Pink and Flowers It Is... Or Is It???

Brad and I went back to Virginia College today for our 16 week ultrasound and got a nice surprise! We thought that it might still be a little too early to tell the baby's gender, but the tech claimed she saw the magic "3 lines" and therefore was pretty sure it was a girl, although she couldn't say 100% because #1) she's just a student and #2) who can really be 100% with an ultrasound anyway? I mean, it's an image pieced together using soundwaves, people! So, for the time being, we're going with the girl prediction and embracing it as much as we logically can unless someone tells us otherwise!

On my way home, I just couldn't help myself. I made a stop off at Babies R Us and, feeling as though I'm far enough along at this point, took my rightful place at the racks of baby clothes to peruse. We had made a trip in there about a month ago, but I felt a little silly at that point, being that I wasn't really showing then and I had no clue what to even look for, much less buy! The whole baby store experience reminds me of those exotic birds on the Discovery Channel. Although nobody will admit it, all of the mothers-to-be in there are secretly comparing their "baby bumps" to the other mothers-to-be, and like the exotic birds, the mother-to-be with the biggest bump (or brightest feathers in the birds' cases) is automatically the queen of the store. And it isn't even something that has to be announced! The other moms just know. (I know I'm going to get some smart aleck comment from my husband on this). By the way, this competition also took place at VC while everyone was waiting for their respective ultrasounds. I caught a couple of the women in the waiting area glancing around and comparing. Back to my story...so, feeling that I fit somewhere in the middle layer of moms-to-be, I picked out a couple of adorable little girl outfits and a little stuffed sheep with a pink bow on her ear and made my way to the check-out. "Are you buying off of a registry today, ma'am?" "No, I sure as heck am not! My registry gift days are over! ... for the time being." Ok, I didn't say all that, but I sure was feeling it. I know there are other moms out there that have been through this same stuff... am I right?

Back to the big announcement though. As Brad and I were walking to our cars after the ultrasound, I said, "You know she's going to have you wrapped around her little finger, right?" To which he simply grinned and nodded, which I thought was so sweet and endearing! =) A few minutes later, as I headed back home and Brad headed back to his office, I got a text from my mother-in-law, Lisa, saying that Brad had already posted the update on Facebook, which also melted my heart! For those of you that don't know about Facebook, ask around to a few people. You're bound to run into somebody that knows about it and can explain it to you... kinda like that 6 degree thing with Kevin Bacon.

Now, with all that being said, the big question on mine and Brad's minds is this: just how reliable are those 3 little lines??? I've read several articles online tonight about women going for their ultrasounds around 16-18 weeks and being told they were having a girl from those 3 little lines, and then a few weeks later, it turned out to be a boy! So, I'm going to post our "proof" here and get your feedback on it. What you're looking at here is the little bottom on the left side (as if the baby's sitting on the "camera") and the 2 little thighs sprouting out toward the right side on each side of the little bottom. The evidence in question is obviously between those 2 thighs. I know the picture is a little grainy, but if you look closely, you can supposedly see 3 small horizontal white lines.

Now, on to exhibit B, or picture #2. In this next picture, which is a little closer up, you can still see the bottom on the left side, then you see the baby's left thigh sprouting out at the bottom of the picture and the right thigh, towards the top, is barely visible. In this picture, the 3 lines are larger and more visible, but the middle line seems longer than the other 2, in my opinion, which I read can be the little penis. I'm also wondering if the little girl parts would be that far away from the apex of the thighs, but I'll let y'all be the judge and tell me what you think. (I also realize I'm going to catch it from Brad on this, too, as he's getting a little annoyed with me obsessing over what the baby actually is).

Please keep in mind that we are extremely excited no matter what the baby is, boy or girl. I'm just so ready to start buying stuff and getting the nursery ready, but we don't want to do anything until we're absolutely sure (or as sure as we can get) that we know what we're having. We're going back to VC in 2 weeks for an 18 week ultrasound, so maybe things will be more pronounced then. If not, then we have our "official" 20 week ultrasound with Dr. Gregory, my Ob-Gyn, 2 weeks after that, but I'd be interested in hearing your inputs as to what you think!

I'm hoping to have Brad take our 16-week belly picture tomorrow evening (he fell asleep tonight!), so hopefully, I can get that up on the blog soon. Brad started a new job this week, which he's really liking, so he's still getting used to his new schedule. Praise God for giving him this job and thank you all for your prayers during these tough times for us! It looks like we may have found the other end of the tunnel, finally! Thanks again and I look forward to reading your comments!

No pictures, please!

OK, so I know we haven't updated the blog lately, but that's just because not much has been going on lately. We're in waiting mode right now to find out what the gender is, so baby-life right now is pretty mundane. I'm at about 15 1/2 weeks today and according to our baby books, we have a little orange at this point. The baby is in the process of growing hair, eyebrows, and eyelashes and is starting to be able to recognize light, although his/her eyelids are still sealed closed and will be for awhile. Amazing considering about 3 months ago, we only had a little poppy seed!

We DID discover an interesting tidbit of information from my friend, Lindsey, though. Apparently, Virginia College (a technical school around here for you out-of-state folks) offers free ultrasounds every Thursday, so that their students can get hands-on training. It's completely free and the only thing you pay for is the ultrasound pictures if you want them, which are $10. This just made my day! We had gotten so spoiled in the beginning of the pregnancy because they were doing weekly ultrasounds for us to make sure the baby was doing okay, but now that we're past "the danger zone", my doctor is being a lot more stingy with the ultrasounds, which leads to a nervous Steph. I start not doing so well after about 2 weeks of not seeing our little one and, being that he/she is still too little for me to feel yet, I start worrying. So, the fact that we can go to VC anytime we feel like it is a Godsend!

We took advantage of this new found information last Thursday and headed over to VC for a piece-of-mind ultrasound, as it had been about 3 weeks since we had seen the baby. The tech we had was extremely nice and was willing to find anything we wanted on the screen (i.e., feet, hands, legs, face, etc.). Being that she's a student, she had a list of items to find on the ultrasound and label for her assignment, so we were able to see the baby for a good 20 minutes or so while she did her assignment. During this 20 minutes, our little one decided to give the tech a hard time! She kept trying to get his/her face on the screen and everytime she would just about get it, the baby would flip over with his (again, I'm using "his" for simplicity's sake) back to her! He flat out refused to have his face be seen! It was the funniest thing! He was flipping and doing somersaults... anything to avoid being seen from the front. He even tried to kick the probe away a few times! Finally, towards the end, she got him lying on his back and we were able to see the profile of his face for a few seconds... until he covered his face up with his hands! Haha! We were all laughing hysterically! He already has a little personality and he's (at the time) only the size of a lemon! You will be happy to know though, that we have 5 little fingers on each hand!

One of the senior techs came in toward the end of our ultrasound and was able to show us the legs, leg bones, and skull, all of which are growing just fine. She also said that we might be able to tell the gender in 2-3 weeks, so we made an appointment to come back in 2 weeks, which is Thursday, August 13th. Hopefully, we'll get lucky and will know what we're having, but if not, then we'll just keep going back each week til we find out. We have a follow-up apppointment with my normal ob-gyn on the 19th, but no ultrasound scheduled (as I mentioned, she's being stingy with the ultrasounds). I think she's waiting til I'm at 20 weeks for the next one, just to be sure we can see the gender by then. We've decided that if we get lucky next week and are able to see what it is, then we'll buy those pictures and will post them on the blog for everyone to see. I'm sure you're all starved for updated pictures! In the meantime, just keep those prayers coming!