A Sister AND a Baby

So guess who finally decided to cooperate and show us her important bits on an ultrasound?

This little girl!

(profile shot; hand finally off her face)

Yep, it's definitely a girl! It's a good thing she's my third and I already have one of each and was feeling rather mellow about the whole thing because she made the gender reveal very difficult to actually reveal. First there was the 16-week ultrasound where she refused to uncross her legs, but was very excited to show us how well she could move her arms. Then, when we arrived at the much anticipated 20-week ultrasound, neither the ultrasound suite or my physician's office had any record of my appointment, even though I know I had the date/time right and it had been exactly 4 weeks since my last one. They ended up squeezing me in 2.5 hours later, so JP and I left without any additional information on baby bean III and went to a nice lunch and ran a few errands before returning. Then, when we finally got back in the little room, the first thing the ultrasound tech was, "Oh, the baby really isn't in a good position for imagining" - OF COURSE NOT. She was upside down and backwards and kept her hands smooshed over her face and again had her legs crossed only to finally open them up wide at the very end like she just KNEW that was what we'd been waiting for and she was greatly enjoying building the suspense. For a mere 20-week fetus, she was holding a lot of power and she wasn't afraid to wield it. Clearly, Claire's already gotten to her.

 

Speaking of Claire, she is thrilled- THRILLED, to be getting "a baby AND a sister" as she always phrases it. I've tried to make clear to her that the baby and sister will be coming in one single tiny package, but she's good at selectively processing information and I'm fully prepared for some disappointment when she visits me in the hospital and finds only the newborn baby and not also the matching 3-year-old sister she's been imagining. I got her the "I'm a Big Sister" book by Joanna Cole (we read the "Brother" version to Landon before Claire was born) and she LOVES it. She sleeps with it every night and when she can't get one of us to read it, she "reads" it to herself with pretty high accuracy. She still talks about the baby constantly and tells me all the time, usually with a little sigh, that "Mommy I just love babies."

Landon is... his usual mellow self. He's in no way unhappy, or unexcited, but he doesn't talk about it like Claire. He's already been the proud papa and now that he's borne the weight and responsibility of raising a child, he seems okay with handing the torch off to Claire on this one. I do think he'll be a great helper and admirer once she arrives; he loves babies and is always asking when our neighbor's 16-month-old can come over to play. He has also asked me, now that he knows "you can just have more babies," to please have another and make it a brother next time. I agreed that would make things fair and even, but it was also highly unlikely.

I am doing well. I always forget how perfectly pleasant the middle of pregnancy is for me. I haven't felt sick since about 10 weeks, I don't feel all that tired anymore, and I'm not big and uncomfortable yet- it's the golden phase that I never seem to remember once it's all over. I've gained about 7 lbs. and I don't think I have a single other pregnancy symptom besides "suddenly pronounced belly" and "crabby at Mexican restaurants because I can't drink margaritas." I'm getting the 17 alpha-hydroxyprogesterone caproate shots (or "17p" shots) to prevent pre-term labor again. It worked well last time and I didn't have any negative side effects, so my doctor recommended I do them again. A nurse comes to the house once a week to shoot me up, and while I had forgotten how much that stuff can sting (though my nurse does an excellent job doing injecting me as sloooooowly as humanly possible which helps), I do love seeing her because she always calls me "such a tiny little thing!" in a glorious southern accent. I know I'm pregnant, and believe me, I'm happily gaining my weight right on track, but it just makes me smile inside. I'm 5'9" and a former swimmer- I don't think I've ever been a "tiny little thing," so why not when I'm 4.5 months pregnant with my third child?

 

So, a little girl... I can't wait to meet her and watch our family fall in love with a new indispensable member. Now she just needs a name (oh, a name, always the biggest struggle- why do I hate so many and love so few? why do the few I love this time around keep breaking my naming rules? why won't JP do more than suggest we watch more Game of Thrones episodes for inspiration?), a nursery, and pretty much all the baby gear we used to own before we moved. But I did book her newborn portraits and find her this adorable little headband and am thinking of ways to decorate the room she'll share with Claire in 3 years, so I think I'm pretty much ready for her to arrive.

A party of five- a Landon and two little girls, this is going to be so fun!