New things!

It was Bill's ingenious idea to give his mom and aunt's a mission for Baby Raynor.  Their first mission was to find baby books and Veggie Tales DVD's.  At Bill and Gwyn's B-day party a few weeks ago, they accomplished their mission as we received several books and DVD's.  Now I can read to Baby Raynor when he arrives and he will be very smart!
Their second mission was to pick up some diapers.  April started the trend and purchased a whole case of the super cute denim jean diapers that Huggies makes.  This past weekend, we received some more diapers from Troi and Gwyn, as well as (what I like to call) a toy doughnut stacker, a bib, and a set of receiving blankets. Woohoo!  Baby Raynor will needs lots of everything- so we definitely appreciate their giving in starting our diaper stock!
This week, Bill and I discovered that the BEST time to go shopping at Target is July 4th night.  If there were crickets in the store, I'm sure that I could have heard them.  It was totally deserted, and the perfect time to create a baby registry.  Unfortunately, though, a big storm was passing by, and we had several hiccups with our scanning device.  It took us over an hour to register for baby items, and we weren't even able to register for everything.  I guess I'll just have to have more fun adding them online! 
Yesterday, I headed to Southpoint- which is a great area near Durham with a fantastic mall and shopping centers around it.  There I registered at Babies R Us.  It was really fun to just take the time and look around and scan lots of things.  This was the first time in my life that I think that I have spent 2 hours in just one store!  Bill was at work, and didn't go on this extravaganza with me- and it was probably to both of our enjoyment that it worked out that way.  He is very supportive and is great to be there to give advice, but he simply is just not a shopper.  He'd rather do it all online.  I also purchased our baby boy's first batman onesie and monkey sleeper (very cute, if I do say so myself).
So, we are now registered at Target and Babies R Us.  It takes alot of effort to register for baby stuff (much more than registering for a wedding)- alot more research to figure out what might work best and what has the best reviews.  Although clothing and cute stuff is definitely welcomed, I just hope that people check out our registry when buying stuff for Baby Raynor.  Really, though, any help in getting ready for our baby boy is greatly appreciated!

The best thing about registering, though: all of the fun little samples and coupons that you receive!  Such fun!

It's A....

Last week we had another Dr.'s visit.  Although the doc. was 2 hours late (he was in a car accident), we were as excited about this visit as we were the first one- this was the appointment where we could find out the gender of our baby.  As soon as the doc. slathered me in gel and placed the ultrasound monitor on me, he immediately asked if we wanted to know the gender.  Two seconds after we said that we did, he said IT'S A BOY!!!  We were super excited to hear the news! 

Although it didn't matter whether it was a boy or a girl, I had a sneaking suspicion that it was a boy.  The only slight concern at this point in the pregnancy is that the placenta is laying low.  I don't have placenta previa, just a low lying placenta.  The doc. said that usually the placenta will shift upward as the baby grows, towards the greater blood supply, and that it will not go any lower.  I will have another ultrasound at 28 weeks that should give more detail as to whether or not it has shifted.  If it hasn't shifted, there is a greater potential for a C-section.  Right now, baby Raynor has lots more growing to do, and we have no real worries.

On to the reveal...

This weekend we had both sides of our families over for our annual 4th of July celebration.  While we had a scheduled Dr's appointment for the week after the 4th, we asked the doc. if we could do it the week before, and thus we did.  All along our families thought that our Dr.'s visit wasn't until the week after the 4th.  So, Bill and I decided that we would tell our families this past weekend (since they would all be together and would know at the same time)- what we were having.  So-I had ordered a cake from Blue Moon Bakery in Cary, and had the inside icing tinted blue.  Right before we served lunch, I grabbed the cake from the refrigerator and had Bill's mom to cut in to it.  Once the family saw that it was blue icing, the screaming and excitement ensued!  They all seemed very extatic to have been a part of that very special moment with us!  (it didn't hurt that the cake was pretty tasty too!)