{20 weeks} we made it halfway!

We made it to half way through the pregnancy! 20 weeks - 5 months - woo hoo! Here I am at buy buy Baby last week (on my Wednesday off) to register for baby stuff - boy was it overwhelming! We have no clue what we need, we just scanned a bunch of stuff we liked and hope for the best. I think we still have some work to do online to get the registry in better shape, but overall it was fun to think about using all this stuff with baby boy McFarland. 

Most popular question - "Do you have a name picked out?" Blake is the name we are "tossing around" now - people have seemed to catch on pretty quick that this will probably be our son's name and to be honest, most people seem to really like it! Richard & I both really like it and we don't seem to agree on any other boy names! I like Benjamin, William and Dylan but none of those really seem to be as good as Blake to both of us - so by default...I think we might have found our name! I love how it's short,  there are no nicknames that you can shorten it to and it sounds like a strong boy's name. Also, we don't personally know any Blake's in our lives right now - so I like that too! It's so funny because one night my sister threw this name out as a possibility and I waited to see what Richard would say because I didn't think he would like it and he goes "I like that" - I was shocked! So kudos to Corey for tossing this name out there after so many other names she tossed out and we went "no, I don't like that" :) Good times!

Nancy, Junior & Kalysta went with us to the buy buy Baby in Deerfield to watch Richard & I try to figure everything out - what an event! This very nice guy helped us with a lot of the different categories but by a certain point I was like "Ok, I can't focus anymore" - whew! Here are Richard & I at the end of registering - everyone was so helpful and I love it that you can use 20% Bed Bath & Beyond coupons at buy buy Baby so that makes it really nice! We also registered at Babies R Us too in Florence the other night but we just did that on a whim and didn't get any pictures! HA!

I printed a picture from Leah Robbins that she took at our gender reveal and put it in the frame that everyone signed at the party - I love how it turned out & can't wait to hang it in baby McFarland's room! I had a hard time deciding between this picture and the one where everyone is looking but I just love the expressions and excitement on everyone's face - this is why I was so happy to have Leah at the party - she captured such great memories that I will cherish forever!

I was reading Leah Robbin's blog today and she answered some fun questions so I thought I'd do something similar - changing out questions I don't want to answer with those that I do (HA!)

How far along?  20 weeks

Maternity clothes? Yep - all the time pretty much - love my clothes from Motherhood Maternity and my most recent present from Ryann that's in the first picture above because it's so fun and makes me feel sassy! :) 

Movement: Nope, no movement yet - I still get pains every now and then but the doctor said it was because I have anterior placenta which essentially is providing a cushion between me & baby so I can't really feel a whole lot just yet. Every now and then I think I might feel something but it's so short lived I just move on. 

Food cravings: Fruit most of all - but nothing really...I'm sort of hungry sometimes but not most of the time and I can't eat that much - not sure why, just not really in the mood. Cereal sounds good all the time. My digestive system isn't working at 100% so hopefully that gets better soon. 

Anything making you queasy or sick: Mexican - I must stay away from Mexican places and food - just nothing sounds good at all (which is shocking because pre-pregnancy I would've eaten Mexican almost every day!)

Have you started to show yet: Finally! I started to pop more in the last week or two and every day now I wake up I feel like I'm a bit bigger. I still don't feel very big but I'm certainly bigger than I was a couple of weeks ago - now people at work have started to really notice!

Gender: BOY!!

Belly Button in or out? In.

Wedding rings on or off? On.

Happy or Moody most of the time: Somewhere in between - I'm truly excited that I'm getting to experience all of this but I'm not as crazy excited as I thought I'd be...I think it just has to do with trying to focus on not feeling like I'm going to throw up, or the pains in my stomach, or just being so dang tired....I am tired all of the time, and could probably sleep anytime at all so that just takes some getting used to. But overall, extremely excited to meet baby McFarland and just can't wait to see how our lives change. 

Most scared about: How this baby is going to come out - and how everything is going to happen at the end - it seems pretty easy right now - I just live my life and go about my day and carry little baby around with me - but once we get closer I have tons of questions and things that run through my head - will I need a c-section? Will he be facing the right way? Will I get hurt at all in the process? How will my relationship with Richard change after the baby comes? How hard is it going to be to breastfeed? Even though I have faith that it will all work out in the end - it's just stuff like that that floats around from time to time to freak me out! 

Any other news on the pregnancy front? I talked with my HR rep at work and I don't qualify for FMLA because I haven't been there a year - so I will use my sick/vacation accrued time and then take a few weeks off not paid - so I'm  planning on taking 12 weeks and then hopefully go back to 30 hours per week...everyone at work is so flexible and awesome about the entire process - they're like "We'll figure it out - just tell us what you need and what you'd like to do" - I truly couldn't as for a more supportive job that allows me to be so flexible and work everything around what works for Richard, me & the baby!
What's Richard been up to? Richard this past week painted some of the trim white in the baby's room (I stupidly painted it cream the last time we painted) - the rest of the room is going to stay the green color because we picked out baby animals for the theme of the room - but he's been doing that, installing new lights in the kitchen and getting ready to do the baseboards of the room next! Richard also had Danny (our neighbor) come over and help him set-up the baby cam so we've been watching Sally on the camera for now - she's not such a fan and we realized she doesn't lay in her bed as much as we thought! He's so helpful - can't wait till I can take pictures of him trying to set-up all of the baby's stuff!

{It's a...BOY!}

On Saturday, February 11th we had a gender reveal party for baby McFarland - we invited close family & friends who have really been there throughout our entire IVF process and who we wanted to share the news with all at one time. We also wanted to celebrate instead of sharing bad news (like we've done for years) so it was just a great culmination of a lot of hard work and patience! We did a pink/blue theme and it turned out great. Michelle helped me make the pretzels and chocolate shapes, Stephanie brought brownies, Corey made fruit/angel food cake kabobs and Amy made cookies - everything turned out perfect!

We had put on the invite "No gifts please" but we had a few gifts floating in throughout the party...Crystal made a diaper bouquet with fun stuff in the vase, Melanie, Rob & Abigail got baby McFarland a fireman bib, Stephanie brought an outfit and a ROCKSTAR sweatshirt which was fun because we call each other Rockstars from riding to work together & singing our hearts out for years, and Ryann & Keith brought a maternity shirt for me from Target that is very green & fun! I'm telling you - this baby (and his mama!) are spoiled and he's not even here yet!

The day turned out better than I had even planned - everyone seemed to have a good time & it was really fun (yet exhausting) to share the news with everyone at the same time - I spent Sunday just relaxing around the house and resting up...my body sometimes likes to push itself and then pay for it so we're still working on finding the balance in life! (I think that's going to be a constant struggle for me...but I AM working on it!) It just felt so wonderful to have so much love & support in one room - I hope everyone knows how much it means to Richard & me because we are where we are today because of all of our friends & family! THANK YOU!!

If you want to see the professional pics on Leah Robbins Photography blog click here. She got some amazing shots of everyone's reactions (I especially love open mouths as we say it's a boy!) and just some special moments between everyone at the party. It was great to have her there because usually I'm really concerned about taking photos / capturing moments but it was really nice to just enjoy the party and be in the moment.

Here are a few extra pictures (just because blog posts are more fun with photos!):

The fam before the party started - it was optional to wear shoes so the boys opted out :)

Crystal, me & Corey before the party started! Love these two!

How Richard & I found out it was a boy...
We went to the OBGYN (For Women in Clifton) at 10 AM on Wednesday, February 8th to our appointment and we were called back on time! The ultrasound tech asked if we wanted to find out the gender if it was possible so we said "yes". She started off by looking at a few things like it's head, measuring a few things and then all of a sudden she whispers "It's a boy..." and I said "Seriously?" and she goes "Yep, it's a boy - see, right there" (Richard said he had noticed it on the ultrasound before she said anything - sigh...boys will be boys!) and I was so excited! The ultrasound tech did a lot of other measurements including a 3D version of the heart chambers, showed us his head from different angles but for most of the time (if not all) he was staring straight at us so we didn't get a very good profile shot of him! I started tearing up only for a few seconds only because it was so wonderful to hear that everything was healthy with him and he was doing so well! We went back out to the waiting room to wait for the doctor but only had a few minutes...I asked Richard "Are you excited it's a boy?" and he goes "Yeah, it's just boys don't cuddle as much as girls. I think I just had it in my mind that it was going to be a girl." In all honesty, I wanted to wait until everyone else found out what it was but Richard really wanted to know at the appointment - I'm glad we did find out ahead of time so that we could get excited about it for everyone else / talk about it and start to dream of what life will be like with a little boy running around the house! (Richard was right on this one!) :) I'm just so glad it's happy & healthy that it was just icing on the cake that we now know the gender and can start planning the nursery.

Since the party & week 19...
I have done a lot of laying around / sleeping / not sleeping very well at night / trying to just get in a routine and feel 100%...pregnancy takes it out of you - and the thing is, when you get a burst of energy it's very short-lived so you can't get too excited!
The biggest questions now from people is "Did you register yet?" We did go and register at Babies R Us for a few things and it was a lot of fun - we just did it one day after work so I told Richard "I don't want to register for all the boring stuff (ie. outlet covers is something that sticks out that didn't seem like fun at the time!) - I just want to register for fun stuff" so we just clicked around at things we liked & that made us laugh.  We also clicked on some of the "groups" of items to save time (I don't have all the energy in the world so that was nice too!) The majority of our registering will probably happen at BuyBuy Baby (we'll hopefully get to that this month too) just because we loved so much stuff there! If you haven't been, there's only one in our area and that's in Deerfield - they accept the 20% off Bed Bath & Beyond coupons because they're in the same family of stores.  We will also register probably at Target.
We've started thinking about the nursery and what we want to do with it - Richard surprised me for Valentines Day and bought this ottoman at Value City that I just LOVE...it will go downstairs for now but we are thinking that Sally might be able to lay on it in the nursery since she can't have the full sized bed anymore (sad day for Richard & Sally!) - we're thinking baby animals right now would be cute...the room is green so we wouldn't have to paint and there's tons of stuff you can do with a baby's room with that. Richard asked about doing a fireman themed room but I think we'll save that for when he grows up a bit and can really enjoy the red/fireman stuff all over his room!

That's about all for now - exciting time in our lives & we're just enjoying the possibilities ahead & can't wait for the next stage!