Look how he's grown!

6 weeks old:

8 weeks old:

Proof that it's a boy:

I call this the "get me out of here" pose. You can see his face to the right, arms, and leg.
Around the time this picture was taken he actually waved to us!

Hello Summer!

It has been a long time since our last post! Now that school is over and summer is here hopefully I will have more time to keep things updated.

Since the last post we have found out that it's a boy!! Jack and I were both stunned. For some reason we both had feelings that it was a girl. I even had multiple dreams where it was a girl. We had a girl name picked out and everything! So when the doctor pointed out his man part, boy were we surprised! We are both delited though. As long as it is a healthy baby the sex does not really matter to us. Having a boy first does have it's advantages though - Jack always wanted a boy first so that any other kids we have would have an older brother to look out for them. He also says that your are doomed to mess up the first child, so it is better to have a messed up boy than a messed up girl. Whether that's true or not we're having a boy so we'll see what happens!

Hello in there...

I am officially 17 weeks pregnant today. I'm not really sure what I'm suppose to be feeling right now (after all I've never been pregnant before). But here is what I've noticed so far:

- My clothes aren't fitting anymore. Sweat pants are my best friend. By the end of the day I just want to walk around school with my pants unbuttoned. Thankfully there is an inner voice telling me that would be a bad idea. Thank goodness for dress pants with a stretchy waste band!

- The reason my clothes aren't fitting well is obvious - the infamous little baby bump has finally appeared. This is both good and bad. I'm glad because it reminds me that there's a baby inside of me. And it must be doing ok because it is growing like crazy. But it is bad because now people just stare at my stomach. Most women complain about people staring at their boobs. Not me. I just want to slap people sometimes and say "Hey, my face is up here"! Seriously, stop staring at my belly. I am self-conscious enough without you adding to it. If it's this bad now, I had to think what it will be like a few months down the road!

- Now that I'm showing a little bit my students have started to figure it out. I decided not to tell them and just wait for them to figure it out on their own. It took them a while, but over the last few days the news has exploded over the school. One freshman girl (who lacks some tact mind you) proclaimed "Mrs. Donohoe got knocked-up!" Oh little children, I wish you knew what having a baby was really about. It's not always just a mistake that happened because I didn't use protection when I was wasted at a party.

- So far I haven't felt any movements inside my womb yet. But then again, I don't really know what it's suppose to feel like. Maybe I have felt it and I didn't realize it. Hopefully in a few weeks it will be more noticeable though.

- We went to the doctor again yesterday - not for anything exciting, but just a checkup. For the 2nd time in a row the dr. commented on how active the baby is. Apparently he/she is constantly doing flips in there. Should I be worried by this? Are we going to have a hyper-active child from the beginning? I guess he/she is taking after their father already. I like to imagine Baby having a dance party in there. I'll have to remember to keep good music on hand.

I think that's it for now. In 2 weeks we get to find out what the sex is! Hurray! No more calling it "it".

Have a great Easter everyone! And for the teachers out there, happy spring break! It has been a long time coming but I am more excited for this break than ever! :)

And we're back...

Well friends, we're back to blogging. Sorry to those of you who are faithful blog stalkers. We haven't posted on here in quite a while. We originally started the blog as somewhat of a public diary to catalog the journey of our first pregnancy. Unfortunately that journey came to an unexpected end last September when we had a miscarriage (hence the sudden stop in posts). But, both Jack and I are convinced that God's timing is perfect, and He is Sovereign, and we cannot doubt anything that he does. We are blessed though to announce, ironically on the eve of our original due date, that we are once again expecting! That's right. Jack and I will be parents this coming September! So far everything has been going well. We got to hear our child's heart beat a few weeks ago. 160 bpm sounds pretty amazing! In addition my clothes are not fitting as well these days. So either I need to kick up the exercise a notch or there really is a baby growing inside of there. It's pretty exciting!

So welcome back to the blog. We will try to keep you updated and entertained as much as possible during this journey. Thanks for being a part of our lives!

J and K

Sorry 'bout that

I feel like I owe Jack an apology. We were both excited for today because I finally went to the doctor again. It was suppose to be for our first ultrasound. So Jack got off of work early and went with me. We got there and ended up waiting foreverrrrrrr. I have no idea why it took so long, but it did. Imagine Jack and I in a small little examining room all alone. Jack was like a 5 year old - wanting to investigate everything and play with all the little trinkets. Hopefully he didn't permanently break anything. But anyway, finally the doctor came in. But to our dismay, no ultrasound today. Apparently that is scheduled for a different appointment. So Jack waited patiently with me for over an hour, and all he got to see what was goes on when a girl gets a pap smear. Sorry Jack. I'm sure that was more than you ever wanted to know.

But anyway, we will have our first ultrasound for real on Monday. We were both bummed not to have it today after so many people have been asking about it, but Jack handled it well. He even cooked me dinner!

The Bet.

Jack has won the first battle of parenthood - the battle over whether to find out the sex of our baby. At first I liked the idea of being surprised. Because, you have to admit, that would be a pretty big surprise. But as the weeks go on, and Jack continues to use phrases like "our son" and "Bruce" when referring to our unborn child, he has convinced me to find out the sex ahead of time. My biggest reason is that if it does end up being a girl, I don't want to go for 9 months talking about Bruce and then Whoa! it's a girl! That would be quite a switch. I think it's probably a good thing to know ahead of time so we can both be mentally prepared.

So now that we have both agreed to find out the sex another debate has ensued. Of course we will both be thrilled with no matter what we have. But Jack insists that it's going to be a boy, and I have a gut feeling it is going to be a girl. So what else should we do but make a little wager? Maybe betting on your child is not a good habit to get into, but for now it's all in fun. So the question is, what should the stakes be? It has to be something good (because of course I am going to win ;).

Seriously, give us suggestions. The bet is on.

In related news, I go to the dr. in a week for my first sonogram! More to come on that later...

For the Love of a Dog

Meet Boomer - The best dog ever. Boomer is a Lab/Golden Retriever Mix. We got him about a year ago when he was just a 12 pound pup. Now he's 81 pounds of lovable goodness. If you've ever gotten to meet Boomer, you know what a great dog he is. He doesn't know a ton of tricks, but he's really good at the basics: high fives, sit, lay down, etc. But better than that, he is great outside. When he needs to go to the bathroom, we let him out the back door, he does his business, and then nudges the door back open when he's ready to come in. If he takes longer than you want you just call his name and he's back in a flash. This is especially nice on days when it's raining or in the winter when it's really cold. I sit comfortably inside while he goes out and does his thing.

On top of being a good listener, he is also a great cuddler. It's a good thing we have a king size bed, because by the time you get me, Jack, and Boomer in there, there's not a lot of room left. Usually I get sandwiched in between the two of them. Occasionally, when laying on the couch, Boomer will jump up and lay smack on top of me. While it's not the most comfortable, I don't really mind. He just wants to be close to us, and that's a good feeling.

To be perfectly honest, last summer I wasn't really thrilled about getting a dog. To me all dogs were just annoying, slobbery, hairy things that jump all over you all the time. But I'm happy to say that Boomer has proved me wrong. He's the perfect dog - no jumping or licking! I may not have wanted a dog before, but now I can't imagine myself without him. It's great to come home to someone who is so excited to see you! We may not have the best luck with cats, but if anything ever happened to Boomer I would be devastated! When I think about it, if I can love Boomer this much, how much more will I love our baby when it gets here in the spring? I can't wait to find out!