I Have a Frightening Confession to Make.

Hai, my name is Stephanie and I like White Castle. ::hides face in shame::

Yeah, that's right. I said it. *I* like White Castle.

Scene: 10.30 at night at the McCarrell household. Saturday football games are wrapping up (thank goodness!). Mark gets The Crave.

We proceed to have a conversation that entails "does it really have to be White Castle?" from me. Insistence that yes, it must be White Castle and it must be Right Now from Mark. Eventually, I say I'm tired and cold and no, I'm not going along to ride to the next suburb over to get a sack of sliders, I'm going to bed. Maybe I'll eat one because I'm kind of hungry.

Now, I have never liked White Castle. I'm 23 years old, have had several experiences with White Castle and I just have never liked the taste, the smell makes me wanna barf... it's just not good. I proceeded to lay in bed dreading the White Castle fumes that were about to enter my house and questioning whether I was even going to eat one slider or if I could just go to bed a little hungry.

Mark comes home, sets the smelly bag on the table, lines up the sliders from his bag as well as a little box of crinkle cut fries and digs in. I gingerly pull one slider from a box and take a taste. And imagine my surprise when not only was it palatable, but I actually enjoyed it. I enjoyed it a lot. I scarfed down *3* sliders all by myself before either Mark or I even knew what happened. When he went for another slider from the 2nd bag, Mark was surprised to find that there weren't any left!

I then went on and on for the next 30 minutes about how I really wanted some more sliders, how those were the best little burgers I had ever had, and why did they taste so good this time as compared with others? Maybe Mark laced them with some sort of addictive drugs? I don't know. What I do know is,

A) I need to get some more White Castle soon
B) I think I'm growing a mini-craver in my uterus to accompany Mark on his White Castle runs
C) I'm utterly convinced that pregnancy really does change your palate. (Also see: Skyline coneys, and Burger King Whopper Jr's.)

I officially feel like my body is not mine.

Oh, delicious White Castle mini-burger, please get in my belleh!

Updates!

Sorry, we've been busy and sleepy!

Here's an updated bump pic:

I'm at 21 weeks, 6 days. It's odd because I don't feel that I look this pregnant in real life, but I must look something like that, right?

Anyway.

I can finally feel movement! It seems to have been a bit delayed due to the whole anterior placenta which I discussed previously, but last night when I was laying in bed reading I started feeling it all of the sudden and it was definitely the Bean moving! It wasn't little flutters or bubbles like I've heard other people describe it. It felt more like the baby was doing full body flips in there or something! His acrobatics continued for about an hour and I've felt it on and off all day today as well.

It's the coolest and strangest feeling at the same time. It's really nice to feel the baby moving around, but at the same time there is a live human in there! You're not supposed to feel movement like that in your belly! Overall, I'm very excited to finally be feeling movement. I feel like I've been waiting forever for this!

Mark and I have been spending a lot of time lately discussing nursery decor and baby names. We are still in the very abstract planning stages of both. We have compiled a "prospect" list for names. Some of them are a little more "out there" than others, but what I we like seems to vary from day to day.

The list so far is as follows:

Liam - this is top of my list, not so much Mark's
Colin
Connor
Jackson - top of my list for the day; We'd call him Jack, or maybe we'd just go with Jack
Cash - I think this is topping Mark's list right now
Noah - probaby my #2 or #3 pick
Cade
Cooper
Joel
Levi
Matthew - my hold up for this one is that it's really common in my opinion

Feel free to comment/add suggestions. We aren't in love with anything yet so it's time to weigh in now!

Aside from the whole growing a human thing which while involuntary seems to be taking up a lot of my time and effort nowadays my adorable niece Kylie just celebrated her 1st birthday last weekend!

She's so cute!

And I made her cakes:

Which I think turned out very cute!

She was very ladylike when she ate her cake and there was no icing in between the fingers or all over the face.

Here's a quick clip because she's so darn adorable:

It's a BOY!!!

And because everyone should see my son's penis in utero, here it is:



At first the doctor had some trouble seeing the goods. The baby was... erm... exploring its anatomy. When she saw that she said it's usually an indication of a boy. Shocking ; ) But after rolling the wand over my tummy for a while and taking some measurements of the head, arms, and legs, Bean seemed to get on board with what we were trying to do and moved his hands so that we were able to get the money shot! Definitely a boy!

Mark and I are so excited! The doctor said that everything looks good and is growing properly. We got to see a lot of movement today and could clearly see the fingers and toes. I was also informed that I have an anterior placenta, which basically means that the placenta is attached to the front of my uterus instead of the back. It's not an issue, but that's why I have yet to feel much (if any, still unclear about that!) movement! I wish I had known this sooner because I had been starting to worry that Bean wasn't moving around in there! Well, as we were able to see today he's doing plenty of moving I just can't feel it yet. Apparently it's normal for women with an anterior placenta to be a bit behind in feeling movement.

After our appointment we of course made a whole list of calls to important people and sent off plenty of texts with the big news. We had a nice lunch out together and then treated ourselves to some celebratory shopping!

We each picked out an outfit:

Guess who picked which outfit?

Here's a hint:

Of course Mark sought out the football related outfit.

And here's a close up of the darling little monkey footie on my pick:

And Mark was introduced to the wonderful world of baby stuff. He's amazed at how much gear is out there for babies and how expensive it is. It's kind of like planning a wedding all over again, but this time the prices are inflated because it's baby-related.

2 days 'til the big reveal!

We are less than 2 days away from finding out the sex of Baby McCarrell! I'm so excited it's all I can think about right now! I don't know how I'm going to be able to go another 20 weeks without meeting this little one once I know what we're expecting.

For the record - Mark feels like it's a boy. I have absolutely no idea, but I feel that I need to formulate an educated guess by appointment time.

Edit to add: Okay, my official prediction is boy! I don't know if Mark's guess has influenced me and I'm still not 100% sure, but this is my guess. I've been thinking about it all day today and on the drive home from work I realized that in a lot of my daydreams about when the baby is actually here it seems to be a boy, so that's what we'll go with.

17 weeks, 6 days Bump

So... I went to bed last night with a slightly swelling stomach and woke up today with this:


I went from not looking pregnant to looking quite pregnant. Such and odd thing this whole growing a human is. My bump has officially sprung overnight.

17 Weeks today!

According to TheBump: Average Fetus is 5.1 inches in length and weighs 5.9 ounces. Baby's skeleton is hardening, changing from rubbery cartilage to bone, and fat is finally accumulating around it. The umbilical cord is getting thicker and stronger, and those little fingers and toes are now topped by one-of-a-kind prints.

I had an OB appointment today. I have yet to gain any weight which is fine by me as I don't have much of a bump to speak of. I just kind of look especially chubby. Not a good place to be in, this in betweeness, but I'm sure my bump is just around the corner. Once I actually start to look pregnant I'll feel better about gaining any weight.

Bean's heartrate was 150 according to the doppler which is still in the girl range according to the old wives' tale which says above 140 is a girl, below 140 is a boy.

Also, we are supposed to have a girl based on the Chinese Gender Chart (yet another unscientific tool).

The good news is all of our questions will be answered in 3 short weeks! Our find out the sex appointment is scheduled for Tuesday, October 6th! And I'm so excited. Now, Bean had better cooperate by being an exhibitionist or I will be most disappointed!

What sex do you think the baby is? Vote in my poll. Please and thank you : )

OMG LIFE IS GOOD! (A guest post. By Mark.)

I would like to introduce our little bundle of joy. OK, it's not so little.

Yes, friends, that's right. I interrupt your deep, burning, literary, food and pregnancy discussions to gloat about my new treasure, Sanyo 42" HD TV!

Ahhh...... HD. So crisp, so clear, so.... WHOA WHAT'S THAT ON HIS FACE??!!!!! There are downsides to ultra-clear, 42-inch goodness in the form of over-the-hill newscasters and sports announcers.

(Oh, Bud Collins... You're a legendary announcer.... And you're freakin' SCARY IN HD!!!)

I know Steph will never say she loves it, but there's definitely some "like" there. I can see it. She's so enamored with the TV she doesn't read that much anymore. It's absolutely mesmerizing.... I now know how families felt in the '50s when they first saw TV. It's like a rebirth. I'm born again in the Church of the Higher Definition. May HD be with you... and also with you.

AND..... I'm soooooo excited for football season. Thursday night, Titans/Steelers, HD!!!! Then the big one Saturday night.... Buckeyes/USC!!!

Football + HD + Buffalo Chicken Dip = HEAVEN

Have there ever been so many "!!!!!" in one blog post! SQUEE!!!!!!

Gotta go, "Pawn Stars" marathon on HistoryHD is on!