The suspense is over

The first two times that I was pregnant, we waited until the baby was born to find out if it was a boy or girl. The third time around Rick finally talked me into finding out what we were going to have at our 20 week appointment. As you know, it wasn't quite what I wanted to hear and I spent the next week crying at random moments thinking about having a third boy. At that time I SWORE I would not find out again. But I guess I am just getting impatient in my old age because I decided I could NOT wait until May to see if we were having a family of boys or if we would finally get a daughter.

On Tuesday Rick met me at the hospital after work to have the ultrasound. The woman doing the ultrasound for us is actually a friend of Chelsea's and had already been warned that I would probably cry one way or the other, and I did. I couldn't keep the tears from coming as I laid there and she told us we are having a girl! The rest of the ultrasound seemed surreal as she kept saying "her heart", "her spine", "she is opening and closing her mouth". I wasn't quite use to referring to a child of mine as "her" and "she". It's hard to tell if Rick was happy as I was. He is pretty good at keeping his emotions hidden. The boys were VERY excited. They have each been wanting a little sister since the day we told them I was having a baby.

Now the reality of having a girl is setting in. I don't have ONE pink thing in my entire baby ensemble! Not a pink outfit. Not a pink blanket. Not one little doll. The best I can do is one red and blue blanket with Noah's Ark on it. I haven't worried about it too much in the past because Billie Jo has always assured me that she could outfit any girl from birth to age 10. But now that we will be having babies just 2 1/2 months apart, the girl stuff may already be in use when I need it. While I have always looked forward to dressing a darling little girl and making sure her hair is done with coordinating accessories, I now realize that they days of getting all of my kids ready and out the door in 5 minutes is past.

Don't get me wrong, I couldn't be more excited. I'm just realizing that life will never be the same. But, I'm pretty sure that's just how I want it.