Surprise! It's A .......

...Healthy Baby!! (so far...)

Tuesday was a VERY long day for me. I cleaned, scrubbed, washed, dusted, rearranged furniture, etc. etc. etc. just to keep myself busy and not think about how long it was until Wednesday.

I even rented a movie and we stayed up until 11:00 watching it! This is so not typical for me. Even when I'm not pregnant I'm not a night owl. At. ALL.

And then after we crawled in bed I still couldn't sleep so I talked Colby's ear off until all I could hear coming from over on his side of the bed was snoring.

Eventually I fell asleep.

And was wide awake way too early.

Wednesday's early morning blur of activity came and went and soon I found myself wandering back and forth through the kitchen looking for things to do until it was time to go. The babysitter came, I jumped in the car and headed for town, and then the real waiting game began.

First it was the wait at the doctor's office.

"Be here at least 10 minutes early!" they said on the phone the day before.

I was there 15 minutes before my appointment. I signed my ONE piece of paper, and sat down to wait.

And wait.

And wait.

20 min. AFTER my appt. time, I was called back to the dimly lit room with the really narrow bed and she got started with my ultrasound.

"Do you want to know what you're having?", she asked just before she put the wand on my belly.

"Yes." I said firmly. Well, so much for all my talk of wanting to be surprised.

She began with a shot of the spine, did her multitude of measurements on it, then moved on to the bladder, kidneys, and stomach, pausing to measure each sufficiently.

Then I saw some leg bones and she measured them all.

Moving on to the heart, she started in on all of those measurements and views and videos for the doctor to review.

Good grief, I started thinking, doesn't my baby have a HEAD?! I still hadn't seen a little face or upper extremities at all!

Finally, there it was, a cute little face looking up at us and a hand waving around frantically!



"Hi, Baby!" I wanted to say to the screen, but figured I'd probably better save that for now.

She measured the head, brain, arm bones, upper lip, looked at the heart again, and then looked up at me.

"You did say you wanted to know the sex?" the lady asked me (about 40 minutes into the proceedure).

"YES!" I practically shrieked at her.

So she moved the wand around some more and found a good angle.

"Well...it looks like ..."

Uh-huh, my brain cut her off before she finished.. just what I thought...

When she was down there making all those leg measurements I just didn't see any... extra appendages down there...

"...A Girl!"

She finished up about 20 minutes later and went out to find the doctor to come in for the consult.

I was still numb. Of course, I'd already had that strong suspicion from the leg measuring time, but to have her say it OUT LOUD really sent it home.

THREE girls?!

THREE GIRLS?!?!?!

What on earth am I going to do with three girls?

Three girls to shop for! (woohoo!)

Three drama queens! (uh-oh)

Three hormone-laden teenage girls. (oh. dear.)

Three boyfriends? (heaven help us.)

Three weddings?! ($$$$$ !!!!!)

So much to absorb. I have to admit, I really was picturing a little towheaded boy adding to the family. I'm not disappointed, but need to adjust the thinking a little bit.

I waited another half hour for the perinatologist to come in and talk to me about the results.

He said everything looked good as far as they could see, but he was still concerned of the risk of coarctation (like Joshua's) that couldn't be seen on ultrasound. So we are going ahead with the fetal echocardiogram just to be sure there is nothing more to be concerned about.

That will take place in about 10-12 weeks in Grand Rapids. There is a very good chance nothing at all is wrong with her heart or aorta, but then again, Joshua ONLY had the coarctation and had nothing wrong with his valves or chamber walls, and those defects are often seen together, so that was a factor in the decision to go forward with the fetal echo.

Thanks again for your prayers, we are very encouraged by this good news at this point and will continue to keep you posted!



Love these "alien" shots!!