Welcome to my blog about the journey Josh & I are on with our Little One.  I was inspired to write this because of my experiences during the first trimester and the lack of information around on how your body reacts to becoming pregnant. I was also inspired by my co-worker Heather who has had a blog for several years about her life and family.  It is funny, poignant and I love to read it, especially her "Not Me Monday " posts. My goal is to record experiences honestly and with humor, to have a record to share with our little one in the future.  For today's post I'll just "go with the flow." I'll catch up with all that has transpired over the last 4.5 months in the upcoming weeks in tandem with recording tidbits and such of today.

** Just a note: I said I'd be honest so there may be some posts which might not contain what you'd like to talk about at the dinner table. I'll give you a heads up so you can decide whether to proceed down that day's post or not.

Today is April 8th and Easter. It's a gorgeous, sunny and windy day that we enjoyed on a 90 minute walk along the Olentangy Trail in Worthington. Its a great area right along the river. It felt great to get in the sun, collect some Vitamin D, skip some stones on the river (successfully) and see some of the large houses in this area of Worthington. It was so nice to be together with Josh and enjoy the day together. Monday we start week 21 and we are amazingly halfway to when we will meet our little girl around August 19th. We scheduled our Baby Care class today and did some searching for Infant CPR/First Aid classes. (We're covering all our bases!  The birth and breastfeeding classes are already scheduled.)

All our doctor's visits have gone very well. Mom and baby are healthy. We were ecstatic to learn we would be having a baby girl during our March 27th ultrasound screening.  It did make a difference to us knowing whether it was a boy or girl, just like feeling the first flutter kicks.  It just made everything seem more real.  The technician asked us if we wanted to know and there was no hesitation - Yes!  She was able to tell very quickly as our little one was quite sleeping and not moving around. A pretty good "hamburger shot".  She pronounced our little one a girl and from there on out, she began to use the pronoun of "she".  It was a bit surreal and felt strange to hear her use the word "she" versus "it" or "little one" (as we used) but it felt great.  As we walked down the hallway to our cars I couldn't help tearing up and became so full of emotion. This was real and my wish to have a girl to honor with my mom's name was going to happen!!! Such joy! (The photo of me is with my mom when I was little, reading a Richard Scarry book, a favorite of mine.) I called my sister and Josh called his mom and we all did happy dances as best we could while driving and on the phone.

Here are a couple of shots of her thinking and her dancing feet.  Enjoy:)