Like Opening a Present Before Christmas!

I LOVE being able to open a present before Christmas. There is nothing more satisfying to me than getting something when I shouldn’t be getting it.

That being said, Caleb and I just found out if we are having a boy or a girl!!!

You might be thinking, “But you were SO close! Why didn’t you just wait to be surprised?” And, my answer would be, “Because I am the type of person who likes to get her surprises as early as possible!”

When I went to my doctor’s appointment on Tuesday, I asked lots of different questions. One of those questions was whether or not the doctor thought I should get an ultrasound scan since I had not had a decent one done in PNG. He talked a lot about how squished the baby is now and how ultrasounds this late in the game are hard to interpret. I thought that was the end of the conversation, but before I left his office, he gave me a referral for one anyway. The referral stated something like this:

“Patient was told by Lae she is having a boy and told by Goroka that she is having a girl. Can you adjudicate?” He also listed his medical reasons for wanting an ultrasound this late.

When I showed Caleb the referral, surprisingly, he thought it was a GREAT idea to find out early what we are having.

So, I made an appointment for this past Wednesday at 4pm.

I was given very specific instructions: “Empty your bladder at 2:30pm. Then, drink 500ml of water between 2:30pm and 3:00pm. Arrive for appointment by 3:45pm.”

I followed these instructions and drank an extra 250ml of water “just to be safe”. By 3:15pm, I had to pee!!! We dropped Ben off with a friend and headed to Cairns Diagnostic Imaging. I was over-the-moon with excitement! The whole way there, I kept telling the baby to cooperate and open his or her legs. I also prayed that we would find out once and for all.

I don’t know why I was nervous…..but I was…..I couldn’t sit still…..

The ultrasound technician called us back. She was super nice right from the start. She explained what I already knew- the results of measurements and due date calculations at this point could be wildly inaccurate AND there was even a chance we wouldn’t be able to tell gender depending on how the baby was positioned.

I kept telling myself, “At least I will walk away with pictures. At least I will walk away with pictures. I’m going to be so disappointed if we don’t find out. But, at least I get to walk away with pictures.”

Baby’s head was down….always exciting news to me. The baby’s back was facing my left side. She took A LOT of pictures of the baby’s head, spine, back, heart, kidney’s, leg, arm and also took pictures of the cord and placenta. I was starting to get a bit light headed from laying on my back…..and because we didn’t yet know what we were having.

Then the news came! She directed our eyes to “the hamburger”. I didn’t want to assume that I knew what she meant. That is when she said it, “I am happy to say you are having a GIRL!”

Holy cow!!! We are having a little baby girl!!! Caleb and I were beyond ecstatic. Of course we are both a bit nervous about having a girl, but thrilled!

I have to admit that knowing NOW has made me so unbelievably happy. I now can refer to my little lady as “she” and “her” and the baby doesn’t feel like an “it” anymore. Also, I now have reasons for why this pregnancy was so different. I always assumed that I was carrying differently….that baby was in fact making my thighs huge, my skin break out and my overall appearance just different. If I was having a boy, then I would have been afraid that I was “just getting old”. Also, all the sweet food cravings make me smile. I have a little girl inside of me who is making me eat these things. It is also so nice to know that the morning sickness that I had that lasted for what seemed to me like so long was because of the little baby girl inside of me. It is just so nice to know!

Caleb and I took pictures outside the office. Here is a picture of me…..again, overjoyed with this news:

Here is a picture of Caleb……again, freaking out about this news:

A friend told me I should take another picture JUST like this one above when our little girl is 13!

After our appointment, we went to pick up Ben. We told him that we found out that “Mommy has a baby girl in her belly.” The first thing out of his mouth was “Aw Man. I wanted a boy!” We had a good laugh. We KNEW he would say this. He doesn’t really want a boy, he has just said all along that he thought it was a boy and he knew that Caleb was pretty sure it was a girl. He is at this stage where it is really important for him to be right (or “white” as his pronounces the word “right”). When he saw that we were laughing when he said he wanted a boy, he started laughing, too. Then he said, “I’m just kidding. I want a girl.”

Ben still has a little trouble saying Melanie. He says that he is going to call her Baby Mel or Mel Mel.

We then decided to celebrate the news by going out to eat. We thought it ONLY appropriate that we go out for hamburgers since that is what the ultrasound lady told us we were having. (Why is it that we always find out what we are having in terms of food? Ben was a chocolate brownie and little Mel is a hamburger!) Anyway, here are pictures of us with our hamburgers:

IT'S A GIRL!!!!!!