Tuesday morning I woke up feeling nauseated. This isn't unusual for me during this pregnancy, in fact its usual. I took my trusty Zofran which now sits on my nightstand, beside my video baby monitor spying in on Beckett while he sleeps. Usually, now that I'm in the second trimester and hopefully past the worst part of the nausea and all-day sickness, one Zofran works for most of the day. Occasionally I take two or three per day, but one is usually enough to cut it for a while. I took one...then two. Still felt sick. Sometimes I have to remind myself that when I'm anxious or nervous about something, my body's first, natural reaction is almost debilitating nausea. Its AWFUL. I sucked it up, and tried to remember that there was nothing to be nervous about. My gender ultrasound appointment was going to be that evening at 6pm. I had been counting down the days for this appointment. Literally. I kept a running tally of how many days I had left to wait in the excruciating agony of not being able to buy gender related baby items, either way. Tuesday had arrived and I was WAY more anxious than I thought I'd be.
To be honest, I'm not sure what we did that day. The morning and afternoon activities were kind of a blur. I think we may have run some errands and stayed close to home. We had to be back at the house by 3 to get the boys in bed for their nap time. My mom was going to be over around 4:15 to stay with the boys so we could leave early. We were tucking the boys in bed, and I was telling Cash that when we got home that night, we would show him some pictures and a video of the baby, and we could tell him whether he was going to have another brother or a sister. He said, "I'm going to have a sister." If I told you all of the little "psychic" things he's done since he was little I would have to make a whole other post. He's weird like that. I'm weird like that and a few people in my family are weird like that. He has said since I first found out I was pregnant that it was going to be a girl. I kissed him goodbye, and got ready to go.
Colt is good at calming me down. On our way down to the ultrasound place, we listening to our favorite radio show, talked, laughed and made our official "guesses" on the record. We both thought it was going to be a girl. On our drive, I kept noticing little things, like a PSYCHO. There was a tree that had bloomed with big pink flowers even though everything else around it was almost dead. A few miles later, a big oleander bush with pink blossoms. I know that it was purely coincidence, and I was over analyzing everything, but that's where my mind was at. We got down to Pinellas Park, where the place was located, about 30 minutes early, so we stopped at Starbucks for a drink. I figured it couldn't hurt for the baby to be awake and active during the scan. I wanted him to start driving as soon as we got the drinks so we could be there on time, even though the place was about two blocks away and we still had 25 min to kill. I felt better being in the parking lot. :) It was a good thing we did because we missed the turn and ended up being just slightly early. We waited in the waiting room for our turn. On the front desk there was a keepsake display card for your ultrasound picture for sale. It said "IT'S A GIRL" at the top and had a picture of the "girl parts" inside the frame. I told Colt, "If we see that, its a girl." We both chuckled nervously even though it wasn't really funny. We had never seen a girl ultrasound before. Then they called us back.
We walked into the dark room and I laid down on the table. As soon as the scan started, she was bouncing off the walls in there. The tech kept laughing at how active she was. I think the Starbucks Refresher I had beforehand must have helped spur her activity. As soon as her little bottom came up on screen, I noticed that it looked very different from the boys' ultrasound pictures. There was a little lump in between the legs, but nothing like the boys. My first thought was "ITS A GIRL," until we got another shot that looked a little bit different, and then I thought, "This poor boy...I can never show him his ultrasound pictures because he'll compare it to his brothers." Haha! I asked the tech, "Its a boy, right? Does it look like a boy to you?" She said she wouldn't say anything until she was completely sure. I thought to myself, "Ok...so you're going to wait ten more minutes and THEN tell me its a boy." She kept scanning between the legs and I noticed that when she would get a shot under the rear end, between the legs, there was nothing there. With the boys, that shot was the clearest of all that they were boys. She said that at this stage in pregnancy, the girl parts can appear swollen, causing it to look like there is a bump between the legs, but it could also be a penis, or the umbilical cord, so she needed to do some further investigation. She kept looking at the shot from under the rear end. From every angle under there, it looked like a girl. Finally after about 10 minutes, she said she thought she was 100 % sure, but she was going to make sure her associate agreed with her. They have a little paper or card of some sort next to the machine that they can see, but I can't. I'm assuming it says BOY/GIRL on it so they can point to it, and communicate with each other, coming to an agreement on the gender before actually announcing it to the parents. The other lady came in, she scanned me for about 5 minutes and got a very clear shot from under the rear end. There was no bump. For some reason it didn't completely connect with me what she was going to say. I remember thinking that it looked like a girl to me, but I couldn't discount that small bump we had seen earlier. I think I was about 60/40 thinking it was a girl. She paused the screen and put a small arrow pointing in between the legs where there were three little lines. She asked the other tech, "Is this what you were thinking," and pointed to the little card beside the machine. The other tech said, "Yep!" She said, "Yeah it doesn't get much clearer than that." Colt had both of our mothers (and the rest of my family), who were together, on the phone waiting with baited breath. The technician typed "BG". For the millisecond that it was up on the screen, I thought to myself, "What does that mean?" Then "IT'S A GIRL" popped up on the screen. I could hardly believe it even thought "it" was literally starring me in the face.
My mother-in-law, Sharon, and my sister Emilee got some really good video footage of the moment. Colt said, "OOOOOHHHHHHHH, its a girl!" He was just as shocked as I was. He handed me the phone, and I had teary eyes telling them how excited I was. If I didn't have that video I would have no idea what I was actually saying at that time, but I kept repeating, "This is so cool......This is SO cool." Both Colt and I were crying. The whole time that we were thinking it was a boy, even when I thought the technician was thinking it was a boy, she knew it was a girl. In all the shots with the "bump" we were actually looking at her swollen little girl parts, and the technician was double, triple, and quadruple checking to make sure she saw the three lines in detail of her lady business.
We left with a DVD of the whole ultrasound set to some sweet music that will completely make you cry in itself, and a CD of all the images. We got to share both with our family when we got home. Before we headed home, we made it a mini-date night by going to eat at Mitchell's Fish Market.
Now, over a week later it is just settling in that we're going to have a daughter. Her name will be Bellamy June Clark. I have been busy collecting things for her room, and buying all things girl related that she'll need. I'm excited to use some of her brother's things with her too though. I think the boys will get a kick out of seeing her in a Captain America T-Shirt, and some DC shoes. :)
I'm 17 weeks tomorrow and starting to feel her move on a regular basis. I was laying on my side yesterday, and when I rolled back over, I saw a little lump on the side of my belly. When I touched it, she kicked really hard. I love this stage. I had my 16 week doctor appointment earlier this week, and they did another ultrasound to make sure everything looked good, since I hadn't had a diagnostic, measuring ultrasound yet. They confirmed she was a girl, and said she's measuring perfectly!
Well that's it for now I suppose. I'm waiting for the first coat of metallic paint to dry on the mirror I bought from Goodwill for her room. I think its time for a second coat! See ya!
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