It's a Girl!!

Okay, so we're now in week 20.... that's 20 out of 40 weeks! And if you're on Facebook, you probably already know that we are expecting a little girl. This really changes things for us. It’s totally different now that we can say “she” and “her” when we talk about our future. That’s pretty cool.

So, Friday afternoon was our ultrasound appointment. Chris arrived first and I followed soon after. In an effort to see how many people we could fit in a small exam room, we were joined by my parents, my middle brother, Jeremy, his wife, Kristen, and their 7-month-old son, Clark.

In the waiting room, we played with Clark, until they called my name. My family stayed behind while Chris and I first went in by ourselves. I couldn’t stop smiling. I was so excited that soon we would know whether to paint airplanes or flowers on the walls of the nursery. But the visit wasn’t quite what I was expecting...

First, came the formalities; drivers license, insurance, etc. After the paperwork was out of the way, they shut off the lights and squirted the cold gel on my belly…. This was it! ...wait….no, this was NOT it. They proceeded to identify and measure certain parts of her anatomy; the head, long bones, abdomen, all four chambers of the heart, etc…. Now, don't get me wrong, this was great. It is comforting to know that all of these parts existed and were normal, but every time I caught a glimpse of a cute little hand moving, or a leg kicking, the technician would move right on passed it to get a better look at the kidneys. Kidneys aren’t cute! I don’t want to see her bladder on a big screen TV! I want a look at little toes or a tiny little face… I wanted to know if it was a boy or a girl, dammit! I realized right away why they called this the "anatomy ultrasound." Prior to this moment, I thought they were just being polite. "Anatomy ultrasound" sounds much better than the "Does-it-have-a-penis Ultrasound." No, this was a true examination of the little one’s anatomy. They wanted to get an idea of developmental progress and they also make a determination of the due date based on their findings.

Finally, we were asked the question, “Do y’all wanna know what it is?” YES! Thank you! Of course I do… patience is NOT a virtue that I possess. Chris hurried out the door to get my family and soon the room was filled.

As much as I’d been saying that I wanted a boy, when the words, “that’s a little girl right there,” were spoken, I gushed. I was consumed with happiness. My mom had claimed the space directly in front of the TV when they’d first entered the room but she quickly abandoned it to rush to the foot of the bed where I laid to say, “oh, a little girl! You’ll have the best relationship!” Chris was standing over the technician trying to get some kind of a guarantee out of her that it was, without a doubt, a girl. He was all ready to rush home and start painting flowers. He was satisfied when she offered her 100% certainty. Here is the picture they took of her little legs opened but crossed at the ankles… like a little lady. Admittedly, there’s not much to see in this picture but I promise you, the moving images were much more easily distinguishable and very cool to see. Chris pointed out how often she was “geeking the camera” by waving her arms around so much.

The final step in the ultrasound was to get a picture of her face. This proved to be quite the task. The technician carelessly shifted the wand over my belly up and down, left and right. I can’t describe to you the sensitivity your abdomen has when you’re pregnant, but they seemed to give no regard to that whatsoever. They claimed that they were having such trouble getting an image of her face because she was either shy or stubborn. My loving family responded in unison, “she’s stubborn,” as if it was so inconceivable that anyone carrying my genes could possibly be shy. Well, they did get a picture. The one I’ve included here catches the iris of one of her eyes very well. I like to think that she was mean-muggin’ the technicians for bombarding her with sound waves… that must be annoying. I give them a hard time, but actually, these ladies did a great job and made us all feel very comfortable. In fact, we may see them again. The closing pin tattoo on my hip prompted a brief discussion about skydiving and Chris was ready with Skydive Houston business cards in hand.

The next morning, Chris and I went to breakfast at Denny’s. As you can probably imagine, the topic of discussion was our daughter. We’d already picked out a name; Rebecca Renee (Rebecca is both my middle name and my mother's first name while Renee is Chris' mother's middle name). During the meal, Chris hatched his plan to bulk up to the point of pure intimidation so that boys will think twice about talking to his daughter. Other guests, a young couple, arrived to sit at the table next to us. In a car seat was a sweet, sleeping, baby girl. I noticed that her ears were pierced and recalled that it was normal in my family to pierce a baby’s ears. I asked Chris his opinion on this but his response was simply, “why don’t we go ahead and pierce her nipples while we’re at it.” I gathered that he was not too keen on the idea and left it alone.

While we have a long road ahead of us, and many things to learn and decisions to make as parents, we are looking forward to it, as unexpected as it is. And, yes, I’d told everyone how I wanted a baby boy, and truth be told, I did. But in the end, I don’t think it ever really mattered to me what the gender would be. She’s our child. And she’ll be perfect no matter what.

I’ll be writing again with more news in the future. I plan to start a “how much weight will she gain” poll… that is, if my mental health will be able to sustain the damage that may be caused by the results that are sure to be insulting and, let’s be honest, probably accurate…