FAQs

The questions I've been asked the most:

"Is Stephen excited?"

I am thrilled to report that he is very excited; I think he's just as excited as I am! Yay! He's been totally enthralled with the baby ever since the first ultrasound, when he got the first glimpse of our creation and heard its heart beating. He's stoked!

"How far along are you?"

As of today, 13 weeks. Or just beginning my fourth month, however you want to look at it.

"When did you find out?"

At the end of August. We didn't have to wait long to take a pg test, because I started noticing pregnancy symptoms pretty quickly. Stephen even noticed one that I didn't see right away. He "knew" I was pregnant before it got verified because he noticed that a certain part of my body had become larger. I told him I couldn't see any difference, and he replied that I don't have the "discerning eye" that he has. Hahaha...

"How did you tell Stephen?"

Actually, he's the one who told me! Stephen and I both had a feeling there was a bun in the oven, so I picked out a morning to take the test when we didn't have a very busy day and would be able to digest whatever information it revealed to us. The night before, I set the test out on the counter so that it would be ready, but I was was so excited that I could hardly go to sleep because I was pretty sure of what would happen when I took it. When I took it the next morning, I could see the pregnancy line forming within seconds, even though you're supposed to wait two minutes to read the results. So I got back in bed like nothing had happened, talked to Stephen, then asked him to read the test after it had been a couple of minutes. He read it and made the official announcement that we are having a baby!

"Are you going to find out the sex?"

Yes! The anatomical ultrasound is usually done at 20 weeks, which will fall during the week before Christmas. What a Christmas present! I feel like an eight-year-old who can't wait for Christmas to get here. Two months seems like such a long time!

"Do you want a boy or girl?"

We don't care what it is! I eventually want at least one of each, so it really doesn't matter. We both have a feeling that it's a boy, which really doesn't mean anything, but that's our feeling right now. I am looking forward to having a girl one day so that I will have someone to do girly stuff with, and I imagine that Stephen would really enjoy having a boy to play football and basketball with. (He also has plans to turn our son into a drummer!) Either way, we're happy.

"Do you have any names picked out?"

We have a working list of potential names, but I doubt we'll start thinking seriously about it until we find out the sex. And I have always imagined that it would be necessary to know a child's personality before naming it, so we may not decide on anything for certain until we actually see and hold the baby. Stephen pointed out that it should be a word that we don't mind saying a trillion times, so we're keeping that in mind too =)

My dear friend Astrid, who is a fiction writer and word wizardress, fell in love with my maiden name, Ing, because she could think of so many fun names to go along with it. She thought of a whole slew of names to go with Ing one night in Tucson before we had even conceived, and the all-around favorite she came up with is Babble Ing Brooks (get it?). I don't think that will quite make it to the birth certificate, but it's a fun nickname for our little fetus!



This was from Babble's 9 week ultrasound. You can see the arms and legs, which we saw moving during the ultrasound, and the yolk sac is still there by the baby's head. The baby was only an inch long here! Now, four weeks later, the baby has already grown to three inches long and is about the size of a plum! I can't believe how much Babble has grown in such a short time! On the ultrasound this past week, Babble was so much bigger and so much more developed!