Young House Love

Home Decorating & DIY Tutorials

| By | | 1,368 Comments

Baby Petersik is a….

… HE!

Its A Boy

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.

Clara Bag Peeking2

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.

Clara Baby Boy

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.

All Three

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!

Telling Nonna

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.

Envelopes

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.

Envelopes Open

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.

Nursery Before

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…

Nursery Now

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.

Comments

  1. Liz says

    Yay! I am expecing our frist baby – a boy! – in about 5 weeks from now (Jan 13th). We are both so excited. I can’t wait to see what you do with the nursery.

    My nursery is all done now – pale gray walls and all white furniture with hints of teal in the accessories. We kept all the major items neutral since we do want to have another. All our beddings is grey and white from pottery barn outlet – got it at a steal! So excited for out little one to arrive soon :)

    Reply

  2. Danielle says

    Congratulations!

    We waited until delivery day to find out. My husband got to make the old fashioned announcement in the waiting room to all of our loved ones. My sister was armed with the video camera so I would get to see it all later. BEST MOMENT EVER! We also didn’t even really discuss names until labor, and then picked once we got to meet our little man.

    Reply

  4. Bethany says

    Congratulations! We have an Oliver (2 years)and a Clara (4 mo). I can’t wait till they’re both a little older and can be buddies!

    Reply

  5. Melissa says

    Congratulations! So exciting to start to picture your baby :-)

    We were so eager to find out the sex of our baby that my MIL who is a prenatal nurse arranged for us to get an ultrasound at her work while we were visiting for Thanksgiving, a week before our “official” ultrasound. So we’re looking at the image and my husband thinks he sees a definitive shape and shouts out “Yesssss! It’s a MAN!” and the OB smiles and says “Um, that’s an arm… Don’t worry all Dads make that mistake.” HA! Turns out that arm belonged to a baby girl and she is the sweetest ever – and a total Daddy’s girl. Cannot believe that was just over six years ago!

    Enjoy your special news. Can’t wait to see your nursery plans!

    Reply

  6. Alisha says

    For our first (BOY), we had the tech print out the ultrasound with the gender on it, and put it in an envelope for us to open when we got home. That was the longest hour of my life!!! With our second (another BOY!), I was 13 weeks 6 days along, and went to the ultrasound alone figuring we wouldn’t find out gender till the next appt. As the tech was moving around, we both saw IT at the same time!!! Just in case I actually hadn’t seen what I thought I’d seen, I had her go back & get an image – this time w/my eyes closed – and put it in an envelope. I didn’t say a WORD to my husband, and gave it to him 2 weeks later for Father’s Day. He was so caught off guard it took him an hour to open it, kept saying, “I’m not prepared for this!”. That little guy just turned 1, and we LOVE our little boys! Congrats on baby BUNacle!!!!

    Reply

  8. Alison Ramsey says

    Congrats! We also had our gender ultrasound last Wednesday and found out we’re having a boy! I’ve been a fan of y’all’s blog for years now and loved seeing that we found out about our little boys on the same day! Thanks for sharing your news with us!

    Reply

  9. Jenny says

    Congrats on the boy news, Sherry and John!

    I’m due mid-April with our second son. Where did you find the boy doll? You’re right, they are very hard to find!

    Reply

  10. Nicole says

    With baby #1, we did not find out and after an emotional, tough delivery I got to hear the awesome words of ‘It’s a BIG boy!’

    Then, with baby #2 we decided to wait as well. It was much harder to wait through the pregnancy this time around and I kept telling my husband that when/if we have a 3rd we would find out ahead of time. We had a scheduled C-section (due to baby #1’s delivery) and loved having a surprise since we already knew the day/time, etc. And, when baby was delivered my husband was in shock and calmly said to me ‘I think it is a girl’…I waited until the Dr. told me that ‘Daddy is right, it’s a girl’!

    Last but not least, we just had baby #3 and found out ahead of time. We loved knowing and sharing the joy with our kids with a cake that was pink inside (my son cut the cake and both kids wanted a girl). It was special choosing her name and talking about their baby sister before she was born.

    So happy for you guys!

    Reply

  11. Renna says

    Awwww so exciting!! Congrats! Is their any truth to Katie Bower”s claim that this baby completes your family? If so you are lucky to have your pair!

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      Aw thanks Renna! In this post a few months back we actually said “at this point we’re both excited and satisfied by the idea of being a family of four (well, five with the Burgs)” – so assuming everything is healthy with this little guy, we’re most likely done at two.

      xo
      s

  14. Sara says

    Congrats!!! Little guys are a blast…busy but amazing cuddlers :). We find out right after New Years what we’re having.

    Can you tell me where you found that baby doll? I’m looking for a simple one like that for our 15 month old (for the same reasons).

    Thanks!

    Reply

  15. Rachel says

    Congratulations!

    I am due in April, this is our first child and we are not finding out the gender. Not finding out can make registering and planning a little more challenging for us (and any potential gift givers). But, we’re sticking to our guns and I have zero clue what the sex will be. I change my guess pretty much daily! I can’t wait to finally see this babe. :)

    Reply

  16. Megan says

    My son’s name is Brogan which has no significance really to us. It is an Irish surname and we’re not even Irish but his middle name is a family name. It’s Emory which is my husband’s middle name, his uncle’s middle name, his grandpa’s middle name, his great grandpa’s middle name, and his great grandpa’s uncle’s middle name too. As you can see, my hands were tied there and there was no avoiding Emory. Luckily, I love it!

    Reply

  17. beekeebear says

    Congratulations!! Yay!!
    We let our son reveal to everyone whether he was going to have a baby sister or baby brother via a reveal cake at his 2nd birthday party. The inside of his Cookie Monster cake was either pink or blue… :)

    Reply

  18. Christina says

    I feel for you with the MS Ive had 5 babies and its just not the fun part. I was very very sick.Yuck! At first I used zofran but I found that ginger extract or doterra ginger work better and quicker. Also Frankinscense by doterra is great for nausea. Good luck Sherry!!

    Reply

  20. Janel says

    I swear you guys already said this in a post but I can’t find it anywhere…where did you get the baby BOY doll for Clara? Can’t find one anywhere except a more-than-I-want-to-spend one on Amazon. Thanks!

    Reply

Stuff We Love

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *