Showering Little Noodle

Several of my Alameda mom friends were kind enough to host a shower in August to celebrate Little Noodle's impending arrival.  We went over to Danielle's home for a fantastic afternoon event filled with games, presents and... Southern food!  Little Noodle especially loved the shrimp and grits and red velvet cookies.

Since Virginia especially wanted to participate, we made it a mother-daughter shower.  It was so cute to see Virginia with all her best buddies.  The girls were also a big help when it came to present-opening.

Thanks to all my sweet friends and to Danielle for hosting.  Little Noodle now has lots of adorable outfits that we can't wait to try.

Wonder what could be in there?

Virginia and GayGay at the shower.

Silly girls at the shower. 

Princess pose at the shower.

Lots of present opening helpers.

Big Sister in Training

Virginia has been so excited about the arrival of her baby brother Little Noodle the past few months.  When we heard that the hospital where he will be born offers a big brother/big sister class for older siblings, we knew she would have a great time participating.  So, we headed over to Alta Bates Hospital in Berkeley one Saturday morning in August so she could get a tour and some big sister training.

Virginia was a natural, working hard to push the "babies" around the Labor & Deliver ward in their bassinet, trying out the adjustable beds in the recovery room, and diapering and feeding her baby.  She is going to be a natural!

Babies coming through!

This bed moves -- totally awesome!

Listening intently to our nurse teacher about baby care.

Learning how to hold babies safely. 

Ready to feed her baby!

Baby Harvey 2.0!

Expecting.

It's hard to believe we launched this blog more than four years ago to announce that we were expecting our first little Harvey.  I'm happy to announce that we have finally decided to become a family of four -- the baby who has come to be known as "Baby Harvey 2.0" and "Little Noodle" is due September 23, 2013.  And it's a BOY!

We are so excited awaiting the arrival of our second child, but no one could be more thrilled than the original Baby Harvey, Virginia.  She has been desperately wanting to be a big sister for more than a year now.  We would hear her over the monitor at night saying her prayers: "Dear God, please can I have a baby sister or a baby brother?  Amen."  Those prayers have definitely been answered, although not before she asked me if I was certain that God heard her because she had been asking for a long time and still did not have her baby sister or baby brother. ;-)

Virginia is preparing the house for the new arrival... passing down blankets, burp cloths, and baby toys that were stored in her closet up until now.  And she's let me know that she will feed the baby bottles and hand me clean diapers, but she will not be changing the dirty diapers herself.  Smart girl.

Stay tuned for more news on Baby Harvey 2.0 in the coming months.

Let's Go Oakland!

Since Baby H decided to stay put past her due date, Thomas and I decided to take in a little baseball action today and enjoy the nice spring weather.  We watched the A's defeat the Giants in their last spring training game of the season.  Everyone at the game commented about the little A's fan that I had on board.

My mom arrived tonight into San Francisco, and she is happy that she is going to be here for Baby Harvey's arrival!  Still feeling good and no sign of labor yet...

Passing the First Big Test

We had our nuchal translucency test yesterday and got the news that Baby Harvey is "all clear" for the major chromosomal abnormalities like Down's Syndrome. Although we weren't too worried about this test due to my age, it was still such a relief to get our first major assurance that Baby Harvey is right on track. It also means we will not need any invasive procedures like amniocentesis.

The best part of having this test done was that we got lots of great ultrasound videos and photos of Baby Harvey, who was quite active during the test. He/she was waving his/her little hands all around and then kicking up quite a storm. We could also see the baby opening his/her mouth and also witnessed a couple of hiccups!

A Heartbeat Away

Thomas and I had our 12 week appointment yesterday, and all is well with Baby Harvey! Our OB used the little Doppler machine to check for the baby's heartbeat and was able to find what she called "a good, strong heartbeat." She initially told us it was a little early to locate the heartbeat successfully in all cases, so we weren't expecting much. But Baby Harvey is definitely going strong!

As of today, we are officially at the 12 week mark and are happy to finally be able to reveal the news to all of our friends. It is just in time too - I'm finally showing a little bump through my clothes.