Welcome to our new blog!

Hello friends and family! As you all know by now, John and I are expecting our first little one. We are excited and nervous and a little scared! :) I think that's pretty normal. We decided to start a baby blog so that you could all check up and see how everything is going, since we have family and friends all over the United States and some wonderful family across the pond in Scotland!

So far, it's going pretty well! I am 13 weeks pregnant right now. Hello, second trimester! Our estimated due date is October 1st. I am pretty sure I'm carrying a boy. It's a feeling I've had for over a month now, and the midwife guessed that too when we all heard the heartbeat at our first prenatal appointment two weeks ago. We don't officially find out for a while now, but that's my guess. Both my mom my Aunt Kathy had dreams that we were having a little boy, too. John and I have lots of names in mind! We're pretty sure we have the first name decided, we just can't find a middle name we're in love with yet. And no, we're not telling the name until the wee one is born! Sorry, we realize that it is a tease to tell you we have a first name and then not give it up... you'll just have to stay tuned. ;)

The pregnancy has been pretty easy on me, so far. I didn't really get morning sickness, just a little pukey at the Firehall Theatre during our run of "Lucky Stiff", and I was pretty sick when brushing my teeth with mint toothpaste. That subsided when the staff at my friendly food co-op suggested a ginger toothpaste. Ginger has been a great friend of mine in the past couple months when I've felt nauseated. Ginger ale, ginger tea, and ginger candies. I haven't had any really wacky cravings yet, but I do crave lime all the time. We've now scoped out all the restaurants in Grand Forks to find the best lime drinks (virgin, of course!), lime desserts, entrees with lime in it, any lime. I've even gone so far as to carry a squeezy bottle of lime juice in my purse so that I can put it in whatever I want. The other weird food thing is that I absolutely cannot STAND garlic right now. That is odd, because on a usual basis I love garlic! I use pulverized garlic on my food just like salt and pepper when I'm not pregnant, so this sudden aversion has taken a while for both John and I to get used to. Other than that, I am the queen of napping. I nap all the time! I'm afraid that I have spent more time in my bed than anywhere else in the last couple months. John has been great about taking care of Bella, Jack, and Luigi so that I can rest.

And now, some words from John!

Now the daddy footnote. Maura and I are very excited for our new addition. It was a wonderful surprise for the both of us (and the future grandparents!) We had our first prenatal appointment on March 11th. Both the nurse and midwife were very excited for the both of us. You could tell they really liked babies. We received a book to read and a list of classes that we can take. Maura and I must have looked nervous because the midwife was very reassuring. Overall it was a pleasant experience. It was especially relieving to hear the heartbeat. It was verification that we are indeed having a baby and that were are not both crazy.

That's about all for now! We're trying to not worry about the flood in the Red River Valley right now. Hopefully everything will be okay!

Love to all of you!

Maura & John