IT'S A GIRL!

I usually hate all caps almost as much as I disdain exclamation points but I needed to convey my excitement. We're having a little baby girl!!!! It feels so good to finally get to tell everyone. Our little Bun is a girl bun. We have picked out a name and it is Reilly Marie. One of the best things about everyone knowing now is that I can stop writing all of that "s/he" and "his/her" nonsense. That is fantastic.

At this moment we have about 48 days to go. We were talking to some friends, Dan and Jenn, last night at our Bradley class who are at 29 weeks. They said "Eleven weeks away still sounds like plenty of time but we realized that that means we only have eleven weekends left. That doesn't sound like much time." So true. We only have seven weekends left. Can that even be right? Only seven more Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays until Reilly Marie comes to live with us forever. I still ask Nicole if Reilly can come tomorrow. She gently reminds me that she's not ready yet. She's not. But she is getting so close to being ready. We are so excited.

Nicole's baby shower happened recently. If I'm being honest, the weekend didn't go exactly as planned. Don't get me wrong, from what I hear, the shower was an enormous success (thank you so much to those of you who got us gifts: we are overwhelmed by your generosity), but Nicole, along with two of her three sisters who were in from out of town, spent most of Friday night and Saturday with some sort of stomach flu. Nicole is so tough, though. She didn't let a silly little bug slow her down. I can't express to you how proud I get about who my wife is and how strong she is. I just love her so much.

We also got to celebrate our anniversary this past week. The past two years have easily been two of the best years of my life and I can't believe that, as good as this last year has been, I am even more excited about our third year of marriage.

As far as Reilly Marie goes, she got the hiccups for the first few times this last week. I think it's adorable but I'm sure it's a lot less fun for Nicole. Right now amniotic fluid is at its highest level during Nicole's pregnancy. Reilly Marie's head size has increased 3/8ths of an inch due to rapid brain growth (probably more—our kid is going to be smart). Neurons and synapses are developing in huge numbers—forming connections in Reilly's brain will give her the skills she needs to thrive as a newborn. This week, she may be able to coordinate sucking and swallowing with breathing. While most of her bones are hardening, our little Bun's skull is quite pliable and not completely joined. The bones will be able to move slightly to make birthing easier. Reilly now takes intermittent deep breaths of water. That's okay, though since she gets oxygen from the placenta. This breathing exercises muscles and encourages her lung cells to produce more surfactant (a protein essential for healthy lung development). Reilly Marie is now about 17.2 inches long and weighs around 4.23 pounds.