Boy oh boy!

Before I left for the conference, we had a sonogram to see how things were looking. We were surprised to learn that we were having a BOY! Actually, Justin thought it was a boy all along; I just thought it was a girl. Regardless, our baby and I both looked healthy - that's mostly what we were hoping to hear! Baby was measuring a week to ten days big based on our anticipated due date. I assured the sonographer that this would be fine - I'm not a 40-week kinda girl :) I've been feeling lots and lots of movement lately, which I LOVE! It's one of my favorite things about being pregnant.

Will has thought the baby would be a girl, but he seemed just as excited to learn he would have a baby brother. The other day at school he was telling his teacher that he thought we should name the baby Max. And that his "big name" would be Max Junior Nichols. On the way home, I let him know that Daddy & I had come up with a name for the baby and told him what it was. Will got very quiet in the backseat. I assumed he was processing this new information. Soon, I realized he was crying. This marked the beginning of about a 30-minute meltdown in which I finally got him to verbalize what was bothering him. "I just don't feel like I'm getting to help with the baby. You and Dad decided the name and didn't even let me help."  Oh my. I walked right into that one and had no idea! Of course, I felt terrible. I love that he is so excited to help (we'll see how long it lasts after Baby arrives), but I just wasn't anticipating this. I gave J a heads up so he wouldn't bring it up when he got home. J's response: "Did you tell him this isn't a democracy?" Nice. We've moved past this hurdle, but still haven't talked much about the baby's name around Will. I tried to come up with other "big" things he could help with - choosing the paint color for the baby's room, helping get his clothes ready, etc. But Will has decided maybe he only wants to help when the baby is OUT of Mommy's tummy. Fair enough.