It's a...

There are three moments during pregnancy that are true highlights for me: getting that positive result on the pregnancy test, hearing the baby's heartbeat for the first time, and the ultrasound when you get to see the little munchkin for the first time.  I have been waiting very anxiously for this ultrasound.  In Philadelphia they let us have the ultrasound around 16 weeks, so having to wait until 20 weeks has been absolutely torture!  I have been incredibly nervous for this ultrasound.  Not that I really care if this one is a boy or a girl, but it drastically changes our family planning.  For example, if it is a girl that makes three girls in a row...the chances of Jeremy wanting to try for a boy and getting girl number four was a little daunting.  Four teenage daughters all at the same time?  Uh....  But I don't just want three children.  I wasn't ready for this to be my last pregnancy.  However, if it was a boy then it would leave a lot of doors open.  The entire pregnancy Jeremy has been pretty positive that it's a boy.  He's been right the other two times so I had my fingers crossed.  I just didn't want to guess.  I was afraid if I started assuming it was one or the other then I would be disappointed when the time came.  But I have wanted to start dreaming about names and decorating the nursery and picturing our future family picture.  Waiting isn't my favorite thing. 

Jeremy came with me to the ultrasound and the first thing our technician asked was if we wanted to know the gender.  Yes!  Definitely yes!  She then told us she would be doing all of the measurements she needed to do first and then look for the gender towards the end.  I really like making sure that all of the baby's pieces and parts are there and working, it is very reasurring.  But I wanted to get to the end of that appointment.  As it turned out I didn't have to wait long after all.  Just a few minutes into the ultrasound she stumbled upon a very telling piece of anatomy.  Surprise!  It is a boy!  In fact, this little boy wasn't shy at all about his hardware and wanted to make sure we knew he was male, and it creeped into many of the ultrasound pictures.  I was so happy and relieved!  I was all smiles the rest of the appointment. 

Our technician was such a joy to work with.  You can tell that she really loves her job.  She became very excited when she would see a perfect shot of the baby's brain, his ventricle output, or a great aortic arch.  She had a few rough ultrasounds lately and was really happy that we were photographing well.  It was a long appointment since she was having so much fun, but we left with about 30 pictures of our new little guy. 

A lot of friends and family knew that our ultrasound was yesterday and they couldn't wait to hear the news.  We decided to announce it on Skype to our parents at the same time we told our girls.  Since Jeremy had to work late the girls were kept waiting, and waiting, and waiting for the announcement.  Finally it was the time they had been waiting for.  We pulled up as many family members as we could, then got ready for the big reveal.  Jeremy rigged up a balloon droopping system that would release pink or blue balloons when the girls pulled their strings.  But in the chaos of all the excitement Cambrie pulled her string a little sooner than McKenzie and it was hard to capture the moment with precise photographic precision.  But I hope that everyone who was watching was able to tell that they were blue balloons falling from the sky. 

Now we get to find the perfect blue paint for the nursery and the perfect name...both jobs that are going to require some serious thought.  We are so excited and Jeremy is more than slightly relieved to have another boy in the house!