It's a girl!

It seems our life is full of countdowns recently, and one of the ones I've been the most impatient and excited about recently finally ended on Monday! Almost as soon as we learned we were having a baby, I, like every expectant mom I'm sure, have been desperate to know if we were going to have a little prince or a little princess!! At 10 weeks I begged Steve to go along with the gender predictor test at Walgreens, but he laughed and insisted there was absolutely nothing in my urine that could tell us what we were having. He suggested we flip a coin as those odds would be the same. Sometimes it's annoying to be married to a doctor. At 15 weeks I tried to beg and bargain our way to 4D Peek. Again, he insisted that the chances of an accurate answer were as good as flipping the coin at that point. After lots of research online about the best time to see the baby, he did finally agree that we could go for a peek at 17 weeks. Of course his timing was, as always, impeccable because we left for Turks & Caicos two days shy of 17 weeks, we returned right at 18 weeks and our US at the doctor's office was scheduled for 19 weeks, so there was really no point in having a peek less than a week in advance!! All through last week, I'd think to myself "Only 5 more days" or "Only 2 more days" and started feeling quite proud that I, the one who loves surprises but hates suspense, who can't wait to find out what happens at the end of a movie, so I look up the ending on my Iphone in the theater and who still loves Christmas so much I can't sleep the night before, had actually been patient and actually waited the full 19 weeks until our appointment!! That is, until Steve was on OB call at the hospital all day Sunday, and called to see if I wanted to come in and play with an ultrasound machine...at least I made it 18 weeks and 6 days!! So, armed with lunch for Steve & Kimmie, who was also working, as my "excuse", off to the hospital I went, thrilled to get to find out what we were having a whole day early! The whole time we were having lunch together, I was wishing everybody could eat just a little faster, get the small talk over with, and get down to business, I was finished being patient!! So, finally, Steve, Kimmie & I headed over to OB and the next thing I knew, there was our little baby right on the screen!! We watched in amazement as little legs kicked, fingers waved and a tiny little arm punched upwards, swatting at US wand it seemed!! We saw all 4 chambers of the tiny little heart, the perfect little spine, even a little tongue being stuck out at us and what I swear is Kimmie's nose! We did not, however, get to see what we were all there for, of course my baby would be just as stubborn as mom and refuse to give up the money shot a day early!!! Although we left with a pretty good idea, we still didn't know for sure! So back to waiting 19 full weeks and counting down the hours until Monday morning!!

From the very moment we knew we were having a baby, "girl" is the only thing that had been on my mind! Not necessarily because I wouldn't love to have baby boy, but just because that's all that was up there! Steve & I had been able to agree on a name for a baby girl, on nursery furniture, even on paint for the nursery, all for a baby girl! We didn't agree on anything, at all, for a baby boy! So, naturally, we both assumed that's what we'd have, just so God could get a bit of entertainment out of us arguing and bargaining with each other for the next 5 months! I didn't sleep at all on Sunday night and was even up before my 6:15 alarm on Monday morning, ready to know the answer to our question and the next thing I knew, I, with Steve & Mom, was looking at our tiny baby on the screen again! Of course the US tech did a full top to toe inspection of our little miracle before getting to the juicy stuff, but finally, after all this waiting, she informed us we are going to the be parents of an absolutely perfect, beautifully spoiled little princess!! Ah, the countdown is finally over...and so begins the shopping! We have pretty much already chosen her crib, her linens, her walls and her name, or at least, her first name. Discussion on the middle name could get interesting...but as I said, this is one countdown that is over, and the next one we're counting down to is Kimmie's wedding, 30 days from today! Just when Steve thought he was so close to having the only wedding he'd have to pay for over with...it all begins again! And we couldn't be happier!