On my way to the ultrasound I drank some OJ, I've heard that is helpful, and listened to my Hope play list. There were of course many tears as I drove to the ultrasound, missing Hope, wishing I had had this day with Hope, but mostly there were tears of complete joy knowing that God had prepared this way for us. I was completely tear-filled and humbled as I listened to the words:
I believe always, always our Savior never fails
Even when all hope is gone
God knows our pain and His promise remains
He will be with you always
My Savior has not failed me. He has been so incredibly faithful to me that I cannot even begin to articulate the myriad of ways He's comforted me and renewed so many things that were lost. I can see how Jesus fulfilled Isaiah 43:19 in me " See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it?" How many new things my Father has done in me! I can't even count them! This joy, this peace in knowing that God is at work, that He never fails, filled me with great tears of joy Wednesday morning.
When we arrived at the perinatal center, we had to wait for what seemed like an eternity. The OJ had clearly kicked in right on time; at 9:15 the baby was bouncing away in my uterus, but we had to wait! As we sat there waiting Herb asked how I was feeling, and I said "Excited and nervous!" He said "What's there to be nervous about? It's going to be a baby!" Oh my smart alec husband!
Finally they called us in around 9:45 and sadly we did not get our beloved ultrasound tech, but our new tech was very sweet as well. She also asked about Hope and was very mindful of how tender of an experience this was for me. She began looking around and there was our sweet baby, hiccups and all! The baby was moving around like crazy and was honestly giving the tech a bit of a hard time. But we saw a powerful, steady heart beat with perfect 4 chambers of the heart! The baby's brain looked particularly huge--I think it must be Herb's! And her spine looked perfect!
As we tried to discern the gender we discovered that the baby's legs were crossed! At this point I called the baby a brat! I did, I couldn't help it! Does that make me a bad mother? But the tech navigated around enough to find the ovaries, verifying that our baby was indeed a girl! I didn't completely trust her conclusion, so I was thankful when I asked again about two minutes later if the baby had uncrossed her legs and she had! Yep, she's a girl! I was right, which is mostly only satisfying because I feel like my mother's intuition is spot on! I don't think Herb was too disappointed to be wrong. I'm very much envisioning her to be daddy's little girl about 20 seconds after she's born!
After all of this I slyly mentioned to the tech that the reason I thought the baby was a girl was because of the 3D picture at the previous ultrasound. She either took my hint or was just very gracious because then she tried to get us a 3D picture. But our little girl at this point was tuckered out from all of her squirming around and was now curled up on her arms and legs, butt up in the air with her face pressed firmly against the bottom of my uterus. Because the tech couldn't get a good profile angle we didn't get a 3D picture this time, but that's okay. The pictures we have are wonderful!
As we walked out of the building Herb and I both said our daughter's name; we've had it chosen for quite some time now. It is perfect for her! I've loved calling her by that name since the moment we discovered she is a girl! Herb isn't quite ready to share yet, but it's really only a matter of time before I slip up! And luckily Herb knows this too and is ready for that day!
We went over to my OB for my 20 week appointment and called our moms. Both grandmas are super excited about a healthy baby and about our little girl! Then the texting began! It was so fun to share with everyone our news! I know no one, including us, really cared which gender our baby was, they were more concerned about healthy, but it is SO fun to give a more concrete definition to our little one! My appointment went well and I am so incredibly thankful for Dr. Riley. She acknowledged that this must be a tough time of year for me and a tough time in my pregnancy. Because of this she told me I could come in any day I was feeling concerned or worried and listen to my little one's heartbeat. What a relief to know that if I just need that extra reassurance it is there for me! What a blessing, truly!
After my appointment Herb and I parted ways. Coming to work was a little anticlimactic but there were plenty of excited people there to make me feel loved. I definitely couldn't focus the rest of the day! I spent a great deal of time looking at girly nursery things online and day dreaming about my little girl!
That night Herb brought me pink tulips and told me they were from our daughter! What a precious, sweet thing for my husband to do! I am the luckiest girl in the world to have the people in my life that I do, my husband being at the top of that list!
Herb then took me shopping at Target so that we could buy our first little girl outfit! Herb was humorously enamored with all things boy, and I had to remind him that now we know we're having a girl! I think he'll get used to the idea--he just likes orange and monkeys and sports--all boy things. But he actually picked out the outfit we purchased--it's a little red with pink polka dot footed sleeper that says "Mom and Dad's little cuddle bear"! Adorable! She's going to look wonderful in it :-)
After that I went home and crashed! I was exhausted from the emotions and the events of the day, but I slept easy dreaming of my little girl, the girl I cannot wait to hold in my arms come March! Praise God for this day and the moments He has given me with our beautiful baby! I am blessed beyond all measure!
Here are some pictures from the ultrasound:
This is the ovary shot!
I LOVE this little foot!
She's sucking her thumb!
Dr. Riley asked whose nose this was and I'm sorry to say baby girl that I think it's mine! Hopefully I gave you some of my good traits too ;-)
1 comment:
What an awesome day! Praise God for that! Everyone used to tell me that girls had better clothes than boys and I didn't believe them until I started shopping for Hadley....they really do have a better selection and cuter outfits. Have fun with it all (I know you already are)!
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