Tickled Pink!

I am tickled PINK!  And PURPLE!  And sparkles and tutus and ribbons and ruffles and flowers and Nancy Drew and butterflies!

If you haven't heard -- we're having a GIRL!

I still tear up every time I think of it (like right now).  A girl.  A soft, sweet, bright-eyed little princess.  I'm tickled pink.

And now I know why I STILL have morning sickness!

We debated long and hard whether we were going to find or not.  Every time I made up my mind, I decided against myself.  Then one night, I said, "I think I want to find out.  Yes. I do."  Landon said, "I still haven't decided."  A wave of horror spread over me as I realized, I am not the only one making this decision!  It took me a full 24 hours to relay that to him.

The debate raged on.  Well, actually, it was very amicable.  Mostly, it was a lot of me wavering and waffling.  And then came the "Well, how do we want to find out??"  Have the doctor write it down and put it in an envelope?  It was at this point that I really felt the distance of friends and family.  I just know Liz or Amanda or my mom would have created some special gender reveal moment for us.  But we're still mostly on our own here -- morning/all day sickness has torpedoed our social calendar.

Finally, the day of the ultrasound arrived.  I woke early with the thought, "I get to see my baby today!"  At work, I had to temper the bouncing in my chair whenever someone came around the corner.  I was so excited!  That, plus the rare bit of caffeine that I'm sufficiently weaned from and so highly react to!

On our way to the hospital, we were still figuring it out!  We signed in and I finally said, "Let's find out.  And let's have them tell us right away.  I don't need an envelope or any of that nonsense.  I just want to know!"  My dear husband agreed with me...and they called my name.

Seriously.  I was so excited.  The 2-3 minutes we had to wait while the tech went over my chart was agony.  I had to take off my bangle bracelets because every time I moved they jingled and it was causing my tension to rise.

She kindly asked if we wanted to find out and how and I eagerly answered, "YES!  And right now!"  She was fantastic.  You could tell she truly loved her job.  She made the experience so much fun...though I can't seem to remember her name.  Trina or something...

It was a good thing we decided on finding out right away because the first thing we saw was a nice view of...well, the parts that would tell us!  She said, "I usually wait until the end to find out gender, BUT it's right here and not at all shy about it....it's a girl!"  I think we just squeezed hands tight and laughed and looked at each other like we had just made the best thing in the world.  "A girl??  Are you sure? They told my parents I was a boy...."  "Oh, I am SURE," she said. "There is absolutely no doubt about it!"

Sigh.  One of the happiest moments of my life so far.  Happiest and completely mind blowing.

The rest of the ultrasound was so much fun.  Suddenly "it" had been replaced with "she" and "her".  We saw her feet and her hands and her very cool looking spine.  She has a good solid heartbeat and well-developing brain.  The only thing we couldn't really get a good look at was her face.  We got a glimpse of her profile and finally a bit of lip and nose, but she stubbornly refused to look away from my spine despite all the poking and pushing and general disruption of her happy little home.  Except for that, the tech told us she was the most cooperative baby she'd had all week.  That's my girl! 

The tech left to get the doctor and we just sat there (well, I was still laying down) and just soaked it in.  A girl.  We're having a girl.  A daughter.  Landon's face was glowing.  It was like I could see his heart swelling, as I'm sure he could see in my face, too. 

The doctor came in, confirmed that she was doing well, got a few more pictures of her heart, and left.  We left with our treasure trove of photos of little feet and a dvd that recorded her heartbeat and her delightful movements.  Certainly something to treasure forever.

Immediately upon leaving we set our course for Target.  Now that I knew who Little One is, I had to shop!  And oh was it fun!  And slightly overwhelming, too!  So many cute little clothes.  I ooohed and aaaahhed over them, my bounce showed up again, and I held up everything I thought was adorable for Landon to voice approval.  Of course, then I noticed he was filming me with an amused twinkle in his eye.  I was beyond caring. ;)  I was shopping for my daughter!

We (okay, I) decided on a set of onesies - one with a ballerina monkey saying, "Daddy's Girl", another with lots of little dancing monkeys, and one covered in pointe shoes.  Because of course.  We also found a little three-piece outfit (jacket, onesie, and leggings) that says "Mommy's Little Dancer" (pictured above), also because of course. 

When we arrived home, we decided to not let our mothers wait in agonizing suspense any longer.  They were both so eager to know...and yet so patient.  Not even one text begging to know! :)

We set up my phone on the right and Landon's on the left and facetimed both at once.  The similarities of what happened next are awesome.  Dads were on the left, moms on the right.  We held up two balloons - one pink, one blue -- and said that only one would inflate.  We blew them up and of course, only the pink inflated (I let Landon have that one because I knew I couldn't keep a straight face long enough to actually blow up a balloon!).  Both moms started clapping their hands and jumping up and down, squealing.  Both dads had hands on their hips, grinning, beaming, tearing up, and saying, "A girl!"  Then both moms said, "I can't wait to go shopping!!!"  Hahaha.  I love it.

Both sides of the family are boy-heavy, so how fun to add a girl to the mix!  Especially my side with Matt and Erin having 4 boys.  The Pointers needed a girl. :)

We are thrilled.  Absolute so excited.  I think I'm a little relieved, too, because I feel much better equipped to mother a girl than a boy at this point.  I keep having moments of realization about her.  I'm going to be the one giving the sex-talk on this one.  She's going to have hair I can braid!  Landon can take her on daddy-daughter dates!  And then the funniest one, she's going to have breasts!  To which Landon replied, "Which NO ONE will EVER touch!"  Hahaha.  I was thinking about training bra shopping, but okay, that, too. ;)

We posted on facebook to let people know our discovery, which I felt a little lame about, but honestly, the impatience won out.  I had tried to come up with some super clever (Pinteresty?) way to "tell the world" (oh how I miss my photographer friends!), but truly, I've been stripping back some of that "need" to have every moment be photo-worthy.  I blame my theatrical side.  But seriously, can't a special moment just be a special moment without over-thinking and over-designing it?  I have absolutely nothing against telling a cute, fun story with photos.  I love it.  I'm jealous of it.  And in this season, though it's the perfect season for it all, I'm learning to let it go and just enjoy the moments and treasure the memories as only I can -- not as how I "need" the world to see it.  That being said, I AM still hoping against hope that Devon can come out and take newborn photos!  (I love her newborn work!)

So!  We're having a girl!  And now you're wondering about her name, right??  Well.  Though I couldn't wait to tell you her gender, we will be waiting until she is born to announce her name. :)  But I can tell you that it will be a very specifically chosen, well-thought out name, because we're word people and the meaning of a word/name is very important to us.

And now -- let the registering and shopping commence!

A GIRL!!!!!!!!!!

20.5 weeks - May 15, 2014