Saturday, February 28, 2009

Big News!

We're having a baby!

Alex and I started off the year in the best way possible, finding out on New Year's Day, January 1, that we are expecting our first child, and we couldn't be more excited!

I am just shy of the 2nd trimester. We had our second doctor's appointment last week and he gave us the official ok that everything is looking fantastic and that we could feel free to share our news. It has been so difficult keeping it a secret for so long...and hopefully that explains my lack of blogging lately--I really haven't had anything else on my mind for a while!

Here is a picture of our tiny little bundle of crazy joy, taken at 11 weeks, 3 days:

Isn't that amazing?! He/she already looks like a little person! And yes, we WILL be finding out as soon as possible if it's a "he" or a "she." I've added a little poll to the right side of the page--cast your vote! There's a chance we'll find something out at our next appointment, so you've got about 4 weeks to form an opinion and put something on record.

I mentioned a while back we were painting a room--that room is the nursery, and it's almost done. Well, the painting is totally done--we are going to add a chair rail, and then we'll definitely post pictures! Obviously we painted before we found out the sex of the baby...in fact, we started painting before we even found out we were pregnant! The color is blue-grey (Alex says it's like my eyes), and we think it will work great for either a girl or a boy.

In other news (which all suddenly seems secondary in our lives), work is going well. My company is struggling with layoffs and reorganizations, but my immediate group seems to be the island of safety, so I am counting my blessings daily that I got hired on with them when I did. Alex's company has remained largely unaffected, although the current economic environment has made his forecasting more challenging to say the least. He just finished his last report and we are both looking forward to a period of normal work hours and stress levels. He still has a busy travel year ahead of him, with a trip to Florida to present at a conference, his two annual trips to Germany, and a possible trip to Japan sometime this summer! (He's already been informed that his trips will need to be trimmed to one week max when the baby gets here.)

And I know you're wondering if we will slide in one last trip together, too, and the answer is yes! While our original plan for our yearly trip was to visit Machu Picchu, Peru, we quickly realized we'd have to rethink that...vaccines, rural South America, and hiking up a mountain aren't the best when you're pregnant. So the new plan for our babymoon is Hawaii! We have never been and are really looking forward to relaxing on the beach, snorkling, and swimming with sea turtles.

So check back often for pictures and stories about all the joys of pregnancy in Texas. I am due September 14th--just the right timing for me to be in my third trimester through June, July, and August. Yay!

Hope all is well with all of you!
With love,
Kelly, Alex, and Cosmo*

*Cosmo is what we're calling the baby--I had a dream before our first doctor's appointment that the ultrasound showed the baby as a little astronaut floating around in space. Russian astronauts are Cosmonauts...and there you have it. Cosmo!