BOY, oh BOY!

Boy, has this post been a long time in the works. I am officially the worst blog procrastinator of all time. I vow to catch up and fill in with an entire spring and summer's worth of news, but before I do, I need to make a minor announcement...

We're having a baby! And very soon!

9 week old Stecher  #6

This news comes as no surprise to anyone who knows us, and certainly anyone who's seen me lately, but I can't very well post brand new squishy baby pictures in a couple of weeks (God willing! This blog is not the only thing needing attention around here before the big day!) without some sort of preface. The baby's due date is October 26th, which used to seem a long, long way off. It seems oppressively close right about now, as the weeks have been flying by ;)

33 weeks

37 weeks

38 weeks

I know there won't be much shock at this announcement on here, but it was a real surprise for the girls when we told them right before Easter. Please ignore me and my voice, too! (We had to rescue this video, and it's in two pieces for your viewing pleasure)

Tessa (to my left) was sick, which explains her lack of enthusiasm. I promise she's very excited about the arrival of "Bucky." (That's a whole other post. Of course we should name our baby after Jake and the Neverland Pirates' ship!) I think it's obvious that Megan was the most excited. I love that she kept putting her hands on top of her head, so unbelieving. She was genuinely surprised, and kept asking us afterward if we were serious. After the iPad stopped rolling, she expressed what a lot of people probably thought when we told them. She said, "So, let me get this straight. We're going to have SIX kids?!"

Yes we are. Without further ado, I introduce our baby BOY!

Yes, I just typed the word BOY on this blog...in reference to my own child. Who would have thought?? I've had a few months to get used to this idea, and, to be honest, it is still sinking in. We're adding a boy to this little dollhouse we have here, and very few things have ever made me so nervous or sick to my stomach with the fear of the unknown. We decided to find out the sex of the baby at our anatomy scan, and I'm really glad we did. It's nice to adjust to this big change and not feel the same kind of unrest in the delivery room as I did at the scan. Is  that awful to admit? Maybe. I only know my own experience, and all I know is five girls. Having a boy just seemed so foreign and different. I worried immediately what kind of family dynamic this would create, what it would be like for our boy to grow up with five (overbearing? bossy? torturous?) sisters, and how we would arrange kids in bedrooms with a boy in the mix. I was sick to my stomach for a few days after learning how our lives were going to become a little more blue.

To make things even more complicated, everyone (and  I do mean everyone) was under the impression that we would be absolutely ecstatic with a boy this time. I can't tell you the number of people that literally want to high-five us upon hearing this baby is a boy. Maybe I'm being overly sensitive (9 months pregnant? Nah, not possible), but to suggest that we've been waiting and hoping for a boy with each of our pregnancies takes so much away from each of our sweet girls. Moreover, most people think that Matt must have been dying for a boy. He truly hasn't. He was as unsettled as I was at the ultrasound. We had planned on the tech writing the sex of the baby down for us and then opening up our news back at the house with all of the girls. However, the surprise was revealed to us pretty quickly during the ultrasound, and Matt and I immediately shared a look that said, "Did you just see what I saw? Whoa. This changes everything."

Obviously, a sane person -- perhaps someone who hasn't been immersed in the business of raising five little girly girls -- will read this and think that we were/are absolutely ridiculous for feeling this way about a boy. A rational person would go into that ultrasound and realize that there was a very good chance (50%, or so they say) that this baby would be a boy. But, well, we're not sane or rational (have I mentioned that we're about to have six kids under the age of eight?), and a sixth girl seemed like the only real possibility. I promise we both have degrees in biological sciences.

At any rate, we are indeed having a BOY!

Slowly, we've been retrieving all things newborn from storage, realizing how few gender neutral things we have, collecting cute blue clothes from family (three HUGE boxes were delivered to our doorstep all the way from Washington, D.C., thanks to Jen!) and carving out a piece of our bedroom for this little guy to call home for a while. The girls are becoming more and more excited as I've been organizing baby clothes and setting up the bassinet. Mary is infatuated with talking to the baby (with my belly exposed, which is not always happening, much to her dismay), and her favorite thing to say is, "Baby. Out!" She says "Hi Baby. Hi Baby" all day long, gives him kisses constantly, and promises that she's going to help me change diapers and feed him. We shall see :) As for the older girls, I'm excited about some genuine help and real awareness on their end. I've read that an eight-year-old girl is exactly what you want in your house when you bring a new baby home. I'm hoping a seven-and-a-half-year-old will suffice. As for a certain six-year-old, I think helping take care of her little baby brother will give her some purpose and keep her out of trouble :) She's already my helper extraordinaire in organizing his clothes and making up his bed. How lucky am I to have five other little mommies to help me out? Pretty lucky!

Boy, this was a long-winded way of saying we'll have six kids very soon! Stay tuned :)