Pregnancy Week 16 (It’s a…)

It’s a girl!

I can’t tell you how excited Derek and I were to discover that we’re having a girl this week! I’ve had an inkling since around 8 weeks that it might be a girl, and both my mother and mother-in-law have been saying girl since the moment they discovered we were expecting. In fact, my mom kept referring to Baby R with female pronouns when we were at Disney the other week.

My doctor’s office doesn’t typically do ultrasounds at the 16 week appointment, but due to the D&C I had last August, they scheduled one to check on my cervix, which was purely precautionary. Since we were already having the extra ultrasound, I was crossing my fingers and toes that we’d be able to take a peek at the sex and brought Derek with me just in case.

We were called right back to the ultrasound room and I was immediately asked to take my pants off. What? I thought I had graduated from the transvaginal ultrasound (aka the “dildo cam” as I like to call it). Unfortunately that’s the best way to measure the cervix, so I took my pants off and ignored my husband’s whispered sarcastic comments as the tech prepped for the ultrasound.

After taking a few quick measurements of my cervix (FYI: everything looked good), she asked if we knew the sex yet. Nope. Did we want to find out? Hell yeah!

She zoomed in on our little bean’s bottom and, at first, I thought I was looking at a boy. There was something there that looked a heck of a lot like a little penis. I kept thinking, wait, that’s not supposed to be there. This is a girl. I KNOW it’s a girl. But then the “penis” moved and the ultrasound tech moved a cursor over the spot letting us know that the “penis” was actually a cord. She then confirmed that it looked like we’re having a girl!

To be honest, it was sort of anti-climatic. Instead of getting really excited, I think both Derek and I had the “are you sure?” mentality. As if reading our minds, the ultrasound tech told us we would get another view to re-confirm. That’s when we switched to the abdominal view. You think this would be less awkward, but since I was still pant-less, all I had was a piece of paper covering me at this point and an ultrasound tech who was not shy on pulling it this way or that way to get the shot she wanted.

It still amazes me how much our little bean has grown in 4 weeks! We got great shots of the head, arms, legs, and body. It was the first time Derek has seen the bean and he was really amazed how you could see the little heart just beating away right on the screen.

Our tech saved the “money shot” for last and once again confirmed it was a girl. Derek and I were both all smiles, though I don’t think it really sunk in until the next day. We actually spent the evening googling ultrasound photos to compare our “girl’ photo to other girl or boy ultrasounds at 16 weeks. You can never be too sure, right?

I’ve had the idea of hosting a gender reveal party in the back of my mind for a couple of months, but was way too superstitious to confirm any plans until we had the ultrasound and everything looked good. How do people plan gender reveal parties so far in advance? What if something goes wrong? What if there are complications with determining the sex? Maybe I’m just extra cautious with my history, but I didn’t want to lock any plans down until we were 100% confident with everything.

Of course, once we had the appointment I couldn’t wait to have people over and began texting everyone immediately after. It was definitely an impromptu, casual get together and we are very fortunate to have so many friends and family who were able to agree with less than 24 hrs notice.

The party food consisted of every decadent item I was currently craving: buffalo wings, chips and velveta cheese dip, pigs in a blanket, veggies and hummus, and homemade cupcakes. It’s what I kept referring to as the pregnant lady’s buffet and it was amazing.

When it came time for the reveal, Derek and I opened a box with two pink balloons inside.

It was so much fun to see everyone’s reactions when the balloons popped out. They were crying. I was crying. It basically turned into a big mush fest.

We were even able to Facetime with family members who weren’t able to make it.

The best part was after the news was shared, everyone broke out their swimsuits and we had our first official pool party since buying out house back in August. The water felt great, too!

It was an amazing day filled with lots of love for our baby girl. I think all the celebrating is when it really hit us – we’re having a girl! And we couldn’t be more excited about it. 🙂