!  Ok ok maybe that’s not exactly how it went :)

Christmas with The Coopers

I’m a little late on this post (a running theme on my blog), but we have been on-the-go with our annual Tour of Texas the past couple weeks.  Since December 19th, we’ve put over 1,100 miles on my car.  Austin to San Antonio, back to Austin, Austin to Houston, back to Austin, down to Canyon Lake, back to Austin, up to Temple, back to Austin, down to Concan, up to San Antonio, up to Canyon Lake, back to Austin.  WHEW.  Not to mention we still have one more quick trip planned to Victoria before we’re back at work next week, which will put us just shy of 1,500 miles.  That’s roughly 25 hours in the car and the equivalent of driving from here to Washington D.C..  We are true road warriors!  And we don’t pack light.  Adding a baby and baby gear to the mix next year will be challenging to say the least.  Christmas at our house instead!?

Ok so let’s start at the beginning.  Thomas was, unfortunately, out of town when our nephew Connor was born on December 16.  (Work training in Orlando, Florida – rough life).  So as soon as I picked him up from the airport on December 19, we headed straight down to San Antonio for a visit.  We fell in love with our sweet nephew, and really enjoyed holding him.  Neither of us can recall the last time we held a baby, and we are very grateful for the opportunity to “practice” with Baby Connor.  And the advice from Trey and Annie will surely prove to be invaluable!  I really did not want to leave their house, I could have cuddled Connor all day!

Next up on our tour was Houston for an early Christmas celebration with Tom’s mom’s side of the family.  There were nearly 30 family members gathered together for dinner and a white elephant exchange at Tom’s grandparent’s house.  It was loud and fun, and oh so different from small family Christmases I’ve been accustomed to for the past 26 years. (Usually just my parents and brother, occasionally my grandparents – we’re the only ones who live in Texas, our extended family is out of state).  It was, honestly, a little overwhelming.  It was great to visit with all of his family though, many of whom we haven’t seen since our wedding last summer.  The food was delicious, and the gift exchange was a lot of fun!

We stopped back at home for a night to do our own Christmas gift exchange, just the two of us and the dogs.  Tom got new cowboy boots and I got beautiful diamond earrings.  The dogs got new toys, which were fun for all of about 3 minutes, and then Bailey put herself to bed upstairs.  The poor pup just cannot stay awake past 8pm, so she missed the rest of our family fun night.

Next stop: Canyon Lake for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.  We had a great time taking it easy at the lake, soaking up the pleasant Texas December weather, and visiting with Tom’s family. Trey and Annie came up both days with Baby Connor and we were so pleased with how our dogs behaved with the baby around.  Sure they were their usual annoying, whiney selves when we stuck them outside alone, but they were very sweet and calm toward the baby.  I was a little apprehensive about them meeting because our dogs have never been around a baby, but it really couldn’t have gone any better.  We went to a rather interesting Christmas Eve mass at the local Catholic church (imagine a priest singing Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer during his homily, and referring to an infant in the congregation as a “little baby Jesus”). We enjoyed a wonderful Christmas morning and lunch the next day, then ended the night by visiting with family friends.  They put on a fireworks show and only had one little mishap that caused a minor grass fire, but really, would Christmas Day be complete without an incident like that?! Also, if we weren’t already expecting, I would really have baby fever right about now.  Over the course of two days I saw 4 tiny babies under the age of 2 months.  So many adorable tiny toes!

Our final Christmas celebration took place in Temple, the day after Christmas. We had a yummy Tex-Mex dinner at my grandparent’s house and a great gift exchange with my family.  I got an awesome Ju Ju Be diaper bag and Tom got a new rifle.  Yep, you read that right, I got a diaper bag and Tom got a gun.  Merry Texas Christmas, y’all! Over the next couple days, the guys got in some golfing and hunting, and the girls did some shopping and painting. We had a great visit!

Then it was time to head back to our house to unpack, unwind, and take down our Christmas decorations – which I felt we hardly had time to enjoy since we were on the road so much!  Down came the tree, the decorations, and the cards.  It was nice to have the house back in order though.

We didn’t last long at home though before we hit the road again.  We headed down to Concan, Texas for our 2^nd annual New Years Eve on the Frio River.  It was an awesome, low-key New Years Eve complete with an Aggie football win (WHOOP!), good times with good friends, and a sparkling apple cider midnight toast for me :)  Thanks again, Nick and Katie (my favorite engaged couple), for hosting!

On the way home from Concan, we stopped in for another visit with Trey, Annie, and Connor as well as a pop over to the lake house for a quick hello.  And finally, we were back at home.  We were so lucky to both have a long holiday from work (17 days to be exact) and it worked out very well to spend time with family and friends.  Back at home, we started a DIY project that we thought would take a day or so MAX.  Fast forward 3 days and we’re nowhere near done.  Once completed, I’ll share the details of our project :)

Hope you all had a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!  Best wishes for a wonderful 2014!!!

Week 22 Update

Some blogger-moms-to-be do one of these “pregnancy weekly updates” every week.  I admire their dedication.  I have a hard enough time remembering to take a weekly photo in a timely manner (usually at XX weeks and 6 days, the last possible day before I cross over into the following week).  But, I like this idea, so I’m going to do it periodically.  Yes I know, I’m starting more than halfway into my pregnancy, but hey better late than never, right!?  In this post, I’ll do a catch-up of the last, oh, 22 weeks or so.  NBD.

How far along:  22 weeks 3 days

Size of baby:  A papaya (who even knows what a papaya looks like? Not me. At our 20 weeks 4 days ultrasound, she weighed roughly 12oz.  And the week 23 fruit comparison is a grapefruit.  Maybe that provides some clarification)

Total weight gain:  9 lbs.  Sigh.  I actually started out by losing weight during the first couple months of pregnancy.  It wasn’t until about week 18 or 19 that I started to gain weight, and then it came very quickly.  I know that a pregnant body is a beautiful body, growing and nurturing a tiny human being.  But that doesn’t make gaining weight any easier, and seeing the numbers rise on the scale is never easy.  Our doctor told me I should gain anywhere between 25-40 lbs.  (40lbs!?  You’re kidding, doc.) 

Symptoms:  Knock on wood, this pregnancy has been nearly symptom free so far.  I only had morning sickness once, right before work in the morning during week 14.  I was having a lot of back pain at the end of the 1^st trimester, but truthfully that might have been caused by my awful uncomfortable chair at work.  That didn’t stop me from taking warm baths every night, utilizing a heat pad in “Tom’s” recliner, and insisting that I needed a giant pregnancy pillow for my birthday. But that’s a whole ‘nother story.

Cravings:  Nothing too bizarre.  The only cravings run Tom has made for me was cheese and crackers one night (pasteurized – don’t worry!).  I’m doing the stereotypical pregnancy pickles and ice cream thing (but not together).  Cotton Candy ice cream from Maggie Moos was my go-to for a while, but it turns your mouth bright blue for days.  I can’t even take myself seriously looking like that.  I’ve always been a lover of chocolate and sweets, and pregnancy has been a great excuse to indulge a little.  Cookies, brownies, candy, bring it on!

Sleep:  Decent.  I usually wake up at least once during the night for a potty break, but other than that I’m sleeping through the night.  I’ve struggled to find a comfortable position to sleep in.  I always thought I was a side-sleeper, but now that I know I’m not supposed to sleep on my back, I always wake up on my back during the early morning hours and toss and turn to get comfortable on my side.  The giant pregnancy pillow is really too big for our bed, so I’ve transitioned to just having an extra pillow supporting my back.  I’ve also put a folded blanket under my pillow to prop my head up a little to aid in digestion and breathing.  Ta-da, there you have it, my magical fixes for a good night of mid-pregnancy sleep!

Movement:  Yes!  Oh my goodness, yes.  This girl is very active.  Her most active times are:  early morning, lunch time, late afternoon, and 9pm.  Feeling her movements gives me really mixed emotions and feelings.   All at once it is amazing, special, weird, alien, sweet, uncomfortable, and sometimes annoying.  But feeling her movements always makes me feel reassured.  I’m so happy that she is comfy cozy and growing like a weed.  And whenever I nervously think wait, have I felt her in the past few hours?  She always seems to give me a nice big kick to the bladder.  Oh good, you’re still in there.

Gender:  GIRL!

Name:  We have decided on a name!  And I’ve ordered the wooden letters to hang on the wall, so no going back now ;)  Our sweet little thing’s name will be:  (drumroll please) … Madelyn Grace.  We will call her Maddie for short.  And I’ll probably lovingly call her Maddie Grace, Miss Maddie, Baby MC, Maddie G, etc.  What can I say, I like nicknames :)

Style:  I have transitioned into maternity clothes.  Well truthfully, I started wearing some maternity pants back in like, week 13.  They are just SO comfortable, I really might never go back.  I can still wear a lot of my regular shirts, but it’s getting to the point where I might stretch them out, so I’ve ordered a few basic tees.  My usual maternity-uniform tends to be these pants from Old Navy, a tank top, and a cardigan sweater unbuttoned.  Rinse and repeat, every day.  Sometimes I toss on a scarf, or a cute necklace.  My favorite place to shop for maternity wear is by far Old Navy – reasonably priced, super cute and simple.  I also happened upon a few cute things at Target.  I dislike Target’s website design for ordering online, so I’ve only picked up a couple things from the limited selection in store.

Nursery:  Love love love her cute nursery.  Although truthfully, I was really more excited about designing the vintage airplane nursery for a boy.  Instead, I’m buying pink and green and loving it just as much!  We themed the nursery around this quilt from Pottery Barn Kids.  It’s pastel pink and green, with touches of blue, yellow, brown, tan, purple etc.  (no really, the description says it has 16 colors.  Which sounds outrageous and obnoxious, but they’re so subtle that it’s perfect).  It also has a combination of polka dots, stripes, gingham etc.  If you’re thinking it sounds hideous, check the link, I promise it’s not!  We have already purchased and assembled (I say “we” very loosely, Tom did all of the assembly) the crib and changing table.  They are basic white and were ordered off of amazon.  We are using Tom’s childhood dresser, which is dark brown wood, and we have plans to purchase a glider in a similar shade of brown stain.  Yeah, we’re mixing and matching, and I don’t really care anymore.  I initially had GRAND plans to paint Tom’s dresser white, paint the walls pink, add chair rail, paint the bottom part of the wall gray…. and then I just got lazy.  Nah, I didn’t get lazy, I got realistic. I just don’t have the time or the energy for that, and I’m actually really loving the tan walls and the mismatched furniture.  Now that the furniture has been assembled and arranged (then rearranged 100 times at 10pm one Saturday night, and finally put back exactly the way it was before), I am starting on the decorations and organization.  I’ll save those for a post devoted to the nursery.

Best moment of the week:  Strangers have started commenting on my bump!  Which, granted, I realize means I’m getting large.  But it also means we’re getting closer to meeting our girl, and now everyone can notice and share in our excitement.  I love getting questions about our baby (gender, due date, names etc), and I don’t even mind when people want to touch!  Although so far no strangers have touched, so that’s good.  That might be weird.

Worst moment of the week:  Getting dressed for my work Christmas party.  Last week, I had tried on two separate dresses (one borrowed from my mom, and one purchased from ASOS) and I thought, oh perfect, these look great!  Either one will work!  Fast-forward to Saturday night when it’s time to get dressed… somewhere between Tuesday and Saturday, these dresses shrank.  Ok maybe it wasn’t the dresses.  But really, they just looked all wrong, in all places.  I must have spent an hour in the closet trying to decide what to wear.  So then we were an hour late to the party, and there may or may not have been some tears shed in the kitchen when I came downstairs and Tom told me I looked beautiful, but all I wanted to do was put my sweatpants back on and crawl under a blanket.  I blame the hormones.

So there you have it, 22 weeks of pregnancy summed up in one weekly post!  What a fun adventure it has been so far.  In other exciting news, I’m an AUNT!  Tom’s older brother and his wife just had their first baby boy on Monday.  I am so excited to visit and hold baby Connor tomorrow!  From the pictures I’ve seen, he is just the cutest little thing.  Chubby cheeks and a head full of hair.  Love him already!!  What fun it will be to have our two babies so close in age.  And lucky for Tom’s younger sister, she is totally set for a ring bearer and flower girl at her future wedding.

Ribbons and Curls

The word is out - Baby Cooper is a GIRL!

I drafted this post a month ago but then never quite got around to posting it - oops. 

ORIGINAL DRAFT 11/11/13:
So here's the full story on our journey to finding out if Baby Cooper would be wearing Hair Bows or Bow Ties.

The Early Weeks: 
Tom and I both had an inkling that Baby Cooper would be a girl. Perhaps wishful thinking on my part, and "that's my luck" thinking on Tom's part. We were fairly certain. As certain as you can be with on a 50/50 gamble. We each had our hopes, but agreed in our thoughts that Baby would be a girl.

Week 13:  
Around this time, I learned about elective gender scans at private ultrasound businesses (say what!? I previously thought I had no choice but to wait until our anatomy scan at 20 weeks). While googling "early ultrasound gender scan", I happened upon a product called Intelligender. Basically, this product tests the pH level of your urine and can (supposedly) tell you your baby's gender as early as 10 weeks. And the best part? The product is sold at drug stores for less than $50! 

"If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is." The saying that should have been resonating my head, and was resonating for skeptical Tom.
 
But, you should know that patience is NOT my best virtue. It's probably my worst. The thought of waiting another 8 weeks was killing me. So of course I stopped by Walgreens on the way home from work that day. I followed the instructions on the [dinged up, last one on the shelf] box and waited until the following morning to take the test. I could hardly sleep a wink and was up before the sun. The results? BOY!

Before the test, we agreed upon the mindset of: let's take this with a grain of salt and NOT buy anything pink of blue. After the test, I went a little crazy. I bought a big red airplane to hang on the wall in the nursery, read articles on mothering boys, and started calling the baby by "his" new name. I was, however, doubtful enough to agree with Tom that we should keep this rather uncertain news to ourselves for the time being.

To "confirm" our new finding, I scheduled an elective gender scan at Clearview Ultrasound as soon we could.  They start doing gender scans at 15 weeks, so I scheduled us for 15wks 4days. We didn't tell a soul we were going. We were skeptical and wanted to check it out in person before we shared any news. [In retrospect, why I was skeptical of ultrasounds and not a little pee cup from the drug store, I'm not so sure.]

Week 15:
The big day! Our gender scan ultrasound! Let me first start off by saying, this place was so cool. And so unlike the doctor's office. It was warm and cozy, with a big screen TV to watch the ultrasound. At first, our little baby was sound asleep. Sound asleep. As in, would not wake up! The sonographer prodded my belly a little, hoping to get a reaction. Still sleeping. Fastforward 5 minutes (what seemed like an eternity), and still no movement. We could see the little heart beating but my mind was racing, why won't our baby move!?

The sonographer suggested we try something different. "Would you like a piece of chocolate?" she asked. Ha, well I guess, if it's for the baby! ;) Fastforward a minute after I eat a small piece of chocolate, and Baby is practically doing flips! (which really made me think about the foods I'm eating, they are obviously going straight to the baby). Finally, Baby gets positioned correctly so that the sonographer can identify the gender. Alas, to our disappointment, she told us it was too soon to tell. And if she told us one way or the other, she would really be taking a gamble. She apologized for keeping us in suspense, and asked us to come back in a week.

*sigh*

We were really bummed not to have an answer, but we were pleased that she was honest with us and didn't try to make a call if it was too early. So, we waited. But this time I couldn't do it quietly, I convinced Tom that we should tell our friends and family what we were doing the following Saturday afternoon. And so we did, and we planned a little get together gender reveal for Sunday afternoon, and we crossed our fingers that Baby would be ready to share some news with us in a week!

Week 16:
After a long week of waiting, and nervously, tentatively, planning a gender reveal, the new big day finally arrived. We watched our little baby squirming on the big screen, and laughed at the crossed legs which were making it difficult to tell the gender. Finally, the sonographer paused the screen, circled something, and wrote "ALLLLL GIRL!!!" I cheered and then patted Tom on the shoulder, "It's okay, you're going to love her anyway!" Ha! The things you say in the moment. I felt so bad for him as he cursed the pee cup test the whole way home, we never should have done that! 

But as the reality set in for us on our 2 hour drive to College Station for a football game, we were both SO THRILLED! Bows and ribbons, barbies and dolls, tea parties and dresses, my mind was spinning! And I couldn't help but tear up as I thought about Papa Tom toting around our sweet little girl on his shoulders. What a perfect, patient, protective Daddy he will be to our little girl.

I asked if we could stop in at the book store so I could buy her an Aggie dress, and Tom suggested, "how about I buy our little girl her first dress?" Cue my melting heart. And so he did, he picked out her very first dress, complete with a tiny white bow. (And then joked that he will buy her last dress for her when she is 35, because she's not allowed to get married until then, ha!)

The Reveal:
On Sunday afternoon, our house filled with friends and family, sweets, treats and fun. I set up an amateur photo booth in the living room and decorated little bow and bow tie cookies. Everyone placed their guess on the board - hair bows just barely won!

 And then finally, we readied to share the news. We gathered everyone in the living room - no peeking! I stood in the kitchen, camera ready and stereo remote in hand as Thomas drove a tiny pink remote control car with pink balloons in from the hall, Girls Just Want to Have Fun blaring from the speaker the whole way.  Looks of surprise, joy, laughter, and hugs ensued. It was such a wonderful afternoon shared with many of the most important people in our lives. Baby Girl Cooper is so loved already, what a lucky girl she is to have so many people excited for her arrival and ready to watch her grow.

We are truly beaming with excitement this week as we look forward to the years ahead with our little girl. My recurring thought of "I'm pregnant. Actually pregnant. Really pregnant" has been replaced with "It's a girl. She's a girl. We're having a girl!"

Now we just have to wait 5 months and 11 days to meet her (who's counting?)!






UPDATE TO THE ORIGINAL DRAFT 12/11/13:
The 20 week ultrasound which seemed SO far away, has now come and gone.  We confirmed that Baby Cooper is indeed a girl!  And we watched in amazement as her tiny body squirmed on the screen, changing position several times and posing in all the right ways for the sonographer to get the necessary measurements.  We could see all four chambers of her tiny little heart pumping, and from the profile view, we watched her tiny tongue move as she swallowed.  At the conclusion of the ultrasound, the sonographer told us she weighed approximately 12 oz. and was measuring at 20 weeks 1 day.  Our doctor told us that the 20 week ultrasound can be off by +/- 10 days.  According to our due date, we were at 20 weeks 3 days, so the measurements sounded right on track!  The sonographer also told us that our girl has really long arms and legs.  Sorry I gave you monkey arms, chickadee, blame your Grandpa Radford for those genetics!  But you'll appreciate those long legs someday :)

In other exciting news, I am now feeling our girl's movements!  I think she is practicing karate in there.  Kicks, punches, and jabs are a common occurrence.  I have also seen and felt the movements from the outside of my belly, but every time Papa Tom comes over to see/feel, the silly girl goes still as can be.  Hoping she'll give him an early Christmas present soon by giving him a nice big kick while he patiently waits with his hand on my belly.

UPDATE TO THE UPDATED DRAFT 12/13/13:
Papa Tom felt our girl kick tonight!!  She loves Maggie Moos ice cream :)

I promise to be better about updating my blog in the coming months.  Only 4 months and 9 days until our due date!  She'll be here before we know it.

Hair Bows or Bow Ties?!

Surprise!  We went in for an early ultrasound gender scan at Clearview Ultrasound today, and we now know if this is a he or she in my belly!  Place your guess now, we'll be sharing the news tomorrow after we share with our families :)