Saturday, February 21, 2009

Nursery and other "things"

I for one, can't believe that February School Vacation Week is almost over. It was way to short this year. But busy and productive (as long as you don't look at the piles of "stuff" I meant to clean up... I guess I have a day and a half to accomplish that right???).

This vacation, Chris painted the nursery. He got some help from (and we have to send out kudos to) Rachel. Wow.. it looks great. Once Chris gets the ceiling fan up and we move back a little bit of the furniture that will live in the room, we'll post pictures!

Chris and I also registered (figured, since bed rest is looming- or at least that is how it feel to me-- better do it soon) for all the "stuff" babies need. Wow... they need a lot huh? We tried to not register for the extras we won't need, but sheets, cribs, blankets, bottles, and car seats seemed important! We registered at Target.com for the cribs (the room has slanted ceilings so it was a bit of a challenge to find cribs which would fit). We went to Babysrus (store and online) for most of the stuff they seem to think we need. Lastly, Amazon.com has a few things which we were unable to find at Target or Babysrus. Do you know how hard it is to find thing that are "premie" sized??? What an eye-opener. And premie clothes are so small.... good god, are they really going to be that small!!!! With our little "brood" being born at 35 weeks (at best) I at least figured it made sense to have some stuff which they won't swim in, and if they don't need it, I am not removing tags and will return it or donate it to the NICU happily!

We have another doctor's appointment on Wednesday. Hoping to hear more good news. I always go to these appointments worrying that this will be the week I am told, "no more work for you- Bedrest". No real reason to think it will happen though. No cramping. No visable problems. That's good. My goal remains to make it to April School Vacation Week... then my leave through to the start of the new school year will be paid!

Oh, and for all who are interested- I still have a belly button. If your guess has gone by, feel free to guess again!

Will update with doctor's appointment info and hopefully nursery pictures on Wednesday/Thursday- Erin

Wednesday, February 11, 2009

Final 33.33% of Names and Genders!

Dad post #2 to complete the tally:

The level 2 ultrasound on Tuesday went great. We even got a 3d image of one of the babies! How cool is that?! So with the gender score tied at 1-1 we were dying to hear the result of the tiebreaker. And the verdict is...

Baby C is a GIRL! So the girls will outnumber the boys 2-1 or 3-2 if you count the parents. Our second daughter-to-be's name is Sophia Sada, so now we have Maggie, Sophie, and Charlie just waiting to be introduced to the world. Further updates will be forthcoming as events warrant (or when anyone feels like posting).

-Chris

Thursday, February 5, 2009

66.66 % of Names and Genders!

For the first official "Dad" authored post I have the pleasure of announcing 2 of our expected children's names and genders.

We were back in Boston for an appointment on Wednesday 2/4, which put us at 17 weeks and 1 day. Erin and I had spent the previous evening discussing possible names. We have struggled a great deal on this subject, but had managed to come up with 2 boy names and 1 girl name. The evening of the 2/3 we managed to come up with a second girl name, since we both felt it important to have at least 2 of each ready... For whatever reason we had already decided we were not having all girls or all boys, we simply needed our doctor to confirm this for us...

The appointment went well and everyone (Mom included) are progressing as they should. And now for the moment you've all been waiting for... the verdicts are:

Baby A is a GIRL!! At least the doctor says there's an 85% chance she's a girl... hopefully she's not the troublemaker of the bunch already starting with the practical jokes...

Baby B is a BOY!! This one he seemed more sure about, and after reviewing the ultrasound pictures we can understand why... (wink wink)

Baby C is sitting cross-legged and feeling shy, so is still anybody's guess. It seems that Baby C is just full of surprises as this same child felt the need to remain completely hidden until week 12 and continues to keep the suspense building...

So on to the names. Like I said, we struggled over these, but finally came to some decisions we're both happy with.

Our young daughter to be is to be named Magdalena Ruby. Magdalena was Erin's paternal grandmother's middle name and Ruby was my father's biological mother's name. We plan on calling her Maggie except in those (hopefully rare) instances which cause us to call her by her full name.

Our young son to be is to be named Charles Thomas. Charles is Erin's father's middle name, and was his father's first name. Thomas is my father's name. We plan on calling him Charlie (Chuck and Chas are not to be responded to). Again, parental law dictates the use of the full name when the young man is not behaving like a true Himmel gentleman.

So there you have it. Magdalena Ruby Himmel and Charles Thomas Himmel - Maggie and Charlie. Baby C's forthcoming name will be disclosed once he or she takes the time to uncross his or her legs. Bets are now being taken, but the house gets 10%.

-Chris