Moving

Hey gang. This blog is on the move! Well, its really just moving down the street. We're making it easier to find by putting it right on our homepage.

Jonah!

Well, we finally found out. Whatsit is now officially Jonah Robert Hardenbergh. We had our 3rd ultrasound today and we got some footage of Jonah sucking his thumb! And obviously we found out he is a he!
(in case you can't make out the image: these videos are just of his head. He is facing right and putting his hand up to his mouth)





Hope you enjoyed the videos!

Easter Cometh

Well, the Great Easter Vigil is upon us.  Tonight marks the end of what we in the Hardenbergh home lovingly refer to as “Holy Hell Week”.  Holy Week, the week before Easter, is the busiest week of the year for those who work for and volunteer for the Catholic church.  Because there is so much to do and by the end we are exhausted, we call it Holy Hell Week.  Not that its bad, I love it.  But it really does drain you.  And it isn’t really just a week long.  It starts with the prep for Passion Sunday (the Sunday before Easter) and that can be as early as the Monday before that.  Then there’s the Penance service on Tuesday.  Tenebrae on Wednesday, Holy Thursday (running around before and during church to get things set up), Good Friday (more running) and then……Today, Holy Saturday.

It begins with morning prayer at 9am.  Then RCIA run through at 9:30.  Altar server run through at 10.  Help the decorators at 10:30.  And to top it off today, I painted the baby’s room (well, I primed it.  Good bye red wall)!  If I’m lucky I’ll get a little nap before heading to church for 7:30, but probably not.  The Vigil starts at 8:30, and Cat and I have a whole list of things we need to do before and during the 3 hour service.  Yes 3 hours!  Now, I would never sit in church for 3 hours, but tonight is different.  Tonight is amazing!  The parish’s best lectors, cantors and other ministers humbly perform their jobs (and hey, let’s throw humility out the window, I’m proclaiming the epistle and Cat’s singing the litany of saints!).  It is the best liturgy of the year and is well worth all the work that leads up to it!!!  If I’m really lucky, we’ll be home by 1am.

Easter is the most amazing time of year in the church.  But I can’t wait until Holy Hell Week is over!  God Bless and have a wonderful Easter.

Mango it is

Well, we were supposed to find out the sex of the baby today.  Supposed to.  We have patiently waited for our ultrasound appointment and it finally arrived today.  They got all the pictures the doctor needs; head size, femur size, heart and heartbeat, kidneys, spine.  But none of the fun ones we wanted!  They do a 4-D picture but it wouldn’t turn out because the baby wasn’t in the right position.  Then when they went looking for “parts” it was inconclusive.  The baby is just like its mother, shy.  It had one leg curled and wouldn’t move them.  To make matters more complicated the umbilical cord was right between the legs blocking what little view the baby was providing anyway.  (We think the tech was leaning towards a girl, but there was really no way that it was anything more than a hunch).  So instead of giving the baby a name, we’re still on fruits and vegetables.  But the tech said everything looked good.  One foot was about 3cm and the femur was 3.18cm and the heartbeat was 146.  We can go back at 30 weeks to try the 4-D again.  That’s 11 weeks from now!  It seems like a long time, but I bet it flies by.  In the meantime we got a fuzzy picture of a foot, the spine, and a halfway decent face profile (Cat thinks Mango has my nose).  I’ll post those pics later.

Baby's First Photos!

Well, we went to our first pre-natal visit today! Cat was really nervous, but I was really excited. We met with a nurse for alomst an hour, answering questions and and getting lots of information (and presents too, we got a Your Baby Week by Week book). Then it was time for the ultrasound. That was so amazing. We got to see the baby in real time. It was moving and kicking and waiving and spinning, it really wouldn't stay still! Here is a link to the pictures we got to bring home (and that we get to share with you), pics here

We've named the baby!!!

Ok, we haven’t, but I have. It’s name is Poppyseed. I found this article on the web that equates the size of your baby to food. I love food. I like to eat it, talk about it, and equate things to it.

Baby Blog # 1

The test was positive!!!!!

We waited 7 years before we started trying to get pregnant.  Then we tried for a year with no luck and a lot of heartbreak every month.  We decided to seek out medical help and found that Cat wasn’t ovulating, so they put her on a few drugs.  After only 2 months………..

The doctor was ready to start month three of treatment and Cat thought “Wait, what if I’m pregnant?”  The answer was that her progesterone levels were low when they were tested so she probably wasn’t.  But we used one of those ovulation test kits (pee on a stick and all) and she thought she hadn’t ovulated until after she had the progesterone test (hence the low levels).  So on her birthday, Cat went and got a blood test.

She decided she couldn’t wait so she bought a home pregnancy test.  It came out positive but the line was really light (like seriously, is that a shadow light) she didn’t even tell me about it.  The next morning she took another one and the line was a little darker.  She put it in the package and laid it on the bed.  The following conversation ensued:

Me: “What’s that?”
Cat: “A pregnancy test”
“What does it say?”
“Here, look.”
“Um, that’s a plus.  That’s positive, I think.  It’s kinda light.”
“You see it too?!”

At this point we started to get excited.  It was about 7:45am and the doctor’s office opened at 8.  So now it was a waiting game until we could call them.  At 7:58 the phone rang.  It was the doctor’s office!!!!!!!  There was lots of crying, laughing, jumping and overall goodness!!!!

So now we wait.  Cat will make a doctor’s appointment soon.  Then, God willing, 8 long months from now…….a whole new chapter starts.