Holmes Is Where The Heart Is: The Reveal

Well, it's no secret that we had our gender reveal party a little over a week ago... It's a girl! Around Tuesday (before the party), the envelope started to haunt me. I was getting anxious. I called ahead to Publix to make sure they could fill the box (that was a pain in the butt to wrap!). She said to bring it on Thursday and I could pick it up Friday. Well, on Thursday, she said she could do it and I could just wait for it. Ah! I wasn't prepared to have the box in my possession for over 24 hours. I went to my parents house and hid it in the basement without telling anyone. I knew my family would drive me crazy trying to peak (which my brother did as soon as I brought the box up on Friday!)

I've never handled parties well. I don't know why. My parents say none of us ever did. I just get anxious and on the verge of tears every time. It's strange. I knew once everyone was there, I'd be fine. I also don't like surprises. I thought I'd be ok with this one since the surprise was only one of two things but it proved to be hard, too. I like small surprises, as in Derrick bringing home flowers, but not big ones. I'm weird... I know. And I don't know what it is that makes me feel that way. It's probably because I'm not in control.

I also think finding out gender was very scary for me because it made having a baby so much real. With everything we've been through, the idea of knowing the gender was scary. It's sad that I think like that now but it's honest. It's still a little hard for me to believe that I'm pregnant. I get nervous every time we have a doctor's appointment and get afraid the baby didn't make it. But so far, every time, Vera is just perfect. I also think it's hard to believe because I don't have much of a bump yet. Sometimes, this bothers me, but then I realize it's just going to be less work to get rid of it after Vera is here. So I'm kinda loving it now! And even though I feel like I've gained 10 pounds, I've lost 3 since the beginning and have maintained that the entire way so far. So I'm okay with it :)

So about the name.... originally, Derrick and I liked the name London. As I've mentioned before we are partial to state/city/location names. It's weird, I know. I don't even remember how the conversation started, but it was a while ago. I always referred to my grandma (Dad's mom) as grandma Bonnie. My mom mentioned that her first name was Vera and I fell in love. Then I realized I could combine my Grandma Ruth (mom's mom) and my mom's middle name (Sue) and get Rue. I was instantly in love with that name and what it meant. Both of my grandma's were so very important and special to me, and obviously so is my mom. It was a little harder to convince Derrick but the more he heard it, the more he liked it. And his family has a tradition for a boy's name that we were going to go with so it's only fair I get the girl's name :) So that's where the name comes from. Oh, and it's Vera as in Vera Wang or Vera Bradley. Which I know is not phonetically correct but oh well. I'm really not sure yet how I'll refer to her.... Vera or Vera Rue. I'm sure it will be a mix. As for embroidered things, either is fine! I love how Vera Rue looks, so we'll see!

Below are some pics from the reveal!

The box with the secret!