And the baby blog beings...

So I'm pretty sure as of now, most of you know that Juddy knocked me up and we're planning to expand our family. Oh boy! Id tell you that's we're not excited at all but that would be a blatant lie! We are ecstatic! Mom bought us a new bed at the beginning of March and I was pregnant within two weeks. Funny how that works, isn't it? We found out on tax day...April 15. I knew something was up when I experienced 3 zits in one month....something that hasn't happened since I was in high school PRE-Accutane! After taking the test, I gently laid it on the bathroom for Juddy to find when he got up. Some people have said "WHAT!?!? You didn't tell him right away!?!?" Well, no. And I didn't tell him because we've had conversations about discussing "important" things in the morning. See I'm a morning person, and Juddy's a night owl and things don't turn out well when I try to communicate the honey-do list before 7 am. So we've agreed to not talk about "important" things until he's up and moving...and usually out the door. So I left the test on the bathroom counter, which he cleverly noticed while taking his morning dump. Actually, he noticed the abnormal wrapper in the bathroom waste basket and then the test. After putting two and two together (no one leaves a negative pregnancy test on the counter!) he called and we celebrated on the phone together.

I am open to all types of birthing plans including midwives, birthing centers, hospitals, doctors and side of the road deliveries. While I know you can't control it, I feel it's important to get as much information as possible so they we can be as preparred for the birth as possible. We've toured a number of hospitals and a birthing center and interviewed a plethora of midwives and doctors. In the end, we settled on a doctor who was best friends with Juddy's cousin in med school. She's our age, 6 months preggo with her first child and we just knew when we met her that she was the right match for us! We also got to hear the heartbeat right then, which WHOOA does make everything way more real!!

Ooooo, and I also got an ultrasound 2 weeks later (13 weeks). I didn't really know it was happening so it wasn't scheduled when Juddy could be there (he'll be at the next one!). But boy is THAT cool! Ultrasound pictures always look like warshack tests to me, but when you go in for one, it's a video that you watch the whole time and then they snap pictures during the video. It's way easier to tell what's a head/leg/arm/etc when you're watching the little alien move around. Radler was quite active, including stretching out,




sticking out his/her tongue (must take after his mom already!)



and rolling over.



We even got an awesome Grateful Dead "Steal-Your-Face" shot!! Soooo RAD!!!



I'm approximately 3 1/2 months pregnant now (15 weeks on Monday) and the baby is due between December 6-13. Yes, a little Sagittarius to add to our family. Perfect! We like surprises so we're not finding out the sex, but we're pretty sure about the name: Radler Havoc for a boy or Radler Nikita for a girl. We just want to call our kid Rad! We've known the first name for over a year and a half and are quite excited to be able to finally use it! Am I using enough exclamation points!?!?

Juddy is in the process of liquidating the shop starting Monday. He's going to discount everything at 20% off and then progressively discount more each week until the end of July, when he'll finally close the doors. He explains it as "selling the corvette" which I feel is a phabulous analogy. What next? He's got all sorts of ideas (as always). Our August is full (two weddings, one music festival and 3 concerts including Ween and Phish) and we're planning on taking a pre-kid trip to Hawaii in September. Then we'll deal with his employment when we get back.

I'm planning on taking December, January and February off and then I'll go back to my current 3 days a week. I'll still have the ability to originate loans while on maternity leave, however Christmas isn't usually a very busy time in the home loan industry.

As of last weekend, my pants officially won't button. Any of them. And my belly is looking less and less like a beer gut and more like a pregnancy. I got nauseous for the first few months, but never puked, I get headaches and I sleep an abnormal amount but that's about all the symptoms I've experienced. I'm enjoying every minute as it is all part of this amazing experience...headaches and all!

So that's the DL for now. I'm using this to keep everyone updated, but feel free to email if you need more details. I'm pretty good at responding.

Hugs, loves, kisses and snuggles from our family to yours~
Juddy, Danielle, Big Happy, Little Buddy and (soon) Radler, our little alien