After many months of keeping a secret, we couldn't be more excited to share that we're expecting Baby Hall in early February! We are so deeply grateful for the opportunity to become parents and are already bursting with impatience waiting for our little one. I thought I'd answer a few of the most common questions we've been getting from our friends and family that have been keeping our little secret along with us for a few weeks.
Are you going to find out the gender?
YES!!! As you read this we may already know - we had an elective ultrasound today (during the eclipse in CT actually haha) and our friend Sofia that made our wedding cake is making us a reveal cake as I type this. A bunch of our friends and family are coming over tonight to find out if it's a boy or girl!
What do you think it is?
I am 100% positive that it's a boy - C is one of three boys, his mom is the only girl in a family of six children, and his dad is also one of three boys. My family is mostly a mix of both. C is 100% positive that it's a girl.
How does Chris feel?
I will let C write a post soon about this because he is quite possibly losing his mind out of excitement. C has wanted to be a dad his entire life and works with kids all day - he has a natural knack with kiddos and absolutely CANNOT WAIT to be a dad. He's already ordered three books on how to be a dad and our doctor already had to reprimand him for spending too much time on Google ;)
Do you have names picked out?
No, not a clue. Right now we call the baby "TeeBee" because we had to go on a million daycare waitlists the day we found out we were pregnant (yes, over a year in advance) and we listed the baby's name as "TBD." It sort of stuck since then :) We've also decided to not tell anyone the name when we do have one until the baby is born - too many opinions!
How are you feeling?
Much better! The first trimester was ROUGH (especially while on a huge project at work and unable to tell anyone!) but I am feeling a lot better. I have a lot of sciatic nerve pain on my left side but otherwise I'm gravy.
Do you have any cravings or aversions?
Nothing crazy in the craving category aside from Cinnamon Toast Crunch with almond milk. I am trying to limit myself to a few bowls a week but MAN is it tough. In terms of aversions, I've officially ruled myself a vegetarian until further notice. I've had a serious aversion to any and all meat since the first trimester and it only seems to be getting worse.
Are you going to go back to work after the baby?
Oh my goodness, YES. Yes yes yes. I absolutely looove working and have no plans to stop, ever. (Like retirement even seems questionable to me? I am working on it. JK!! Kind of!) Thankfully my company has a fantastic maternity policy and I've always enjoyed a reasonable work/life balance there. I was actually most scared to tell work of anyone as I've had a bit of a hard time thinking through the changes I may have to make in terms of hours, etc. but everyone has been super supportive and the culture is very family friendly.
What are you most excited about?
Two things! One, watching Chris be a dad. I've always dreamed of having a really close-knit family and I can't wait to grow the Hall clan with C. Second, I am elated that we have many friends right now (8!) that are also expecting within a few months of us. Many of them are in our same neighborhood! I grew up as a military kid that moved around a lot, and while I enjoyed the excitement and challenges of that, I've always hoped to have the opportunity for my kids to grow up with our friend's kids, play sports together, run around in the same neighborhood they grew up in, etc. I can't even tell you how grateful and lucky I feel to be able to provide that lifestyle for our children.
I think that's the big ones! Feel free to ask any questions in the comments and I'd be happy to answer. Thank you for sharing in our excitement regarding our favorite news yet :)
Many, many thanks to our friend and photographer Pat Dugan for taking these photos for us - it means so much to us to have these to look back on! We are so excited to show them to little TB one day.