“I better do as a Doozer does and get on with the job” ~Gobo Fraggle

Anyone who knows Michelle knows she is TERRIFIED of needles. A fear she will undoubtedly have to overcome during this pregnancy since there will be quite a bit of blood work and tests done as well as the possibility of an epidural during delivery.

Anyone who knows Michelle also knows that she is obsessed with stuffed animals. She absolutely LOVES plush versions of wildlife creatures. Considering both of these facts we decided to go out and buy a new stuffed animal for her to take to all of her doctors appointments and hold while tests were being done. Since Tony loves monkeys the pair went to Build a Bear and make a primate stuffed animal lovingly deemed Spraggle Monkey.




There were two rounds of blood work the following week for which Spraggle Monkey was in attendance. Although Michelle is certainly not over her fear of needs she has come to realize that they are a necessary evil during the next 9 months and has taken to squeezing the stuffing out of Spraggle Monkey while the nurse pricks her skin.

"Look, Ma! I caught a 'Spraggle'!" ~Junior Gorg

So A little bit of a back story is in order. In October of last year we, meaning Michelle and Tony, made the conscious decision to stop using birth control as of the end of the year. We realized that we did in fact want kids, something we had always known although we had put on an outward facade to the contrary.

We continued to boast that we were never having children even after Michelle came off the pill. Very few people knew that we were thinking about having kids. Over the next few months Michelle’s cycle went all to hell and we figured it would take a few months before her body regulated itself and she was ready. However, one fateful weekend in April we had quite a bit going on, a night out with friends, a party to go to, and a dance recital on Sunday. Michelle seamed out of sorts. She was tired and had no interest in drinking. Conversation began, while at the bar after the dance recital, that she might be pregnant. We excitedly finished our drinks, said our good byes, and rushed home.

A quick pee test later and it was confirmed; WE ARE GOING TO BE PARENTS!! After a few tears of joy and some time jumping around in excitement we sent our cheering section this text:



A long running joke with our friends.

The next few days we set up doctors appointments, talked about every possible facet of having children that we could think of and generally just basked in the glow of happiness.

What’s a Spraggle?

Technically “Spraggle” is the name that has been given to Michelle and Tony’s unborn baby. The name Spraggle was dubbed by Michelle immediately after she found out she was pregnant.

The word Spraggle is a portmanteau of Sprague (Tony and Michelle’s last name) and Fraggle (A type of creature from the 80’s puppetry TV show ‘Fraggle Rock’) Fraggle was a nickname given to Michelle by Tony’s father after she attempted to cheer him up when he had injured his back while on vacation. She was acting like a goofy puppet and her father in law said she looked like a Fraggle.

Fraggles were both male and female and since we do not yet know the sex of the baby the nickname seems to be an ambiguous way of referring to the baby without delineating gender.