"Surreal, but Nice"

"Surreal, but nice." A quote from one of my very favorite movies ~ Notting Hill. And it describes that moment perfectly.

We drove with my parents to a prenatal imaging center in Nashville. Lucas and I had been there once before with our friends Chris and Aida for their 30 week 4D ultrasound, so we sort of knew what to expect. What we ~ or at least I ~ didn't expect was the news we would receive a few moments later.

Throughout the entire pregnancy I have felt like this was a boy. I don't know why. Call it a guess. Call it a motherly instinct (though if that is the case, I certainly hope mine gets better). I just knew it would be a boy. You see - I have this nightmare of having three boys. Don't get me wrong - I like boys. It is just that I really would at some point like a girl and have feared ~ irrationally, for quite some time ~ that that may not happen. Lucas is one of three boys. My dad is one of three boys. One of his brothers has three boys. I don't know. Just felt like that may be my destiny. So I felt pretty confident that my little baby was a boy, and I had sold myself on the positives of having a boy. Almost so much so that I woke up that morning and thought - "you know, self. it might really be fun to have a little boy. i think i'll enjoy this. he and landon (chris and aida's baby) will have so much fun together."

All the while, I carried on this tiny little glimmer of hope that perhaps this little being inside of me might be a girl. I tried not to get too caught up in that possibility. But oh what fun I would have with all the lacey outfits and the ruffle butt diaper covers! The sewing and the dresses and the monogramming and the appliqueing!! And the perfect name we already had picked out for her (more on that later). But I didn't dwell on that too much. I knew it was a boy.

Lucas, on the other hand, firmly believed it was a girl. In fact, at our previous doctor's appointment we heard the heartbeat and Lucas said, "Yep! That's a little girl's heartbeat!" Uh, huh. Whatever, Lucas.

Well......
I was laying there on the ultrasound table as Lisa ~ the nice technician lady ~ was performing the ultrasound. We were gazing at the screen and at each other, and ooing and awwing over the cute little baby we saw (who now actually looks somewhat like a baby and not like a little worm as on the initial ultrasound 9 weeks prior).



I was looking over at Lucas and at my parent's reaction to all of the baby excitement when all of the sudden I heard my mom let out a big gasp. I immediately looked at the screen and Lisa had typed "girl!!!" on the screen next to a little arrow that was pointing to her lady parts.

GIRL!!!!!

Oh, my goodness! Let me just tell you ~ I about fell apart. The room was spinning. I was crying. Lucas was crying. My parents were crying. Heck, Lisa and her daughter (who was answering the phone in the lobby and could obviously hear us) were almost crying, too!



The blood rushed from my head quickly and, I promise you, didn't return for quite some time. You will notice this light headedness because I don't think my hand leaves my head in any of the photos for a good hour!

(Sharing the good news with my grandparents who had planned on being there but, due to a health issue with my granddaddy, were unable to come with us. Thankfully, he is much better now.)

It was surreal, to say the least.

(Phone Call to Colombia!)

(And, of course, you know my mom can't do anything small. She had leis and carriage signs in pink and blue to celebrate whatever news we would hear. She also had presents for the baby ~ boy or girl.)
After some pictures and more celebration, we headed to Opry Mills to do some serious shopping. Can't wait to show you all what we bought her! Stay tuned.

And now, I leave you with beautiful photos of my baby girl.