IT'S A GIRL!

According to the ultrasound technician, there was no doubt about it, the baby who has been inside me for the past almost five months is a girl!!!!!!!!!!!! Joe and I are going to have one of each! :-) The Catholics were right both times for us, LOL! If you do it before ovulation you're more likely to have a girl, if you do it right at ovulation you're more likely to have a boy.

When I was young, I always pictured myself with a boy first and a girl second but I never like to picture something too much because usually then it doesn't happen! So it is still sinking in that it's a reality! Even though that was what I had predicted on the Baby Rodgers Challenge Part Two due to it being what had come to me when I felt her kick for the first time, there was still the at-home gender prediction test which said boy (I told you they are a waste!) and many other times that I was convinced it was a boy. Many days I wanted it to be a boy, and many other days I wanted it to be a girl. The first heartbeat made me think it was a boy (146), however the second heartbeat (175) made me think it was a girl. Today the heartbeat was 145.

So it is nice to not have to wonder anymore! Now the fun part of pregnancy has begun! :-) Which is good because my due date has been pushed back three days :( They're going with July 27th. The positive about that is that it's because Baby is too small to be a July 24th baby. She is in the 50-60 percentile for July 27th (strange that three days make that much difference with development but apparently it does -- and I know this date is accurate to when I did the ovulation predictor test) so if she continues in this range then I will be able to have a vaginal delivery. (She was 10 oz, Logan was already 14.5 oz at this point!) I asked Dr. Sullivan if she had read over Logan's birth records and she said, yes, it did say there was "mild shoulder dystocia." So she'll want "to talk" with me if the baby gets to be 9 pounds but if it stays in the average range then we're looking at another seven pound baby (or even 6 or 8) which should be fine!

Anyway, so at first I was relieved when they told me just to come with a full bladder rather than the directions last time to drink 4 8oz glasses 45 min prior and not pee which had me in pain! I figured this time I would just drink regularly and then not pee in the 45 min beforehand and that way it wouldn't be so bad. Uh, no, that didn't work. We got there 10 minutes early and it came on strong. I couldn't even sit down! So I just stood there, white knuckling it, but at 1 pm no one came out the door! At 1:01 I went to the front desk and asked if they were on time, LOL. She said yes, but if they hadn't come to get me by 1:05 then she'd go track them down. At exactly 1:05 the ultrasound technician called my name, whew.

She took some quick measurements -- although the first thing she said was "it's obvious if you want to know the gender!" I thought that meant that it was a boy! She even said "see these three things?" to which I was thinking they were a penis and testicles :p but she surprised both Joe and me when she said "they are girl parts!"

Logan, who I mentioned in my last post has been kind of onrey this week, wrinkled his eyebrows and said, "Me wanted a boy!" We laughed but he has continued to mope around saying, "It's a BOY! Not a girl!" I'm glad he has four months to get used to the idea, I wasn't expecting him to have such a strong preference, haha! But unless there's an accident in the future (since Joe and I both feel two is the right number of children for us) then I don't think Logan is going to get his Chase. After Logan has been calling the baby by that name the past several weeks, Joe and I had decided to for sure name Baby #2 Chase if it was a boy. Now Joe says we have to discuss the whole Kristana idea. :p I recognize it is a name that most (okay all?) of my family does not like, but that's only because they've never heard it. I think it's the most beautiful name ever and that once people get used to it they won't even think about it. But I told Joe I'm open to other ideas so I told him to bring them on. . .problem is, I've been thinking about my daughter's name since I was six years old so it HAS to have "Kris" in it :p So good thing we have four months to name her, too!

After learning it was a girl, the ultrasound technician told me I could go to the bathroom so that was wonderful! Then I came back and could relax as she checked to make sure everything was perfect. The head, the heart, the tummy, the bones, the spine, the face, the amniotic fluid, the placenta, the uterus, etc. It was such a relief to find out everything has developed as it should! It's all so miraculous!!! How can anyone who has had a child not believe in God?

I was bummed to find out they DON'T do a video! I'm still confused. . .I swear I was told on more than one occasion that they could make one for me! But they did take my CD that I brought and put the same pictures on it that they printed out for me, but that was just one extra step than they did with Logan. At least this time, though, there wasn't as much "seeing" to wish that I had one. This baby wouldn't stop flipping around and so the sonographer had to quickly get the still images, whereas with Logan I remember we stared at him for several minutes as he opened and closed his mouth, stretched, etc. But I love the 4D images which I didn't get last time until two days before Logan was born! I can't stop staring at my baby's face. . .it's so awesome.So after the ultrasound was over I met with Dr. Sullivan and she said to pay attention to the pains when I walk/not push myself if I'm uncomfortable, but it's probably just the way things are positioned for me -- that ligments and such are pulling when I walk, but she would be more concerned if I was having period cramps or contractions rather than sharp pinches so she doesn't think it is serious and therefore I can still plan to do as much walking as I want -- yeay!

Logan did well and we got out of there at 2 pm so the entire thing only lasted an hour and he took a two-and-a-half hour nap from 3:15-5:45. Until now we've been calling family and friends. . .now I'm going to relax. . .yeah right, I think I'll be on an adrenaline high for awhile!Here was the post I wrote about Logan on this day: It's A Boy!!!!