My Mom was right, and boy is she happy about it!

Hello Bleeps!  Wow...let me take a breath!  It has been quite a morning.  So let's start at the beginning....

We had our 20 week ultrasound today (even though I am only about 19 weeks along).  For those of you who have never been (like me - until today), this scan looks at a lot of the baby's body and looks for specific things (but we'll get to that).  I was excited but I did manage to sleep most of the night except for the normal trips to the bathroom.  Until about 5 am that is....I woke up and for the life of me, no matter how I turned, couldn't go back to sleep.  Finally about 6 am, knowing my alarm was set for 6:15 am, I got up, showered and got ready.  Woke J up about 6:30 am, so he could get ready.  Out of the house by 7:15 am and on our way (in separate cars so he could go straight to work afterwards) to the ultrasound place, which is not my doc's office.  Mom and Dad beat us there.  I got checked in, got my lovely little hospital bracelet, sat down and sure enough we got called in. 

Very nice technician who kind of walked us through what the procedure would detail (EVERYTHING!) and then we began.  Mom, Dad and J sat in chairs and I laid on the bench, with J's hand holding my hand on my shoulder while she spread the jelly goo on my belly.  Oh, and she asked if we wanted to know the sex - which of course got a resounding "Yes" from all parties.  So she began...looked at the baby's head, hands (made sure they both opened and closed like they should), feet, measured limbs, heart (saw all 4 chambers - amazing!), profile, kidneys, basically if the baby had it we saw it.  Finally little Monkey was positioned correctly and she said, "alrighty folks, looks like we have a GIRL!"  Mom asked how sure the tech was and she said "she doesn't say anything until she is 80% positive" then later she became 98% positive after showing us how she could tell it was a little girl.  J kept squeezing my hand ever so tightly and I think a couple little tears may have escaped my eyes.  Mom yelped I am pretty sure! (Mind you, it would have been the same for a boy, we just want a healthy baby!) 

The one thing the technician went back to was a little spot in baby girl's non-thinking part of the brain.  It's called a cyst and they are seeing more and more of them because technology is getting better and better.  The technician made sure we understood it was nothing to worry about because all of the other tests she did to ensure nothing was wrong (making sure baby girl's hands opened and closed for one - which they did) and comparing to my last ultrasound (with the crazy blood test) and said that was very normal, also looking at baby girl's length and weight (length is about the size of a watermelon slice, with overall weight about as heavy as a can of soda), and that was good too because she measures a bit larger and usually babies with problems measure smaller.  So all in all, something to be aware of but nothing to worry about.  Although we did need to come back to talk to the doc and essentially hear the same thing from her in a few hours. 

Clean me up and walk out with our crowd.  As soon as we were outside I think Mom did a little dance.  She's thrilled!  Dad said good-bye and went off to work, thrilled as well.  Mom stepped away so J and I could have a little moment.  And I looked at him and his eyes were glassy.  I kind of did a double take and asked him if he had cried (it had been dark in the room after all so I couldn't see if he had) and he just kind of gave me a funny look.  So I reached in to hug him and remembered us talking about how when Grandma Rowe (who died last November) got to heaven we would have an extra angel watching out for us and we'd probably get a girl if she had her say-so.  And that's what had brought him to tears.  It was so sweet to see him so excited about our little girl.  I think that is the first time I have seen him cry happy tears...so you know what is to come.  This little girl may just be spoiled rotten!  Oh well....if that's what happens, that's what happens.  After a good few minutes of hugging, we finally released, both with wet eyes, said our "I love you's" and went our separate ways...him to work and me with Mom to breakfast and to Target for finally some baby shopping!

So here's my plan for telling J's parents.  I bought a whole bunch of baby girl stuff at Target (socks, shoes, dresses, headbands, etc.) and I'm just going to leave it around the house when they come on Thanksgiving.  If they don't comment or miss all that stuff, then when we go around and say what we're thankful for, J or I will say, "I'm thankful for our little girl coming in April."  BTW - Grandma Rowe's birthday is April 2nd, so there's another link to her.  I think J's parents will pick up on the little hints before we get to dinner, but we'll have to wait until Thursday to find out.

When we (Mom and I) stopped somewhere to run an errand and she popped out of my car, I took a picture...

of one of the things I had bought at Target and texted it to maybe 30 people showing our news.  From then on my phone just went crazy.  Also sent the photo to J and he said he loved it!  (Months and months ago, J had a dream that he was following a little girl with pigtails and bows and he knew that it was his daughter...guess he was right!)  Also, at least a few years ago, I had Chinese food one night and the back of my fortune from my fortune cookie said, "daughter" and how to say it in Chinese.  Don't know if they were really indicators back then, but we're gonna say they are now!

Mom and I also called my Grandma Einck (Mom's Mom), because this is her first great-grand-baby and she was excited to hear that it was a baby girl.  There's a lot of girls on my side of the family (4 girls on Mom's side and 5 on Dad's - cousins I mean) so I thought it might be, but I also didn't want to get attached to a girl or a boy and be disappointed either way.

I guess that's about all our news today.  Oh, when I dropped Mom off at her house I finally got to take a picture of the fun thing BFF in Phoenix got her for her birthday announcing she would be a grandma.  So here's that...it really is quite perfect.