… HE!
We haven’t done one of these posts since 2010, so it feels kind of strange and exciting to be sharing this kind of news with you guys again. We found out on Wednesday, and then scurried to tell our families over the last 48 hours. Of course, the most important person to tell first was Clara. We didn’t want her to learn the news from an ultrasound technician, so we scheduled a playdate for her with my dad during this particular appointment. Then when we were back together, we surprised her with a baby boy doll (which are surprisingly hard to find, we learned). It was a cute little “OK, look in the bag to see if there’s a little boy or a little girl in mommy’s belly!” moment.
And if there’s one thing she enjoys more than tearing through some tissue paper, it’s baby dolls. It was love at first sight and, more importantly, she completely connected the dots that this meant she was getting a little brother. She pretty much immediately started giving him his bottle and changing his diapers and even bragged that she knew it was a boy the whole time. When we asked her what she wanted to name the baby doll, without hesitation she shouted: “Barnacles!” After Sherry and I completely failed at stifling our laughter, Clara explained that its full name was actually Captain Barnacles (a character in one of her new favorite shows, Octonauts). So yeah, she won’t be naming her real brother… but we have called the bun “the barnacle” a few times since then.
She (okay, well all of us) originally guessed we were having a girl. But our instincts started to shift to boy when Sherry’s morning sickness wouldn’t let up (this pregnancy is pretty different than the last). Which is good because Clara started asking for a brother, probably because a few of her best friends have baby brothers. Regardless of the reason, she couldn’t have been more thrilled at the news. And so are we.
After about the sixteenth Captain Barnacle diaper change, Clara called up Nonna to tell her via FaceTime. She was really excited to deliver the news – and Nonna was just as excited to hear it!
For telling my family here in town, we decided to make a little game out of the announcement. We managed to get my parents, my sister, and her family to meet us out to dinner last night (at Panera, since we’re super fancy and all). We came armed with a bunch of blue and pink envelopes, so each person could make a final guess by picking a pink envelope if they thought it was a girl and a blue one if they thought boy.
Then we had them all tear into them at the same time to see if their baby-dar was on point or not. All of the blue ones said some iteration of “yup!” or “bingo!” or “you betcha!” and all the pink ones said “nope!” “try again!” or “wrong-o!” We had about a 50/50 split in guesses, so even though half of ’em were off-base, everyone was thrilled. It was really fun to watch their faces as they all figured it out at pretty much exactly the same moment.
Then we got to make a whole bunch of other family & friend calls to spread the news (Clara was awesome about boasting “I’m getting a baby brother!” about 100 times to various friends and relatives on the horn). And that, as they say, is history.
Sherry and I are both really excited. We’re mostly just thankful to hear there’s a healthy bun barnacle growing in there, no matter its sex. But being able to picture this child – this boy! – a bit more clearly makes the excitement that much more real. As much as two little girls would’ve been fun, we’re really looking forward to the experience of raising a son along with this great daughter of ours. Not to mention that Sherry’s already going crazy looking at nurseries on Pinterest.
It’s fun to think about the possibilities for that room now that we know better who will be occupying it. Not that we’ll fill it with “man things” or make it all blue and green (actually, come to think of it, Clara’s original nursery was blue and green) but it’s just fun to talk about potential projects and colors and art now. The funny thing is that the nursery is the only room in this entire house that had pink trim when we bought it.
Good thing it’s already painted white! Bad that the room is currently housing a bunch of random junk. Guess it’s getting time to start working on that…
We’d love to hear your stories about finding out the sex of your baby (whether halfway through with an ultrasound, one of those early blood tests, or right there in the delivery room). And feel free to share how you told your family and friends. Was it a photo on Facebook? One of those blue/pink cakes? A box full of balloons? Or did you just call or visit people and blurt out the news? Any way you play it, it’s a pretty exciting moment.
Robyn in Chicago says
Awwwwwwwwwwww. BABY BARNACLE!!! LOL. Love every second of this post. Many congrats to you all! A boy! yay!! xoxo
Nicole says
Congratulations! This is amazing news :) a little boy Petersik!!
Jill says
SO excited for your family! We had a girl and then a boy, too, and it is fantastic! I liked the way we found out with our boy – we made a card and then at our appointment had the u/s tech circle which sex the baby was. Then we joined up with our family with some pink and blue balloons and one by one they opened the card (we had not seen it yet) and as they opened the card, they popped a balloon and this went on until we were left with just one blue balloon!
Sandra says
So, one of each! That is how our two children (now 5 and 7) turned out as well. The first one, we had no preference either way and I recall emailing family the results. The second one I think I subconsciously wanted a boy, but did not voice it. There are mostly women in my family. My husband and I have sisters. My mother has 4 sisters. Our first child is a girl. When the perinatologist announced the second child was a boy, my reaction was ,”Yay!” then a quick return of, “I don’t know what to do with a boy!” Well, I’ve figured out what I needed to, and his big sister is a big help.
Have a blast!
K says
Yay! Congratulations!
Andrea Spivey says
Sweet way to let Clara find out the news!
Gayla says
Congratulations! How wonderful. I keep asking my son (2 & 1/2) if he wants a baby brother or baby sister, and he consistently says: “I don’t WIKE it!” Tricky…lol.
Carolyn says
Congrats! We didn’t find out gender for either of my pregnancies even with twins the second time around. The hardest part with the twins was coming up with two boys’ and two girls’ names (it was a boy and a girl).
Clarissa says
CONGRATULATIONS!! It’s wonderful to have one of each! We just had our second in October! Thanks for sharing with all of us!
courtney says
We found out about 3 weeks before he was born at an ultrasound! We adopted, and the birth mom didn’t want to find out til she had picked a family. It too was a boy, who we brought home on Thanksgiving!
Be sure to use scrubbable paint! Its true what they say about changing boys diapers! I’ve already had to wipe my walls down several times! lol!
Michelle B. says
I have 4 boys and am a girly-girl through and through. The first 3 babies were surprises in the delivery room, but my pregnancy symptoms were different with #4. Absolutely positive that it must mean we were finally having a girl, we decided to find out at the ultrasound, only to be wronged by yet another boy. I cried. I remember thinking that there must be some mistake so I asked the technician to keep checking, but there was no doubt it was a boy. I kept crying. She felt bad for me so she gave me a free upgrade to the 4D ultrasound where we could see his face. I fell more in love with my little guy at that moment and now I can’t imagine what my life would be like without each of my 4 boys. They are blessings! Congrats Petersiks!!
Diana says
I’m truly excited for you!
Pam the Goatherd says
Baby brothers are the BEST!!!! I’m the big sister to a brother and was soooo happy that my parents had a brother for me. We had our ups and downs over the years – there was a dent in a doorframe of the house where we lived when we were little kids, from the time I went after my brother with a broom and he slammed the door in my face, with the broomstick in the doorway! But as teenagers and adults we have always looked out for one another. He stood by me while I went through a difficult divorce, and I was by his side when his wife died from cancer. We are both in our 50s now and still very close and good friends.
I know that Clara will be a fantastic Big Sister to her Little Barnacle.
Ashley says
Aww, congratulations! Nothing sweeter than a little boy.
Kathy says
Congrats from the warmest place in my heart!
Chris says
What great news! Congratulations Sherry, John and Clara! That’s one lucky boy. It’s so nice that Clara’s old enough to share in the excitement. We’re still a family of three but I hope someday to expand a little more.
We had fun sharing the news we were expecting buy passing out fortune cookies after one of our regular family dinners. The reactions were priceless.
Courtney says
Yay, John and Sherry, this is so exciting!!! Thanks for letting all of us share in your news. :)
Also, for what it’s worth, my parents let me name my little sister when I was 3 years old (we’re 4 years apart), I think mostly to help me feel part of the baby process and feel like a big sister. I originally insisted on naming her Sally (based on the main character in a Wee Sing Along tape!), which my parents were strongly opposed to, but I eventually came up with Chelsea, which was much better. Anyway, I just wanted to throw out there that you could sit Clara down again and ask her to brainstorm more ideas for names if you wanted to include her in the process! I’m sure she’d come up with a (truly) good one after a few weeks.
YoungHouseLove says
That’s sweet! She has a ninja turtle that she calls Sally Ben. It could be lots of fun to brainstorm with her!
xo
s
Natural Mommy says
Congratulations! Your home and family are so beautiful. I can’t wait to see more. :) Now that you know it will be a boy please take time out from your busy life to research keeping your son whole. I cannot even begin to express how important it is to respect his new and perfectly formed little body.
Julie says
Congratulations!
Kendall says
Congrats! So excited for your family!
patricialynn says
Yay! I can’t wait to “meet” him through the wonder of modern technology (aka blogging).
My first pregnancy I had no idea what I was having…the little imp hid all the important parts from the ultrasound technician at my 20th week check. But I went two weeks overdue, got induced, and experienced four days of labor.
On the second day of labor, the doctor pulled in a mobile ultrasound unit to see if he could figure out why the labor wasn’t progressing the way it should. He was talking with my mother while randomly moving the ultrasound wand around, and I was the only one actually paying attention to the screen. He moved the wand again and BAM – very clear little boy parts! I cried out “It’s a boy!” and the doc and my mom turned to look at me – and the wand shifted as the doctor turned! He couldn’t get the image to come back up again and both he and my mom clearly felt I was seeing things. Mom in particular was adamant that I was carrying a girl.
It was a joy to deliver a boy two days later to show them wrong!
Lynn says
Congrats on the exciting news!!! Clara will be a great big sister!!!
Mary Ellen says
I am so excited for you guys! Clara is going to be a great big sis. Its pretty funny that you have thousands of us living vicariously through you at work, so excited about your pregnancy announcement even though we don’t know you :)
Allison says
Congratulations Petersik family!! So excited for you!!
amy c says
we adopted our son, so we found out we were getting a baby and his sex all in one breath. and told people the same way. so it wasn’t the gender people were excited about, it was just the baby.
Roxanne M says
Congratulations! I had a feeling it was a boy :) You know,through blog posts?
Sarah says
How thrilling for your family! I laughed at the name “Barnacle” because when we found out our second child was a boy, our first son wanted to call him “Green!” I think it’s a good thing parents get the naming rights.
Stephanie says
Congrats – boys are wonderful! Much easier in the early teen years than girls =)
Lauren says
Aww, congratulations Petersiks! So fun!
Rossi says
Congratulations! You’re going to love being able to raise one of each. They’re so different!
With my 2nd pregnancy, my sister-in-law, cousin, and I were due within a month of each other. After our ultrasounds, we kept the results a secret until a large group of family members got together at Famous Dave’s (we’re also fancy) for a big 3-way reveal.
My brother purchased pairs of pink and blue socks for each of us to serve as an indicator. We polled everyone at the table about each baby. After everyone made their guesses, the preggos simultaneously held up the gender-appropriate socks. THREE GIRLS! As everyone looked around the table and realized what all the pink socks meant, we cheered and laughed in disbelief. Everyone in the restaurant celebrated with us (whether they wanted to or not)! And no one guessed all three correctly.
It’s a great moment to remember. Thanks for sharing your joyful story and allowing me this stroll down memory lane!
myamogabi says
Congratulations!!!! Sooooo happy for you guys!
Tanya says
OMG! Congratulations! So excited for you guys!
I’m totally biased, but I feel that this is as close to perfect gender/age/orders as you can get! With having older sister/younger brother, and the age spread like you have, there is no way they will not grow up super close!
There was a point in my and my brother’s lives that people thought we were twins (we’re three years apart). My sons are 13 years apart, and even though they are close as can be, there are not many things they can really enjoy together. So YAY for you, guys!
Steph Reiner says
I love this!!! I have a 16 month old daughter and I’m 13 weeks preggo with #2 so we still have awhile to find out what it’ll be! I love the idea of letting everyone make their last minute guesses. I’m scouring Pinterest for some cute ideas but we already failed at completing my cute idea of a photo shoot announcing Allie’s big sister status. *Sigh… we’ll get ’em next time?
Amanda says
CONGRATULATIONS to the 4 … err 5 of you!
Hilary says
Congratulations!!! We didn’t do anything fancy afer finding out we were having a boy. We just called all of our family members and blurted out the news! I called my Dad first :)
erin says
Congrats!!
With our oldest boy, we had a baker make a cake for my husband’s family to all cut into while we tuned in via Skype (they all live in the same town, but in a different state from us.) WIth boy #2 we just updated via Facebook after our 20 week ultrasound (we couldn’t wait!). And now with boy #3 (due in March!) we paid to have an ultrasound done early as I was pretty sure I was having another boy and was tired of people harassing me that it was a girl. ;) AND I was RIGHT. Ha! ;)
So excited to see how your nursery turns out! This is the first time I am designing an honest-to-goodness boy nursery as I tried to keep the other two neutral in case we had to use stuff for a girl. This time, I’m not holding back! ;)
erin says
Oh, and Barnacle is a GREAT name. ;) My two-year-old informed me over breakfast the other day that he had a baby in his belly too, and that its name was “Oatmeal”. Not a bad name, eh? ;)
YoungHouseLove says
Love it!
xo
s
Gale says
My daughter gave each of the grandma’s a bouquet of flowers with 8 pink flowers and 2 blue flowers as the view only gave an 80% girl. We indeed did have a wonderful granddaughter.
Keri says
For our 2nd baby, we had the ultrasound tech put the pics and info in an envelope, not knowing if we wanted to find out. We decided we did, so I got a blue and pink onesie and had my mom put the correct one in a box for us to open and be surprised on Xmas. I didn’t tell my hubby this plan though, so he was just confused/shocked (he was sure it was another boy) when we opened it. He got over the initial shock and ADORES our daughter, but we’ve still never watched the video haha…
Congrats on the baby boy, having one of each has been such a great experience for us, and I’m sure it will be for you guys too :)
Alina says
Awww, congrats you guys! Have you made up Christmas cards yet? The pic with Clara, Burger and little “Barnacle” in front of the Christmas tree would be SO sweet, in my opinion :)
YoungHouseLove says
We definitely have that as an option if the thing we have planned tanks (totally could with a kid and a dog…). So nice to have a little backup pic!
xo
s
heather says
Congrats! I’m very excited and happy for you and your family! Best wishes for baby boy!
Tracy G says
Gah! Boys are the best and it’ll be so nice to have one of each. I’m sure it’ll be a totally new and awesome experience! Congrats all around!!
Kiera says
CONGRATS!!!! So exciting! Our oldest is a girl and her brother followed 4 years later (almost to the day)! They are 7 and 3 now and the 4 year difference has been amazing! So much fun to have one of each too! And I laughed at Clara’s baby name! We call our son Barnacle all the time because he is a huge Mama’s boy and is ALWAYS attached to me! Enjoy the rest of your pregnancy! : )
Albita says
Congrats on the baby boy!! I’m due May 6th and I’ve been so much sicker with this baby than i was with my little girl, and we found out we’re having a boy too!
It’s so great to have one of each, but either boy or girl is a blessing, just as long as they are born healthy!
I can’t wait to see what you guys do for the nursery! So exciting!! Congrats Petersiks!
Danica says
yay for a sweet little boy! I’m so excited for your family. Congrats and thanks for letting us share in your excitement!
Megan L says
Congrats! Our first (and only this far) is a boy and its so fun!
We found out the gender at a reveal party. US tech put it in an envelope which went straight to a local bakery. We had 2 dozen cupcakes made with only ONE that had either pink or blue icing in the middle. When it came time to eat cupcakes, it was fun to watch everybody tear into them to see if they were the lucky one with the secret! Turns out, my husband had it! It was awesome. I’d love to wait until delivery next time but we’ll have to see if I’m that patient!
Steph H. says
My parents have 4 kids, my brother is the oldest and then 3 girls! They never found out with any of us, and when they found out they were having a 4th my brother promptly started referring to is as “MY BABY!” because he wanted a brother so badly! Well, my parents went to the hospital and had my younger sister. They called our brother at home to tell him and my mom says she said “Chris, I had your baby, and her name is Valerie!” The next thing she heard was a dial-tone because my brother immediately hung up on her! Funny thing is, he looks out for Val like a hawk even though she’s well into her 20’s now!
Dawn S says
Congratulations! As a mom of 2 boys (so far), I can tell you what a joyful adventure it is to have a boy in the house!
For my first , our first trimester ended the week before Christmas, so we kept it a secret that we were even having a baby until we gave our families photo calendars for Christmas…when they flipped to June (our due month), there was a giant picture of our baby’s first ultrasound. They all flipped out!
I think they were all so “sad” that we kept them in the dark so long, that we just made phone calls after the big ultrasound to tell them it was a boy. And they got “we’re pregnant again!” AND “it’s another boy!” calls for #2. If we ever have a girl (we hope for one more babe…whatever it is), Then I would want to plan a really fun gender announcement because it would be the first girl born into my husband’s family line in at least 4 generations! (But we don’t expect that to happen, given the trend…though we’d love it!)
Lisa says
Huge congratulations to you guys! One of my favorite parts to finding out the baby’s sex is not having to refer to the baby as an “it” or “he/she”…we had our first (a boy) almost a year ago and it’s the sweetest little bond ever. Happy for you! :))
Jasmin M says
Congrats! I unfortunately can not have any of my own biological children but I get so excited for other people. What a wonderful blessing and special time in your life.
Lesley says
Congratulations!! This is so exciting! So glad the Petersik family is going to have one of each now :)