On Friday, December 20th, we loaded up the van with our bags packed for Peoria but took a detour to our 18/19 week appointment first with both kids in tow. The ultrasound felt a little long, but I chalked it up to trying to wrangle two kids while in that small room. Owen was pretty into it!
And then came the shocker. . .It’s a BOY!
I wasn’t sad in the least but, I guess I just had really thought it was a girl because of how sick I was. Seeing how excited Owen was made it very real instantly! I immediately started imagining opening all of Owen’s tubs of clothes and getting to use them again. Ohh the cuteness!
So then we headed upstairs to my midwife’s appointment and the nurse said Ellen would be right in. But then we waited. And waited. And in my heart I just knew. Something wasn’t quite right. Several days after I found out I was pregnant, William had a very vivid dream that we had a baby who had down syndrome. He told me about it immediately but we hadn’t really talked about it since. Maybe it was simply a way of preparing us for this appointment and all the emotions that came with it. When Ellen finally came in, she informed us that our little man had choroid plexus cysts. It is one of the “soft markers” they use for downs and trisomy 18. She reassured us that the chances of there actually being something wrong were very very small. And we actually left the appointment with a lot of peace.
We drove to Peoria for Christmas and had planned on having my mom open a big box of balloons the next day when we all opened gifts. She didn’t know we had our ultrasound moved up. But when Owen was playing cars with Grandpa, he made a comment about having a brother and with a few more probing questions, my dad had it out of him and us. So much for the surprise. :) Oh well.
On January 7th, we went back to Carle and met with a Maternal Fetal Medicine doctor. She tech did a much longer ultrasound and then the doctor came in a basically did the same thing again. Then we went to her office and chatted with her. While she was nice, you could tell immediately she fell on the conservative side of medicine (a sentiment that has been verified by several people who have dealt with her and a midwife). The detailed ultrasound showed no other markers or growth issues, so she felt we were pretty much in the clear. 
She did offer us a newer blood test which is a 99% accurate screen for chromosomal issues. William said he was fine without out. But being someone who just likes information, and since it only involved me giving blood, I went ahead and did it on the way out.The only super annoying thing that she was looking back through my charts and made me explain all the crazy that happened after Owen’s birth with my heart (see here). After reading and listening, she said she was going to recommend me going back to the cardiologist. Which I had already done after Owen and before Ellie’s birth. She asked if she could schedule that and I said no but I’d be happy to chat with my midwives about it. It just felt like she was looking for things. Ugh.
But less than a week later, my blood results came back great! While I know we could have handled what ever challenges this little man brought us, we are so so thankful that we are having a healthy baby! Now to compromise on a name.
I also make a simple 2 tier diaper cake (
Here’s her gift from my mom and myself. She registered for the pink baskets which I filled with some of my favorite things for baby.
Here’s a few beautiful shots from Erica. I took the leftover pieces of fabric and sewed them together for a table runner.
The pink lanterns were just bought from Hobby Lobby. I found a small embroidery hoop at the IDEA store for $.25. I took it apart and covered both parts with more strips of the pink and navy fabrics to make little “mobiles”. These all hung over the chair where Alyssa opened her gifts.
It was such a sweet shower with cute games and yummy food. 
Here’s a few of the ladies with my cousin Alyssa (who’s in the black and white striped dress). Cannot wait to hear the news of this little girl’s arrival and finally learn her name!!
Source: 
My review: I bought 7 of these tubs from Wal-Mart. 3 for kids and 4 for some of my school/home files. I bought several large packs of file folders (yes this took my entire “home” budget for several months.) For my kid’s boxes, I made folders with the labels:
While I’ve made it known that cooking is not my forte, it has been nice to finally feel well enough to make something for my family. Here’s a few recipes that we’ve enjoyed the last month:
My Review: I love Chipotle so I can’t say this was better than Chipotle. It doesn’t have quite the kick that they get into their salads. But this was really good! I love cilantro so this was right up my alley. William ate it with chips like a salsa and I just ate mine right out of the bowl like a salad. Definitely worth keeping this pin.
My review: yummy! It’s definitely a little sweet and I only used about half the brown sugar. Next time, I’d use only about 1/3. But served over rice, William definitely approved. And as you can tell by my pictures, I threw in a few extra veggies into mine.
I made my own little decorated papers for inside, but here are two cute printable sheets of activities to save you time if you want to do this next year. 
Let me know if you have any other good ideas for our advent countdown next year. It was such a fun way to get them excited for Christmas!