Abby’s Saturday // Two Hundred And Eleven

Highlight of the Week

While my 20-week ultrasound was technically last Friday and Derrick & I found out if our baby was a boy or a girl, we were unable to officially announce the big news to our families right away. Our original plan was to have a “mini” gender reveal party for my family either Monday or Tuesday night, and then tell Derrick’s family on Thursday or Friday when we traveled up to spend the weekend with them. However, on Saturday, as Derrick & I talked about the week to come, we realized that waiting until Monday or Tuesday would simply not work. So, a little bit last minute, we planned to have my family over on Sunday night & since Derrick’s family didn’t want to wait either, we FaceTimed them in.

It was so fun to announce to our family that we’re having a baby BOY!

I posted a bunch of pictures & wrote a ton more about our party, people’s reactions, and most importantly: Braelynn’s thoughts. If you missed that, you’ll definitely want to go back & read that post here!

Yes, This Happened

• I am now 21 weeks pregnant & baby BOY is the size of a carrot.
• I’ve also come down with a wonderful cold this week. I felt it coming on Tuesday evening, and sure enough, by the time I woke up Wednesday, I was completely stuffed up. Being pregnant, there’s very little I can take as far as medicine goes, so I’m basically just riding it out.
• It’s been a busy week: Monday evening, we made our way over to Kennywood to check out the new Thomas Town! It’s such a cool new area of the Park! Braelynn’s favorite ride continues to be “The Elephants”, even though they were sadly closed on Monday night. She did ride the Paratroopers with Derrick on our way out of the Park – another “big kid ride” that she’s tall enough to ride!
• Tuesday evening, we saw the new Mission Impossible movie – it was amazing. Seriously, one of my favorite movies this year – definitely at the top of the Mission Impossible chain! We loved the story – it was complex, but not so much so that you couldn’t follow it or felt confused, the music & cinematography was top notch, and of course, Tom Cruise is king.
• Wednesday was the Norwin Community Picnic! It was so fun to see just how much Braelynn has grown & matured since the last time we were there! Last year, she wouldn’t go near the princess in Storybook Forest and was super shy to meet Daniel Tiger – this year she chatted with the princess & ran right up to “Danny”! I wrote all about the day & posted a ton of super cute pictures of Braelynn on Thursday – if you missed that post, it’s here!
• Thursday brought a trip up to NEPA – we planned to spend a 3-day weekend with Derrick’s family. We had planned to go to Knoebels on Friday (rounding out our week with 3 amusement parks!) but with an absolute horrible forecast predicted for the day, we switched our plans to go to Knoebels today!
• In other BIG news: my sister got engaged this week!! It almost feels like a “duh” because Amy & Nathan have literally been together forever (aka 6 years), but it was so exciting to see that sparkly diamond ring on her finger & see them so happy to be taking this next big step! YAY! Congratulations Amy & Nathan – we’re already counting down the days until your wedding in 18 months!!
• We took Braelynn to our ultrasound last week, and I think seeing the baby on the screen made him even more real to Braelynn. So, we’ve been talking a lot this week about “baby brother”. I think my favorite comments were: one morning, when we were just waking up, Braelynn asked me: “Is the baby going to have a teeny tiny bum?” (She held up her pointer finger & thumb about an inch apart from each other) I grinned & told her that the baby would be “teeny tiny” all over. Then she asked: “Can I pinch his bum?”
• Then on Thursday evening, as we were driving, Braelynn asked (completely out of the blue): “Mommy? Is the baby going to have a lot of hair when he’s born?” It’s so fun to listen to her process the fact that she’s getting a little brother & wondering about what he’ll be like!

Feeling Blessed

It’s been quite the week – literally packed to the very top. But, I wouldn’t have it any other way (okay, that’s not entirely true: I could do without the cold).

The best part though has been feeling this little dude more and more and more. I know he’s getting bigger & that just means that I’ll be feeling him even more – it’s literally the best feeling. On Thursday night, he was “swimming” around so crazily that I thought Derrick might be able to feel him! We tried, but no luck. I could definitely feel his little kicks & punches where we were pushing on my stomach, but it just wasn’t quite enough for Derrick to feel. Soon! In the meantime, I’m definitely savoring all the movement that only I can feel.