At my last OB appointment they asked me if I wanted to do a genetic screening blood test. While I would never even consider terminating a pregnancy I am absolutely on board with knowing what we can to know how to prepare. I asked if the test would also give us information on the sex of the baby….yep and with 99.4% accuracy! I left my appointment and talked to Seth. He had known I might have testing done but never asked about it so I decided as long as he didn’t ask I wouldn’t mention it and then would be able to surprise him once I got the call. The midwife mentioned it would be done in a week…so I called at the one week mark. And the two week mark. By week 3 I was going a bit crazy wanting to find out but also a bit terrified to get a call when I was by myself.

Last Monday my phone rang while I was seeing a speech patient. I silenced the call and called them back as soon as I left the appointment. It went to the nurses voice mail so I eagerly awaited her call back. When she called back she told me that the baby looks healthy with no blaring neural tube stuff going on. The baby looks great! Whew. And then she asked if we wanted to know the gender. I said “OF COURSE!!!”. She told me it’s a girl. I asked her to repeat it because certainly she was mistaken. We make boys…everyone we know for months have been telling us it had to be a boy, yada, yada. But she said again with a slight laugh at me that “it is in fact a GIRL, a female!”  (We have had lots of questions on whether or not we wanted a boy or girl. Anyone that knows we well knows that I have always longed for a daughter. I had totally prepared myself that this baby could very well be a boy and that that would also mean that we would likely not ever have a daughter. I had no doubt that we would be over the moon with another boy but I also see something so special in families with little girls. It’s just different. So in many ways this little girl is an answer to lots of prayers! I thought the answer would be that God would give me peace without having a daughter so it feels like an amazing treat that he decided to bless us with what we so much desired.)

Now I had this big secret. I couldn’t wait for Seth to be home to tell him!!!!

When I got home from work I dug out the couple of little girl things I had from friends during my other two pregnancies. I decided it would be fun to hang them inside Seth’s closet so when he got home and went to hang up his suit he would see the girl clothes.  Needless to say he was thrilled with the news but also in disbelief like me.  In such disbelief that he called the doctors office himself the next day to confirm!

The next day we decided to tell the boys.  We filled a big metal bucket with balloons and when they pulled off the quilt a bunch of pink balloons popped out. They are delighted with the news and can’t wait to meet their little sister!

On Friday we are all going together for the 20 week sonogram! Jackson is so excited to get out of school to go “meet” the baby. Can’t wait for our little date with her.  We are nearly half way to meeting her which is hard to believe. With two big ones and tons of activities going on I am afraid she will be here before we have time to blink!