Jacksonville Zoo

   Yesterday I left at 10:30 to head to Jacksonville to meet my family at the zoo. I really enjoyed when we went to the Florida Aquarium in September and thought this may be a similarly fun experience. I was supposed to leave at 9:30, but then realized that I had left my keys in Michael's car the night before and he was out running errands with Brian. (They are working on their Benthic and Edrio costumes - characters from Rogue One - for the Star Wars Celebration convention next month. Fun fact: Michael and I went to that convention in August 2010.) Luckily, remembering a hilarious article I read the other day about "not caring so much"/ wasting energy about little unimportant things, I didn't let the time delay bother me and wrote thank you cards to people until Michael and Brian got home an hour later.

   I narrowed down the pictures from 448 to 181, and filtered once more to 124, then picked my 48(!) personal favorites to post. I quickly switched from the regular kit lens to the zoom lens since a lot of the animals were farther away and think it gave my pictures a bit of a National Geographic look with the depth of field.  

 ^^ The Giraffe Hyena as Daddy called it.

   The lunch we had at the zoo was super good, including a Cuban sandwich, which might be a "pregnancy craving" since I have been eating more than usual and pick that option anytime it is available. Something about the great bread, salty ham and pickles. I could go for one right now. ;) We also all shared a churro which I could have eaten five more of all by myself!

 ^^ Waving to Peyton on the carousel.

 She didn't like the goats or want to pet them. That's the closest she would get, and even clung to me the first minute because Zach and my mom were too close to the goat.

 She loved running into her grandpa's arms!

 Exploring the playground and being patient when all the bigger kids ran up the stairs past her, so she waited her turn.

   I always like spending time with Peyton because I want her to remember me and love hearing her call me "Raysh", but am also very interested in hearing her say new words and see how her communication has progressed. This time saying "yah yah" and clapping her hands for "yes" seemed like a new thing. And would say "bye bye" to a lot of the animals (giraffe, "turto"/ turtle, "drayon"/ dragon) and a whispered "pengmmm" for penguin as if she was embarrassed that she couldn't fully grasp that word yet.

 In the next updated grandparents photo, who will hold Emma? :o

 ^^ Doing the robot? =) She still likes being held a lot and kept reaching her arms out to us, but also seemed to enjoy running around freely this day. But not as freely as she may have liked.

  Also since I complained about the weather last week when it was abnormally cold for a few days, I should mention how glorious and perfect the weather was at the zoo. I'm not sure of the temperature, maybe 78-82, but we were able to stand in the shade a lot of the time. The park also had a water pad play area for kids. 

Good to Me

  I thought it was strange that I have only had one baby dream so far, but after last night's that caused me to wake up crying at 3am, I'm fine not having any more. I'm not going to write what it was about since I don't want to remember it, but Michael woke up too and comforted me again so sweetly, hugging me and telling me that everything was fine (I told him the main issue of the dream/ nightmare). Luckily Chip/ Emma did nicely reassuring me as well, kicking me once I woke up and reminding me that she is still safe and growing into a healthy baby. Then I started crying just thinking about how much I'm going to love her and pictured us at The Aquarium- don't tell Michael this but often when I picture Emma she looks a lot like Peyton, but a little older and she can talk- her saying something cute and me just crying and hugging her because we are so lucky to be chosen as her parents and God is so good to us. She'll get used to it!
   Michael is such a wonderful husband -kind, loving, fun- and I've already thanked him twice today for being so sweet to me last night. Part of me is so happy that we're having a girl because he has always done so well handling my emotions (luckily they have been less "out of control" than they were the first five years he knew me), so I know he'll do well handling hers too. Sometimes when I'm at work I get really sad thinking about what I would do without him. But then I quickly try to not think about that and just send him a bunch of texts about how great he is!
  Right now Michael doesn't want us buying "so many" clothes for Emma, although he does want to start getting her room more decorated now that we know the gender. Tomorrow we're doing the Babies R Us registry because we want the bedding from there.  I understand that he feels like we have so many clothes for her already, but the gender neutral outfits we have so far are all different sizes: Newborn, 3 months, 6 months, 9 months, and 12 months. So basically she'd only have 3 outfits (pajama onezies) to wear each "phase", which to me, does not seem like enough. I'm sure I'll get some clothes at the baby shower next month and my mom bought her some on sale clothes today at Carter's, along with new pieces for Peyton and Helena, which may turn into hand me downs later on. She sent me a picture of a super cute kitty sweater that I loved, so she bought it in two different sizes for Emma. I can't wait to see it on her! But I will wait, because I want her to be at least six pounds when she's born in 14-17 weeks. Another thing I can't really plan, causing me to have so many questions about. That's all her. ;)

   Update: I counted her clothing pieces in the closet ~ 6 Newborn outfits (mostly onezie pajamas and I want her to wear "regular clothes" during the day but I hear some babies don't even get to wear new born sizes- it all depends on how much they weigh when they're born), 12 pieces aged for 3-6 months, and 7 pieces aged for 6-9 months (including a white sweater which doesn't count because she'd still need to wear something under that). Nothing over that age except the 12 month super soft gray bathrobe I bought in November. Also she currently has 10 regular pairs of socks (4 wooly pink Newborn pairs that I just bought today, plus 6 mint green and gray for ages 6-18 months) and two pairs that are Halloween themed.

Gender Reveal (Finally!)

   Yesterday I took these pictures after feeling impatient and really wanting to meet our baby. Partly because Lindsey was sending me all these cute pictures of when Luke was born (we were discussing how we like when babies are born with hair). I am trying to enjoy every day during this pregnancy and luckily for me most of it has been very easy, but sometimes I want to give Chip a big hug. Only 15 and 1/2 weeks left now - if the July 2nd due date is correct and my pregnancy is not prolonged an extra two weeks like my birth was. I've heard that is common for a lot of first babies. The only new minor.. "symptom" isn't even the right word.. adjustment (?) is that I am more aware of needing to sit up straight since my bump has grown and slouching is now uncomfortable. 

   Then I sent a picture of more lists that I made (questions to ask the daycares we toured) to my work friend Kristen because she mentioned how my brain never stops scrambling for answers. It's true. She even got me a small baby shower gift basket including Dr. Seuss's book "Oh the Thinks you can Think" and specifically told me, "I got you this book because you think too much."

   This morning I was complaining a lot about how cold it was: 45 degrees outside and 65 degrees in the house. I was mainly "upset" because for the past month (?) it has been in the 70's and 80's, so why the heck did it suddenly flip back to being so cold? And my clothes were icy since our closet gets zero heat. #HardLife (Insert a book of orphan photos to slap myself out of all the whining.) I got ready later because I kept snuggling back in bed. Michael said, "If we leave now we can stop by Dunkin Donuts". I previously told him that I had been advised by my co-workers who are moms to eat a sugary breakfast today to get Chip moving. However leaving "right now" ended up being at least 5 minutes later since Sasha hadn't been out (also still snuggling under the warm covers) and I had to put my shoes on. We stood in line for a few minutes, but left before ordering since it was 8:18 and Chip's doctor appointment was at 8:30. I at least had my chocolate instant breakfast to drink in the car with about 10 peanut M&Ms. 

   Attempting to change my negative focus in the hospital parking lot, Michael said, "Think about Mia and all the times she has to stand in colder weather than this waiting for the train" (which she takes to get to work in Denver).

   I answered quickly, "Yeah, but she doesn't have a bad attitude like I do right now. The sunshine in her heart keeps her warm." I love you, best friend! 

   We waited in the lobby for at least 15 minutes before I got weighed and my blood pressure checked as always. Ten minutes after that we got called back for the ultrasound. Right when we walked in (we've had a different technician every time), I told the girl, "So no pressure but we still haven't been able to find out the gender and we really want to. What's your name?"

   "Kristen," she told us.

   "Great. If you can tell us, we'll name the baby after you," I said.

   She said we could use Christian for a boy because sometimes people call her that for some reason.

She seriously had only rubbed the scanner over my stomach for about three seconds, and bluntly pointed out, "Yeah, that's a vagina."

   I instantly looked at Michael to see his reaction. He told me that last night he had a dream that we found out it was a girl (his mom told us) and he cried from being so happy. But neither of us cried in real life, we were just happy. He was smiling a lot when we walked out of the office.

   "Yay! Baby Kristen it is!" I exclaimed jokingly to the technician. Then we told her we already had a name picked out for a girl: Emma McKenzie. 

   Then I busted out laughing when Kristen tried to get a good updated picture of her face, but we just got this creepy precious teddy bear face smile. Better than the usual looks of bother! Her heart rate was 162 BPM today.

   For the past five years (up until about two months ago while eating at Macaroni Grill and writing names on the table) we had talked about using the name Ailyn McKenzie. Ailyn -according to the Star Wars database "Wookiepedia" -is Boba Fett's granddaughter (Michael thought it was his daughter). Emma was always the name we liked for a second girl, but after deciding he only wants one kid, Michael suggested we name Chip Emma instead and I was perfectly fine with that.

   My doctor told us that the spot in the brain went away (the one that they thought might-maybe-could be Trisomy 18). She labeled it as "no choroid cyst seen". Michael told my doctor that he had been really worried about it, which I was unaware of. He later told me that he had looked up a lot about it -which is exactly what he tells me not to do- and talked to his mom about it. So she cried with relief today when he assured her that everything was good and that Chip is a healthy baby girl. So far everyone has told us that they love the name Emma McKenzie. 

   The doctor also said that my weight gain was good (probably bc of the 4 layers I was wearing) and measured my uterus which came to 23 inches vertically. She said that was "about right" for me being 24 weeks and 4 days pregnant. We told her about our upcoming trip to the North Georgia mountains. She said it was fine, but to stop frequently so I can walk around and to not cross my legs to avoid blood clots. I'm now realizing that's something I should definitely be more aware of at work, sitting down for most of 12 hours. Next month I have to take the glucose test and get a Rhogam shot for having O Negative blood, as well as one for whooping cough/ tetanus so the antibodies get passed along to the baby. 

   After the appointment we had a breakfast date inside Chick Fil A, then drove to our first daycare tour. We both like that one the best and will be enrolling Emma there starting at the end of September. After that we went to Publix for gender reveal balloons & cupcakes with pink frosting. I told Michael that it was kind of nice that I had forgotten my phone at home because for 2 hours we were the only ones who knew Chip is a girl (plus the sonogram tech, our doctor, the bakery woman, and the balloon guy). 

   I did grab my phone when we dropped the balloons off before going to the second and third daycare tours. Then we came back half-napped, and took the gender reveal pictures. I originally planned to wear this dress, but with it still being around 50 degrees, I kept my comfortable layers on. And of course I couldn't finish the "gender reveal day" without finally buying a few girly pieces of clothing for our daughter! 

   So since we have this baby girl's name and I often felt like Shrimp was a boy, I am unofficially naming him Christian Bellamy. Michael agreed that it was a good idea. That was the name we had picked out last year before I got pregnant again. However we did talk about changing it if we found out Chip was a boy, but Michael said we didn't need to discuss it unless it was. (Sorry in advance, Shrimp, if you're a girl. We'll find out eventually when we get to Heaven with you.)