The McGrath Family is EXPANDING (again!)

Remember a few months back when I wrote that the McGrath family was expanding?  Remember, how there were like 8 million Facebook comments that everyone was SURE we were having a baby?  And how I just laughed it off and celebrated that my little play on words tricked you all.

Well....today it's not a trick.  The McGrath's truly are expanding....in more ways than one.  My belly is the first place we are seeing the changes but in about 6 more months our house will be filled with the sounds of a baby cooing and crying.  EK!!

We've waited through the official first tri-mester to fess up to our little secret and we are happy to announce that we are expecting "Sesame" (the baby's nickname courtesy of cousin Chris) on August 30th, 2012!!  It's already been a roller coaster of emotions and I've kindly blogged a few posts (and kept the a secret from you all).  So, if you are interested, feel free to read back about 2  months and see what we've been up to.  Here are some pictures from our most recent appointment.

Can you see it?  The baby's head is facing toward the right...in the bottom one you can see a distinct nose, and a little hand above it, like he/she is about to start sucking his thumb.

As you know, its been pretty quite around the blog lately.  Partly because we've been busy but not with anything noteworthy and partly because I didn't want to accidentally spill the baby beans too early.  I was very nervous to get too excited about all of this knowing that so many things can go wrong in those first 3 months, but we've turned the corner on that now and although there are probably plenty of bumps in the road between now and August, I'm finally ready to celebrate and start the full swing baby planning.

Ryan on the other hand as been busting at the seems since I told him on Dec 26th that I was pretty sure we had a bun in the oven.  We've told family members and close friends but he's been itching to make Sesame "FBO" (Facebook Official) - his words, not mine!  So, here goes nothing.  We are announcing our amazing news to the whole wide world today and we couldn't be more excited.

Since I'm sure you are all itching to hear the story, check back to my original post on January 5th where I share lots of details about how and when I found out and how we shared our news with some of the most important people in our lives. 

There are a few other posts out there that I've been hiding until we were ready to share our news with the Internet world so feel free to check those out if you are interested.  I plan to blog our way through the pregnancy just as I've done with all the other events in our lives over the past year and a half or so.  So for those of you that have been religiously checking back to see if there's been anything new on the blog, get ready for the posts to start flying again.  March's calendar is filling up quickly and I'm anxiously awaiting the arrival of spring when our adventures really start to ramp up.

In the mean time, here are a few commonly asked questions and my answers:

1.  Are you going to find out if it's a boy our a girl? 
Nope!  (I know right!).  Ryan and I have decided that we want it to be a surprise up until the last moment.  Heck, there aren't many great surprises left in life like this one, so we are going to keep our little Sesame a secret until his/her Birthday.

2.  Names? 
Yep, we've started throwing some name around.  We've got 3 "winners" on both the boy and the girl side but we've got a long 6 months in front of us so who knows, they could change 8 million times between now and then.  Here's what we've been thinking (at least for now).

Girls: Abigail, Katherine, Elsa (its a combo of Ellyn and Sally...our mom's names)
      * no matter what I've settled on Pearl as a middle name for a girl.  It's my Grandma's name and I can't wait to pass it on to a little daughter of mine.

Boys:  Benjamin, Kyle, Jacob.  The boy's names have been a bit harder for us.  Ry is currently pushing for Thomas/Tommy (gag!  Sorry to all the Tom's out there...its not personal!), which I am anti...but who knows.  August is still far away and lots can change between now and then.

3.  Is Ry going to build the crib? 
Heck yeah!  A girl's gotta take advantage of her hubbies talents whenever she can and a crib is the perfect place to show of all he's got!  We've got the pattern all picked out and he will start building it in the coming months.  We don't have any space for it now and are waiting to hear on the house we put an offer in on before getting too far with the crib.

4.  Diapers...
Ok, I know everybody is wondering "what the heck does she mean diapers?  Like, she's planning on not using them?  What?"  No, don't be silly, babies need diapers and we know that!  But, I have decided that we are going rogue and are going to try out cloth diapers.  I've done a ton of research on it and I think it's a good choice for us.  I'm not going to be adamant about it and if it doesn't work for us then we will scrap the idea and go for the normal kind, but I'm at least going to give it my best and try it out.  They've come a long way since when we were kids and my sister and I were both raised in cloth.  We turned out normal (at least if you ask me!).  Ha!  So stay tuned for more info on that (if that's the kind of thing you care about *smile).

5.  Are you going to go back to work?
Yep.  With Fox River Millwork still growing and expanding, we still need both our incomes to make life function.  So I will be coming back to work after my maternity leave expires.  I'm not sure yet what we will do about child care, but we've got time to figure it out.  Mostly, the issue lies in not knowing where we will be living.  Like I mentioned, we put an offer in on a short sale back in November and are patiently (we try) waiting to hear back on it.  The new house is roughly an hour or so from our current town house so it makes planning tough, since everything will need to change if we move.  The "crazy planner of all things that can be planned" in me is getting a little anxious about the whole "up in the air-ness" of our lives right now.  But, hey, it's life and I can't change a single thing about it.  It will all work out and I'm working on enjoying each day as it comes.

6.  Are you showing yet?
Well, if you ask me, YES!  But, I suppose I'd be the first to notice.  My smart husband has been very careful not to mention my growing belly if he's noticed it.  But, to everyone else that sees me every day they think I look pretty much the same.  The clothes (and winter) are still hiding my expanding waist, but boy, let me tell you what, my jeans sure aren't fitting anymore.  I started using the hair-tie method about a week ago and am pretty sure I'll be in maternity wear sooner than I'd have expected. 

What else?  Is there anything else you guys are dying to know?  Half of your are probably saying to yourself "she should just rename the blog to something like "the McGrath's Baby blog" but don't worry, it wont be all baby, all the time.  Promise!  To the other half of you, ask away!