About a week or so after this pregnancy was confirmed, I started to “feel” pregnant.  I was waiting on the nausea, fatigue, heightened sense of smell, et al. symptoms.  These little pleasures began arriving, as did the feeling of “it’s a boy”.  I felt my center of gravity a lot lower in my torso than normal, and more-so than with my last pregnancy.  They “say” boys are carried lower, and because I was feeling low (literally), I thought we may be dealing with “snips and snails and puppy dog tails” (a poem of which my husband had never heard of before, so the effect of that poem with the announcement did not go over as I planned!).

We have known our newest bundle of joy is a BOY since 12 weeks into the pregnancy.  While we had a “normal” 12 week ultrasound, we still decided in favor of the genetic blood testing (MaterniT) just in case.  The test results for the genetic conditions also reveal the gender of the baby, which is something both Charles and I wanted to know (I wish I could wait for the surprise, but I just can’t!).  I had planned to work from home the anticipated day the test results were supposed to come back.  POB’s office called around 11 that morning and told me that the results were normal — THANK GOD!  I had actually completely forgotten about the gender part of the test because I was so consumed with relief over the genetic segment.  The office then asked:  “Do you want to know what you’re having?”  OH YEAH, there’s that!   “Well, yes, I would like to know, but I’d like for my husband and I to find out at the same time…” So I asked that they leave the envelope at the blood test results with the front desk for me to swing by and pick up.

As I was driving my brain was racing – how are we going to “read” the gender?!  Charles was leaving to go out of town for the weekend the next day, so it had to be THAT NIGHT (I couldn’t wait!), and there wasn’t a whole lot of time to plan anything.  It was already noon on Thursday at this point, and I thought any bakery would need days — not just hours — notice.  I tried my luck at calling the BEST bakery in town, Plehn’s, and they said it was no problem to have a cake made (with appropriate filling) by the end of the day.  *Ironically* because Louisville is the smallest big city in the world, our neighbor works at Plehn’s and was there when I came in with the envelope.  No one besides our families knew we were even pregnant at this point so the conversation went something like — “Yep, I’m pregnant.  Yep, we’re far enough to know the gender.  Yep, please don’t say anything!”  The sweet and wonderful woman that she is, not only didn’t say anything to anyone, she hand delivered the cake to our house when it was ready (thanks, Katie!).

We took the cake over to my parents’ that night, and while FaceTiming with Charles’ parents, we cut into the cake.  **Spoiler Alert!  The cake had brushed up against the box in the car, leaving some icing awry.  Charles told me not to look and he would plug the hole…slash see that the inside was blue and know it was a boy about two minutes before the rest of us.**

Because anything from Plehn’s is absolutely delicious, we couldn’t deprive others of the delicacy, so we visited a few more friends that evening to “reveal” the baby’s gender, and to make their taste buds extremely happy.  But, because nothing ever goes as planned. we arrived at a friend’s house and realized the cake was gone.  I had left it on top of the car briefly, and, well, you can guess what happened.  So, we improvised (as we always do when things don’t go according to plan)!

As I’ve mentioned about a million times, we are EXTREMELY and INCREDIBLY thankful for this miracle, whether it was going to be a boy or a girl.  Our baby boy, Charles Stephen, is another precious blessing that has been bestowed upon us and we are so thankful.

{Charles Stephen is named after both of his grandfathers.  Charles (my husband) is also named after his grandfathers, so Charles Stephen will not be a “Junior” as their middle names are different.  To avoid confusion in the Abdelahad household, the newest “Charles” will go by Charlie.  Just in case you were wondering!}