It's a . . .

Girl????

Oh!

A couple of weeks ago I was talking to my mom and she said, "Now, you'll be sure to let me know when you find out for sure you're having a girl, right?" I laughed and said I would, but honestly, since we knew we were having a baby we have been talking about Kevin's little brother. We just felt like it was another boy. So I woke up this morning thinking, "Today we will know for sure that we're having another boy." I was already wondering if my little sister would be disappointed that we weren't going to have a girl.

Well, we were pretty surprised. She is definitely a girl. And once the ultrasound technician told us, it felt right to me. I have felt for a long time that there was a girl's spirit who was waiting to come to our family. I just wasn't sure when, and for some reason I didn't think this baby would be her. But it is her! I am so excited to meet her! She has been preparing for so long to have a body and begin her mortal life, and I am very excited to bring her into this world and to be part of the next step in her journey.

Everything looks healthy. Her size matches the due date on the doctor's plastic slide. Which means, of course, that we have no idea when she will be here other than June.

This is a 3D picture of her face. Her face is right in the center of the image, with her arm under her chin, and she's snuggled up next to the placenta. I think it's such a sweet face!

Here's a foot.

And here are a couple of profiles. Her head is on the right in both.

This week has brought some new aches and pains. My tailbone is feeling worse, and my shoulder is also really bothering me. I was never much of a yoga person because the speakers always say such weird things, but I've started looking for prenatal yoga videos because the stretches seem to help, and the videos have stretches that I wouldn't think of doing on my own. I'm hoping that stretching and walking will help alleviate the pain a little. Other than that, I have been feeling great. I'm also starting to feel Baby Girl's little thumps, which is fun, of course.

I remember when I was pregnant with Kevin, I always knew exactly how far along I was, to the day. This time I haven't really been keeping track. It's interesting how the exact date isn't as important to me this time around, and it's also kind of a relief to not be thinking about it.

I know newborns don't need a lot of space, but I'm still not sure how we're going to make room for another baby's things. Whether Kevin is still in a crib or has already moved to a bed at that point, we're going to have to find room for another bed and some kind of dresser, and I'm really not sure how it will fit. Plus, Kevin's boxes of old clothes already take up space, and now we'll be making room for more boxes of girl clothes. Then again, maybe I'll just buy a few girl outfits for going out (so we don't get comments about the cute little baby boy) and she can wear dinosaurs and puppy dogs at home--she won't care. Maybe some decluttering and consolidating is in order.