To the mothers of boys...

To all my friends who have boys:

1. I am having a BOY in April :)

2. I know NOTHING about boys.

a. How to dress them.

b. What they play with.

c. Hygiene.

3. Advice welcomed.

Last week, I began having contractions at 16 weeks. I had an appointment for the following Tuesday, so I wrote them off as early Braxton Hicks and decided to wait it out for the appointment. By Wednesday, they had not eased at all and were definitely more noticeable. I called my doctor. Knowing my history of premature labor with Meredith and the fact that I had no clue I was even in "real" labor with her when I was admitted to the hospital and drugged to make them stop, I decided not to play around with this. They were able to get me in on Thursday. Gray and I got there and Dr. Tonkin ordered an ultrasound to make sure my cervix was not changing. Sherry, the sweet ultrasound tech, was swamped. I was "undressed from the waist down" and waiting on the doctor. The nurse came sprinting in telling me to hurry up and get to the ultrasound room before anyone else got on Sherry's table. I nearly ran down the hall with nothing but my shirt and drape on (I did put my clothes on but managed to put my pants on backwards...don't ask). Anyway, I beat out the other pregnant women and got to Sherry first. She took a look and thankfully, my cervix had not changed yet. Gray and I thought that was the end of the ultrasound, but she said she would let us take a peek at our baby really fast. She scanned and showed us his precious little profile, hands, stomach, and legs... On the way to the legs, Gray and I simultaneously squeezed each other's hands...we thought we "saw something." She quickly moved her hand and nonchalantly asked if we wanted to know the sex of the baby. Of course we did!!! She froze the screen and asked me if I recognized "that." I said, "well, that's a boy!" Yes. No doubt. He was one proud little guy. We tried unsuccessfully for weeks to find out what Meredith was. She never cooperated. Below is a picture of Meredith's ultrasound. It doesn't show her head, but if you look, you can see she has her little hands folded over her "girl parts" just perfectly. She sat like this with the hiccups for 10 minutes. I wish she was still this modest. Anyway, Thomas Maddox Nickels will be here in April. We are calling him Maddox. I am taking injections each week to help ward off preterm labor. So, moms with boys...help me out.