Appointment Update:15 Weeks

Believe it or not, a month has already gone by and today was my monthly check up.

Charm City Daddy decided to go with me, despite warnings from me that we would not yet find out Charm City Baby's gender.

Since snow kept us both home today, I tried to appease CCD far in advance of the appointment by looking up our baby's gender according to the Chinese Lunar calendar. Luckily, it generated a boy result--which seemed to give him some satisfaction.

After speaking with a few of CCD's friends, however, I found out that he's told his friends that he wants a girl. Hmmm. Interesting. Because he clearly speaks directly into my belly at night, "hey boy, this is your father!" lol.

In fact, today at the doctor's office when the fetal doppler detected the baby moving and its heartbeat, CCD broke right into his much deeper and dramatic "daddy voice" and announced his presence loudly from across the exam room, "Hey boy! This is your father!"-cracking both me and the nurse up.

Another amusing doctor's visit with CCD.

Of course CCD didn't let an opportunity pass without asking our OB why the books say gender can be determined this early, yet we have to wait until week 19. Our OB explained that we're looking for more than just "particular girl/boy parts" she said "we're also looking to make sure everything has formed properly--and all structures are not yet in place.

I say no need to cause undue stress. A little patience is worth the peace of mind. It also seems like as soon as we know the gender, we'll be on the fast track for baby naming and registering gender appropriate stuff and everything else.

I'm enjoying this slower pace right now.

Finally Comfortable!

Friday night, I picked up some maternity clothes from a friend who just had her second and final baby.

How lucky am I? I hit the jackpot!

She showered me with bags of cute pants, shorts, tops and sundresses from H&M Mama, Gap and Mimi Maternity. Who knew H&M had maternity? I am THERE!


CCD and I are all about consignment and thrifting it when it makes sense. Annually, the Women's Board at Johns Hopkins hosts the Best Dressed Sale event and has managed to get Baltimore's best dressed to donate their threads, accessories, houseware to this sale every year. Every designer is represented, it's organized like a department store, and it is so EASY to shop! I can't wait to go this year to get CCB some cute stuff.

Meanwhile, I am sitting comfortably in my stretch black maternity pants (sigh), and planning how I will dress up my new duds for work this week.

The baby bump is starting to make its appearance--pics to come this week.

Our Quest for an Au Pair...

At the end of last week, Charm City Daddy and I started the application process for an au pair for Charm City Baby.

Somehow over a year ago, CCD found out about this company and signed us up to start recieving information. After a few mailers a local coordinator from Cultural Care contacted us to begin starting the application process, that's when I had to inform the company that my darling husband had contacted them prior to us even concieving child! ha! They found this very amusing.

So anyway, this week I contacted the same local coordinator to let her know that we're ready to begin the application process---and what an involved and lengthy application process it is.

In fact the application/screening process is not very different from when my family hosted an exchange student from Germany when I was in high school. Applications, background checks, interviews, but all very much worth it--and I am still in touch with our exchange student today!

Now CCD and I are simply looking for a responsible caretaker that can also expose CCB to another culture or language--hopefully one that we know too like Russian (CCD) or Spanish (me)--or can learn.

After hearing our friends' daycare stories about pre-potty trained costs, backup plan when your baby is sick, pick-up times, keeping baby on schedule, etc, I know we are making the right decision for us.

We will see how this year goes, and if an AP turns out to be a good fit for our family and lifestyle, we plan to build a AP studio apt just above our freestanding garage.

If the application process continues to progress smoothly over the next couple of months-we'll pick up our new au pair on August 14th! Wish us luck!