Since my last post, "She's Pregnant", we have made many changes to the baby's room and purchased other items for her and for photography of her and other babies. We also received many gifts from friends, family and our Church that we are very grateful for. Early on in the pregnancy we purchased a Crib by Graco from Burlington Coat Factory, it can turn into a toddler bed and then into a regular bed.

A few days before Christmas, we found out that we are having a girl. I had prayed for a girl so we are very happy with the news. When I saw on the monitor that she was a girl, my heart skipped with joy and my mind ran with fear- I’ve been told that is typical of fathers that have daughter(s). We really enjoyed seeing her features develop as well, she has changed a lot since Robin's last ultra sound appointment. The baby no longer looks like an alien, but a very small baby with budding fingers and toes and many tiny organs. Her facial features are also developing, something that was not possible to see when my mother was pregnant with me.

Robin has been keeping a journal of her pregnancy and has been noting different changes, one of them is being able to feel the baby's movement. I had not been able to detect her movements due to her small size, but on the 22nd week of pregnancy I was able to feel her kick or jab several times- what a feeling both physically and emotionally that is! Over the next few weeks as she continued to develop I felt more and more kicks, jabs and hiccups. On several occasions I would feel 3-4 kicks in succession, as I traced my palm over Robin's stomach- never ceasing to be amazed by that sensation, especially when the kicks gained in strength. Eventually we could feel her moving her body which felt like butt cheeks moving under the surface of her skin.

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Robin and I decided mid-2012 to try for a baby; a couple of months later- in August- we found out that Robin was pregnant. We are both very excited and are looking forward to seeing our child this May. We don't have a lot of information at this time, other than it's healthy and growing as it should. Robin has had two ultrasounds so far which have resulted in these photos of our baby.

We waited three months to tell everyone the good news; we started with mom & Jack. One evening they stopped by to visit unannounced and one of our topics of discussion was a birth a new baby in the Church; this topic was a good segway into our news. I went into the kitchen to ask Robin to bring them a "new photography product" that we wanted to bring to the market. This new product was an idea that Robin came up with; I took a photo of our feet and Marbles with two booties in front of us. The camera's focus was on the booties. The photo was titled "Coming Soon | May 2013". Robin then took that photo and ordered a puzzle. We then placed the dismembered puzzle in-front of them and asked them to put it together. During the entire process neither of them understood what it meant- only that they thought the puzzles were arriving in May 2013. I finally stated to Robin that, "They don't get it". Once I had said that mom yelped and jumped into the air with excitement asking if it's true. The following weekend we attempted to reveal the news in the same manor as before, but this time without success. The reason for the failed attempted of surprise was due to the way Robin had requested the family gathering, but the end result was the same as far as the excitement went. Dad and Karen were equally as happy.

Robin has started to migrate her "office" into mine and to help with that process we visited Ikea in Stoughton, Massachusetts the weekend of November 10th with the Ramp's. We spent the entire day there browsing the store, thinking about how we want to re-decorate a couple of rooms, etc. This time around we finally took advantage of a promotion that Ikea normally has: if you spend $100 your meal will be free- so we ate twice, lunch and supper which totaled to a free $75 meal. We're still in the creative process of setting up the baby's room- a process that I think will come to completion early next year. I have however updated our office thanks to our Ikea trip.