It's a . . .

 

It seems like this might be the only time posting pictures of someone's genitalia online is acceptable (Something about it being an ultrasound picture makes it okay, right?), so I better take advantage while I have the chance! We showed this picture to Tim's mom last night after we found out and she couldn't stop making hilarious comments about Baby's "woo hoo."

Congratulations to the winners who left comments (Rach, Hilary, Marci, Heather, Rachel, Margaret, April, Holly)! I will contact you individually for mailing addresses: this prize is the real deal.

Also, a couple of other guesses deserve mention:

Jon: "You will give birth to a genderless child. Think Ken doll."
Cole : "Eunuch" (guessed via Facebook)

As Tim astutely points out, Cole is technically correct. And I might have considered Jon's guess if the sonographer had been unable to determine the sex. It gave us a good laugh, though.

Tim himself is disappointed about not winning a prize, but we're excited to meet this little guy.

P.S. In case you were wondering, normally I wouldn't have found out Baby's gender for a few more weeks, but I'm participating in this study called NuMom2B. It's fun because they do three ultrasounds as part of the study, and I don't have to pay for them. :)

Baby Rowan! and Gender Contest

It has been a while since I have contributed to this blog, but upon noticing that all of Amanda's recent posts have depicted me exclusively as delirious and incoherent, I felt compelled to write something in order to demonstrate that I actually am not insane and/or creepy most of the time.

And I have great news! Amanda is pregnant! We are having a baby and are very excited, especially since chances are high that this will be the cutest baby the world has ever seen.

Amanda is now approximately 16 weeks along (and still often as nauseated as ever, poor girl) and this week she will have an ultrasound that will likely tell us whether we are having a girl or a boy. Of course, I have been saying for months now with utter confidence that we are having a girl, but Amanda places more trust in the ultrasound, a soulless machine, than in me, her faithful husband.

Ultrasound image at approximately 11 weeks

Which brings us to this blog post's titular contest (I realize that calling it a "gender contest" is not completely accurate, but using the more accurate word "sex" was perhaps way more inappropriate). We are inviting all our readers to predict whether our impending child is a boy or a girl.

But that's not all! The first ten respondents to predict correctly will win a prize! We haven't determined what that prize will be yet but rest assured that it will be something to make neighbors jealous. To submit your prediction, post a comment below!

Winners (oh, and the baby's sex) will be announced Friday. Good luck!

it's that time of year

There was a coupon at Costco for this hot cocoa mix, so of course we had to get it. We take our hot cocoa seriously around here. One of the few kitchen appliances we own is a Cocoa Latte. You might say that buying a mix for hot cocoa is sort of excessive because you can easily make hot cocoa from scratch (and cocoa from scratch is a pretty good way to go), but novelty and coupon savings called.

And we're quite pleased. We purchased the 56-serving container on October 15 (four days ago!) and it's approximately halfway gone.

Pathetic? Maybe slightly.

brief exchange

Tim: Oh, look, hair!
Amanda: Where?
Tim: Just in the food. But that's okay. I like your hair, and I don't feel threatened by it.

weird in the night

This is a picture of my husband, the insomniac, on our wedding day (almost exactly two and half years ago, which is nice).

Oh hey, Tim, how's it going?

The past six weeks or so, Tim hasn't been sleeping too well. He's had a hard time falling asleep, and sometimes he wakes up and can't fall back asleep. These persistent symptoms of insomnia have plagued him and disrupted his normal daytime functioning, poor kid, so much so that he visited the doctor. (On a side note, I approved this utilization of healthcare services because we've purchased insurance for two years without him using it.)

The doctor gave him some advice about sleep hygiene and (now we come to the point of the post) a prescription for Ambien.

Ambien does weird things to people, apparently. The side effects may include driving, eating, talking on the phone, having sex, etc., all without remembering anything the next morning. Mostly, though, Tim has experienced motor and movement problems. Also, I think he might be having what some would call hallucinations (another known side effect).

Here are a few examples:

Thursday: Tim takes pill when we are out using an office copier. He disappears for a while without saying anything. Upon returning, he looks at me with a dazed expression and says, "I may or may not just have turned off a lot of equipment." We left right about then. I'm really sorry to all those who were confused about why their printers weren't working today as a result.

Tuesday: Lengthy and detailed description of several dreamscapes while lying awake (?) in bed. "I'm standing on a road in a mountain . . . there are rocks . . . you're standing next to me, but your hair is black . . ."

He also kept saying, "I'm dreaming right now, but I'm awake."

Monday: Philosophical ruminations on the essence of love. "Do you think our love is still the same thing even though it's changed?"

Ambien has definitely helped Tim to sleep through the night. We'll soon see if he returns back to normal after the prescription (enough to last for a week) runs out after tonight.