Christmas is coming...
And this year, that means a new addition to our family! We couldn't be happier to finally announce that we have a bouncing Baby Boy due on Christmas Eve! It's absolutely crazy just how quick the first half of my pregnancy has flown by, and with just four months left it seems as though he will be here in a blink. We found out the gender last week Tuesday, and yesterday hosted a "Sex Party" to share the news with family and friends. ALL of the signs pointed to a girl from day one - I was nauseated all day, had awful spotty skin, the Chinese calendar said so...but when it came time for the technician to have a peek there it was, clear as day, Baby Tatem is a Boy!!
A lot of people asked what we preferred, and while we certainly knew there would be benefits to both gender, we really just wanted a healthy baby. After getting pregnant easily on our first try, I miscarried in February. It was really horrible timing - we sat in emergency on Mark's birthday receiving an abundance of virtual well wishes while the doctors confirmed that my pregnancy was no longer viable. I think the feeling of utter loss and sadness following a miscarriage is something you can't really describe unless you've experienced it. It's a sudden void of darkness where there had just been hope and excitement, and suddenly the would-have-been innocuous questions from strangers about your reproductive future feel incredibly prying and hurtful. (Repeat after me: I solemnly swear to never ask a woman who I hardly know about their baby making plans...). Needless to sat, we're very excited for a much more joyous winter in 2018!
Very fortunately for us, our rainbow baby came soon after - and we found out on Easter that we're due just in time for Christmas. The first twelve weeks of this pregnancy were nerve wracking, just wanting to tick off one more week until I hit the second trimester "safe zone"! Of course, I also was super keen to stop feeling suuuuper sick - so for many reasons week 12 felt like an incredible milestone! While we had both naturally all but settled on the perfect girls name, we hadn't spent any real time brainstorming for either gender since we knew we were planning to find out. I'm a bit (lot) more A-Type than Mark, I was keen to start thinking on both right away, but as naming a boy would definitely be the trickier task we decided to wait and see if we would need to find the perfect XY moniker. Guess what, we do! And so the weighty responsibility of naming a human begins...
It very much seemed that the majority of folks had their money on a Team Pink, so yesterday's reveal was pretty shocking (also, there is nothing harder than NOT mentioning gender once you actually know it!). We'd ordered both pink and blue biodegradable confetti weeks in advance to fill confetti cannons. On the count of three, what will Baby Tatem be?! It was such a fun way to share our news! Thanks to Fae for capturing the reveal, and to Sonja for (as always) going above and beyond to ensure the party and decor was absolutely perfect! It was also really special to have my Grandma here, as she lives in Boston I don't see her as much as I'd like - so having both Baby Tatem's Glamma and Great-Grandma present yesterday was amazing for us :)
