This was the week we finally found out the sex of our baby! Our 20-week anatomy scan was at 8 a.m. on Thursday, and I woke up feeling really nervous. As I washed my face, I broke into an intense Carrie Mathison-style cry.
(If you haven’t been watching Homeland this season, you need to get on that. It’s fantastic.)
Anyway, I haven’t been super emotional during my pregnancy so far, but it hit me that we were about to “meet” our baby for the first time — that is, we would not only see the baby again, but finally know if “it” was a he or a she. The whole thing would all feel more so much more real after finding out just that little bit more about our kiddo.
Then I went downstairs and sat on the couch with Aaron and cried some more as he looked on in absolute bewilderment. It was hard to explain the intense combination of happiness, nervousness, and anticipation I was experiencing.
Once we got to the hospital and checked in for our appointment, I lost it again when the receptionist told us the power was out due to high winds, the hospital was running on generators, and they may not be able to do the ultrasound.
Nooooo! I was already on the edge emotionally, and on top of that, I really had to pee since they told me to come to the appointment with a full bladder. All we could do was sit in the waiting area while they figured out whether or not they could do the ultrasound. It should be noted that we stared at a TV that played calming scenes — cows grazing in a field; snow geese flying around; a tropical jungle — as we waited. Surely if that TV worked, the ultrasound machine would work!
We were eventually called back by an ultrasound technician and she assured us we could do the scan. Apparently the receptionist didn’t know what she was talking about; the only thing they couldn’t do was use the internet, and they didn’t need Wi-Fi to peek inside my uterus. Oh, and I could also pee if I wanted to, did I want to? YES, PLEASE.
I was still weepy as the tech got all set up. She was so nice and assured us she’d talk us through everything.
Of course, the real purpose of this scan is to look at every inch of the baby and capture lots of images to ensure that everything is healthy and growing properly. We looked at the baby’s heart, abdomen, brain, face, arms, hands, legs, feet — you name it. The tech was very reassuring and pointed out all the healthy things she was seeing (which was everything, thank goodness!).
Her first attempt at peeking between the baby’s legs was unsuccessful, but she went back later, toward the end of the scan, and finally caught a good glimpse.
Our sweet little baby is definitely… A GIRL!!!
She’s doing the Little Rascals wave, with her hand below her chin. Heyyyy!
We were THRILLED to find out our baby is a girl, but we can’t say it was a complete surprise. 🙂 Right after our 13-week genetic screening ultrasound in October — when the ultrasound tech wouldn’t comment on the sex — we immediately had an appointment with the doctor who will be doing our delivery, and the nurse who took my blood pressure and stuff before the appointment offered to go ask the tech what her unofficial opinion was. Her exact words were: “Let me go see if I can get it out of her!” She came back about five minutes later with: “She thinks it’s probably a girl!”
Aaron and I still had a few minutes alone in the room waiting for the doctor, and we fully danced around the room and hugged and got all teary-eyed. Of course we would have been happy either way, but — just being honest — we both wanted a girl. I think a lot of people are surprised by this, but Aaron in particular really, really wanted a girl!
We definitely took that 13-week prediction with a grain of salt and had plenty of doubts during the weeks between the two ultrasounds — especially since so many people guessed we were having a boy! I was fully prepared to receive boy news and switch my mentality from picturing life with a little girl to picturing life with a little boy. That wasn’t the case, though, and it just feels right to know that the little girl we’ve been dreaming about is really on her way.
Speaking of that little girl — she has a name. We decided on it long ago, and we’ve chosen to share it now because we’re so happy with it and don’t plan to change it for any reason. Also, it’s becoming quite a popular name and I’ve been terrified that one of the many, many pregnant couples we know will choose it and then think we copied them (which is sort of dumb, I know, but clearly I’m not thinking 100% rationally… see the Carrie Mathison cry above).
Our daughter’s first name will be Evelyn, after professional cyclist and Olympian Evelyn Stevens, whom Aaron admires and I’ve come to admire after learning about her. This video does a beautiful job of explaining what she’s all about; I love the idea of being able to show this to our daughter whenever she asks where her name came from, so she can see that she’s named after a very brave and strong woman.
Her middle name will be June, which is pretty much just because Aaron wants to call her Junebug. 🙂 We both liked the name and it sounds nice with Evelyn.
I plan to call her Evie (pronounced with a long E sound, like Eee-vie, rather than Eh-vie) when she’s little, but who knows! My parents have a ton of weird nicknames for me (like Doodle Bug) that have nothing to do with my actual name, so there’s no telling what we’ll come up with when we meet her and get to know her personality.
And whenever she has an opinion either way, she can go by Evelyn, Evie, or whatever it is she feels comfortable with.
Although we’re already calling her by name privately and amongst family and friends — and her name is obviously no secret — I’ll probably stick with referring to her as the baby, her, she, etc. on this blog until she arrives; just my preference.
Anyway, that’s all the exciting news this week! A few more fun things happened that I’ll just lump in with next week’s update, because what could be more exciting than what I’ve already shared?? NOTHING! Our little girl is growing strong and looks perfectly healthy, and we couldn’t be more thrilled!!!
Dev on Running 