We're Pregnant!

For the past five weeks or so, Matt and I have been the most boring people ever. (And not just because I've been curling up on the couch the moment I get home from work every night and staying there, in and out of sleep, all evening.) No, it's because whenever people ask us a friendly "How's it going?" or "What's new?" we are forced to say, "Oh, not much. Same-old, same-old." Why? Because the big, neon answer in the forefront of our minds was not yet able to be shared!!

"Oh, not much new here... just a human growing inside me that is going to turn our whole world upside-down!!"

That's also why I haven't posted much recently. What can I say of any interest or importance right now?? Now that we're in our third month, though, and have seen our little bundle of joy on screen, we're spreading the news--there's going to be a Parsonage Family Baby!

We don't know much about Baby Fetus (doesn't have the nice ring Baby Blastocyst and Baby Embryo had... we need a new nickname) but s/he is a couple centimeters long, has a nice heartbeat, two hemispheres to the brain, and cute little mini-limbs. S/he really likes grapefruit juice (if my experience thus far is any indication) and appears to have a tiny bagel with cream cheese already close at hand. (We think that round thing at its feet is actually the cord.)

We shared the news with the grandparents-to-be last weekend at a father's day cookout, and have told work and church people this past week. We've been asked all the normal questions, which I'll answer here for you, since if you care enough to read this blog, you might be interested in knowing too.

When are you due? January 23, 2009. We're hoping for Inauguration Day (the 20th), since that would be a fun claim-to-fame for our kid to have (assuming this election goes as we hope!) and it would give us something interesting to watch on TV while we're sitting around, waiting to dilate. Matt was born during the season premiere of Dallas when everyone found out who shot J.R. Anyway, this means we're ten weeks along, getting close to the end of the first trimester.

How are you feeling? Pretty sick and tired, recently. I was fine until week 6 or 7, but the nausea and fatigue have been pretty frustrating for these last couple weeks. Supposedly, that ends by the end of the first trimester for most people, so we'll see. Emotionally, we're starting to move from excitement to the "holy crap" phase, but we're still excited too.

Do you plan to keep working? Yes. I gave my bosses a detailed plan for how I will keep all those plates-on-sticks spinning through maternity leave and beyond. I think they were impressed, though they chuckled a bit at my thoroughness. I've always been a bit of a planning dork.

Are you hoping for a boy or a girl? Matt really wants a boy. I really want a girl. Obviously, both of us really just want a healthy baby, but there is a level of competitiveness about the issue that makes us even more entrenched in our preferences! Matt's brother, the family gambler, has set up a webpage where people can vote their prediction. (Practically everyone I know who has had a baby in the last year and a half has had a boy. I'm hoping the law of random distribution means our corner of the world is due for a girl.) One typically finds out via ultrasound at 20 weeks (early September, for us), but believe it or not, there is actually an over-the-counter urine-based gender test you can do at home at 10 weeks. We're going to wait another week or two, just for good measure, but that will be pretty exciting!

We'll keep you posted!