Babies, babies everywhere!

Our posts have gotten a little sparse lately, but we have a great excuse for that… and it's name is Nemo:

the many faces of Nemo

Ok, so it's name isn't really Nemo. That's just what we're calling this little one for now. We could actually use some help coming up with a real name. The sex of the baby is going to be a surprise, so we need boy and girl names. Nemo's name will be _____ Bravo Wiri, so we don't really need another middle name, but whatever we pick has to go well with both names.

We have an amazing boy name that we both love (and that we're keeping a secret), and if that name doesn't fit then our backup boy name is Henry. We need a Thai nickname for a boy though. For a girl we need a lot more help with a first name, but we think we have a Thai nickname: either Nam or Som (probably Som). When we were talking about different Thai names after Christmas Hope joked that we should name the baby "orange juice" since we both drink so much of it now that the baby must be at least 50% OJ by this point. Well, in Thai orange juice is nam (water) som (orange) and it turns out that both of those are very common nicknames for girls. That was easy!

So let's back up a little. Most of you already know about Nemo, but here's the long version of the story:

We knew, after five long years together, that we were ready to start a family as soon as we were married. In fact, Hope visited her doctor and started taking prenatal vitamins back in June to make sure she'd be in prime shape for incubating a little one when the time came. Well, according to Nemo's due date, the time came right smack in the middle of our honeymoon. (Because of this, we joked about naming the baby after one of the Galapagos Islands) We did the math before we left and decided that it would be a perfect time to try because the baby would be due right at the end of the school year and Hope could take the whole summer off after the birth. Plus, May/June is a great time to be born since babies have a lot of time to get strong and healthy before winter and flu season roll around. Fortunately for us our plan worked out (Suthee's boys can swim!) and all the pieces came together on the first try, but if it hadn't worked we would have just tried again the next month (which would still give us that good summer timing), or waited and tried for an October baby (that's a pretty good time to be born too, since you get to be one of the oldest in class at school). As of right now the due date is May 18, 2014… but babies are rarely that predictable, so we're prepared to welcome this little one any time in May (or even late April, but any sooner might catch us off guard a little).

After we came back the waiting began. We got home the first week of September, but had to wait a whole week until it was time to take a test. On Friday the 13th we saw this little gem:

it's faint, but there's a vertical line there

And five days later we got extra confirmation:

this one was definite

We had our first appointment at 5 weeks to confirm, first ultrasound at 8 weeks, and we heard the heartbeat on the doppler at our 10 week appointment. Knowing that not all pregnancies are successful, and that the first trimester is the riskiest part, we elected to keep quiet about Nemo for a little while. At 13 weeks we did the first trimester screening and everything came back looking great. After we got such good results from this screening we decided it was safe to spread the news.

two arms

two legs

a strong heartbeat

We told all of our parents about the same time, and Suthee's aunt Na Nid got to know a little early too since she joined us for lunch the day we told the Wiri's. We told both of Hope's parents over the phone (simply due to the distance), but we were able to tell Suthee's parents face to face. When we were at the 14 week mark we were all in Oakland, CA for Suthee's cousin Eve's wedding so it was perfect timing.  After that we waited until Thanksgiving to go public with the news so that we could tell more people face to face or over the phone before they found out on Facebook. While we were in California for Eve's wedding we visited Hope's friends Ethan and Robyn (who you may remember were her bridesdude and one of her bridesmaids) and they actually helped us to come up with the nickname Nemo (based on the one little "flipper" we could see in the 8 week ultrasound). On Thanksgiving day Suthee's uncle said grace before dinner, and then we busted out a picture of Nemo and showed everybody what we have to be thankful for this year!

our shirts that we wore to make our big announcement

Nemo's first Facebook post

At 18 weeks we had an elective ultrasound to try and find out the sex of the baby before Christmas. At first Nemo was super active, then baby fell asleep... sitting cross-legged... on top of Hope's bladder... with the umbilical cord right between the legs…

those little legs were crossed tight
(the two parts to the right of the belly are a thigh and the opposite foot)

At 21 weeks we had our anatomy scan and again everything looked perfect. According to the measurements our ultrasound tech took it looks like Nemo has ten fingers, ten toes, and appropriately sized body parts and organs. We couldn't have asked for more! Nemo has also been very cooperative posing for ultrasound photos. We got very nice profiles, and this baby had a hand by it's face in nearly every picture… except the 8 week one, because Nemo only had limb buds (which Hope referred to as "flippers") at that point and they weren't long enough to reach it's face. (Sorry about saying "it" so much, but we can't say he or she so "it" is really the only option)

we thought it was amazing that you could see all four chambers of that tiny heart
it was even more awesome seeing it in action

Nemo isn't the only baby news happening recently. There have been a few births in our families. We have welcomed two new nephews and a new niece since the last time we posted:

Hope's brother Nicholas and his girlfriend Crystal welcomed their first baby: Timothy "Timmy" Nicholas Bravo on June 23, 2013. 

Suthee's brother Tom and his wife Susan welcomed their first baby: Aiden Tirapat Wiri on August 20, 2013.

Hope's sister Sara and her two older children, Desiree and Anthony, welcomed baby #3: Katherine "Katie" Elizabeth Fields on October 6, 2013.

Hope was able to meet Timmy when she visited California in July, we both met Aiden at Christmas in Texas, and Hope met Katie when she visited Georgia just after Christmas. Even though we're all so far apart we're looking forward to Nemo growing up with so many cousins so close in age (it'll be less than a year from Timmy's birthday to Nemo's). Hopefully we'll have them all together soon.