Father's Day, Childbirth classes, and swimsuits!

Brad celebrated his first Father's Day last weekend. We had his dad, little brother Max, sister and brother-in-law Melissa & Jason, and nieces Cambell and Mylee over for dinner. We all had a good time, despite the fact that our whole menu was planned to be cooked the grill and we ran out of propane! So we moved it all to the oven and just ate a little later than planned. I got Brad a book about fatherhood during the pregnancy, childbirth, and through the first year. He seems to be enjoying it, I hear him laughing while he's reading, so I must have made a good pick!

I registered today for childbirth classes. We start August 22 and go once a week for 5 weeks in the evening. I am planning on nursing (I'm gonna give it a shot!) so I also signed up for a breastfeeding class. It's just a one-time class at the beginning of October. I'll be delivering at St. Joseph's Hospital in Denver, (close to downtown where we both work), and they also offer a 'Baby Business' class. You get a tour of the hospital, fill out pre-admission forms, make your co-pay so you don't have to worry about it later, and also fill out forms for the birth certificate and social security number. We laughed about a class called Boot Camp for New Daddies, but I'm sure some dads need it! But not Brad....he's pretty prepared since he's changed diapers and babysat before. Good thing we have lots of nieces and nephews!

Last week I bought the dreaded, but necessary, maternity swimsuit! I tried a few on at Target since I didn't want to spend too much on it, then ended up ordering one online. Now, if you've never actually seen a maternity swimsuit, the bottoms look like 4 people could fit in them. They all look huge on the rack, but then when you actually try it on, it somehow fits. It's really sort of depressing. Anyway, most of the time I appreciate Brad's honesty about how clothes look on me....he grew up with two women, so he's got a pretty good fashion sense for a guy! As I was trying on the bottoms to my hot new bathing suit, he said, "Are you sure that's the front? Are you putting them on backwards?" Not the best thing to say to a pregnant woman who already feels fat ALL THE TIME! Of course he said it came out wrong, he didn't mean it like that, etc. It was pretty funny....haha

So aside from the fact that I look like I'm wearing a black and white tent, the suit isn't all that bad. It will get me through the hot summer, and right now that's all I'm really concerned about! Although, before I was pregnant, I thought I'd be one of those 'cool' pregnant people that wore a bikini with her belly sticking out.....now that I am pregnant, there's not a chance that my preggo belly is ever going to see the light of day!!

We're headed to Gatlinburg, TN for the week of July 4th to vacation with my family. The resort we're staying at has a brand new water park, so we're both really excited about that. Probably more excited than my nieces and nephews! I'll be hanging out at the lazy river while everyone else is going down the fun slides....something to look forward to next year! And don't expect me to be posting any pictures of me in that maternity suit when we get back....

IT'S A BOY!!

It's official - we're having a boy! There is no doubt about it from the pictures....as you can see, he was not shy! (The pictures are kind of hard to see, but I couldn't make them any bigger...sorry!) Brad and I were nervous all day long since our appointment wasn't until early afternoon yesterday. The sonogram technician asked us if we wanted to know the sex, and we both said yes, but we wanted to know if the baby was healthy first and if everything was okay. Ten fingers, ten toes, and all the right parts....a healthy and growing baby! But about halfway through the sonogram, we were both a little antsy to get to the good part (follow the arrow on the bottom picture...it's kind of looking at him from the bottom like he's sitting down...you can see his legs out to the left and the top)!

It was a very overwhelming feeling, actually seeing the baby move around and kind of seeing what he looks like...at least for me, it made it more real now than it was before. He was very active though, and I'll be taking all the credit for that - I drank a Diet Mt. Dew right before we went so he would be good and awake so we could see the goods!! We got a lot of good pictures since he was moving around a lot, and Little Mr. Engle seems to be very photogenic! The sonogram technician let us look at a picture to see if we could figure it out before she told us. I didn't say anything because I didn't want to guess wrong, but Brad knew right away. We were both super excited and of course I cried! My doctor said that we can buy blue and wash it, she's that sure it's a boy....so Brad will be busy painting the nursery soon!

We do have a couple of names picked out, but we're keeping them a secret until he's born. Something needs to be a surprise! My sister keeps asking, saying that she won't tell anyone...yeah, right!!

And now for the belly pic.....this is me at 20 weeks a few days ago. I've only gained 6 lbs. so far, and my doctor tells me I'm doing good. I'm drinking a lot of water like I should be, the only bad thing about that is that I'm running to the bathroom all the time!

Hopefully this finds everyone doing well....have a great weekend!