… HE!
We haven’t done one of these posts since 2010, so it feels kind of strange and exciting to be sharing this kind of news with you guys again. We found out on Wednesday, and then scurried to tell our families over the last 48 hours. Of course, the most important person to tell first was Clara. We didn’t want her to learn the news from an ultrasound technician, so we scheduled a playdate for her with my dad during this particular appointment. Then when we were back together, we surprised her with a baby boy doll (which are surprisingly hard to find, we learned). It was a cute little “OK, look in the bag to see if there’s a little boy or a little girl in mommy’s belly!” moment.
And if there’s one thing she enjoys more than tearing through some tissue paper, it’s baby dolls. It was love at first sight and, more importantly, she completely connected the dots that this meant she was getting a little brother. She pretty much immediately started giving him his bottle and changing his diapers and even bragged that she knew it was a boy the whole time. When we asked her what she wanted to name the baby doll, without hesitation she shouted: “Barnacles!” After Sherry and I completely failed at stifling our laughter, Clara explained that its full name was actually Captain Barnacles (a character in one of her new favorite shows, Octonauts). So yeah, she won’t be naming her real brother… but we have called the bun “the barnacle” a few times since then.
She (okay, well all of us) originally guessed we were having a girl. But our instincts started to shift to boy when Sherry’s morning sickness wouldn’t let up (this pregnancy is pretty different than the last). Which is good because Clara started asking for a brother, probably because a few of her best friends have baby brothers. Regardless of the reason, she couldn’t have been more thrilled at the news. And so are we.
After about the sixteenth Captain Barnacle diaper change, Clara called up Nonna to tell her via FaceTime. She was really excited to deliver the news – and Nonna was just as excited to hear it!
For telling my family here in town, we decided to make a little game out of the announcement. We managed to get my parents, my sister, and her family to meet us out to dinner last night (at Panera, since we’re super fancy and all). We came armed with a bunch of blue and pink envelopes, so each person could make a final guess by picking a pink envelope if they thought it was a girl and a blue one if they thought boy.
Then we had them all tear into them at the same time to see if their baby-dar was on point or not. All of the blue ones said some iteration of “yup!” or “bingo!” or “you betcha!” and all the pink ones said “nope!” “try again!” or “wrong-o!” We had about a 50/50 split in guesses, so even though half of ’em were off-base, everyone was thrilled. It was really fun to watch their faces as they all figured it out at pretty much exactly the same moment.
Then we got to make a whole bunch of other family & friend calls to spread the news (Clara was awesome about boasting “I’m getting a baby brother!” about 100 times to various friends and relatives on the horn). And that, as they say, is history.
Sherry and I are both really excited. We’re mostly just thankful to hear there’s a healthy bun barnacle growing in there, no matter its sex. But being able to picture this child – this boy! – a bit more clearly makes the excitement that much more real. As much as two little girls would’ve been fun, we’re really looking forward to the experience of raising a son along with this great daughter of ours. Not to mention that Sherry’s already going crazy looking at nurseries on Pinterest.
It’s fun to think about the possibilities for that room now that we know better who will be occupying it. Not that we’ll fill it with “man things” or make it all blue and green (actually, come to think of it, Clara’s original nursery was blue and green) but it’s just fun to talk about potential projects and colors and art now. The funny thing is that the nursery is the only room in this entire house that had pink trim when we bought it.
Good thing it’s already painted white! Bad that the room is currently housing a bunch of random junk. Guess it’s getting time to start working on that…
We’d love to hear your stories about finding out the sex of your baby (whether halfway through with an ultrasound, one of those early blood tests, or right there in the delivery room). And feel free to share how you told your family and friends. Was it a photo on Facebook? One of those blue/pink cakes? A box full of balloons? Or did you just call or visit people and blurt out the news? Any way you play it, it’s a pretty exciting moment.
Yayyyy! Congrats family Petersik!!!
Yay! A little boy DIYER in the making! Congratulations!
CONGRATULATIONS! So excited for your family!
Ahh!! Congrats!!!! So exciting!
I swear I just stopped everything at work to check on this. I was like “Oh my God its 10 o’clock!” Congratulations. Wonderful news. So happy for all of you.
I DID THE SAME THING!! haha
Me three!!! OMG – CONGRATULATIONS!!!
I did the same thing!!!! Congrats you guys!!!
Same here! Congrats, Petersik family! :)
Woo hoo! Welcome to the adventure that is little boys! They are so much fun!
Congratulations!
Congratulations!!!
Congratulations! I know you’re over the moon with excitement!
Aw, that made me tear up. Currently 37 wks pregnant with a “surprise” — and I have a 2 yr old daughter — so this post hit close to home. So happy for all of you!
Yay!!!! That’s all! A healthy boy!
I have been waiting all morning for this announcement! So excited for your news! Congratulations!!
Congratulations! I must admit, I thought it was a girl too. Can’t wait to see him.
YAY! Congrats! Cannot wait to see his nursery!
Woooo! Congratulations that everything looks great and a BOY!
Clara looks so cute and happy in all these pictures – and so grown up!
CONGRATS!! I have an 8 month old little boy…they are the BEST!:) You now have the best of both worlds. So excited for you all!
I’ve been refreshing since 9 am hoping to see this news today! Congrats, congrats, congrats! Can’t wait to see a boy baby P!
Congratulations! A little boy is definitely going to be a fun little mix for you guys!
Clara is so stinkin’ cute! SO excited for you guys…can’t wait to follow along on a journey with a boy :) (and to see the nursery!!)
YIPPPIEEE!! What great news! I thought it was a boy ;)
Yay ! Congratulations from France ! :)
Congrats! We waited until delivery to find out and it was the LONGEST waiting of my life. There were so many times I’d look at my husband and say, “Let’s find out!” and he’d say no. I’m glad he did because it was like the best present, ever! He yelled “It’s a girl!!” and they we started crying. Man, it makes me want another!
I’m waiting until the delivery too and the only thing keeping me from finding out is my boyfriend announcing it! Makes my heart melt just thinking about it :)
Awesome news! So happy for your family. Having “one of each” is pretty fun. :)
YAY! Congrats to you all :)
Congratulations! Hate to tell you this but my MS with baby boy did not let up until he was evicted on his due date. Diclectin. Diclectin. Diclectin. Let the doctors give you the drugs. Say it with me: TAKE THE DRUGS.
Do NOT take the drugs! The drugs they give pregnant and nursing women have not been thoroughly tested for safety. I was prescribed a drug to treat a bladder infection right after having my son that said right on the paperwork you get with the prescription “If you are nursing do not take this drug” which I was and they knew I was and when I called the office to tell them what the paperwork said and how they needed to stop prescribing it to new mothers they just said “It’s fine but we’ll prescribe something else for you”!! They do not care what happens to people who take these meds. They only care about $$$. Sherry, please for your own safety and for the little bun (barnacle) seek out natural alternatives to drugs. Just my two pennies. :)
Most competent OBs will only prescribe medications that are safe during pregnancy and you can always do your research before taking anything. The most commonly prescribed anti nausea drug for pregnant women is zofran and it works very well. Reglan is another option. Good luck!
Congrats Petersik Family! I saw the picture of Clara and Baby Barnacle and got a little teary eyed!
Yay for a boy! Congratulations. We are also expecting, due in June. So we don’t know the sex of the baby and actually haven’t told ANYONE. We are waiting for a Christmas announcement, which should be pretty fun. I have to say I was thrilled that we are pregnant at the same time because I knew you would post baby stuff (which is my fav right now).
I’m in the same boat… but due in July. We aren’t telling a soul until Christmas… I can’t wait!
We’re due in May, and hoping to find out the sex before Christmas so we can do a big announcement!
I’m in the same boat too Lacey, due in July and we haven’t told anyone (not even our 3 year-old daughter) yet. Christmas reveal is going to be so much fun!
Same here! I’m due in July and we are excited about our Christmas reveal.
We are due the first of May and just told our families over thanksgiving (when I was almost 17 weeks). We let big brother whose 4.5 tell – we chatted with him a little bit before dinner and let him share the news! Our family was shocked & couldn’t believe we’d kept a secret for so long. My mom is a radiologist, so we were able to go to her office on Saturday and found out it’s another sweet baby boy!!
Aw, Petersiks! What happy news!
Hooray for your little bunacle!
Awww, Stephanie, I love it that you gave the bun a brand new nickname! Bunacle = brilliant
Congratulations!! This is so exciting!! So happy for you!
Congratulations!! So happy for you three!!
Yay! Congratulations!! Clara’s excitement is so adorable. Also I have a grown-up version of her dress, haha! It’s cuter on her of course.
I don’t have children yet, but I think I’ll probably just blurt out the news to the folks who matter because I am terrible at keeping secrets when I’m excited. Also, I was so weirdly excited to find out that I refreshed facebook every few seconds for 5 minutes instead of studying for the final I have in an hour. You guys are obviously more important than grad school.
Ahahaha, totally just did the same thing!
Checked in from the middle of my last Property Law class of the semester because I didn’t want to keep waiting! SO much congrats to Sherry and John!!!
Aw thanks guys!!
xo
s
haha! I 100% did the exact same thing with an hour until finals… priorities right?
YES!! I’m one of three girls so I’ve always wanted a brother. Thanks for rockin the blue for #2. Congrats :)
Congrats!!! :) I had a feeling for some reason. I just found out on Wednesday at our 20 week ultrasound that we having a girl… we will have 3 girls and I’m very excited!
Congrats, y’all!! And what great reveals with Clara and your families! We planned on doing a big reveal with out families but couldn’t wait and ended up texting our families from the waiting room between the sonogram and OB appointment :)
My husband and I decided to wait and be surprised with our son (he just turned one last weekend). After over 17 hours of labor, I had an emergency c-section. When he was born, everyone in the operating room said wow, look at that head size, look at that head of hair… it was probably a good 2-3 minutes before I finally heard “It’s a boy!”. =) It was such a surreal moment. I still get chills thinking about it. I love your idea and Clara is just such a doll. We will likely find out what we’re having if there’s ever a #2. Not sure how we’ll announce but I love seeing all the fun things people do!
The same thing happened to me. They are so used to most people knowing that no one thought to mention that we had a son. He got handed off to the NICU team with no comment. Also, there was a little drama with my uterus being on the verge of rupture and I was pretty drugged up because the spinal didn’t completely numb me up correctly (I don’t recommend c-section with only partial anesthesia!) So I finally piped up from behind the screen, “um, what is it? Boy or girl?”
And “it” was a perfect, healthy little boy. Boys are such fun.
Congratulations! Thinking of you all and sending healthy baby/mommy wishes.
So scary! Glad everything was ok!
xo
s
Yay! So happy for you! This is such exciting news!
Ahhh!!! Congratulations! Having a little brother is the best. Clara is going to love it.
Totally agree and with the age difference it makes it perfect!! at least i think so, since the age difference between my brother and I will be very close to Clara & lil Mr. P :)
Congratulations!! We tried to have the willpower to have the ultrasound tech write the sex in an envelope for us to open together later, but we had to peek at the screen and we both totally thought we knew what we were looking at (or NOT looking at!). :-) We’ve got 2 gorgeous girls – so excited for your guys’ adventures to come with 2 kiddos!
Congratulations! I can’t wait to watch baby boy P grow up like I have Clara!
Congratulations! So looking forward to the future chronicles of Clara & “Barnacles” Conversations, because I’m sure if he’s anything like his big sister, they’ll be a hoot!
Yay! Congrats! And high five to baking a boys!
Ahh! I’m so excited for you! When you announced your pregnancy, I hoped it would be a boy. I just had my first baby, a boy, and especially throughout my pregnancy I was a little nervous about what I would do with him. I’m such a crafty/creative person (not to mention uber girly), and I was kind of lost thinking about playing with him and crafting for/with him, etc. You all are so creative, hopefully I can piggy-back some of your crafty ideas :-) We told our family and friends with this cute photo: http://rachelplayinghouse.blogspot.com/2013/06/its-a.html. It was a blast! Congrats again!!
So much fun! I love hearing how you guys found out and told people!
xo
s
Ahh my first wrong guess! But so excited for you guys!!!
Healthy baby is number one but I have loved having a boy and a girl. They are very different regardless of gender. For our ultrasound with number two our Radiologist said “it’s a girl”. My husband said “are you sure?” And the Dr. Said “did I say I THINK it’s a girl.”!!! Doctors!! Congratulations!
hahaha! We were given 70% chance of having a boy at our 13 week NT scan, so I was shocked when we were told “girl” at the 16 week scan. I asked the doctor if it could change again and he said, “Yes, but only with an operation.” :) We love our girl but it would be fun to get to know a little guy some day too!
So happy for you!!!!!!!!!! we had three lovely ladies and then The Lord surprised us with a Baby Boy. What a treat!! Grateful that your little barnacle is a healthy buddy. xo
Congratulations!! Boys are amazing, we have two little guys, and I couldn’t be more excited for you both and for big sister Clara!!
Congratulations! Thrilled for you all!
Having a boy is definitely an adventure! I have two myself and just like your pregnancy is different a lot of other milestones and experiences you’ve had with Clara will be different (in a good way!) with a boy.
Knew it!!!! I made myself write down what I thought it was going to be so I couldn’t mentally excuse myself “Oh you really knew…” how exciting!!!!!!!!! We’re not going to find out with our pregnancy- but we are going to go ahead and turn our little girl’s room into a shared boy/girl room, i.e., a neutral nursery, so that whether this is a boy or a girl the room will work perfectly!
Yay!! CONGRATS! So happy to hear everyone is healthy!
We are due with #2 mid-March; and recently found out we are having another girl! We got most of our family together last minute to do a little reveal ourselves. We had everyone take a guess (about 50/50 split), and revealed the news via pink champagne. It was fun to see everyone’s faces.
Hope the rest of your pregnancy is smooth sailing!
Lovely! Though I couldn’t help imagining the faces had you offered them BLUE champagne for a baby boy … ;-)
So excited for you guys! :) Congratulations! I was refreshing my facebook every few seconds instead of studying for the final I have in an hour because obviously you guys are more important than grad school, right?? Unrelated: I have a grown-up version of the dress Clara is wearing, but it’s much cuter on her!
Congratulations!! We love having one of each (our son is 3 1/2 and daughter is 8 months). Enjoy the anticipation of meeting your baby boy!
YAY, so exciting!! Congratulations to you all and I can’t wait to see what the nursery will look like. Clara is going to make a stellar big sister!! :)