There is no doubt now!

I thought I'd share this picture for those of you who haven't seen me in a while. The days of guessing if I am pregnant are over! For a long time there wasn't much to show and then at about 19-20 weeks - POP! Out the belly went. This picture was taken at just over 22 weeks (09/29/08). To be fair, these are my work out clothes and they're tight. With the lovely flowy shirts that are currently in style it is still pretty easy for people on the CTA (Chicago public transport) to go without noticing. I wish they would so they would OFFER ME THEIR SEATS! I am really quite excited about my "bump" though. I am having so much fun with it and really getting excited about going out to buy some of the cute maternity clothes on the market!

Getting bigger! - 21 weeks (Sept. 19 '08)

Here's photos of Baby Boy Middleton taken at the latest ultrasound. A little blurry because he was moving. Of course, he is putting his little hand to his mouth again. In subsequent photos you can tell he is sucking his thumb! He has been doing it in every photo. I read that it is very common for babies to do this in the womb. I wonder if this will be a habit once he's born? 

I think he was about 10 inches long at this ultrasound, which is unbelievable! It seems like overnight he went from .5 inches to 2 inches to 6 inches to 10! He is measuring right in line with my due date of January 31.

 

It's a Boy!

Yes, it has been confirmed that Baby Middleton is a boy! "Joe Jr." is on his way!

While I know everyone has their thoughts about whether or not they would want to know the sex in advance, both Joe and I felt strongly that we wanted to know! To us, it was going to be as much of a surprise at 20 weeks (or 18 in our case) as at 40 weeks . We preferred the added months of knowing just who was in there - and time for planning! Still, we wanted to make sure the moment was very special and intimate. 

My friend Rachel suggested the perfect way to find out! We both attended the ultrasound so that we could see the baby (oh, how I love ultrasounds...what a gift!), but instead of having the doctor tell us the sex right then and there, we asked her to write it down for us. She placed the pictures of the babies "organ", along with a hand-drawn key, in a sealed envelope. This was on a Monday, so we made dinner reservations for a nice dinner out for that Friday night. We had all week to get excited!  For sentiments sake we went to eat at Keefer's, which is the restaurant where Joe took me to dinner the night we got engaged. As soon as we placed our drink order Joe insisted we open it...

...there on the doctor's drawing was a "penis"! How fantastic. Joe had been swearing up and down Baby M. was a girl. While I wasn't quite sure, his conviction was making me convinced too! Needless to say, we were both surprised! Surprised in a wonderful way, of course. We could not be happier! 

Baby's First Picture - 12.5 weeks (July 24, '08)

Well, this isn't technically Baby M's first picture. We have a few more ultrasound pictures from early on where Baby resembles a bean. But this was the first one that we could get a good look at what Baby might look like! We love it! The doctor said Baby may be sucking its thumb. Joe thinks Baby looks like me. Some days I think Baby resembles our gorgeous nieces and nephews on the Middleton side. Some days I agree with Joe that it looks like a Rankin!

Let's Get it Started

That is a cheesy post title but it was the song that kicked off our wedding reception and all that comes to mind as I start this blog!

We have been thinking about all of our friends who have great blogs to share info (The Saganski's, the Weidenfeller's, etc.) and decided that we should start one of our very own too! Since we live away from most of our family we hope that this becomes a great way to update everyone on how we're doing here in Chicago. We plan to track the rest of my pregnancy experience and then, the best part of all, share the news about Baby Middleton's arrival and growth! I am not very tech-savvy so Joe will help me post and share pictures. Please enjoy and participate!

It is a horribly rainy day here in Chicago and we are supposed to be at the Sox/Tigers game right now, but they canceled it until tomorrow. So, we're using the day to check items off of our to do list. Joe is off to a bachelor party tonight while I stay home, watch movies and order in. I am looking forward to relaxing with control of the remote (for once), but I will not lie that I have a twinge of wanting to go out too! Mary