Baby Rossman is a.....

BOY!!

19 Weeks...Did I just feel something?!

Well, I think it's safe to say now that I have finally felt baby flutter!! Sunday night (3/27/11) I was laying on the couch watching a movie with Tony, and I felt like something rolled over in my lower belly. This isn't quite the first time I've suspected feeling movement, but I wanted to be SURE when I felt baby move, it was real. I didn't want to be one of 'those' women who think a gas bubble is the baby wiggling around ;) So I told Tony, "I think I felt the baby move!". He looked at me surprised. Throughout the rest of the evening, I felt it 6 more times. It was definitely how people described...'butterfly flutters' 'little bubbles' and I'll add one to the mix. You know when you are on a ride at the fair like "The Falling Star" where it drops you down a little, and your stomach makes that weird feeling? It felt like a smaller version of that. Hehe. It was so AMAZING to finally feel Baby Rossman, since I know from our first ultrasound he/she loves to move around! I felt instant love and a connection with this little one, and just stared down at my bump still in awe that there is a little person growing in there.

I've been doing a lot better all in all this trimester. The morning sickness (ahem, and NIGHTTIME sickness) has subsided, I'm enjoying food again, and I'm not as tired as I was. The naps at 6pm after work aren't as frequent ;) Of course there have been a slew of new 'symptoms', and my back hurts pretty much every day. My hips hurt at night. I think it's time for a pregnancy pillow! I've also outgrown many of my work pants where it's just not comfortable to even wear the belly bands. Time to stock up on some new maternity clothes this weekend! I took my belly ring out after reading a few people's advice on them. Apparently if you leave it in too long it can create a very nasty scar! It's very odd not seeing my belly bling down there, as I've had it for 10 years now! I will take a new photo this evening of the belly and post it as well.

Tomorrow is the BIG day of finding out the gender!! It will probably go down as the LONGEST day at work for me..ever. ;) The ultrasound place said that I could bring in 3 people plus myself, so BOTH of our mom's get to come! The dads will be waiting nearby in the waiting room to hear the news first and celebrate with us :)

My appointment is at 2:45pm so stayed tuned to the blog where we will post the results FIRST before Facebook.

Have a wonderful day everyone, and THANK YOU to all our followers. We love sharing this experience with our amazing friends and family.

XO,
Soni

Gender Experiment “Predictions”

Sonia and I are just a couple days away from discovering what little baby Rossman will be, a boy or a girl. You may or may not be aware but there are many old wives tales that predict (and I use that word loosely) what the baby’s gender will be. We decided to participate in many of the experiments to see what they “predicted.” This was a fun activity for us to do; some of them were pretty silly.

Physical “tells”
Oval belly, not round. Watermelon vs basketball. GIRL
Carrying low. BOY
Increased acne. GIRL
Morning sickness, yes! GIRL
Over 140 bpm heartrate. GIRL
full, round face (but no real change). GIRL
clumsy (she’s always been tho =P). BOY
boobie tests. Both results were BOY
feet temp the same. GIRL
leg hair growth, same. GIRL
faster, stronger nail growth. BOY
looking good, not ugly. BOY
dull yellow pee. GIRL
nose growth/wider, no. GIRL
headaches, yes. BOY
dad gains weight (Sonia doesn’t think I have. I feel like I have because of unemployment and now my fancy pants and shirts for work are a bit snug). GIRL/BOY??
sleep/rest on left side BOY

Cravings
sweets, fruits, and Orange Juice. GIRL
does not eat heels/ends of bread loaves. GIRL
NOT craving protein (meats and cheeses). GIRL

Tests/Quizzes
The ring barely swayed GIRL, sometimes circled. BOY

We tried this one several times. I held the string over her belly and then her hand. She held it over her belly and then her hand. Then I pinned it to the ceiling to remove human element and it barely moved. I think it moved because our arms would get tired and move from holding the string up for a minute or two.

Picked up fat part of key. I put a key on the ground and in my hand, both times Sonia picked it up by the fat top part of the key. BOY

shows her hands palms up. GIRL
pillow facing north. BOY
chinese calendar. (Age during conception and month of conception) BOY
mayan math (add year, 2010, with mother’s age at the time, 25, odd answer, 2035, is a boy). BOY
baby names, agree on a specific gender name, it will be that gender. we have no boy names picked out, but we agree on one name for a girl. GIRL

childbirth.org quiz - You have a 33% chance of having a BOY and you have a 66% chance of having a GIRL.
babygenderprediction.com 27% chance of BOY, 73% chance of GIRL.

Sonia's had heartburn too so that means baby will have a full head of hair!

Lastly, one more "prediction" brought to us by our good friend Marcus Perry, who said: "heads BOY.... tails GIRL...........ok just did a best out of 3 and boy won 2-1. congrats on your baby boy. The coin never lies, If wrong cheese quisidilla on me from memos" Well, there you have it!

One interesting test we did not do (no Drano) was to mix a tablespoon of Drano in mom’s urine and watch to see if it changes color. Green = GIRL, and blue = BOY. Maybe we'll do this AFTER we know the gender and put it to the test.

So, what do you think? Looks like a baby Rossman will be a girl, a baby Rosslady.

New Poll!

We added a fun interactive poll for everyone to cast their vote on whether you think Baby Rossman is a BOY or a GIRL! It's located on the top right portion of our main blog page, and will stay open until after our ultrasound appointment next Thursday @ 2:45pm! Let us know what you think!! :)

Another New Life Change

The news of becoming a father this summer is not the only life change I've received in the last few months. I have had a couple of life changes lately. One big change, my job situation, has come full circle. So, I feel more comfortable discussing it all in “public” now.

Last summer, the department I worked for announced a 20% labor reduction. This was the third lay-off wave in two years. Lots of reduction in workforce had already been done – the remaining people were very overworked. The first two reductions “cut the fat” to "lean" us out, so a third cut was a scary one. There weren't enough people for the work as it was, so this reduction was going to make things even worse. At this point I saw receiving a lay-off notice as a potential positive; while of course, not receiving one was also a positive since I’d keep my job. If I got a notice, I was receiving a clean break, a free college degree, and I was not going to be around to be even more overworked and underappreciated.

On October 29th my manager set up a meeting with me to discuss the reduction in workforce. I knew what was coming – she was only setting up meetings with people getting laid off. The meeting was a mere formality – a part of the process so my manager could cross it off her to-do list. To this day I do not agree with the decision and the reasoning behind it, but it turns out it was for the best, sort of.

January 4th was my official last day, but my final working day was December 23^rd. The company closes for about 10 days at the end of every year as paid holidays. So up until a few weeks ago, I was still being paid as if I was still working there (via this holiday break, severance package, vacation time payout, and the annual bonus). During this time I also collected unemployment while I finished my Associate’s Degree (which I finished on Feb 13) and looked for a job/career that I wanted to do. Financially, I was going to be okay for a while, but the uncertainty of the future was frightening. Trouble was that I also did not know what I wanted to do; or at least as a realistic career choice. I would love to someday become a sports journalist (or something to do with sports). I would love to make a career out of following, talking about, and writing about sports – namely Seahawks football, of course. Until that time comes, I have to make due with other career choices.

I found some jobs that looked interesting and applied to them but never heard anything back. I am certain these companies were flooded with applicants and the numbers game was not playing in my favor. I gave myself two months time to find a job that fit what I wanted to do before I would then include any job that would pay the bills. I was going to take what I could get to support my family - that is what is most important.

My deadline was reached and I began to apply to more jobs where I previously worked, and jobs similar to what I was doing before. I also added my resume to job placement sites to see what would come my way. A couple weeks later and I got a bite!

I applied for a job at my previous employer through a recruiting company. The company rep called me a day after I applied to discuss the position and ask me a couple questions. Five minutes later my resume was sent to the hiring manager. But wait! I had to know who the hiring manager was because if it was my previous manager, I knew I was not going to be hired. Let’s just say she did not like me for some reason (I still don’t know why) and I will never work for her again. So if the recruiter told me it was my previous manager then I was going to move on….but this job was for a different manager, and one that I had worked with in the past. So I sent the hiring manager an email to re-introduce myself and express my interest in the job. Within a few hours of the email, my good reputation from previous work earned myself a job offer!!

I am now back to work - today is my second day back. The funny thing is that I am back with a promotion (to the position I was working towards but my last manager did not want to promote me to) and a raise too! The one major down-side is no medical benefits. Yet. I plan on becoming a permanent employee again so my family and I get their good benefit package back. Another down-side is no more working from home (my department is ending that program very soon) – which I know this will please you previously jealous people out there! ;) I have to drive in to work again, like most of you do.

In October, I was disgusted with my previous manager’s decision but remained optimistic that I would land on my feet and move on to bigger and better things. I have done that in some ways and am enjoying the last laugh now! My previous manager didn't deserve to have someone like me working on her team. Now I am with a team that has always appreciated me and I look forward to the future. I feel I am in a good place now and am interested to see what happens in the coming months. Having the weight of an uncertainty of having a good job or not is now off my shoulders! =) That makes focusing on baby and mommy/wife much easier.

I wanna thank my wife, Sonia, and my mom for their support during the last few months. I also thank the rest of my family and friends who were there for me. It meant a lot to have that support and encouragement.

--Tony

Week 17 Picture update!

I will be taking more photos with the same pants and a similar pose as the prior pictures later this week, but we took this picture before going out to the Deion Branch/Colin Cole charity event this weekend (03/12/11). It's growing nicely! :)



Thanks for the follows and the wonderful comments. Baby and I are doing great, and I'm feeling better every day! The 2nd trimester is much better than the 1st!!

XO,
Soni

Quick update...

Sonia and I received some test results yesterday. Very good news too! The baby is at very low (if any) risk of spinabifida and downs syndrome. Momma and baby also do not have HIV! So all the blood work came back normal and everyone is good and healthy!

Also, we scheduled our next ultrasound, where we find out the sex of the baby, for Thursday, March 31. 3 weeks away now!! We are pretty excited to find out what the baby is - hopefully baby cooperates and shows the goods lol (I posted a blog called "Pink or Blue" for everyone to share what they think the baby will be, boy or girl. So check that out and leave your thoughts!)

Reminder, please follow along on our blog by clicking either "FOLLOW" in the upper left hand corner in the toolbar by clicking the "FOLLOW" button on the right hand side of the page where the list of the current followers is listed. This will help keep you up to date with our posts so you don't miss anything or have to rely on us sending out reminders on facebook, etc.

Thanks again for following along with us as we share this experience with you all, our family and friends.

--Tony