The Big Ultrasound!

Going into my ultrasound today, I was nervous. I don't remember being nervous when I went in for Caleb's ultrasound. Maybe I just don't remember it, but I was really nervous today. I will be completely honest and say that I hoped we would be told, "It's a boy!" My reasons for that are a little silly, but here they are:

• I know how to be a mom to a little boy. I have 3 1/2 years of experience at it.
• Little girls seem to just naturally love pink. I hate lots of pink. I hate ruffles, bows and frilly stuff. (I can take pink in small doses and when calmed down by other colors such as brown, black, green and blue.)
• I love the nature of little boys. In general, they take things in stride much better than little girls.
• I have an attic full of blue baby clothes and toddler clothes. They are primarily adorned with footballs, trucks and dinosaurs.
• I have a playroom full of trucks, balls and dinosaurs.
• I am terrified of tween and teen girls. They scare me, honestly. I didn't really like myself at that age and I'm not sure I've ever met a girl of that age who liked or understood herself at all. Do I have what it takes to make it through those stages as a mother and to guide a girl through those most difficult years?

BUT...through all of that, I have these thoughts:

• I treasure the relationship that I have with my mother. I would be honored to have that relationship with my daughter.
• The experiences that I've had with my mother as an adult are irreplaceable. I want to someday be the mother of the bride, the mother of the new mom and the mother of the daughter who shows the world what women are made of.
• God knows what He's doing. If He trusts me to raise a daughter that He has plans for, then by all means - I accept that with a willing heart and a sense of adventure!

So, I picked Caleb up at school and we met Rudy at my OB's office. We were called back into the ultrasound room and the nervous butterflies in my stomach were almost overwhelming. I gave the camera to Rudy so that he could take some pictures of the momentous event.

Here are Caleb and I waiting for the ultrasound to start:

Now, let me just say that this is the ONLY time you will ever see the bare skin of my stomach. I am not thrilled with the idea of even showing it to you at this time, but there's no way to show you an ultrasound without you getting a glimpse of my never-seen-the-sun skin.

Caleb did great at first in the room. He wasn't quite sure what was going on, so I tried to explain to him that the very nice lady (Tina) was using a special camera to take pictures inside of my tummy so that we could see HotShot and find out if we were going to have a brother or a sister. He was attentive for about 5 minutes and then started singing "Itsy Bitsy Spider" over and over. Tina assured us that it wasn't the first time she had done an ultrasound while someone was singing.

Here's the monitor that Caleb, Rudy and Tina were watching and the screen that I was watching:

Here is Caleb watching "the special camera" on my tummy. He was really intrigued by the jelly that was all over me!During the ultrasound, Rudy kept saying he thought he "saw something" and knew what the baby was going to be. I just said, "oh, really" and finally Tina said that she wasn't sure what he was seeing because she was doing organ and bone measurements. I giggled a little, because I had seen that she was typing in things like "heart" and "kidneys" on the screen when Rudy wasn't looking. He didn't make any other guesses after that. Ultrasounds are hard to see when you aren't completely sure what you're looking at!

After she got all of the necessary measurements done and we were assured that everything looked normal, she went looking for the information that we wanted, but were anxious to hear. She searched and searched and finally said, "I don't see any boy parts, but let me make sure I can see girl parts." Then, voila - there they were! She typed in "It's a Girl" on the screen and I wasn't quite sure what to do with myself. I asked her just how sure she was and she said 100% sure. She told us that she has never been wrong that she knows of and then told us about one of the doctors in the office telling that fact on national TV on the show 18 Kids and Counting. She seemed pretty sure of herself and after looking at the pictures, I'm convinced.

We are having a baby girl.

Her name is Nola Mae.

She currently weighs 12 ounces, which measures perfectly at 19 weeks, 6 days.

Her heart is beating 143 beats per minute.

She is active and moving a lot, but I only feel her movements on my left side because the placenta is mostly positioned on my right side, cushioning me from feeling her movements on the right.

Here are the pictures from our ultrasound with some description for those of you who aren't familiar with ultrasound pictures:

This is her profile. She is looking toward the right. You can see the roundness of the top of her head on the left and it looks like her mouth is partially open.

This is her face. Beautiful, isn't she? :) In this picture, she is looking at the camera. You can actually see her left eyelid and the outline of her nose and jaw.

Here is her arm, bent at the elbow. You can kind of make out her fingers too.

Here's a foot. How many big steps will this foot make in her life?

No modesty here. This is the "It's a Girl" picture. These are the tops of her legs and her "girl parts." If you can't make out what's what - you're just going to have to trust me. "It's a Boy" pictures are a little more obvious, but she's a girl. I promise.

The first question everyone asks is, "How does Caleb feel about having a little sister?" Well, this is his face when Rudy told him that HotShot is indeed a girl. He was so excited! He has now started asking about Nola and even told her goodnight before he went to bed tonight. He is happy about being a big brother. We'll see how that holds up in February. :)

Rudy and I are thrilled to be given the opportunity to raise a son and a daughter. We can't wait to meet this sweet little girl and get to know her.

Now...does anyone have the name of a good consignment store? I have A LOT of BLUE stuff to sell.