Announcing Our Baby Boy!

We finally have our little man and we couldn't be more excited!

 

Going into this 20-week appointment, I think it's the first time in our pregnancies that finding out the baby's gender was secondary in our minds. Since we had declined getting any genetic testing at the end of the first trimester, this appointment was going to really be the crucial visit where we would find out if everything was okay and the baby was developing correctly.

 

One of the things that has actually been comforting throughout this pregnancy is how normal the doctors and midwives have treated us. We're not "at risk" or a special case. This might make some people feel like the previous miscarriages weren't treated as important, but honestly, I found it refreshing to not only not have the losses hanging over this pregnancy, but it also confirmed during each visit that this baby was wonderfully and beautifully boring.

 

The sonogram tech (who in my opinion, should absolutely be considered a "doctor"; our techs are amazing in their ability!) was friendly and normal, not careful with us, which I loved! She walked us through all of the organs and body parts, and showed us that everything was where it was supposed to be. She asked us if we had a preference for baby gender, and we said it would be nice to have a boy, but we were expecting a girl.

 

As she was looking for "special parts", she called Bella over to her and whispered in her ear. Then Bella yelled out, "I have my baby brother!!!!" (By the way, she hasn't stopped announcing it...in the hallway at church, to total strangers...since we found out on Friday.) I had to look at the tech for confirmation, because we were just so surprised! Bella and I "Woo-hoo'd" loud enough that I'm pretty sure everyone down the hall heard us! I think Steve was more overwhelmed with emotion than I was.

 

After it sunk in a little bit, we wanted to share the news in a way that included the girls. I saw a cute idea on Pinterest to paint the girls' hands and then have them leave blue handprints on my belly, so we decided to try that. Of course, our actual attempt to pull this off resulted in a few attempts that included anger (me), frustration (Steve), and lots of fruit snacks (for bribing). Here are some of our "process" pictures. Don't they look fun? (Don't let their smiles fool you.)

 

Our end result only happened after this conversation:

 

Me: Evelyn, put your hands on mommy's tummy.

Evelyn: No.

Me: Do you want a fruit snack?

Evelyn: Yes!

Me: Put your hand on mommy's tummy.

 

Mission accomplished!

 



And here are their handprints! They actually came out pretty well!

Pinterest attempts aside, we are thrilled at the chance to experience a little boy! It's still a little surreal for Steve and I to be able to say "he" as we're making plans, but it's slowly sinking in and we're loving it!

 

Our favorite name right now is 'Henry', but we have no idea about middle names yet. We kind of go back and forth between funkier names like 'Oliver', and more traditional, like 'David' or 'John'.