18 Weeks and Some Big News!

I'm back from Boise and I have the internet again! I was rather sad I didn't get to put a picture of pink frills and lace and all sorts of stuff girl to announce, but Jaren's little one liner was good enough.

Let's see how well I can recount Tuesday morning:

I had spent the night before packing and getting ready so I could leave first thing after the appointment. I was going to Boise to help my sister in law, Lena with her two kids while my brother was away on business. A visit was due anyway, since I hadn't seen much of them since last summer. My brother, Nathan had told me that he and his wife, Stephanie were too excited the night before their appointment they couldn't sleep and I really really wanted to sleep since I was going to be driving 5 hours the next day. So I took some Unisom and had Jaren wake me up at 7 (the appointment was at 9). I slept! All night, well, unless you count the one trip to the bathroom and the half an hour it took to fall back to sleep. I was so so so incredibly nervous. I couldn't exactly figure out why I was SO nervous! I guess it was just finding out what our first kid was going to be. To me, it wasn't just finding out the sex of the baby. It was finding out if the rest of our kids was going to have an oldest brother or sister. Sending a boy on a mission first or a girl off to college first. What type of teenager I was going to have to learn on. If it was going e to beasy to figure out a name or difficult(we have a few picked out for a girl, and cannot for the life of us, agree on anything boy). It was all of this and more I couldn't stop thinking about. Also, Jaren is the last boy in his family. No 1st, 2nd, 3rd or 4th or even 5th that we know of cousins that share his last name. Great thing if boys are ever enlisted again, cause they can't touch him :) but bad if your the wife and bearing the children (even though girls have no say in what the gender is going to be). I had hoped all along it would be a boy so that we(more like I, Jaren says one will come when he decides to come) could breath a sigh of releif and know there would be an heir to this family. But for about 2 weeks previous I had decided I wanted a girl. It was when I thought about having a boy, I would be happy, but I would really want a girl to dress up and watch dance and giggle like little girls do and boy's don't do as well. I thought, "well, having a boy will be fine, but I hope that a girl comes next" and when I thought about having 2 boys in a row I got really sad and realized I just wanted a girl now and I could have all boys next. I never voiced it because I thought, "what if it's a boy and here I've been saying I want a girl, will he not feel wanted when he reads all my thoughts I think outloud someday?" I journal, and write on this blog. Neither have I had any feelings as to which it would be. No leaning more towards a boy or a girl. None. But while we were driving into town I looked at Jaren and said, "Well, this will be our last time to talk about this not knowing. What do you think it's going to be?" He said, "I don't know" which isn't want I wanted to hear, but okay. And it was then I realized I felt like we were having a girl. I was afraid to admit it for fear I'd be wrong, but I told him, "I don't know why, but I kind of feel like we are having a girl." I was SO NERVOUS!

When I get nervous I get fidgity and I need to talk. When Jaren is presented with stress he needs to sit quietly and just think. Really not a good combination, if you ask me. So here I was, trying to talk to ease my nerves and basically talking to myself. I have the emotional tolerance of a 2 year old at the moment and so I was about to cry becuase I was so frustrated! I don't think he believed I felt the way I felt until we got in and they took my blood pressure. Where I am normally under 105, I was 127. It was then he started to tell me to calm down. We were sitting in the room waiting for our doc and he was trying EVERYTHING to distract me. Which made me tear up becuase he was finally talking and making an effort to distract me becuase NOW he believed that I was freaking out. I mean, had me count all the leaves on a mirror. Asking me questions like, "which of those leaves have the most veins?" there was some wall art that had 4 different leaves on it. Silly stuff that was making me laugh and want to kiss him. So, I guess it worked. I was still sweating like a sinner in confession, but it helped to finally have him helping.

Doc came in and told me I could pee in the cup (yay) after we were done. I needed a full bladder. And it was FULL. I sat in the chair for about 5 minutes before the doc came back in and in that time I taught Jaren how to use the camera. He took the short video that I posted at the bottom and then recorded the entire ultrasound. We also got a DVD of it from them. He didn't talk much throughout, which irked me, but it was becuase he was videoing and didn't want to talk into it. The video and DVD are 14 minutes long. So I wont be posting them :)

Well, this little girl must have known she'd be getting in big trouble when she came out if she didn't perform. Or maybe the pounding of my heart made her bury her face into my bladder to try to get away from the noise. Which left her little bum raised high against my belly. She also doesn't like to close her legs - something we'll have to teach her little ladies don't do when she comes out. But as for now I was very proud. The second he put the ultrasound stick on my belly he knew. I had no idea what to look for, I didn't know we were staring strait at her lady parts. He said, "Woah.. you are definitly pregnant (duh)... was there anything you were hoping for?" Jaren shook his head, I said no and he said, "Well, I hope it was a girl, becuase this is definitly a girl." And I, who had already been crying the second I saw the little person on the screen, screamed, "A GIRL?!" A mix of emotions went through me. A lot of are you sure? and what now and so it's not a boy? and, oh my gosh.. a girl.... oh my.... a girl.. I kept looking at Jaren and mouthing, "Oh my!" and "A GIRL?!" and he just smiled and nodded. The excitment built and built throughout the ultrasound. She is measuring right on. Some were a few days a head, and some were one behind. I was crying the whole time. I watched the video and Jaren always seemed to come back to film me while I was whiping my face. I don't think I realized until I watched it. Her stomach was full - drinkin that amniotic fluid - her pee. Her bladder is full which means her kidney's are working.

My favorite part of the whole thing (besides finding out the he was really a she) was when he was trying to find her face. Which he did for about 6 or 7 of the 14 minutes. She was face planted and had her hands infront of her face as well as the umbilicle cord. I told Jaren she had better not be like him (camera shy) because she was going to be the center of A LOT of pictures. She had better be more like me! I'm all for the camera. If you haven't noticed already. So, we didn't get a good look at her face, he tried to move her around, which was the weirdest feeling, let me tell you. But after he moved her all we got was one eye. She covered her face and looked right at us or at my uterus with one eye. So funny. Kind of creepy looking, though. But that wasn't my favorite part. My favorite part was while he was looking for her face he caught her hand. It was so clear. She would open her fist so she was giving us 5 and then would close her little fist one finger by one finger until it was all the way closed. Then she would open her hand and do it again. It was the coolest thing. I don't know why I was so amazed. I feel her move all the time, but that was so real. So incredibly real. And re-watching the DVD (which I have done twice) I love seeing her little thigh and her foot and her ribs and her spine. I'm in love with this little mini person. I still have 21 weeks to go, but I can't wait to meet her. What will she look like?!

We are very, very excited. While I was gone, when I would talk to Jaren on the phone he would ask, "How are my two girls doing?" and "I can't wait for you to come home, I miss my two little girls" :) He is excited, too. I think every day that goes by we both get used to the idea of a girl and we get more happy and excited about it.

This is super long so I will end now. But while in Boise I bought a few things and picked out crib bedding, and have two strollers I'm trying to decide between. Have my car seat picked out, swing. And I spent all morning looking at cradle bedding and looking up reviews on diaper bags. I'll save that post for another day :) I have to pace myself, now and Jaren has been so good about all my ideas and purchases and talk of future purchases even though I know he is cringing when I mention price. He is a good boy. :)

Speaking of - here he is. This was right before I left on Tuesday. I'm so happy to be home with him! Do you like my sparkly popcorn ceiling?! Who needs to lay out in the grass to stargaze when we can do it on our living room floor?

Here is my 18 week picture taken after our appointment. The shirt isn't maternity, it's one I bought at Maurices in January, but works quite well and will probably for another month :)

Here is the video. It's very short. Please forgive the akwardness that is my double chin at that
angle :)