Bumpdate~ Weeks 20 & 21

Week 20: (March 9-15)

Me this week-
20 weeks is HALFWAY THERE!!! Halfway pregnant; Halfway 'til our due date; Halfway to meeting Bee... crazy happy emotions this week! :) 

I was just getting over the stomach bug at the end of week 19, so luckily I felt much better at the start of week 20. I was just crazy tired and was glad to have taken off another day from work to rest. We also had our 20-week checkup with our OB. We got to hear Bee's heartbeat again (one of the best sounds ever, hands down!) and the Dr. said everything is looking great! My weight gain is great too! I think I've gained just about 10-12 pounds at this point. They suggested/recommended about 25-30 for me total so I'm right on par with that. I'm proud of myself because laying off the extreme McDonald's cravings early on was definitely a good move for me! Plus going to Zumba 1-2x a week (2 if I can make it) has totally helped a lot too! Also I try really hard to stay up on my water intake. It's pretty much all I drink, and I try to stay well hydrated to ward of headaches and cramps or anything else. Occasionally I'll have a glass of juice too, or rarely a soda (but occasionally it's not off limits) and things are going well! :) 

I'm still feeling great! The 2nd trimester is super fun so far and I have most of my energy. Sometimes I forget I'm pregnant other than my belly getting bigger. I am SUPER thankful for feeling wonderful!! The tailbone pain acts up every so often (mostly if I don't walk around much during the day or if I'm laying a certain way, but mostly it's been great and is nothing a few stretches and movement can't fix). Oddly enough, though, heartburn started up AFTER leaving the Dr. appt. It stuck around for a good 5 days but (knock on wood) stopped after that. Leg cramps act up occasionally but I find if I stretch before going to bed I'm usually fine.

Crazy thing is it was in the 70s for week 20!! Mid March!! Insane! I sat out on the porch for a bit because it was wayyyy too good to pass up AND I wore capri leggings and flip flops to the Dr. appt. ;) Score to spring making some sneak peek appearances early! 

We finally planned to register this week, but I was feeling slightly overwhelmed in the mom department. I/We knew of SOME basic things to register for (don't babies just need diapers, a crib, some blankets/burp cloth, clothes, and some milk? haha Kidding!). I took it to social media and posted this for all the Instagram mamas I follow to help out and give some input. I got TONS of advice on great "must-have" items and, I have to admit, I Googled nearly half of them because I didn't know what half (ok fine, probably more than half) were! Once I did some background research based on their suggestions,  things were starting to click and make sense in little bits. (We are STILL gladly taking suggestions/recommendations- share yours below in the comment section or shoot me an email.)

STILL taking suggestions!! PLEASE add a comment below with your must-have items!! :) Thanks!!!

That leads us to registry day- FINALLY!!! We went to the local Babies R Us and went on a marathon shopping spree. Scott was super duper excited to be in control of the little scanner gun and he is a force NOT to be messed with when that bad boy is in his possession. HA ;) It's actually kinda cute how much fun he had. We went a little nuts and had a BLAST in the store. We were back and forth around the store multiple times and went up/down just about every aisle (some more than once). It was exhausting to say the least (my feet hurt and I was hungry by the end of it). After all, we were there just about 3 hours looking at things, reading about things, testing things, racking our confused newbie/rookie brains on things, and just having a blast picking things out for Bee. It was so overwhelming how much everything costs that I had a moment of panic over it all. I kept thinking "I can't even imagine registering for multiples, especially if you have boy(s)/girl(s) multiples. Yikes! 

We certainly don't expect everything (or even nearly everything) to be bought but figured it certainly doesn't hurt to shoot for the moon. And we were able to justify this for a few reasons (so I didn't go into more of a panic over having registry guilt)- 1. If nothing else, it serves as a list of things we want/need to buy ourselves later on so we don't forget. If it's not on there, I'll absolutely forget about it. 2. Babies R Us (like most registry places nowadays) offers a discount for us to buy anything leftover on our registry before/after Bee is born. If it's on the registry, automatic discount in the end... if it's not on there, full price. So we added more. 

It's actually addicting. Babies R Us has an app that we can easily add items to the registry with, so I'll lay in bed at night or randomly get a new suggestion while talking to mom-friends and we'll look it up and quickly add it to the list. 

If you want to check it out for yourselves, here's a handy direct link to our registry wish list. :) 

Team Ricci's Baby Registry

Bee making an appearance :) As I look to the ground sometimes, it's like "Well, hello there!" <3 <3

 As I mentioned earlier, I'm still going to Zumba when I can. Typically that's 2x a week. I'm modifying ALL the time and taking it easy. Sometimes it's hard for me not to want to do the high-impact moves I've been used to because my brain wants to go full speed and my body just can't (I've been doing Zumba for 6 YEARS now already!!) but I know that it's better to tone it down and take it easy. In all honesty though, I don't think I could even go all out even if I was able to. Things definitely feel different and get more difficult as time goes on. It's pretty comical!! Bee likes Zumba too and it keeps Mama sane and feeling good. :)

More 20 week pics... :)

Our local Rita's finally opened (sign of spring around here!!) and I was definitely craving some sweet treats! :) Pineapple gelati with vanilla custard, AND rainbow sprinkles of course! Yum!! (Yes, I'm such a little kid... the simple things in life are where it's at!) :) 

Bee this week-
20 weeks means Bee is half baked! I saw this idea on Pinterest and had to do it when we did our weekly grocery store run. ;)

Some fun facts about Baby Bee this week...
- He's now about 6.5 inches long (measuring up to a banana!) and 10.6 ounces
- Bee now has working taste buds and, I believe, he can taste most of what comes his way
- He's been moving around more and more, and I definitely know it's him finally :)

March parent-teacher conferences started up during week 20 and one of my families brought me a gift for Bee!! Totally unexpected and unnecessary but they are super excited for us and wanted to give us a little something. How cute are these?!?! 

*Side note~ I've slacked on posting every gift from everyone and I hope no one has taken offense. We've been lucky enough to receive some amazingly adorable gifts from friends and family and they've all been unexpected and sweet!! ALL are equally special and we are so happy to have them all!! One of my work friends got Bee some sweet Mickey gear (!!! :) He will be a Disney baby for SURE!!); My mom sent us a cute nightlight/sound machine of The Very Hungry Caterpillar; and we've gotten some other adorable cards and gifts too. It's all well-loved and super special, even if I don't get around to taking a pic of it. THANK YOU ALL!!



Week 21: (March 16-22)

Well here's some BIG news to share...

We are FINALLY selling our house!!
It's been on the market since January of 2015 so it was a bit of a depressing topic for us. We put it up for sale well before we even embarked on the IVF journey. We finally got dedicated and fully interested buyers in February and things have been running as expected since then. We just wanted to keep it quiet so we didn't jinx anything but we are finally under contract and signed contracts last week. If the buyers happen to back out at this point, we would get some money back, so fingers crossed it's a done deal and just a matter of time now for everything to go through.

It's been a bit of a bittersweet thing for us (probably more me than Scott) but it will be a great move in the end. We plan to move just across the river, which isn't very far, maybe 25-30 mins from here. I work on the other side of the river and most of our friends are over there, too. We are over there at least once a week, not to mention me daily for work. It'll be nice to not have a toll every day and to drive over a mountain 2x a day, killing my car on gas and brakes.

The funny thing is that our buyers came to see the house on Super Bowl weekend. I don't know if you remember me posting back then but I did give somewhat of a hint. It also happened to be our dating anniversary weekend (February 7) and I mentioned that whenever our anniversary fell on a Sunday, we have historically had a good luck weekend. The first being when Scott asked me out. There was probably a 2nd in there somewhere, but also when we saw our current house it was 2/7/10 (also Super Bowl Sunday, ironically) and we placed an offer. When this year rolled up again on a Sunday and we had a few house showing appointments, I just had a good feeling. We've had to drop the price tremendously over the last 13 months from where we hoped to sell it, and it's ending up going for a steal, but we are happy to have it behind us soon so we can move on to bigger and better things.

It's bittersweet in the sense that it's a beautiful house and there's so much I really do love about it. I would sometimes joke about wishing I could pick it up, move it across the river, and just expand the downstairs a teeeeny bit (to add a dining room and play room space). I know we won't get everything we want in a new house but if it's something similar in style to our modern colonial, and closer to our friends and work, I'll be happy.

Me this week-
So as I write this I'm technically still in Week 21, but with only 2 days left, I figured it was still okay to post about this week as well. No sense making you wait for another post. This week has been pretty low key for the most part. School has been busy (finished up parent conferences on Friday) and now it's officially spring break until the day after Easter. We were lucky enough to only use 2 snow days this year so we were able to keep our full spring break AND earn extra days around Memorial Day weekend. I'm happy to be off for the week and will be spending much of it packing up the house. I can't lift a single box but I can pack up all the things! 

This week the time change had me affected big time!! I have never been affected by it, at least in a way that's noticeable, but this week I was shot. When I got home from school Friday and sat down, it was hard to get back up. I ended up falling asleep on the recliner at 8:30 and didn't wake up until 11. I typically only sleep about an hour in that chair but I was OUT!! I actually think I only woke up because there was a loud noise. I moved up to bed and then still slept until about 9am! A full 12 hours was obviously much needed and it felt great! 

In the past 2 weeks a few coworkers have mentioned how I don't even look 5 months pregnant. Granted, each time I was wearing a loose top that just happened to hide the bump a bit, but I started to realize that I am pretty small for 5 months! Don't get me wrong, I consider myself extremely lucky and I'm loving my little bump but it definitely made me worry at moments this week. I wondered if Bee had stopped growing or if I was too small. He wasn't moving AS much this week but it could be how he's positioned. He is still moving daily and Mama just needs to stop being over-paranoid! 

Some Week 21 bump pics :)

These were actually taken the same day (probably within 15 mins of each other).... Let's just say I was having an indecisive clothing day! It happens- LOL! 

 I don't like showing my bare belly at ALL (the beach/ a pool is the only exception) but I figured I needed to start showing some of these every so often too, to see the progression a little more.

Bee this week-
Our sweet little babe is the size of a pomegranate this week! That's about 10.5 inches & 12.7 ounces.
That's a huge growth spurt in one week!!! But I *THINK* that's because the measurement changes from CRL (crown-to-rump length) to head-to-toe length. I could be wrong but to me, that would explain the sudden huge increase. I'll have to look that one up.

Some more fun facts about Bee, at 21 weeks...

- He is definitely getting a taste of what Mama is eating/drinking now. "Baby swallows a bit of amniotic fluid each day- for nutrition, hydration, and to practice digesting-, so he gets to eat whatever mama does and put those developing taste buds to good use." (What to Expect app)

- Bee spends A LOT of time sleeping

- I tend to feel Bee moving more when sitting (still & compressed). A coworker told me he would be more active as I'm resting, since I've stopped moving. He's probably lulled to sleep when I'm moving around (and talking more, prob. Blah, blah, blah) hehe! 

- Kicking around more and more now that he's getting so big! 

- Braxton Hicks contractions can start up soon (my uterus might occasionally feel tight as it practices for labor... YUP, definitely started up today and now I know not to worry) :) 

- As Daddy is watching March Madness, he keeps daydreaming about being able to watch it with Bee next year. He's already making daddy/baby play-dates to watch the games next year with our guy friends who also have little ones. So cute!

We go back to the Dr. this coming week, during week 22. We meet again with the high risk Dr. so he can do a fetal echocardiogram on Bee. Basically this is a test that they either do when there's a need OR when tagged with IVF. The Dr. sees no reason to see us since everything looks great (again, thanks to male factor infertility) but we joked and said at this point it's a VIP ticket to an additional ultrasound so I'm cool with that. :) We'll get to see our sweet little munchkin again and repeat the anatomy scan before doing the heart scan. We can't wait to hear the heartbeat and see little Bee again soon! 

'Til next time! 

Stace & Bee

XOXO

#TeamRicci 

Bumpdate~ 19 Weeks!

Look at me go- a post about one week all by itself!! We'll see how long this lasts ;) Don't get your hopes up- lol. Sometimes life is crazy and the past 2 weekends were especially busy. I managed to catch a stomach bug going around everywhere like crazy lately, so being home from school for 2 days I figured this was a good time to catch up on week 19, which was a very exciting one!

Week 19: (March 2-8)

Me this week-
Every Wednesday is our rollover day to a new week. Scott & I have a ritual of waking up every Wednesday and checking out baby info on some baby apps. What to Expect and The Bump both have great apps and every week have cute videos that are only about a minute but give lots of specifics as to what's happening this week. We celebrate every Wednesday and are just so extremely excited that we've made it this far!

At school on the day of Week 19, I got a special delivery from a florist. Scott (aka Proud Daddy to Bee!!) was at it again and sent me the cutest baby bouquet made of baby items like washcloths, onesies, bibs, socks, and a bee rattle. The card read something like how he was so excited we are having a boy and that he had to get this specific thing when he saw it. *Side note: we would have been thrilled to have a girl too, we did not have a preference either way and are just excited to now know which path of excitement to take. :) 

On the list for 19 weeks is that you may start to feel baby movements soon. Up until this point I thought I felt something every so often in the last few weeks but they were random and inconsistent and although I definitely believe they were Bee's earliest movements it wasn't always clear to tell. Ironically, the first time I was for sure I felt something was on the start of Week 19.  March 2, 2016. I was sitting in a faculty meeting after school and all of a sudden felt something new- like little bubbles or flutters. My eyes bugged out of my head and I quietly sent Scott a text that I was pretty sure I felt Bee move! I didn't want to tell anyone else besides Scott first and I also wasn't sure either.

March 2 is also Dr. Seuss's birthday (one of my FAV children's authors)... so it's kind of fitting that's the day I felt Bee because of this fun quote. I happened to post this to Instagram the morning of 3/2 but that was before I even felt Bee move. Fun fact. :)

Over the next few days I started to feel the flutters and bubbles/pokes/twinges more and more and was certain it was Bee moving/kicking. SOOO much fun!!! :) Poor Scott can't feel it yet but I bet he will soon. I try to put his hand there when I notice and he thinks once he felt something for one split second last week so we'll go with that, but mostly not there yet. It's also a huge comfort to me to feel things every so often so I am reassured Bee is okay in there. :)

During Week 19, my mom was also visiting from Florida. She came up for our reveal and stayed through the first week of March. Her birthday is March 3rd so we got to celebrate while Grandma was here. Our family friend Joanne also came to visit for Mom's birthday so we went out to dinner for that too.

Happy Birthday, Grandma! <3

Scott found this adorable quote over the weekend and I just cried and smiled while reading it. :)

Our friend, Mike, made this sign for us/Bee. How cool?! We love it!!! 

Just a fun quote I love... and I love that the baby elephant is blue ;)

One of my students came to school with this balloon shortly after I revealed Bee is a boy. His mom said it was all his idea and she could only take credit for writing the message for him. Too cute! 

19 Week bump ;) 

March 8th, 2014 happened to mark the start of our IUI journey, 2 whole years ago!! That was the day of our 1st IUI procedure. Ironically last year we also had another IUI on March 8th. This year on March 8th I was happy to be just shy of 20 weeks pregnant. :) 

Unfortunately March 8 also now marked the day I came down with a stomach bug and was up half the night super sick in different ways. Scott was AMAZING at helping me in every possible way. I was actually so sick I literally didn't leave the bathroom for about 3 hours straight. I kept getting sick in one way or another and was so tired I literally fell asleep sitting on the floor with my head against the toilet. At one point I just wanted to sleep on the floor so Scott got whatever extra blankets and towels he could and I literally slept on the bathroom floor for a good 30 mins before I finally was able to crawl back into bed for a few hours. Needless to say I called out of work and was practically a zombie all day. Poor Bee was probably like "Mama, what's happening?!" but I was reassured he was okay because I kept feeling him flutter around throughout the day. I'm feeling MUCH better today but called out again to rest up since I needed to catch up and not be running around with the kiddos. It's also in the 70s today (for early March in NY that's unheard of!) so I am sure my classroom feels like an oven today and that wouldn't help anyone for me to be dragging all day. 

My bed, in the bathroom, for a bit on Monday night. Ha!

Bee this week-
19 weeks means Bee is the size of a Mango this week! 
Here are some fun facts about our sweet baby boy this week...

*Bee is 6.0 inches and 8.5 ounces
*Bee is developing a protective coating over his skin to protect him from the surrounding amniotic fluid, which is the greasy white stuff babies are sometimes born covered with. 
*Nerve cells for sense of taste, hearing, sight, and smell are developing in baby's brain right now. 

As I mentioned above, Bee has started to flutter around this week!! :) I love to talk to him and know he's moving around in there and getting cozy. 

Til next time! :) 

Technically 20 weeks today (as I'm writing this) and we have a 20-week checkup in a few hours. :) We also hope to start our registry this coming weekend. 

XOXO,

Stace & Bee

#TeamRicci

What Will it Bee?? (Our Gender Reveal)

Just a cool cake pic I found on Google (Not trying to steal anyone's pic!) :)

What Will it Bee??

As you may or may not have read in my last post, our anatomy scan was at 18 weeks, on Friday 2/26/16. We had planned a small gender reveal family party for the following day and then I told everyone at school I would reveal to my class (and anyone else interested) on Monday. After that I would post on social media and eventually here. 

2/27- Family Party

Saturday was SOOOO much fun for us!! In the weeks prior, we were buying all kinds of fun deco and candy in the pink/blue theme. We wanted to keep it fairly inexpensive and not get out of hand but that's sometimes easier said than done. We ended up with way too much food but it wasn't that much in the end because we found a lot of supplies and things at Dollar Tree luckily! ;) My vision was to have sweet treats/desserts on the table that were all pink & blue and then to have a few other appetizers on the counter. Everything was finger food to make it fun and easy too. 

The main focus for the gender reveal itself is that we knew we were using cupcakes with a colored frosting center. We had already contacted a local cupcake shop about doing them for us and all we had to do was call them after the Dr. appt with the news of pink or blue (We used Moxie Cup in New Paltz, NY... they're my absolute fav!! Coming from someone who doesn't really typically like frosting/cake/cupcakes that means a lot!). Since the cupcakes were the main focal point, we went with candies and finger food sweets and candy that were all pink/blue around it so I decorated the table with just that stuff to start. I designated one side pink and one side blue, with all the pink & blue things around the middle or sides. We had tons of stuff- m&ms, Peeps, chocolate candies, conversation hearts, Sweet Tarts, Jell-o, cotton candy, Oreos and cake balls dipped in colored chocolate, and of course the cupcakes in the center. The cupcakes were vanilla with pink & blue sprinkles on top. 

Groupon had an m&m deal! Scott picked baby feet & Bees (of course!) :)

Now for some of the rest of the deco-

We also got balloons at Dollar Tree (side note- I will never spend more than $1 on heloum balloons unless they're special or they don't have what I need. But for all-purpose occasions, it's crazy to spend $3-4 on one when they're $1. Nuts!). We got 5 pink and 5 blue and put them in different parts of the house. I had bee nametags left over from school name tags years ago and found large rattle wall decorations at the party store. Dollar store streamers worked great too and the boy/girl? theme deco was from Amazon (although I think WalMart has it too). I love decorating for all occasions and it was so much fun setting up for this too. We also had a voting sheet where our guests could guess if they thought Baby Bee was a boy or a girl (it actually ended up 50/50 which was funny because everywhere else girl votes were kind of dominating).

Thank you, Pinterest ;)

The banner on the mantle says "What will it bee?" <3

Sign I added to the front door :)

Proud Daddy before the party started :)

Daddy & Mommy-to-Bee <3

Once the party started, guests were messing around and trying to find ways to break into the middle of the cupcakes before it was time to finally spill the beans. Everyone was so excited and it was so fun that the answer was within reach of everyone the whole time. Once everyone had arrived, we didn't want to delay any longer and got right to it. I started by trying to give a mini speech/welcome/thanks and of course started to cry like seconds into it. I said that everyone there was family to us in one way or another and that's why we wanted to share our special news with them in a fun way. I also thanked them all for being there for us over the past 4 years and that's when I got choked up and end of speech! ;) Time to dig in!! 

We had debated the specifics of HOW to reveal with the cupcakes. If we didn't know ourselves, we probably would have bitten into them first. But since we knew and we hate lots of attention on us, we wanted to do it differently. With the help of some genius minds, we decided to have the kids of 2 of our best friends dig in. Alli's daughter is almost 4 and Manny's youngest is 6, so we thought they'd be perfect. We put a little end table in the middle of the kitchen and let them dig in while everyone watched. When everyone saw/heard the news of the blue frosting in the middle, some shouted "IT'S A BOY!!!" :) Team Blue wins!! Now cupcakes were fair game and I felt so much pressure off of me that I could finally say "he" and "him"! ha! :) 

For those already wondering, we do have a name picked out but we are NOT sharing it until he's born. Baby Bee shall be called just that in the meantime :) We wanted to keep one more thing a surprise and also have heard lots of stories/suggestions from others to keep the name quiet to avoid rude opinionated commentary from the general public. Sad, but true, it happens. The hardest part for me now is trying not to call Bee by our chosen name too much so I don't get used to it. I'll sometimes say goodnight to him but I need to break that habit or I'll slip. Some friends are already trying to get us to slip and spill the beans and if you're reading this, knock it off silly ;) haha. If we end up slipping I'll be so upset. Baby Bee or just Bee is his name for now (and I know that nickname will even stick around for a while for sure).

Our party was quick but so much fun. I managed to get pics with almost everyone either that day or the next (some of them were staying with us and I stupidly didn't take a single pic of us with my mom or Manny & co until the next day bc they were with us- I made sure to get everyone else as they left, except for a few other friends that managed to escape the camera. Sorry guys! :(

Here are some family pics we did manage to get :)

My BFF & sister at heart

Scott's mom, dad, and brother 

My mom

My dad & stepmom

Scott's BFF & fam (Manny, Staci, Gabriel, & Greysen)

My oldest childhood friend and other bestie, Korney... who is also expecting!! It's so fun to share this experience together <3

Bump to bump (current besties & future besties) <3 <3

Me & Alli again... bc I adore her & don't get to see her enough <3

After the party, we went on our first official baby shopping spree!! Technically, Scott and I did go buy a few things after our Dr appointment the night before, but we limited each other to like 2 outfits and one soft thing. It's so hard not to go crazy after avoiding baby stores/aisles for literally years and now being like a kid in a candy shop for the first time and knowing you can pick whatever you want! So after the party we had planned to go to the local outlet center where they have Carters, Gymboree, and The Children's Place.... ahhhhhh! It was SOOO MUCH FUN!! Both of our moms came with us and bought a few things for Bee too. We even got some cute plush bee toys at Carters (how cool?!) but I somehow didn't take a pic before packing it up in a rubbermaid container temporarily. We were practically drooling over all the cute outfits and onesies with fun sayings, little hats and pjs, soft blankets and stuffed animals.. it's like Christmas every second of being in those stores. Finally!! :) 

Pile 'o fun <3

That morning, on our way to pick up the cupcakes, we were JUST saying how Bee is like Scott's little buddy. And I referred to him as little dude. Then we came across these and HAD to get them. So fun! 

2/28- Fun reveal to the ladies at Zumba class 

I've been going to Zumba still twice a week when I can make it and my friend Marisol is the instructor. She has supported us the entire way in our journey and wanted to reveal it to the ladies at class. It was her first gender reveal too so she was so excited and made blue "Team Ricci" shirts for Scott & I (I have yet to take a decent pic of us in them yet bc mine is in the laundry but I will soon). I planned to meet her there early before class to change into my blue shirt and we would both cover up our blue shirts with our sweatshirts and reveal during the warmup song. Little did I realize that it was hard to hide the color of the tee under my sweatshirt so the only solution was to put my hood up, tie it, and make sure the bottom was tucked in too. I looked and felt ridiculous but it was so funny too! 

\

Marisol had done a Facebook post the night before about the big #TeamRicci reveal, and asked that anyone who wanted to could wear pink or blue to show their guess for Baby Bee. Then during the warmup, Marisol called me up to the front to dance with her and when she gave me the signal we took off our sweatshirts and everyone cheered! It was so funny! She put a lot of thought into it and I appreciate it- it was a lot of fun celebrating even though I get so shy and embarrassed when attention is on me- lol. The cool down song was Beyonce's "Baby Boy"- haha. <3 Love you, Mari! xoxo 

We spent the rest of the day hanging out with Manny, Staci, and the boys before they headed home. It was a gorgeous day to be outside so we went to the park before they left. 60 degrees again in February is unheard of, so you take full advantage when you have the chance! 

Sporty mama ;) 

2/29- The big reveal for my kindergarten class & coworkers

My friends in the building were buzzing with excitement for Monday to arrive. Mondays are never fun in the workplace but we were all pretty psyched this day. I tortured them all over the weekend by not sharing the news and made them all wait until Monday to spill it. All month long we were taking a poll of whether everyone thought Bee was a boy or a girl. Girl won by a lot so I knew they'd all be in for a shock! 

Boy Votes: 13 staff & 7 kindies (20 total)

Girl Votes: 22 staff & 10 kindies (32 total)

My plan was to share with either a cake or balloons but I didn't trust myself to try and attempt a cake so balloons seemed like a fun way, and also easy and different. Again, thanks Pinterest! I wrapped a box with 3 of the baby boy balloons from our party and had it on my desk when the kids arrived. The big reveal wasn't planned until 9:30, when I knew certain staff members would be available. It was kind of a tease being there for a full hour once school started, but it helped build excitement. 

I had the kids make their last minute guesses, giving them a chance to change their minds if they wanted to. They're 5 & 6, they're allowed to ;). Then we graphed our results before it was time. I had to throw a little math in there somewhere ;)

As you can see, a few kids jumped ship from the original guesses last month! Originally it was 7 boy, 10 girl and they swapped to 4 boy, 12 girl (1 was absent). Too funny! I made sure to explain to them that just because more picked girl, it didn't mean it definitely was a girl. Typically when we vote in class, it's a majority-rules kind of vote but that wasn't the case with a baby. They did totally understand that and thought it was a funny thought but it was the perfect time to explain the difference between a majority-rules vote and a prediction vote just for fun with a 50/50 guess of something they couldn't control. 

Around 9:20, a whole ten mins before I was ready, the whole 3rd grade walks in and sits down, along with a few coworkers. I don't do well with big audiences so I started to get frazzled, but psyched to share the news. We managed to kill some time and once again asked everyone to share their guesses and we read them off one last time. 

Finally the moment of truth came... My class was seated in a circle around the rug and everyone else was off to the side in clear view. I brought the box over, explained how it would work (pink balloons = girl and blue balloons = boy), and opened it up. As soon as they saw the balloons, they started cheering and screaming with excitement! It was so cute! One of my coworkers took a video for me (but I'm not posting that or pics to keep the privacy of my kiddos) and trust me that they were so excited!! It was so cute seeing the boys finally get really into it! Up until then, naturally, the girls were more excited (as they should be, it's typical) and the boys were finally on board with the idea. Some of them were shouting "A boy! A boy!!" and the looks on the faces of others were just so darn cute (wide-eyed, big smiles, so sweet). The adults in the room were also cheering from either correct guesses or from shock that it wasn't a girl.... clearly I've gained some weight in my hips/butt so a lot were choosing bc of that ;) haha! 

We then walked around to see who was around and shared the news with the other kids/teachers nearby. Everyone was so excited, especially for a Monday morning, for any kind of fun news. :)

 So that's it for now... Bee is a BOY!! :) 

It's been a very fun, exciting, and eventful week for sure!! Sorry for the delay on here, but I didn't really have any time before today to get it all done.

'Til next time!

Stace, Scott, & Baby Bee
XOXO
#TeamRicci