Ultrasound Confirmation: A GIRL!

I mentioned it in yesterdays post but during our Austin trip we did something exciting. My ultrasound was scheduled for BC Women's & Children's Hospital for the end of the November at almost 21 weeks. Technically it's after 18 weeks that you can find out the gender - so the day before 19 weeks, while we were in Austin we surprised Nancy with her birthday gift, an ultrasound! She got to join us at First Glimpse Imaging for an ultrasound. Living so far away we wanted to do something special for her as a new grandmother - and getting to show her the baby in 3D/4D seemed a pretty cool way to introduce her to our sweet baby! And better yet - Nancy would get to find out with us what the sex of the baby was. A girl! Just like we both thought it was. Oh my gosh. We would have loved a boy too, but we were so stoked it was a girl as we both kept feeling like it was a sweet little baby girl. Nancy was overjoyed to be there with us and when the gender was announced she kissed my forehead so hard her lipstick left a mark. So sweet. It was so special to find out and to get to experience that with her!

And we didn't think we would do a 3D ultrasound, I'd heard that in Vancouver they are quite pricey but found out that they are quite reasonable in America and it made for a great gift. It was so neat to see our sweet babe in 3D - she moves a lot! Basically non-stop! It was pretty cool. She even yawned. So sweet.

I still had my ultrasound scheduled for the 21st of November here, and since I would be MUCH further along at that point I was keen to have a confirmation of the diagnosis. It's nice to have double surety of the gender. Paul had the opportunity to work overtime that day, so we decided that since he'd already been there for the 3D ultrasound and gender reveal, that it would be ok for him to miss this appointment (turns out he was able to step away and join us after all since our ultrasound was at the hospital he was scheduled at) and I brought my sister and her kids instead. Connor and Austin are so engaged in this whole process - the three of them follow along every day on a phone app and they're always wanting to know what size the baby is now. It seemed like a neat thing to do with them - so that they could "meet" their cousin. They're going to spend a lot of time together growing up! Having them all there meant a lot to me also - I love those little boys and my sister a lot.

Despite the ultrasound tech being very impatient with us and generally very unfriendly, and unable to pass our information on to the doctor quickly so we could confirm for sure the gender, it was so sweet to see her little face in profile again! 

Of our closest friends two of the new parents have had gender reveal parties and while we like the concept we weren't feeling it for ourselves, but we like the fun of sharing a surprise and our friends have been so supportive during this whole pregnancy thing - heck they even put my ultrasound in their calendars! I love it. So we took the opportunity to surprise them! Over a month before I planned a games night at our house for the same day as our ultrasound, knowing that to Paul and I it was a gender reveal party but for them it was a games night. And I lied and said that my ultrasound wasn't until a few days later, so they wouldn't know something was up. Lying was hard, for me! But I love a good, well played out surprise.

We didn't want to go all out or anything - which is suprprsing as I love a good party, especially a Pinterest worthy party but this time simple seemed best. We pulled together some cupcakes with pink raspberry filling, and filled champagne flutes with raspberries & a bit of pomegranate juice, topped with sparkling wine or sparkling juice for the preggies. After a few hours of games my sister, Irene & the Alviars arrived to join us and we pulled out the goodies. 

Lemon Cake mix (with extra lemon extract) hollowed and filled with raspberry cream cheese icing)

Topped with Lemon Curd Cream Cheese Icing 

On the tea tray my mom used to serve parties for years

Gluten Free Chocolate Cupcakes, filled with raspberry cream cheese icing & topped with chocolate icing

The surprise was not immediately obvious. No one ate cupcakes for the first while. Then the first person ate his whole. Later people would comment on how tasty the inside raspberry filling was...but no one picked up on the color. So we grabbed the pink drinks in champagne flutes and gave a toast to daughters. When our friends realized what was happening, not only were they really excited for us, but the girls mostly couldn't believe that I'd managed to successfully lie to them, haha. It was pretty funny. But they were all so excited and made us show the 4D video to them, which I'd definitely not expected to do...but I felt so loved and cared for. It was lovely. 

In the past few years Paul has had a couple dreams that we would have a little girl. Then Ana's mom, Benita, who has something of a reputation for guessing gender correctly, predicted a girl for us, followed by a little girl from church who also has the same ability and she also guessed girl! She will be the first girl out of my siblings and Paul's siblings, and only the second girl out of the cousins our age. So many of our friends have little boys this year - I'm excited to bring a little girl into the mix - our family and church nursery needs some pink and ribbons! I'm extra excited that our little girl will get to grow up with all these boys - hopefully that gives her a great experience getting to know guys as a kid, before she gets insecure around them or afraid of them. I would have loved to feel more comfortable with guys - as I grew into an adult it was a constant source of frustration that men were such a foreign entity. So suffice to say we are SO VERY EXCITED about this little lady we're bringing into the world in just over 4 months. I'm nervous about the moment of arrival (l don't love pain) but am so excited to be her Momma and to meet her for the first time.