Outside looking In...Inside looking out

A view from the outside looking in and the inside looking out ...

Several people have asked me if I "look pregnant" yet. I figured I would show you all how my belly has grown into over the last 20 weeks. In my opinion, yes, I look pregnant. However, I may just be saying that because I hope people don't think I'm just fat.

Results are in....

We are having a GIRL! Congratulations to all of you who guessed correctly! Little Ms. Hofmann was very active and a little shy during the ultrasound. We didn't get the anatomy shot easily, but we did get good proof. She is 12 oz and in the 59th percentile. Everything looked normal and she looked good. She jerked her head once during the ultrasound. I felt the movement very stong. I told Lance that I felt that and the lab tech said she did too.

Ultrasound Today!

Today we get to see images of our baby for the first time! Lance and I are very excited! The only change in the guessing game is that Grandma Jo (Christa's mom) has submitted her guess for a boy. That leaves us at a 52% guessing boy and 48% guessing girl.

4 days & 50/50

Christa (Mommy) ............Lance (Daddy)
Janet (Lance's Mom) .......Ivan (Lance's Brother)
Janet's cousin ....................Carla (Christa's Sister)
April (Family Friend).......Barbara (Family Friend)
Mike O (Family Friend)...Annie (Purdue)
Angie (work)......................Hannah (Angie's Daughter)
Holli(Angie's Daughter)....Melissa (Christa's Friend)
Ron (work).........................Angel (Sister-In-Law)
Kristina (Purdue)..............Kaity (Niece)
Delores (Christa's Aunt)...Bonnie (Family Friend)

5 Days... and 59% (boy) to 41% (girl)

Christa (Mommy) ............ Lance (Daddy)
Janet (Lance's Mom) .......Ivan (Lance's Brother)
Janet's cousin ....................Carla (Christa's Sister)
April (Family Friend)........Barbara (Family Friend)
Mike O (Family Friend).. .Annie (Purdue)
Angie (work).......................Hannah (Angie's Daughter)
Holli(Angie's Daughter).....Melissa (Christa's Friend)
Ron (work)
Kristina (Purdue)
Delores (Christa's Aunt)

Place your bets by adding a comment or sending me an email. I will update daily! Remember, you have a 50% chance of being right!

Make a Guess!

We are still taking guesses on rather our baby is a boy or girl. I should give a little explanation to Lance & my guess. Lance says we are having a girl, because Ivan (his brother) had a girl first. I am guessing we are having a boy, on the 50% chance that Lance is wrong, then I get to be right!

Christa (Mommy) ............ Lance (Daddy)
Janet (Lance's Mom) .......Ivan (Lance's Brother)
Janet's cousin ....................Carla (Christa's Sister)
April (Family Friend)........Barbara (Family Friend)
Mike O (Family Friend).. .Annie (Purdue)
Angie (work).......................Hannah (Angie's Daughter)
Ron (work)

Place your bets by adding a comment or sending me an email. I will update daily! Remember, you have a 50% chance of being right!

Anatomy Ultrasound Countdown...7 days

We have 7 more days until the anatomy ultrasound appointment. We are very excited to get to see images of baby Hofmann. Meanwhile, we have been doing all kinds of silly tests to see if we can figure out what the gender of our baby might be. The results so far are....
Drano = boy
Chinese Lunar Calandar = girl
Old Wives Tails (test #1) = boy (57% chance)
Old Wives Tails (test #2) = girl (62% chance)

So basically, we are as certain of what the gender of the baby is now, as we were before all the silly test.

We are taking a poll. Anyone who is willing to take a stance and guess the gender of our baby before the results are known, we would love to hear what you have to say. (Remember, you have a 50% chance of being correct).

Lance (Daddy) = girl
Christa (Mommy) = boy
Janet (Lance's Mom) = boy
Ivan (Lance's Brother) = girl
Janet's cousin = boy
Barbara (Family Friend) = girl
Carla (Christa's Sister) = girl


To get your guess posted, you may either add a comment to the blog...or send me an email. Happy guessing!!!!

Belly Button

Lance thinks my belly button is his direct path of communication with the baby (which is really cute to see). Over the weekend he pulls up my shirt and starts talking to the baby. Then in mid conversation, he says "your belly button is getting HUGE. Have you looked at this thing lately?" Then he decides he is going to stick his finger in it. He then says "Look! This thing swallows my finger!" Meanwhile, my face is red and I am actually taking time to look at my belly button. I told him it was the baby's fault and we both started laughing. I think it's cute the things men notice.

Drano Recipe

This baby gender prediction method has been around for decades, and makes it's rounds regularly on the web as a potential way to find out what gender your baby is.

The recipe /tools needed to test this method..
Glass Jar
Plastic Container with 3 oz. marked
2 Tablespoons CRYSTAL drano
3 oz of pregnant lady urine
Lots of fresh air
2 budding scientists

First, take 2 tbsp drano and place in glass jar and place outside. Send the pregnant lady to the bathroom to pee in the plastic container. Send the two budding scientists outside to pour the urine into the draino. Stand back to watch and see what happens. Please note: if there is any wind, you want to be upwind, because this concoction stinks!

Results:
If the mixture darkens to a brownish, black or dark blue color within the first 10 seconds - It is a boy. If there is no darkening or color change after 10 - 15 seconds - It is a girl.

Baby's Moving

Mommy has been feeling Baby Hofmann moving around for the last several days. The first few times it happened, I was thinking "hmmm that's an odd feeling" wondering if it was the baby I was feeling move. Now, I am sure it's the baby. Lance is a little jealous because I can feel it and he can't yet, so he keeps trying to encourage the baby to kick me. I'm sure glad our baby hasn't started listening to daddy yet!

Purdue, Wedding, & Draino

We had a very busy weekend. I went up to Purdue on Friday to do some recruiting for open positions with my job. It was a little strage to go back to campus after a year away, but was nice to catch up with a few of the professors and students.
Our buddy John Hedrick got married on Saturday. Lance was a groomsman, so while they were getting dressed and ready for pictures, I went to a couple university bookstores. Didn't find a whole lot because the first home game just ended and there were thousands of people in the book stores. At least everyone was in a good mood because Purdue beat the socks off Oregon.
Supposedly, there is a test pregnant women can take to find out if the baby they are carrying is a boy or a girl before the ultrasound. From what I've heard you mix Draino and urine and the color the draino turns indicates the gender of the baby. I am thinking about trying it out to see. Has anyone heard of this before? Has anyone tried it? I'm debating it, but I have to do my homework first to find out what ratio of each is needed and what the results tell you. Look for a Draino update in a few days.

4 Month Dr. Appointment

We had our 4 month dr. appointment this morning (9-3-08). The baby's heart rate was 148 (good for the baby's age), my weight gain is on track, and baby measures a little big for 16 weeks. We will find out if they are going to stick with our original due date (2-13-09) at our ultrasound appointment on 9-29-08 (late afternoon). By the end of the month, we should know rather we are having a boy or girl!!!!! Other than that, all is well!

Labor Day

We had a very busy Labor Day holiday weekend. We went up to the house and mewed grass and worked around there on Friday evening and all day Saturday. Lance helped me pick green beans-almost 3 five gallon buckets full. I worked on processing them while he went and did a few things on the farm. He went over and visited Ivan, Angel, Kaity, and Kent. Angel gave us the cutest onesie.


On Sunday, we went to Lincoln Park to visit my Mom and Dad and the camping crew. I got to see my neice, Ciara, and meet Aubrey, who is 20 days younger. Three daughters of the camping club, Carla (my sister), April, and Barbara were all expecting within 2 weeks of each other. All three had healthy little girls. Now, Carla's sister -me, April's sister - Bonnie, and Barbara's sister - Lisa are all expecting within 9 days of each other in February. So we took belly pictures of the three of us somewhere between 18 and 16 weeks. I didn't end up with a picture, but I know there is one on the Hemp blogpage, which is linked.
Monday, I had a full day of canning green beans. Remember those 3 five gallon buckets...


I ended up with 45 pints and 7 quarts of green beans after a full day of work canning.