… 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.
keller says
yay! so excited for your sweet family!!!
Lauren says
Congrats! We also have an older daughter and a baby boy and let me tell you it is sooo fun. We also shared the gender news with our family in a fun wAy.
YoungHouseLove says
Cute!
xo
s
October says
Congratulations you guys!! I had a feeling it was a boy because of your morning sickness being different too! We have two boys and both of my pregnancies felt exactly the same.
With our first boy I think we just blurted out the news (too excited), but with the second we did cupcakes. It was so funny to watch my sister completely annihilate her cupcake to find out first (well at least first after the big brother)!!
Lisa Van Gemert says
Congrats! When I was expecting my third child, I had two boys already. Because I’d had troublesome pregnancies, I was an ultrasound pro, and at an appointment, I saw some telltale evidence this was another boy. I said, “It’s a boy, isn’t it?” And the doctor said, totally deadpan, “It could be a girl, but if it is, she has eleven fingers.” It was a ten-fingered boy…
GreekWife says
We told our family by having them pop confetti filled balloons!
http://greekwife.blogspot.com/2013/05/its-a.html
Congratulations!
YoungHouseLove says
So much fun!
xo
s
Laura says
Fun!! You all are so sweet to share all these family moments with us, your readers. We do enjoy them. :)
Maybe Clara should name her baby doll “Barnie.” :)
Whitney says
Yayyyyy congratulations! So excited for you guys.
Amanda says
Congrats! We just had the same scenario here- first baby was a girl and the second (who is now 6 weeks old) is a boy. I actually suspected it was a boy for the same reasons you mentioned- insane morning sickness that just hung on well into the second trimester. Plus, I was craving bacon like it was going out of style and with our daughter I craved sweet stuff.
We told family over the phone and then that night, put a picture on facebook showing our daughter wearing a big sister shirt and me holding a little brother shirt over my belly.
Can’t wait to see what you do for the nursery!
Laura M says
AAHHH!!! Congratulations!!!! How extraordinarily exciting!!
Jess says
Wow, congrats! I totally thought you guys were gonna have a girl! How awesome to be having 1 of each! We have a son who just turned 3 and I’m currently pregnant and due at the end of April (about 2 weeks behind Sherry, I geuss). We didn’t find out the sex with our first baby, but wanted to this time around. We had our U/S scan on Black Friday and wouldn’t you know that the baby was uncooperative and we couldn’t find out! It was such a letdown. I quickly scheduled an appointment at one of those 3D/4D U/S places and me, my hubby and my son all went there together a few days ago. This time the baby was cooperative (thankfully!) and we got to find out that we’re having … a girl!! We’re so excited! However, I’m also a little disappointed to be having the opposite sex of you guys again because now I can’t steal nursery ideas! I guess I’ll just have to go back to the Clara nursery archives ;)
Amanda says
Congratulations! That is such exciting news :)
Ali says
Our first was a surprise, I was so excited for the moment when the baby was born! The OB caught the baby, said to my husband, “tell your wife what we have” and my husband was so caught up in the moment he took a look and excitedly shouted “it’s a boy!” And as I am beaming the doc says, “um, look again” and husband shouts “it’s a GIRL” and I’m all…okay, which is it ?!? My beautiful baby girl confused my sleepy husband with her umbilical cord, haha!
Betsy P. says
How exciting for you guys! I have a boy and a girl, too, but waited until delivery to find out the sex of each of my kids. I’m old fashioned like that.
Catherine says
Congrats! We’re across the country from all our family and friends so this is what we did:
http://ourearleylife.wordpress.com/2013/08/07/the-dangerous-book-for-boys-or-the-daring-book-for-girls/
We mailed our parents the books individually so they each have one for her to peruse when she visits them. We also mailed one to my mother-on-laws mother since (although her fifth great grandchild) this is he first great granddaughter!
Funnily enough, we had decided not to find out but the doctor conducting our 3D ultrasound didn’t read the note in my chart so he spilled the beans my husband was grateful in the end because it have him som extra time to get used to the fact that she was a girl!
YoungHouseLove says
Really sweet!
xo
s
Lisa E says
How exciting! Congratulations on Captain Barnacles (she kills me)! So happy for you. Love, love, love the pic of Clara holding the baby doll and Burger under the tree. Awesome Christmas card material!
Annelies says
I thought it would be a girl, but as long as it’s a healthy baby that is the most important. A boy will be fun too. Congratulations !
robyns says
yay! yay! yay! It’s all I thought about this morning….today’s the reveal day! and I’ve thinking it was a boy, I found this super cute octopus flannel and all I could think was, Sherrie would love this for a baby boy!!
Jess says
Aw, congratulations, guys!! So excited for you and loved hearing about Clara’s excitement. She’ll be a great older sister! And as mature and grown up as she’s been looking lately, she’ll be helpful to have around to help out with the little man (wink, wink). Glad the baby is healthy and doing well and thanks for involving your readers in the excitement.
Kierstin says
You could always name him Barnaby… ;-)
Gillian says
Wonderful! A healthy baby is the best news. I have a boy and a girl too. It’s wonderful to see how different parts of your and your spouse’s personality pop out and develop on the opposite sex. My daughter totally has my husbands sense of humor and my son loves all creatures great and small like me. So many wonderful adventures await! Congratulations!
Susan says
No one in my family had ever found out early, and we didn’t either with our first, a boy. But I HAD to know with number 2, so we found out at the 20-week ultrasound but didn’t tell any family or friends. Weird, yes, but we had a good reason – the baby was the first girl in the family, after ten years and 4 little boys! I was so excited that I had a hard time holding it in, so I ended up telling every stranger I met that we were having a girl. Seriously, every one. My husband thought I was nuts.
I’m so happy for you. You’re going to love having both!
Angela N says
Congratulations! Clara is going to be such an awesome big sister. We have one of each. We would have been fine with 2 of the same gender as well but I won’t lie that there was a little more hoping to have one of each just so we could experience both genders. We waited for the delivery to find out for both. Our kids our completely the opposite in personality but we are loving it! My son is 3 1/2 years older than our daughter and I know many say 2 years apart is great but I’ll be honest I love that our son is a little older than that because he has been such a great little helper since he himself is more independent. I think Clara will be the same way. Looking forward to seeing your awesome nursery decor!
Trisha says
Ya! So very exciting. What a sweet way to break he news to Clara, she is going to be a super big sister!
We didn’t find out until the big day. I had to have an emergency csection. The doctor told everyone to be quiet so my husband could break the news. It took him forever!! Today is actually our sweet girl’s first birthday.
KathyL says
Thanks for sharing, I need a bright light right now to focus on and this kind of stuff helps. (so does painting a closet, so you know its not too serious, lol)
First: Congratulations, Second: That girl of yours couldn’t be more precious!
When I was pregnant with our daughter, my son was 5 years old. We had waited to tell him until I was further along, so the wait wouldn’t be so long for him. When I told him, he exclaimed “Good News! Can I tell daddy?” Which of course daddy already knew but went right along with it.
xoxo love you guys.
Katie says
When we found out we were having a boy, it was pretty obvious to me when the ultrasound tech rolled over a certain “region”, but I’ll never forget my husband’s reaction, as we was trying to figure it out, too. He said, “what is that…the nose?” Try again, honey. It still makes me laugh three years later!
YoungHouseLove says
HILARIOUS! I love all the stories guys. You’re cracking us up!
xo
s
Jennae @ Green & Gorgeous says
Congraulations! I’m so excited for you! We actually lucked out that OUR bun is a girl, because it means she can share a room with her big sister (we’re in a three bedroom apartment). I’m having tons of fun working on their shared nursery, but I absolutely cannot WAIT to see what you guys are going to do :)
Brittney says
Eekkk!!! So excited! Congratulations!
catherine says
Awww congrats! Clara is such a fun girl and will be a wonderful big sis! My daughter was 4 when I was pregnant with our twins and they put me in for an unsheduled ultrasound when she was with me but my husband was at home. We went to the store and she picked out one pink and one blue elephant. At home, we blindfolded daddy and then suprised him with the elephants! Now the elephants are in the cribs right now with my napping 8 month olds… Time flies! :-)
Kate says
We have a girl followed by a boy as well. I love having one of each. We found out we were having a boy shortly after my brother purchased his first house. We met my parents over there and said we picked up paint chips for him to look at. At first they were confused when we kept throwing down blue paint chips, but they were super excited when they realized what we were telling them.
Sayward says
Best news of my week!!! Seriously, I’m so excited for you guys. I’m in this month’s issue of Ladies Home Journal, and your baby reveal totally trumped my magazine debut as far as my level of personal excitement goes. I can’t wait for more baby posts :)
YoungHouseLove says
Oh Sayward you’re so sweet! And congrats on LHJ! That’s awesome!
xo
s
Elizabeth says
Congratulations!!!!!!
Gabby says
Yay, congrats! Little boys are so much fun, I had a girl then a boy and am currently due with number three early May. I think you are about 3-4 weeks ahead of me so it’s really exciting to follow along with your pregnancy, congrats again! So happy for you guys.
Sunnie says
We have a boy and a girl and its so fun to have one of each! We found out via ultrasound with our son but we were surprised for our daughter at the delivery. Both special moments. Congratulations!!!
Maddie says
YAY!! Very exciting! Love to you and baby barnacle :)
karen says
congrats!!! i thought boy! the hospital decor was is mainly blue..so i thought that could mean something?! boys are awesome!
Marissa Barrett says
So happy for you guys! I refreshed all morning waiting on your big announcement!! My husband and I are high school sweethearts & newly weds. We frequently talk about our future and are both positive we want children. How did you guys “know” when it was time to try for your first?
YoungHouseLove says
I think we both felt kind of like “ahh, are we ready?!” since you can probably always be “more ready” but we just said “let’s dive in – we are excited and we can do it!” and we did! Haha! It’s amazing how it just sort of clicks and you’re like “let’s just pull the ripcord and see what happens.”
xo
s
Heather says
Agreed. You hit a point where you might not feel totally “ready” for such a huge life change, but you know it’s the right time to start trying. It’s very hard to explain. There’s a difference, at least for me, between knowing you want kids, and knowing you’re ready to try for kids.
There’s no “right” time per say, but we definitely waited to try until we knew we were both financially stable enough to have me out of work without compensation (so I didn’t have to use up PTO/STO), as well as that we could afford weekly daycare since I plan on continuing to work outside the home. We also waited for our renovations to be in a certain spot, for certain debts to be paid off, etc. While deciding to have kids isn’t a “logical” decision in a lot of ways, we knew we personally needed to make sure we were in a certain spot before we brought another life into it. Now we’re ready and we’re not stressed about things with otherwise might be. Children are a huge life change, so it’s nice to know the other things that would typically cause worry are settled.
Brittany says
Woo-hoo! What exciting news! Congrats.
Michelle says
Our u/s tech told us within the first 3 minutes of the ultrasound! It was so fun to go through the entire 1 hour appointment hearing the tech say “she is moving around a lot in there.”
My older sister demanded that I make pink/blue cupcakes for her to bite into to share the news. I think she spends too much time on Pinterest! Everyone else just got the news the good old fashioned way. Although my mom was at the Notre Dame/BYU football game that day and called me to get the news while warming up in the bathroom during the 3rd quarter! It was such a fun day to finally find out what we were having and share with excited family and friends.
Congrats on the little dude!!!
Alison says
Oh how exciting! Congrats!!!! I have a little boy so I’m hear to tell you that it is so awesome! So happy for you!
Angela says
Congratulations! How exciting!!
We just had our first baby last week!! :) We found out he was a boy by having a party with all of our extended family. We didn’t want to know before the rest of our family so our ultrasound tech wrote “its a boy!” on a card and put it in an envelope- which we sent to a cousin and friend to plan the party (they live in FL, we live in TX). We went to FL for the party and they used party poppers filled with confetti to tell us and everyone else the news! It was a ton of fun!
mariela says
Congratulations!! So exciting!!
We decided we did not want to find out the gender, and then two weeks before my due date my husband and I in a very weak moment opened the envelope (we were crazy, I know). It was a girl! Fast forward two weeks, my delivery was a scary emergency c-section, very similar to Sherry’s experience. We were so glad we opened that envelope!
jillian says
Congratulations, Petersiks!! Super excited for you.
Heather says
I haven’t ever delivered that kind of news, nor am I pregnant (nor are we trying yet) but I’m convinced my next pregnancy is going to be a girl. I can’t explain why, but I’m positive of it. Then my sister told me she had a dream that I had a girl and a year later she did. Then I had a dream a few nights ago like I’ve NEVER had. It was the brief but very very clear face of a girl about 6/7 years old who looked just like my husband and I and she was about as cute as they come (biased). If we ever get to have her be real we will be pretty lucky parents. Also weird that we have two girls names we love and after seeing her face I know for SURE which one she is!
Tara says
Boys are a whole nother world! Lots of fun but a lot of work;) we have an almost 2 yr old little boy and a 2 month old baby girl. We almost didnt find out what he was. The tech had to get creative. With her the tech asked if she could tell us right away because she was afraid she’d slip. Baby girl made it very easy, lol:)
Vicky says
Ahhh congrats Petersik family!!! SOOO excited for you!
The day we had our ultrasound, we had also found out our son has a rare condition called Osteogenesis Imperfecta, which means his bones are extremely fragile and break easily. It’s been a bumpy ride, but every day with our son is an amazing gift. We haven’t let his condition rule our son’s life, and we didn’t let it stop us from enjoying our pregnancy.
If you’re bored, you can see how we Disney nerds shared that our son was a boy here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MEbuX_gZl9I
YoungHouseLove says
Love it!
xo
s
Nicole says
Congrats!! Boys are so much fun! I have two of them and as much as a girl sounds like fun, all boys would be wonderful, too! The way we told our inlaws we were pregnant with the first one was buying a picture frame that said grandparents on it and wrapped it up and gave it to them. My mom laughed because she thought the frame was for our dog chassis. The 2nd time, we put a shirt on Carson that said big brother and had him walk around in it until they noticed. It took a little while!
Winter says
Congratulations! I had 3 ultrasounds that without question showed a girl………..and then delivered a BOY on the big day! What a surprise!
Pamela says
I love those stories!! I was secretly hoping that would happen to me when I had our son, not because I didn’t want a boy, but because it would be so funny and surprising.
Renee says
Our 4 year old girl calle her brother “pickle-berry” from the first day we told her we were expecting.
As for finding out he was a boy, it was so plain on the ultrasound that I knew what he was before my doctor even said anything. He’s 10 weeks old now and still not a bit of modesty.
I had morning sickness the entire time as well and almond none with my daughter.
Good luck and much love.
Morgan Molitor says
Congrats!!! So exciting! What a great idea!!
Maureen @ The Parkland Project says
Horray for the Petersiks! Excited for all the new fun!