GIRL!

Ok, I am obviously several days behind on my thankfulness! I have been caught up in baby, packing, and holidays. So maybe I will start that back up later but for now, I just have to post the happenings of last Friday :)

Let me start with last week. I had been counting down the days until we found out if we were having a boy or girl I LOVE surprises, but if I know about them it just eats away at me and so I usually just find a way to figure them out (ask Luke's brother Ben, it drives him nuts how I usually find out all my surprises). But obviously there was no way to find out the gender of our baby until Friday, so I was forced to wait, and wait, and wait. It was killing us! FINALLY Friday came! I woke up early that morning in anticipation of 1:00. We had a half day at school and I was busy...we had a lot of things to get done in only 3 hours of school! So being at school was a good distraction for me. Once school was out Luke picked me up. I was super excited all morning until I got into the car and then panic came over me. I was flooded with thoughts of knowing what my baby was and not being a good parent, and all kinds of things. I quickly got a grip of myself and before we knew it I was checking in at the doctor's office. Luke and I sat on the couch just talking about how in minutes we were going to find out what our sweet little one was! We were once again excited.

The nurse finally called up to the back. We went into the ultra sound room an I took my position on the bed, pulled my shirt up and got cold gel poured onto my belly. The nurse explained everything she was going to do and asked if we had any questions. I told her about Luke's cousin who had a baby that morning and was told it was a girl, but came out a boy, and how sure she could be of our baby's gender. She quickly assured Luke and I that she had been doing this for over thirty years and will not tell us what the baby is unless she is 100% sure. That was a relief in one way, but I was a bit sad thinking what if she couldn't get a clear shot, or the baby wouldn't corporate....But my thoughts were interrupted by the super cute baby on the screen!This is the first image we saw. Our sweet little one with her had over her face (so dramatic)! It was a moment beyond words. It was neat to see her and then see Luke's face as he saw his daughter for the second time. We could see her moving, her heart pumping, brain working, bones developing, blood flowing, and even counted her fingers and toes. It was really amazing! We had asked the nurse to write down the gender of the baby in put it in a sealed envelope. So when it was time to see what it was, she informed us to look away. Neither of us did. We just gazed at our perfect baby as the nurse was jiggling my belly trying to get the baby to open her legs, when all of a sudden they were wide open and we were all looking at the gender. Luke and I were trying to figure it out, as we both were not quite sure, but the nurse new for sure! After we checked some other things out she wrote the gender down, sealed the envelope, gave us a ton of pictures of our baby, and sent us back out into the waiting room to wait to see the doctor. While we we waiting Luke and I just stared at all the pictures and the enveloping knowing that the nurse was 100% sure what the gender was and we had it in our hands. It took everything in my not to open the envelope! Luke ended up taking the envelope and putting it in his pocket so I would open it.

After the appointment we ran a few errands, checked on the dogs, and went out to eat to celebrate our baby. We went to Olive Garden where we go for all of our family special moments. It was fun to talk about baby stuff and life. We ordered a yummy dinner, ate that fast, and on to dessert where our plan unfolds. Luke told the waitress our story of being pregnant and the envelope and asked her to bring out a black tie chocolate moose pie if it was a boy and a raspberry cheese cake if it was a girl. We had a sweet old waitress who was VERY excited to do this for us. She went in the back and then brought out our dessert all covered up. Now while she was gone it seemed like forever, but Luke and I each shared what we thought it was. I thought it was a boy since we each had some boy dreams (we each had one girl dream, but more boy dreams), Luke thought he saw it in the ultrasound, and I just thought it was a boy from the beginning. Ok, back to the waitress, she had the dessert all covered up and asked us if we were ready. Luke and I both said yes and she uncovered the raspberry cheese cake. I immediately squealed, covered my mouth and cried. I was SHOCKED! It was a fantastic type of shock. Luke started tearing up too. Everyone was looking at us, and the waitress handed us the envelope. When I looked at the paper Ann, our nurse wrote: "GIRL :), yes I am sure". It was so cool. After the manager came over and told us that his wife was expecting and it was their first one. He thought our idea of finding out was pretty neat (we stole the idea from some friends of ours). We called family and let them know, and then we were off to Buy Buy Baby to buy something for our little girl from her daddy and mommy. It was so weird walking around knowing what was inside me. Luke and I were walking on clouds the rest of the night...we still are a little :)