It's a Boy!

This past Saturday was one of the best days of my life...right up there with my engagement day, wedding day and the day we found out we were having a baby.  We found out we were having a baby BOY!

Needless to say, we were both shocked.  I was 99.9328% sure we were going to see pink balloons, so of course, I had Clay convinced (and everyone else I know).  This goes to show you shouldn't rely on the heart rate (which has been above 150 the entire time), or any old wives tales or gender predictor games or quizzes!  All of them said we were having a girl, so I just knew we were.  I'm kind of glad we were so convinced though, because it made for some very authentic surprised faces!

Clay and I are so excited to be having a baby boy.  We love the fact that his siblings will have an older brother to look after and protect them.  I'm so happy that Clay will have a partner in crime that he can pass on his love of baseball, Clemson tiger football, hunting and fishing to.  I can.not.wait. to see Clay with our sweet baby boy.  I know it will fill my heart with a love that it has never known before.  Plus, we know that little boys love their mama. ;o)      

Tons of people have asked how we pulled off the reveal without anyone, including ourselves, knowing.  Here's what we did:  We had the ultrasound tech write the gender on the back of our gender reveal party invitation.  She covered it with a post-it note to ensure we couldn't see through the envelope.  The morning of the party, we took the sealed envelope to the flower shop, along with our box.  While we were gone they blew up the blue balloons, put them in the box, and sealed it for us.  Luckily, they made sure not to put the color of the balloons on the receipt ;o).  We took the box home and decorated it.  We left it inside until party time so the balloons wouldn't fall from the heat.  I can honestly say that no one other than the ultrasound tech and the flower ladies knew what we were having. The same could be done if you wanted to do a cake reveal (pink or blue frosting in the center).  You would just take the envelope to the baker instead.

We are so happy we had a gender reveal party.  The waiting was absolutely worth it.  We had to go two whole days not knowing what we were having, which seemed like an eternity.  It was so much fun to be able to watch the video of us opening the balloons.  The best part of having a gender reveal party instead of finding out at the ultrasound, was that our family and friends were all there to celebrate with us.

My favorite part of the reveal was definitely Clay's reaction.  He screamed before I even had a chance to open my eyes!  If you get a chance to watch, the video is posted on my facebook page.  It's hilarious.

Here are some more of my favorite pictures from the day!

We also announced our name!  For the name frame, I took a picture of our girl and boy names in the sand at Ocean Isle Beach.  This is my favorite place in the entire world, so I thought it was fitting to take the picture somewhere that is so special to me.  I put the pictures in a frame and when we found out we were having a boy, I ran inside and switched the pictures so that the boy name was in the frame.  We decided to name our little boy Stuart Brooks Johnson.  We've always loved the name Brooks and knew that's what we wanted to name our son if we had one.  We decided on Stuart, after my daddy, because we love the name and wanted to honor the man who helped make me who I am.  What is even more special about the picture of his name in the sand is that my daddy's ashes were spread in the Atlantic Ocean at Ocean Isle Beach, so I like to think little Brooks already knows his grandpa.

We are so grateful to all of our family and friends for helping to make our party so special.  We couldn't have done it without you!

18 weeks...almost halfway there!

Since I was lying wide awake in bed and haven't posted in a month, I thought now would be a good time to update everyone on what's been going on in the Johnson household over the last few weeks!

I am 18 weeks pregnant today (well, yesterday)!  Baby J is about 5.5 inches long and weighs about 7 oz.  He or she is going to be doing a lot of growing in the coming weeks!  I can't believe that I will be halfway through my pregnancy in just 2 short weeks.  What's even more exciting is that we are only 4 days away from finding out if we are going to have a sweet baby boy or girl!  It's going to be so hard to go to our anatomy ultrasound on Thursday afternoon knowing we aren't going to leave knowing the sex of our little one.  I knew before I even got pregnant that I wanted to have a gender reveal party.  I know some parents find out what their baby is going to be and then have the party to reveal the news to all their friends or family.  That thought never even crossed our minds.  We are so excited to find out at the same time as all those we love.  

I can't tell you how many times I've thought about what life would be like with a little boy or girl, and how many times I've been asked, "What do you want it to be?"  I think everyone has an idea of what they think they would want but of course, all we really want is a healthy baby.  Originally, I wanted a girl and Clay wanted a boy.  Then, we both switched and he decided he wanted a girl and I wanted a boy...so, obviously we'd be happy either way.  (I still feel like it's going to be a girl...mother's intuition?)  All of the tests and old wives tales we have done have came out a girl.  We'll see on Saturday...if baby J cooperates!  Other exciting news...we are revealing our baby name at the party on Saturday.  :o) 

Today was an exciting day!  First of all, baby is 18 weeks today.  Secondly, I got to park in the expectant mother's spot at Hobby Lobby!!  Did I need to?  No.  Was it really any closer?  No.  But hey, I'm an expectant mother, so I just thought I should utilize the spaces they so graciously provided.  Now, had it been the only one available, I wouldn't have parked there.  I could only imagine the looks I would have gotten from some 39 week pregnant woman who can barely waddle her way out of her car, thinking her water could break at any  moment.  Finally, Clay & I were lying in bed tonight and it was the first time I could really feel my uterus. Being in OB clinicals this summer, I felt a lot of women's fundi (funduses?)...the top of the uterus...but actually being able to feel your own and know that there's a little life inside of there was amazing and brought tears to my eyes.  I've noticed so many changes over the past week and I know there are going to be new discoveries and changes daily from this point on.  The thing I am most excited about is feeling the baby move.  Everything I've read says it will probably happen between 18 and 20 weeks.  I can't even imagine how that is going to feel physically and emotionally.  

On the school front, summer semester ended July 24.  It.was.awful.  I don't know how in the world I made it out with all A's.  Going in, I had heard so many horror stories about Complex and how people have failed the class by missing a question or two on a computer test that we have to take in all our classes.  What was even more scary is that we had to take it in 8 weeks instead of 16.  We also had OB/Peds, which I loved.  The worst part of the summer had to be having a test every week and having two big assignments looming over our heads all summer for our Mexico maymester.  But, I got through it...hallelujah!  It's so hard to believe that we will be finished in December.  It seems like we just started!  I have more motivation now than ever to finish strong and finish on time!  Mama needs to get out of school and get a job!  

I am trying to enjoy my last couple weeks of summer before the madness starts back.  I am working 5 days next week at the hospital, so this is my last chance to relax and get things ready for our party on Saturday.  Luckily, my mom planned an amazing Ocean Isle family beach trip last week, so I was able to enjoy time with my family since I won't be seeing them much until pinning on Dec. 14!  

My next post will be an exciting one...our gender reveal party post!

xoxo,
Casey