Boy Oh Boy

It's 4am and I am too excited to sleep.  I went to bed to bed around 11, so 5 hours is plenty anyway, right?! Except that this makes the third night in a row of terrible sleep due to excitement.  I figured I'd better get my thoughts out on here in hopes that I might calm down for my REM cycle and attitude's sakes.

We have been anxiously awaiting finding out whether Baby #2 was a boy or girl for weeks.  Years, actually, if you consider that I've wanted kids for as long as I can remember.  But of course, since the pregnancy test turned positive, we've been especially curious.  The last few days leading up to yesterday's appointment were getting unbearable.  Everywhere I went I was dying to buy something pink or blue and everyone I met was dying to tell me exactly what I was having.  I desperately wanted to choose a name and start a nursery.  I was just ready to KNOW!  (In case you've just met me, I'm a terribly impatient person.)

SO you can imagine how my heart sank yesterday when we walked into the doctor's office and found out that the ultrasound tech had called in sick.  No problem.  We could easily reschedule for the following week, right?!  Except that she only has Wednesday appointments and for the next two weeks, David had scheduling conflicts on Wednesday that he couldn't miss.  Which meant we might as well wait until our next appointment in a month.  Which was not cool.

As we were waiting on my doctor, I whispered (read: begged, pleaded) to David:  "Look up 3D ultrasound places on your phone!"  Without even attempting to talk sense into me, he obliged.  He wanted to be able to live with me, after all.  The doc came in, listened to the heartbeat, and then when we asked, said he'd be glad to try to take a look.  He used the small ultrasound machine located beside the bed which was not as good of quality as the mega machine the tech uses.  Immediately an image of a very energetic baby popped up and I felt relief and joy seeing our healthy child.  However, despite trying for almost five minutes to get a view, that healthy squirmy baby paired with the low image quality was not giving us a definitive answer.  "I'm about 90% sure it's a boy," he said.  "Oh wow!" we exclaimed.  "That's great news!"  All the while thinking, "I am NOT a 90% kinda girl."  There was no way I was going to announce to David's parents that his branch of family line would continue without a 100% certainty.  No way.

As soon as we scheduled the next appointment and walked out into the hallway, I looked at David and before I could open my mouth, he was already looking up the phone numbers to 3D Ultrasound places again.  "I knew it," he said.  "When the doctor was hesitant to claim it I was thinking, 'We're going to get another ultrasound today.'"  He knows me too well.

(Sidenote:  For those of you concerned about ultrasound exposure, don't be.  They use high-frequency sound waves and, short of having the extreme exposure of dozens lasting long periods of time each, they're safe. We checked.)

We called a company nearby who mercifully had an opening for that afternoon.  We drove through Chick-fil-A, scarfed down lunch, and walked through their door 45 minutes later.  "Okay Lord," I silently prayed, "If you're trying to teach me patience, I think 9 months of waiting to hold my child is a really great lesson in and of itself.  Please, please don't torture us!  You know how I am - You made me this way!"

I got comfortable on the table and the second that the tech put that wand on my belly and the screen lit up, there our baby was spread eagle and showing off to the world all of his boy-ness.  David and I grabbed hands and listened to the tech state the obvious, "Yup.  It's definitely a boy."  He took a few more black and white views and then switched over to the 3D imaging.  There, in (sorta) color, was our baby.  Our beautiful baby boy.  He didn't even look like a little alien as I expected him to on the image since I'm still so early in the pregnancy.  He looked like a baby.  Eyelids were still closed and detailed features were hard to make out, but there he was.  As the tech slid the wand down to the leg area, we got yet another confirmation that we were indeed having a boy.  There it was in all it's 3D glory.

We paid (half of what we would have if we'd done it through our doctor's office, in fact) and headed to the car.  We took a moment to pray together and thanked God for the health and energy we'd just seen.  As I praised Him for the gift of this little boy's life, tears streamed down my face and I was overjoyed.  TWO kids.  One of each.  Now Audrey would have a girl cousin three months older from one of my brothers and our baby boy would have a boy cousin four months older from my other brother.   How cool is that?!  WOW.

David had taken the rest of the afternoon off, so we drove home and relieved his mom who'd been keeping Audrey.  After we put AJ down for a nap, we asked Pam if she wanted to know.  She did.  We told her. She was ecstatic and literally did the happy dance.  We waited until we got a hold of his Dad, who was on a business trip and told him on speaker phone.  He played it super cool, but we could hear the tears in his voice.  They were so excited!  After Pam left, David did some work and I got out the book of baby names.  I made it through a bunch of lists and the letters A, B, and Z before my eyes began to cross and I had to stop.

When Audrey woke up, we put our plan into action.  We set up the video camera, put her snack in front of her, and finally told her the news that she was going to be a big sister.  Her reaction was adorable ("You hold baby and you hold me!" she exclaimed.  See the video for yourself in the post below.)  I immediately emailed it out and uploaded it to Facebook.  After snack, we piled into the car and drove to Old Navy to buy something blue.  They're having a baby sale right now, so I couldn't pass it up!  On the way I talked to my mom and dad and told them the news since they wouldn't be able to view the video until late that evening.  My phone was blowing up with texts and Facebook notifications as people began to watch it.  We couldn't stop grinning.  We finally knew and could share with the world!  

After Old Navy, we went out to dinner and then checked out Carter's.  I watched Audrey while David chose a navy blue outfit that said "Daddy is my hero."  He will be, no doubt.

We drove home and witnessed the most gorgeous sunset I can recall seeing in a very long time.  As I noticed how brilliantly pink and blue it was, I laughed at God's goodness.  I know it's unbelievably self-centered, but I pretended He put on that show just for me in celebration of our little pink and blue.

We got home and made/received more phone calls from family and friends.  We gave Audrey a bath and read her a story about having a new baby in the house.  After we read our Bible story and said bedtime prayers, we asked if there was anyone she wanted to pray for.  Without prompting or hesitation, she said: "The baby growing in your tummy!"

My cup runneth over.

It's now 5 o'clock and I'm tuckered out.  Let's go back to sleep, little boy.