Happy Mother's Day

Waiting at the OB.

It's fitting that we started Mother's Day weekend by heading to the doctor for our 20 week ultrasound. That's right, the big one, the X or Y scan.

People have been asking a) if we were planning to find out gender. Um, yes. Do you know me at all? And once that is out of the way, of course they ask b) if we're hoping one way or the other. Honestly, this time around, I had no preference (unlike the first time, when I really wanted a girl). A boy would be great, since we don't have one of those. A girl would also be great so Violet would have a little friend (especially considering we're surrounded by boys in this neighborhood). The neighbors were all pulling for girl. Matt was leaning towards boy. I was secretly thinking it might be a girl. But again, I was honestly happy with either (if slightly scared of the new body parts a boy would bring).

So this ultrasound was a bit different - no nerves, no anxiety. Just excited to see the baby again, make sure all the body parts were where they were supposed to be. And of course, find out gender. I booked the first appointment of the day and we took Violet along for the big reveal.

There was a bit of prep work so she could understand what was happening. We told Violet we were going to look at pictures of the baby. But the baby wasn't coming out of my tummy. And mommy didn't eat the baby (Matt made sure to stress that point after hearing a coworker's tale!) I'm still not sure Violet was that impressed by the grainy black and white images of an alien blob she saw on the screen, but it was sweet that she could be a part of our big day.

Oh, I'm sorry, have I still not told you what we're having. It's a... girl! That's right, Violet gets a little sister! Which is good, because she's been insisting it's a girl all along, and I wasn't sure how I was going to convince her the baby suddenly turned into a boy!

And I'm thrilled, really. I think it will be so sweet to have two girls. I love watching the brother relationship my neighbor boys have, and I really wanted Violet to have a little pal. Plus, there's the minor detail of all the clothes and pink toys stashed in this house. So that's a bonus.

The best part was just getting to see her, the baby, and finally get a pronoun to replace the "it" we've been using. Watching her move around on the screen will never get old. The ultrasound tech pointed out how often the baby kept opening her mouth, which Matt took as a sign that she's already as much of a talker as Violet is!

The next question, of course, will be "Do you have a name yet?" No, we don't. I want something traditional but unique, like Violet's name. So we'll be working on that. 20 weeks to go!