… 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.
Liesbeth says
Congrats. the Barnacle, that is so awesome!!!! Hilarious! Hope the rest of the pregnancy will be easier for you!!
The 4th picture looks almost like a Christmas card to me ;-)
Laurel says
Congrats!!! I’m so excited and happy for you guys! You’ll have so much fun designing a nursery too! So many new boy themed ideas! A whole new world of boy.
jessica @fourgenerationsoneroof says
Congrats! Very exciting and cute pics of Clara :)
Tracey says
Congrats! May he blessed with good health, good looks and good taste! God bless your family. Happy for you :D
Kirstin says
Congratulations! My first is a boy and I love him to pieces.
I’m now due in April with a little girl. We told the grandparents by sending them pink flower arrangements from their future granddaughter.
Abbie says
We waited to find out in the delivery room for both of ours. We have a 2 year old and I was convinced that we were having another boy this last time around. Surprise! A girl…whom we named Clara!
YoungHouseLove says
So sweet!
xo
s
Shannon says
We also found out on Wednesday we are having a boy! This is our first pregnancy and I am 14 weeks. We did an early blood test (Verifi) and had them put the results in an envelope for us to open later together that evening. We did the test for genetic purposes (history in family) and are very happy to know early.
Kristan says
Congrats!! Such an exciting moment! I have a son almost exactly Clara’s age and am due with another boy literally less than a week after you! It’s fun to read about your baby and kid experiences as we ride the parenting roller coaster together!!
Sue says
Congratulations, Petersik family! Of course, my first hope was for a healthy sibling for Clara, but my second was for a boy. All the best!!
Kelli says
Boys rock! I’m so excited it’s a boy! Thank you for sharing your barnacle blessing with us!!! As a mother of four boys, I have learned so much about men from having boys.
Claudia A. says
The Hubs great niece just had a baby…they were told with all the family by going to the park to have a little get together. Only the best friend had been told the sex. She wrapped a big box in beautiful paper with a bow…when the couple opened the box a few helium balloons were in it and they floated up. Everyone was elated when they saw that the balloons were blue. So the couple actually got to see first, but it was a great surprise for all! The pictures are incredible, as they had photographers there too. A GREAT SURPRISE for all!!!
Claudia A. says
Oh I got so caught up in telling their wonderful story I almost forgot…CONGRATULATIONS!!!!
James says
Felicitaciones! There’s a little Spanish congratulations for Casa Petersik :-)
Lisa says
no baby here, but my brother and sil had cupcakes made with either pink or blue frosting in the middle. they gave a sealed ultrasound picture to the baker, so they didn’t even know. they had a big party and all at once everyone took a big bite of a cupcake to find pink frosting! baby girl is now a couple months old and is the cutest little girl! it was so fun finding out!
Barbara says
‘Félicitations’ from France on your wonderful news!
Anna says
Congratulations! I was heavily pregnant this time last year with my first baby, and we decided not to find out the sex, as a) I love surprises and b) a friend advised me that towards the end, it would be the thought of that sweet surprise that would keep me going (in hindsight: as if there was any choice BUT to keep going ha ha!)
Ah… happy memories of pregnancy! x
tonya says
BOYS ARE WONDERFUL!! Congratulations. My husband and I had a girl first, then 2 boys. You will cherish the girl, and the boys will add such a cool, laid-backness to the family. The boys will love and protect mom and mom will teach them how to be gentlemen, but will need the dad for strength, consistency and basketball time.
Get ready! You are about to have so much fun!
Courtney says
Congrats!! We have 2.5yr old girl and 5 mo old boy here in good old richmond!! found out in the delivery room what they both were!! So exciting it has been a blast getting to know his different personality!! Enjoy every moment!! :)
Abby Meade says
Congradulations! I’m so excited for y’all!
Christine says
Eeeeeeee!!!!! I’m so excited for you guys! I’m also expecting (my first) in April and found out it was a boy a few weeks ago. I’m huge into “reveals” so for my mom we sent her a framed photo of “the proof” and had her open it via Facetime. For my dad we brought over a boy with blue balloons inside and had him open it to find out. I loved sharing each reveal!
I’m so excited to steal tons of your ideas- from the nursery to the clothes!! Good luck on a seamless 2nd half of your pregnancy!
Julia@Cuckoo4Design says
Yay, congratulations! Awesome news and I’m beyond excited for you guys!
Sara Richins says
When i announced we are having a boy a couple of weeks ago, I chose to go a simple route and make a facebook announcement that got a bit of a chuckle from our friends and family. I posted a video of the Geico commercial “Weaddababyitsaboy” and wrote in the post, “will you accept a collect call from Sara Werehavingababyitsaboy?”
YoungHouseLove says
We always quote that commercial! So funny!
xo
s
Katie Fischer says
Congratulations!!!
Kate says
YAAAAAAAAAAY!!! So excited!
Rana says
Yay!! Congratulations from London! What a wonderful news guys!!! Absolutely thrilled for you! and Clara is so super cute and look very proud!
Clara cracked me up with her choice of name. My not-yet-3-year-old daughter is obsessed with Octonauts since she was one, and keeps calling all her new toys Capitan Barnicles, she even calls herself like that when she has a role play! :)) I guess if we were expecting she would be calling her new sibling like that too :))
As how we’ve found out we were expecting her… we were very lucky, by pure chance we were having the scan a day before we were off to Seville (in Spain). SO I’ve brought a very pretty gender neutral turquoise coloured card, gave to the sonographer asking to wright the gender down and seal it. We’ve opened it the next day during a lovely dinner in Seville.
xxx
YoungHouseLove says
Sounds so romantic!
xo
s
Jessica A says
We had a baby boy but for baby #2 we planned a home- water birth. The sex was unknown & we video taped the birth (in a nice G rated, work safe, waist up way) When the baby was born my husband yelled “It’s a boy!” A few minutes after I looked myself & saw he was WRONG! It was a girl! We played the video for all the night on Facebook!
YoungHouseLove says
So funny!
xo
s
The Mom says
I’m a Nonna, too! Love it! I also shopped for a little boy baby doll for my daughter to give her daughter when the little brother was born. I searched high and low and finally found “Baby Paul”. They only had the one. I commented to the salesclerk that it was a shame and she shrugged her shoulders and told me it was driven by demand. It made me sad that more dollies are little boys spreading good cheer into pretend mommmies and daddies hearts. Oh well. I am thankful the “barnacle” will be arriving soon. Be prepared to have your lives turned upside down on every count: the big sister thing, the boy thing, the “oh no, we have two children to get out the door thing” and more. Just remember that it really is a fun, fabulous, exhausting journey with those little people. And so worth it. Blessings!
Viginia says
Congratulations!!! Y’all will be such great parents (and sister) to a little boy! He’s going to have so much fun growing up in your house!! All of the tools (and love) – oh my!!
Deb says
Excellent news!
I wanted to know what we were having but the spouse and almost everyone we knew did not. So I found out – it made the whole thing more real to me – and Did Not Tell Him!! It was great fun keeping the secret. I told one or two pals but swore them to secrecy. And the nursery was done in yellow. The spouse did not find out until the delivery!
Georgia says
It’s funny you say that you thought it might be a different sex because of the way Sherry felt. I knew that my first two were boys (dreamt it both times) , and then felt so different with my 3rd I was convinced it was going to be a little girl. But oh no, 3 boys. I was devastated when I found out he was a boy, just because I felt I had come to know this little girl. Only for a little while, of course. The good news is that only 16 (!) months later I had my little girl. I’m sure my mother in law didn’t believe me when I told her I was having a girl as she sent me all boy baby clothes. Boys and girls are definitely different to raise. Congratulations!
YoungHouseLove says
Love that story!
xo
s
Kaleigh says
Congratulations!! One of each! So exciting and I love the reveal idea!
Jaya says
Congratulations!!! So happy for your family! Clara is going to be a great big sister! :)
Esther says
Congrads. Boys are so fun! We are also due in June. The nurse called me at 17 weeks w the blood test results and I was driving and when she said girl I lost it. I started bawling and my boys were wondering what was wrong. They told most of the Fam it was a girl. My hubbie took cupcakes to work decorated pink to announce
Kristine says
congratulations!!! we just had our second (we have 2 girls now.. Tabitha and Daphne). We are done, but I have fallen in love with a boy name. I wanted to pass it along for when you are obsessively making your own lists: Sullivan… and you can call him Sully as his nickname. I wish you all the best and I hope that the delivery is safe and lovely.
YoungHouseLove says
That’s so funny! That was the street in NYC where I lived when I met John, so it’s something we even tossed around when Clara was in my belly (before we knew she was a she).
xo
s
Katie Waddell says
Aw, Congrats!! Boys are great (I have three!)!!! With our youngest our ultrasound was in the afternoon on Valentines Day. We had the ultrasound tech write down the gender and seal it in an envelope, then we took it to a friend of ours who owns a bakery. She made a cake for us with either blue or pink icing on the inside layers. We had all of our family and friends over and videotaped the cutting of the cake. SO FUN!!
danielle says
we found out in the delivery room, much to the annoyance of all of our friends and family who thought we were crazy for waiting and seemed irritated that it interfered with their shopping. ;-)
our nursery still looks like yours does now and our little man is 3 months old. there are no plans to finish it any time soon… all i’ve bought is the fabric for the curtains! practical, huh?
YoungHouseLove says
We were still working on Clara’s nursery for months afterwards. The best rooms evolve over time. Like a fine wine, haha!
xo
s
Casey says
We are having a boy also, due April 27th, 2014! We found out at 14 weeks after our CVS (I’m of “advanced maternal age”), but it was fun to look for his boy parts at our anatomy ultrasound!
Our families didn’t even know we were open to having kids, so it was a huge surprise when we told them we were pregnant. We told them we were having a boy when we told them we were pregnant, at 14 weeks – just blurted it out!
I am so excited that you will have a girl AND a boy! I’m anxiously waiting to see what you do with the nursery, although I LOVE that reader redesign with the space nursery and the embroidery hoop planets.
Jo says
Congrats John and Sherry and Clara :) I’ve been lucky enough to found out twice and also have two surprises and both ways are equally as fun, though I’m very glad you found out, I can’t wait to see what you do with the nursery!
Amy says
We decided not to find out the genders for either of our pregnancies and found out in the delivery room. It was such a great moment for my husband to go out and announce in the waiting room. We had twins the second time around and were blessed with a boy and girl so that was a very sweet moment.
Amy says
And congrats!
Kate says
Yay! Congratulations!
For our first find-out-the-sex ultrasound, my husband and I turned it into a fun activity to help take my mom’s mind off of her recently diagnosed breast cancer. So we brought my mom with us to the appointment, and she was in the room with us to hear “it’s a healthy little boy!” And then my mom and I went to a swanky baby clothing boutique and she picked out his first little article of clothing. A little white sun hat with green trim. She beat the cancer, by the way:)
YoungHouseLove says
That’s awesome Kate! Love all the stories, guys. Thanks so much for sharing them with us!
xo
s
Sarah says
Hopefully this doesn’t creep you out too much but… I already knew you were having a boy and here’s why: I had a dream about two weeks ago and you guys were in it. You had gone to two different places for your ultrasound but wanted a third opinion so naturally you went to the tanning/beauty salon/ultrasound place to get your third opinion. You also asked me to come along. All sounds totally legit, right? ;) Wouldn’t you know, the tanning-beauty-ultrasound salon was right, it’s a boy.
Isn’t that crazy?! I’m also pregnant (13 weeks with my 1st) so I’m chalking this one up to crazy pregnancy dreams. It was so vivid, I could totally recreate it in a drawing! Anyways, SO happy for your guys! Clara looks so sweet with her dog brother and her baby brother. Congratulations!!
YoungHouseLove says
So funny!
xo
s
Angela, blue i style says
Congrats! Little boys are so much fun. Our two boys are only 17 months apart, and we didn’t find out what we were having either time, but I had a ton of fun decorating an ombre striped gender neutral nursery that would have worked perfectly even if we’d had a girl instead. To announce that we were expecting #2, we put our first son in a shirt with a big “stamp” on the front of it that said “Top Secret: I’m Going to be a Big Brother!” He wore the shirt to dinner with the grandparents, and it took about 2 hours before my dad finally said, “Come here, what does that shirt say?” It was so hard keeping a straight face all night waiting for someone to notice! Every time someone looked at him, I thought for sure they were reading the shirt and I would start to smile, and then I would realize they still hadn’t noticed, and I would have to try to act casual.
Erin says
Ahh! So excited for you guys!! Like you, we announced that we were pregnant with baby #2 by having my daughter don a “Big Sister” shirt. When we wanted to announce the sex, we kept on riding the clothing train, and we bought a “Little Brother” onesie, put it on one of my daughter’s stuffed animals, and did the announcement by sharing a pic of her cheesing with it :-)
Marge says
Oh, wow I got a little happy tear for your news! :) Congratulations, it must feel amazing! Can not wait for the nursery update(s)! I’m sucker for a nursery decorations, although we don’t have a baby, just jet… Will probably snatch some ideas :)
Alyssa says
First off, CONGRATS! So excited for you all!! When we found out our son was a boy we had a cake made with the inside dyed blue! No one, not even us (the parents), knew what he was going to be until we cut the cake! Awesome feeling that everyone found out at the same time! Congrats again!
Jennifer says
Congrats – a “pigeon pair” as we say down here in Australia! Having one of each is such a blessing. We found out the sex of both our kids. For our first (a girl) when the tech told us it was a “she” my husband was silent – and didn’t say a word until we got in the lift and I said “um, what’s wrong, are you okay its a girl?” And he was like “I don’t know what to do with a girl.” (he’s the oldest of three boys). I told him “that’s okay, I don’t know what to do with a baby!”
We were dying to find out with our second as well, and of course whilst we wanted a healthy baby first and foremost, we were praying for a boy as we desperately wanted to pass on my father’s name (he passed away in 2002). My mom was in town from America during the ultrasound, so she came with us. We were going to go in just the two of us first, but at the last minute my hubby said she should just come in from the beginning. When the tech said “you’re having a boy” we all burst into tears – of happiness – and immediately all said in jinx-style “Hi John”. He turns 6 on Tuesday!
bianca c says
ombre nursery? :)
http://www.pinterest.com/pin/229402174742117082/
YoungHouseLove says
Fun!
xo
s
Mary Ann says
Congrats! So fun to see Clara’s reaction. She’s going to me a fab sister. :) Boys…what you see is what you get. I have three and they are wonderful.
I didn’t want to know their sex but my husband and my (then) 9 year old first son did so at the ultrasound appointment we all went to for the second one the (very professional and proper)technician told me to look away as she typed away at the computer….labeling the baby parts on the screen for them… It was quiet except for the taptaptap of computer keys and then all of a sudden my first son says, “Third leg??!!” Well, I turned and looked at the technician and she said, “Don’t look!!” And I said, “It’s a little late!” She turned bright red.
That’s how I found out. :)
All I could think of was how my second son would have been expecting his brother to look if he hadn’t said anything. :)
Kellen will graduate from college this weekend and will be walking up to get his diploma on just two legs. :)
Have big fun with you little boy!
Erin says
I’m so very happy and excited for you guys! I have two boys, my youngest being four months, and they are just awesome. I knew my first was a boy, I swear the moment I conceived, but I alos swore my second was a girl because my pregnancy felt different and every wives tale told me girl. It was not and boy (literally) was I shocked! Now that he is here I couldn’t imagine not having him in our family as he is just the sweetest thing and a total momma’s boy. Have fun!
Nikki says
Congratulations!! We find out the gender of our first in 3 weeks. Cannot wait!