It's A Boy!

For who missed the news yesterday and for those who did not click the image: It's A Boy! It's a boy - three little words that say as much as those other three little words - I love you. I have had an order from my doctor since I was 13 weeks to have a sonogram. Knowing they could tell me nothing of the sex until about 22 weeks or later I carefully made sure I forgot about it so as to not drive myself completely insane. When I finally broke down and made the appointment for Wednesday, it was still several weeks away and I tried not to get excited again. I managed very well up until Wednesday morning and then I got so excited that I was boardline nervous. Would the baby be in a position that it could be easily viewed to determine the sex? Would everything be in the right places and not a third eye on its chin or something worse? I was really working myself up into a bit of frenzy which was more of a quiet storm hidden from those around me. Steven was working from home so as to be able to go with me. He spent his morning frustrated over other things and his snippy mood made me want to scream but I didn't. By the time we were ready to go his mood had changed and we were having a lovely time. I had spent the morning making sure I drank plenty so my bladder was full. By the time we registered and were called back I had to go so badly I was afraid everytime the technician pressed low with the sonogram handheld radar thingy I was going to wet the table. But I didn't. She spent over an hour doing all the things she needed to do for her report: two eyes? check; bladder? check; kidneys? check; four chamber heart? check; brain? check. The baby has all of its parts and all are located in the right places. She then checked the umbilical cord. Where was it attached: to me (in the front behind my bellybutton -cool huh? lol); to the baby (in front on its belly right where a bellybutton should be); did it have 3 vessels (yes); the rate of my heart pumping blood through the cord (can't remember). Then it was measuring the skull and long bones and the spine until she had checked everything you could possibly think of to check on a baby. Just as I had told Steven weeks ago, the baby is laying head down, on its side, facing my left side. Its little hands are balled up tight and it's arms are raised up near its face. We could only see its features briefly before it moved and shyly hid its face from the camera. As she attempted to determine the sex it moved and pulled its tiny legs up and crossed its feet over the very area we wanted to see. Shy little thing (just like its Daddy LOL). Eventually she did get a look and said all the mumbo jumbo about sonograms not being 100% and things being wrong in the end but her educated guess was that the baby was a boy -because "this area is the scrotum and this is a tiny little penis." The she went out and had another technician come in to try and get another image of the brain and double check her version of the sex. The other tech concurred she saw 2 areas that indeed were a scrotum and tiny little penis. The whole thing was so surreal and I was nearly in tears the entire time. Secretly I kept telling myself that it was a boy, she knew what the sex was already, and she was holding out to the very end. Just before we were told it was a boy I told myself to stop dreaming. It was going to be a girl. Steven's brother's wife is 6 weeks ahead of me with their fourth (and last) boy so how fitting we should be the ones with four girls. We would have been just as happy either way but deep down I had this nagging feelng it was a boy. During each of my pregnancies I have dreamed about my babies later to have that dream take place in reality and my baby be the exact baby as in my dream. I think some would call this experience a premonition. Last week I dreamed we were having a family photo made. I was holding a chubby baby for the sitting but I could not see the baby. When the photo came back I was holding a chubby baby boy dressed in a little vest and trousers wearing a red bow tie. From then on I suspected I was indeed having a boy. Afterward we went shopping. We chose a nursery bedding set with barns and apples trees, a tiny blue jean jacket (just like Steven's) and the lavender and camomile baby wash and powder by Johnson and Johnson. I love the scent of a baby who has been washed and powdered with products by Johnson and Johnson. We also chose the most soft and cuddly blanket in blue -this may be the blanket we bring him home from the hospital in. When I went to bed Wednesday night I drifted off with a smile on my lips thinking about what an exciting day we had. How Steven had teased the girls and drawn it out until they were exasperated and frustrated waiting to know what the baby would be. I thought about the phone calls to our parents, his brother and my sister. A baby brings joy to everyone it touches. Or so it seems to me. I woke many times in the night. Each time the baby moved I stirred and thought "my son". Steven, too, is still grappling with the news. A son. A completely new experience to have a son after raising daughters. I remember this one thought before I drifted back into sleep - One thing I could give Steven that he did not already have, one thing Steven could give me that I did not already have- A son.