Young House Love

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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

  2. Elizabeth says

    YAY! Congrats! I have a daughter and then a son. . . and since I’m an ob gyn I tried to peak at his gender super early and both my 2 partners and I were 100% sure he was a she! So my husband had a day of mourning (because I was DONE having babies and he wanted a son so badly. . . even though he loves our daughter like crazy!) and we named her and told our daughter and then low and behold the first thing I saw on our anatomy ultrasound was his hand grabbing his you know what! I almost died laughing! and I don’t think my husband believed he was a boy till he was born!

    Reply

  3. Sarah C says

    Looking forward to seeing what you do with the nursery. I have a girl inspiration nursery already but haven’t seen anything I def want to do if I ever have a boy.

    Incidentally, I was hoping boy for you (based on my own desire to one day have “one of each”)and a girl for Katie B. So, one reveal down, one to go – can’t wait for Monday! :D Stupid weekend… ;)

    Reply

  4. Olivia says

    That’s awesome! We have one of each and it’s so fun to watch the differences in little boys and little girls :) Congrats guys!

    Reply

  5. Lauren S. says

    CONGRATULATIONS!!!! Very exciting news :). Btw I swear Clara gets cuter in every post.

    I’m 22 weeks along and we found out just less than a month ago that IT’S A GIRL! I guess we should have been crafty and creative to tell people but we didn’t have that kind of patience. After YEARS (7, to be exact) of my husband’s family assuring me that “they only make boys,” I felt incredibly vindicated (I always knew I’d have daughters – just a feeling, but I’ve been 100% accurate with guessing mine, my parents, and friends babies – clearly I have mojo ;) ). I actually did one of those “woo” screams like you do when your favorite football team makes a touchdown while we were still getting the ultrasound done. And yes I used stadium volume, not my inside voice. (I would have been excited to have a boy, just a bit more shellshocked – my family is all girls).

    I rushed over to tell my folks and sister, my husband just called everyone and, true to both our mothers’ forms, they didn’t waste any time alerting extended family.

    Anyway, your gender reveal was super cute! Good luck with the barnacle!

    Reply

  6. Jen @ Migonis Home says

    So happy for you! We have one of each and it’s been so fun to raise a boy and a girl! :)
    My husband wasn’t able to make it to the ultrasound appt because of work the day we were going to find out so the tech wrote down the sex and we opened it together at his work when he had a break. We then took a picture of a little dress and wrote “let the shopping sprees begin!” and announced it to our Facebook friends and blog readers that way.

    Reply

  7. ellie bee says

    Congratulations! This is so exciting!
    I’m at 36 weeks expecting our own little boy (our 1st!), and my husband and I couldn’t be more thrilled. The way we found out was actually really sweet. My husband is a radiologist, so after the ultrasound tech finished getting all of her important measurements, she handed the ultrasound wand over to my hubby and left the room. So it was just the two of us, and he was able to tell/show me, “baby, we’re having ourselves a little boy!” It was so sweet and intimate and I wouldn’t have changed it for the world–a very special memory for the both of us!

    Reply

  8. Julie B says

    For our third baby (in June) we waited until the delivery room. We had 2 onesies each with a name embroidered on the front. When the baby was born we showed the family him in his onesie. That’s also the picture we posted on social media to tell all our friends.

    Reply

  9. Jann says

    So exciting! We got a nice snap shot of the ultrasound that CLEARLY confirmed it was indeed a little boy (much to dada’s shock. He was convinced it would be a girl). That is the picture we shared with friends and family. Congrats to you all.

    Reply

  10. Dani says

    Congratulations! So excited and Clara looks so happy with her boy doll. I have girl, boy, girl and the dynamic between the boy / girl relationship is so amazing especially with an older sister. Love it and you will too!! (of course ;)

    Reply

  12. Sara says

    We didn’t find out with either and were surprised with girls when they were born. It was fun for my husband to be excited about being the one to run to the waiting room and burst out the news and call everyone and tell them.

    Reply

  13. Sarah Rainey says

    YAYYYY!!! I knew it! SO happy for you guys! I can’t wait to see what the nursery is going to look like! I have been excited since Monday when you said that you would see the gender! Darn class or I would have found out sooner! Sherry are you going to make a pinterest board of room ideas?

    Sorry this is dragging on so long, but it’s a cause very dear to my heart. I had an older brother (who I actually never knew) and he died of SIDS when he was 8 months old. My mother works for a non-profit which helps prevent babies from passing of SIDS. I know that you probably already know all of this but I want to reiterate how important it is not to sleep with your baby, put your baby on his stomach to sleep, or put any soft bedding in the crib.

    I want to make sure that baby Petersik is as healthy as possible!

    Thanks!

    Sarah

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      Thanks so much for the info, Sarah! I’m so sorry for your loss. And as for a pinterest board of ideas, I was putting them in a private board (since we hadn’t revealed the sex and I didn’t want people to read into the ones I pinned) but I should totally make them public now!

      xo
      s

  14. Lindz says

    I wish I could post a picture here of the moment I discovered my third baby was a girl. To sum it up, we had two daughters already and I was SURE my third baby was a boy. Would have bet the moon on it. Never considered it might be a girl. Husband convinced me to stay Team Green and find out only once the baby was actually born, which was a first because we opted to find out the gender at the 20 week ultrasound with the others. So FINALLY after 40 weeks, 5 days, and 14ish hours of labor that baby was in my arms and I peeked… and shouted “You’re a GIRL?!?!?!!” It was singlehandedly the biggest shock and (great) surprise of my life. The picture of that moment is amazing. It took me several days to get used to her being a girl, though! Hilarious!

    Second funny thing… this third baby girl has been an absolute mommy’s baby from the get go. So much so that we started calling her The Barnacle because she is ON ME 24/7. She’s 8 months now and we still just call her Barnacle. Haha! So, I LOVE Capt Barnacles!

    And finally, congratulations on a healthy baby BOY! I’m so very excited for you two and Clara. Babies are always a blessing but it’s so very fun when the sibling gets what they were hoping for. :)

    Reply

  16. Harmony says

    I am old school and never found out on any of my 5 kids (ages 14-2) Congrats on your pregnancy of Baby Brother Barnacle.

    Reply

  17. Mary says

    We’re planning on being surprised at the delivery. Some days I feel like it’s a boy, others I think it must be a girl. I haven’t decided if we’ll be clever when we tell our families or just blurt it all out. Congratulations.

    Reply

  18. Shannon says

    Congratulations! I was hoping it was a boy just to see the nursery, haha! Boys are wonderful, just had my 3rd boy(4th baby) 3 days ago!

    Reply

  19. Lesley says

    We didn’t find out ahead of time with any of our kids (boy, boy, girl). #2 came so quickly that I was standing in the delivery room, holding his head, when the doctor ran into the room. She pushed me back on the bed, delivered him (um, I had already done all the work!), and then the nurse took the baby to the warmer so quickly that I didn’t know if he was a he or a she. My husband ran over to look and I asked him, “What is it?! What is it?!” He replied, “A baby!” Well, I figured that, Sherlock, but thanks for your help.

    Reply

  23. CJ says

    You should totally name him Barney Stinson Petersik! Since one of Barney’s nicknames (for himself, obviously) is “The Barnacle”.

    Congratulations!

    Reply

  27. Silvia Guerchon says

    OMG! I’m from Rio – Brazil. And I love your blog!! I’m so happy with the news.. Congratulations sweet family!!!!!

    Reply

  28. cheryl says

    My SIL and I were due one week apart, and even though my babe showed up two weeks early, so did hers, so now their birthdays are one week apart!! I found out the sex very early at 13 weeks (as we did with all of our four!) and my SIL found out at 21 weeks. We were both thrilled to be having girls! I was at home recovering from our lil gal’s c-section appearance seven days later when we got the call that her babe had shown up as well! We knew they were deciding between two girl names and when they actual name, Derek (of course changed to protect the young and innocent!) we had to ask three times before we understood that in the end, they had a surprise baby boy instead of a girl!! They had to change their nursery from the butterfly theme and find some less frilly and pick clothes for him (our gal got all those!), but we couldn’t imagine our lives without him!!

    Reply

  29. Tracy K says

    Congrats to all of you! Clara will make a fab big sister!!! Can’t wait to find out his name & see the nursery. Fun times ahead!!!

    Reply

  30. Heather says

    Congrats – how exciting!! We have a daughter coming in early Feb, and a 2-yr-old son at home. And we also guessed wrong – this pregnancy is pretty similar to my last, so we were certain it was a boy. We tore open the envelope from the ultrasound tech that night in the comfort of our home and were stunned – but so excited!! Our decorating challenge for this kiddo is redoing a spare room into a gender neutral shared kids’ room. Looking forward to seeing what you guys do for the nursery!

    Reply

  31. Catherine says

    Congratulations on your healthy little boy! I also have a daughter and am expecting a baby boy in April (crazy!) – looking forward to getting some nursery design inspiration from you!

    Reply

  32. gemma@thesweetestdigs says

    WAHOOO!!!! What fabulous news. I can only imagine the excitement and joy that is going on over in your household. The photos of Clara are super sweet.

    To tell our families the sex of our babe (“sprout” as we called her then), we did a cake. It was SO funny with both grandmothers slicing into it, pausing for a minute, and then jumping and squealing with excitement about the pink interior. I had such a good laugh, and blogged about it here: http://thesweetestdigs.com/2013/03/18/a-pink-or-blue-cake/

    Hope you start to feel better soon, Sherry! XO

    Reply

  33. Ginny says

    Congrats. Boys are the best, but I am biased since I have a sweet baby boy. We did a reveal party where we had three cakes one for my parents in NC, one for my in laws in Colombia, South America and one for us here in Washington State, we sent an envelope to one baker and she was assigned to tell all the other bakers. We had a reveal party at our house and did skype and FaceTime with our families and we all cut the cakes at the same time. It was a very special time for all as it’s our first child and their first grandchild.

    Reply

  34. Joy says

    Congrats!!! Such exciting news! Now John gets a mini-me too! Thanks for sharing with all of us! I think it’s one reason all your readers love you guys so much, you really make us feel like a small part of your lives. And the home inspiration helps too! ;)

    Reply

  35. schmei says

    Congratulations! So happy the barnacle is looking like a healthy little dude. I do hope the pukes subside at SOME point soon. Yeesh.

    Reply

  36. Anjuli says

    We had a boy and a girl both revealed via ultrasound, so for our third we went with a delivery room surprise. Everyone but our son thought it was going to be a girl, and he was the only one that was right. We welcomed another boy into our family 3 months ago.

    Reply

  37. Shannon [Our Home Notebook] says

    Congratulations! So happy for you guys. I remember how exciting it was to find out our second was a boy. We were so thrilled to have a little brother for our girl. They are 2 and 4 1/2 now and have so much fun together! So excited for you all.

    Reply

  39. Jennifer says

    Congratulations!! I love having boys. :)

    We totally just blurted out the news to our family and friends when we found out. But for us, we got to share double news since we were expecting twin boys, who are now 11 months old. Time flies! It was fun before we knew for people to guess whether it was one boy, one girl, two boys or two girls. I was leaning toward two boys, but that was just a feeling. Fortunately, I never suffered from any MS, which I was told was amazing since it’s even more common when you carry twins.

    Reply

  40. Sandra says

    Ahhh! I’m so excited for you guys. My hubs and I are 13 weeks in with our first pregnancy and it’s twins! We can’t wait to find out what they are at the end of January. We had talked about doing a guessing game kinda like yours. It probably won’t be an even split though, hubs’ family hasn’t had a boy since him and they’re all betting blue already.

    Reply

  41. Eva says

    Congrats! I have a older daughter and a baby boy and it’s awesome. She’s a wonderful helper and he absolutely worships her. I’m so happy for you guys!

    Reply

  42. MB says

    I was pretty pumped to see today’s post, and very excited for you guys that it’s a boy. My two kids (2 1/2 boy and 9 mo girl) are just starting to play together and it’s some of the sweetest, most heart-warming sights you’ll ever see. Congrats!

    P.S. We did a gender cake the 2nd go-round. Very fun!

    Reply

  43. Jessica says

    Congratulations! When we found out our first was a boy we also found out he had dilated kidneys. This is more commonly seen in boys in utero and not in girls. Then when we got pregnant with our second last year and the 20 wk ultrasound was close to my birthday we decided to have the technician write it down and not show us. We had a friend bake me a birthday cake a few days later (she had the piece of paper with the gender on it) and I would find out then…for a birthday surprise! Well, at this ultrasound, we discovered this baby too, had dilated kidneys. We immediately knew it was another boy…so the surprise was killed. We were actually bummed when I cut the cake and saw blue (not bc he’s a boy…I love being a boy mommma!) but because it was not a surprise and we had hyped ourselves up for it being a “surprise.” Needless to say, next time we will just let the technician tell us. Funny, huh? Little boys are wonderful…I would love another one!

    Reply

  44. Meghan N says

    My husband and I make a silly video and emailed it to friends and family to tell them if we were having a girl or boy. http://youtu.be/t59hW6iUSlw
    We laugh because its obvious we have too much time on our hands and needed a kid to take it up. Happy to say MC is a cute and healthy 6 week old now!

    Reply

  45. Robin says

    Congratulations and what a wonderful time to be getting and sharing this news – thanksgiving indeed!!

    Hope it’s not too weird to notice this, but the picture of Clara talking on/pointing at the phone? I saw that, and honest-to-goodness, my thought was, ‘wow, that baby is really latched on!’

    I mean, I know it’s a doll! But I really had to look twice to see how she’s holding it up…

    Reply

  46. Deb says

    We had no idea until they were actually here. We figured there were so few true surprises in life and this was a big one so we’d just roll with it. (I’m the least patient person in the world, who definitely needs a plan for EVERYTHING so I can’t believe I had no desire to find out what we were having) Before our deliveries for each of our girls (the same doctor delivered them both) Our doc asked what names we had chosen for a boy and a girl – when he delivered them, he teased us horribly (I had C-Sections) before introducing us to our baby by name :)

    Reply

  47. Megan says

    Here is how we announced the sex of our first, we actually didn’t know as we did this – but the person taking the pictures put the correct “color” in front of us with our eyes closed (she had the envelope from the US tech).

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y_G_-FhRUdA

    You are going to have all kinds of fun with your little boy!

    Reply

  48. Natalie says

    Congratulations! I am so pleased for your two (four -including Burger and Clara) :)

    p.s I am super jealous of Clara’s sleeveless tunic and barefeet, as I am in cold, cold Canada – lol!

    Reply

  49. Sarah says

    YEEEEEE!!! I’m so happy for y’all! Congrats, and I can’t wait to keep following along as your precious family grows!

    Reply

  50. Emma says

    Congratulations Petersiks!! I just had my sweet baby boy in August. You’re gonna love it (especially you, Sherry – little boys love their Mommies!)

    Reply

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