It's a ......

BOY!

That's right we are batting for team blue! We had our big ultrasound on Monday. It was wonderful to see Butterball again.


We got to see everything. The ultrasound started out by looking at the brain lobes and cerebellum, then we observed the 4 chambers of the heart. It was beating at a strong 154 beats/min. (so much for that wives tale). We saw his stomach and kidneys and liver. We saw all the bones of the legs and arms. And I loved looking at the hands and feet. Butterball gave us the thumbs up:

Here are his precious little feet:
For the longest time, he had his legs crossed and we really didn't think we were going to get to know the gender, but just at the end of the ultrasound he moved and there was no mistaking his "maleness" Sean and I are thrilled and we are trying to wrap our head's around the fact that we will have a son in just over 4 months! The time is flying. It was also wonderful that my mom (Butterball's Bubbles) was able to fly in and see the ultrasound too. It was a first time experience for her and we all were swept away by that cute baby. While we have to wait for the final say from the doctor who will analyze all the measurements taken, our tech said that everything initially looked normal. Butterball's growth is falling right in the 50th percentile. The only blip is that the umbilical cord only has 2 vessels while it is normal to have 3 (two arteries and one vein). The tech said that my midwife would go over this in more detail at my next visit, but it didn't seem to be presenting any problems as Butterball looks normal and healthy and to be getting enough oxygen and nutrients. Some initial research on this seems that the majority of pregnancies with this have no problems, but they will just monitor his growth and development a bit more carefully particularly toward the end of the pregnancy. I will let you know more as I find out. In general, I think we can all celebrate a healthy baby boy right now.

Speaking of growth. Butterball's growth is becoming more apparent on the exterior. I really feel like I am starting to pop. I swear it has just happened in the last few days. Here is the latest belly shot:

Well, I know that was the most anticipated news, but let me also tell you about our trip to New Hampshire. We had a lovely time once again. We enjoyed father's day at Sean's parents house. We had a nice bbq and Kate and Jonathan and Jon and Carrie and Libby and Liam all came over. Kate is looking fantastic at 35 weeks and anxiously waiting for her little girl. It is so neat Butterball is going to have a cousin so close in age. She and I drank tea and watched as the nonpregnant folk played a wicked game of whiffle ball.

I was also very excited to go strawberry picking with Carrie, Libby and Liam along with her neighbor Judy and her two girls, Sky and Summer. Here are a few pictures from that outing. We got a lot of strawberries:


Liam really enjoyed them:
Libby was all smiles:
While we were in NH, Lily got a lot of swimming time in. Every day she went down to the pond with Happy (Jan and Peter's golden retriever). She is getting the hang of jumping off the dock to go fetch sticks. Here is my first attempt at uploading a video:

We also did some house hunting while we were there and we actually put an offer in. We are very excited that this one will go through. It is a short sale situation. So, the seller has accepted our offer, but we are awaiting lien holder approval on it. We are having inspections done July 1st and we hope that soon after we will get the final acceptance. It is a great little house in Concord, NH. It is small and needs work, but it is situated in a rural area on 2.3 acres. I am so hopeful that everything works out, but I am trying not to get my hopes up as I know a lot needs to happen for it to come together. I fear I didn't get a really good picture of the front of the house because it was raining when we viewed it. I will keep you posted as we find out more. Keep your fingers crossed for us on this one.

We also had a blast at the wedding we went to in Cohasset, MA. Sean was a groomsman for his good friend, Mark Hills. He and Mark used to play rugby together when living on the seacoast. We went to MA on Friday and attended the rehearsal and dinner. The dinner was a classic New England lobster pot. We began with freshly made clam chowda (insert accent). Then we had a plate filled with corn on the cob, fresh clam steamers and topped with a whole lobster! Yummy! It was great fun. Mark is British and his family was over from England and new to the lobster dinner. There was a lot of laughter and flying lobster meat. I wish I had gotten a picture. The dinner turned into a big party. The next day, the wedding didn't start until 6pm so Sean and I enjoyed the morning walking on the beach in Nantaskut:

The sun was warm and the water cool. We walked a good length of the beach. It was so relaxing.
The wedding was lovely and quite posh. Sean looked very handsome dressed in his groomsman suit. Towards the end of the evening after a bit of imbibing, all the groomsman (all former rugby players) danced to "Ring of Fire" This is the only picture I got of the nice suits:


Well, goodness, I could go on and on, but I will stop here as this is already ridiculously long. Cheers!