Unexpected Surprise #2

This week we learned that God gets a kick out of keeping us on our toes. :) We had our official gender determination ultrasound on Thursday. I was really excited to get to see the baby again, but I wasn't expecting any surprises since I was pretty confident in the doctor's 75% prediction that it was a girl. Apparently we need to send Nick to Vegas because I know he was secretly holding out for that 25% and he was right! The first shot we had was a between the legs shot which I could tell right away was different from what we saw the week before, though since the ultrasound tech wasn't looking for the gender at that moment he moved on the take all of the measurements. When he was finally ready to look the baby had moved so it took awhile. He did eventually find what he was looking for and said that we were having a boy, though his exact words were, "I'm pretty sure it's a boy." We are very happy to be having a boy, I'm just hoping he is right. I'm going to ask the doctor for a "tie-breaker" ultrasound when we go in at the end of the month just to make sure. So as of now it looks like little Bentley Jay Knoll will be joining us in May.

Unexpected Surprise

We had another appointment today with the doctor. It was the regular monthly appointment where the doctor answers all of our new questions and then he listens to the heartbeat and we are on our way. Today was unexpectedly different. He started to get ready to listen to the heartbeat and I asked if we could get the heart rate this time, since the women I work with want to start taking bets on the sex. :) He laughed and said that we would have to use the ultrasound machine for that. Luckily it was free so we switched rooms and got ready. Then, the doctor said one of the best phrases ever, "You are far enough along that we could probably tell the sex today." I have already been counting down the days-almost the hours until our ultrasound appt next week so I was absolutely beside myself! I can't believe how big the baby is now! We could see the little legs and arms and even a hand that was waving at us. So far I've been pretty good about keeping it together during the ultrasounds, but not this time. I was crying and I'm even getting tears in my eyes now thinking about it. So, the moment you've all been waiting for...(or at least we've been waiting for) he said that he is 75% sure that it's a...girl!!! It looked to me like he had a pretty good shot so I was surprised that he was only going with 75%, but it's better than 50%. :) We'll still have our big ultrasound next week to be sure but for now it's so nice to be able to call "it" "her" now. As I was crying at the screen the doctor looked at Nick and said, "Sorry Dad. But it's a good thing that you are in law enforcement so you can chase all of the boys away." I've apologized to Nick about 20 times already but he says he's not disappointed. I just keep reminding him of what my mom pointed out, the relationship between a father and daughter is a very special one.

First few appointments

I realize that I am very late on the next few posts but better late than never. We had our first doctors appointment on September 8th, which also happened to be our three year wedding anniversary. We were a little nervous about finding the right doctor since we knew we would need one with a sense of humor, but about three minutes into the appointment we knew we found the right one. Dr. Kim is wonderful! For the first check up the baby is too small to do an ultrasound on the stomach, so I tried my best to prepare Nick for what I thought the appt would be like, but it didn't work. He was beyond shocked and slightly mortified. I think God knew what he was doing when he gave us 9 months to prepare for babies. I only hope that will be enough time for Nick. :) During that appointment we found out that our little corn kernel (as the doctor called it) wasn't as far along as I thought and our due date is really May 1st, so hopefully I won't have to go back to school at the end of the year. We also heard the heartbeat and the doctor said that everything looked great.

Our next appointment was 2 weeks later since they like to see the baby at 8 weeks. This was a shorter appointment where the doctor was able to do the ultrasound on my stomach this time. As Dr. Kim was looking at the screen he said, "Yep, they really do look like little gummy bears at this stage." I glanced at Nick and noticed that the color had drained from his face. He looked absolutely stunned for a moment before asking, "...When you say 'they'...do you mean that generally, or specifically...?" (*This was why we knew we needed a doctor with a sense of humor!) Dr. Kim laughed and told him not to worry, there was only one. He said that he hated to refer to babies as "its" at this stage so he thought "they" was a better choice. Nick pointed out later that it was not a better choice. :)

First Positive!

We had heard and read so many things about trying to get pregnant. The spectrum was pretty equal between those who said it would take a long time to those who told us not to be surprised if it doesn't take long at all. Well, we apparently we are part of the second group which is perfect because I really wanted the entire summer to spend with the little bundle before going back to work in September.

We received the first positive result on August 25th. I am sure that was perfectly God's timing since my family would all be together that Saturday for Lindsay's going away party and Nick's family was coming for a week long visit. With everyone living in different states and countries I was so afraid that we would have to share our news over the phone or in an email, but that's not how things worked out.

Lindsay's going away party was at a restaurant in Tri-Cities and we decided to get her a "going away" present to tell her. I found an Irish jewelry box that was just big enough to store a rolled up onsie. I found a perfect one in Huskey colors that said "My Auntie is #1!" Of course before she opened it I had to stress that this present was not from the dogs, since I was sure that would be her first thought. When she opened it her face was blank for a minute and then we could see it click and my mom said, "Really!?!" about 12 times. It was great to see everyone so excited.

For Nick's family we decided to make a slideshow. Nick is really good at making slideshows and since they are always helping with projects around our house we decided to make that the theme. It had a bunch of pictures of different projects around our house and then about 3 slides from the end it said, "What should our next project be?" The next slide said, "We decided to expand our house by 2 feet." And the last one had a background of two little baby feet and it said, "More specifically, we decided to expand our family by 2 feet in April." Once his parents and grandparents got over the fact that we weren't really expanding our actual house by 2 feet they all cried. That was a reaction that I wouldn't have wanted to miss.