It's a boy!

Well ... guess what? We're so excited to get to welcome our first son in February! What an unbelieveable day it was yesterday. We had our big ultrasound at 10:45 a.m. on Wednesday, Sept. 23 (well, actually it ended up being nearly 45 minutes later than that, but 10:45 was our appointment time). We brought Emma with us and I was SO nervous. We had to circle the parking garage several times before finding a spot and I thought I was going to go CRAZY with anticipation. After nearly 14 hours of searching for a parking spot, James finally backed into one and I bounded out of the car (well, as much as a pregnant lady can bound).

We all walked to Dr. Webb's office and for awhile, as we tried to entertain Emma in the waiting room, I got distracted a bit and was able to calm myself down. So of course, I took some pictures to show everyone Emma's awesome shirt from Auntie Amy & Uncle Miah.

James got one of Emma and me, too (oh my gosh, I love her "Cheese!" smile in this picture and I ADORE that shirt).

So, long story short, finally we were called back to the ultrasound room. The ultrasound tech we had was VERY thorough and described everything she was doing and measuring. She checked out the length of the baby's femur and the circumference of the baby's head. She looked closely at the heart and the kidneys. She measured the amount of amniotic fluid and checked out where the umbilical cord was attached as well as the blood flow inside the cord. She looked at where the placenta was located and told us that the baby was head down with the arms and legs to the right of my belly and the back to the left.

We watched the baby yawn. Seriously, yawn. We had a great view of the face and we just watched the facial expressions change right before our eyes. The mouth opened wide, stayed that way for just a second or two, then closed. We saw a PERFECT profile at the VERY beginning of the scan and I'm bummed we didn't get that picture (she didn't get fun pictures for us until the very end).

The baby's heartbeat was 156 BPM (Emma's was 150 at this same ultrasound, which tells you that maybe the heartbeat isn't such a great way to determine the gender). The tech told us that the baby was measuring perfectly and that the current estimated weight was 12 ounces.

We had asked the tech not to just blurt out the gender when she saw what she needed to see. When we had this same ultrasound with Emma, we had asked the tech to just tell us when she KNEW, not to just randomly blurt it out like, "Oh, there's the heartbeat, a hand, oh ... looks like a girl, and there's a foot." So the tech literally did EVERYTHING else first besides checking for the boy or girl parts. (That is why for all the info I gave above, I never said "he" or "his." Throughout all of that measuring and reviewing, we were still in the dark on whether or not we were looking at our son or daughter on the screen.

James said he thought it was a boy. I wouldn't give a guess at that last minute. (James guessed boy for Emma, too.) At one point toward the end when the tech was trying to find the girl/boy parts, I saw what we were looking for and I said to James, "I think you're right, babe!"

The tech said the baby had HIS ankles crossed so his legs were pretty close together. She was not shy about shaking the ultrasound wand (whatever it's called) against my belly to jiggle him around so she could get a better look. I was TOTALLY fine with any type of maneuver that would position the baby so we could KNOW before we left. I actually said, "I cannot leave here without knowing. I can't." James said, "If we can't see anything, then we'll just be surprised." I said, "No. I can't."

Sure enough, what I thought I'd seen a few seconds before popped back up on the screen and the tech pointed out his legs and then said, "And I think what we're looking for is right there," and pointed at his little, um, you know. :) We have a picture of that view but I'm not posting it here. For some reason it seems weird to me to post that ... maybe I will later.

This ultrasound is just the most awesome experience. I LOVE going in for this special moment. It was such an AMAZING day in our pregnancy with Emma and it just as remarkable this time around. It was so cool to have Emma there watching her brother on the ultrasound screen, too. She was a little wiggly but James was in charge of her so he had to worry about juggling her wiggly-worm body, not me. :)

So ... now it's time for blues, greens and browns, for cars and trucks, for dinosaurs, for doggies and alligators. We have a whole new wardrobe to build and a nursery to plan. We have boy names to sort through. And we get to start talking to our firstborn about her baby brother in Mommy's tummy. We are thrilled and so proud to welcome a little man into our family. I can't wait to watch James interact with his first son and Emma learn how to be a big sister. And I can't wait to see my son's face. Thank you for sharing this journey with us and for being so excited for us.