Revelation Day Recap.

I was so excited ALL DAY Thursday, knowing we were going to see our little baby, and hopefully find out the gender. Interestingly, when I woke up Tuesday morning, our original appointment date, I just had this pit in my stomach that we wouldn't get to find out. I tried to shrug it off as just being nervous, like I always get right before an ultrasound (even though my little girl gave a solid kicking the night before!:) ). Or maybe it was just I was disappointed that my husband was having to leave to go out of town from the appointment. No fun celebratory dinner date, followed by the first of any baby shopping and/or registering. But that is all water under the bridge now - Thursday was the day we needed to find out!

Ellie was sleeping/not moving when the tech started the ultrasound, but I could see her little heart fluttering aways  - all four chambers (VERY important for this former pediatric cardiology nurse!) workinig in perfect harmony, so mommy was ok! The tech asked if we wanted to the gender, and we assured her we most definitely did. I had some handy-dandy caffeine ready and waiting to shock her little system into moving, if she ended inheriting my personality, and wouldn't move out of mere stubborness.:) The tech decided to do measurements first, while she was still, then wake her up for the recorded portion of the ultrasound, followed by the gender determination.

The femurs were some of the first anatomical features measured. I caught a quick glimpse between the legs, and was 90% sure, to my shock and amazement, that she was a girl. Side note - I have said boy for the majority of th pregnancy and Jared has insisted on Girl since day one. But I didn't say anything.

I couldn't believe how big she had gotten, and how much more of  "person" she was looking. We saw her wiggle her fingers, her toes, kick and punch, drink her amniotic fluid, turn and look at us, and then promptly turn her back to us (13-18 years of age ought to be real fun! ha ha). It was great confirmation that some of the smaller sensations I have been feeling were indeed her moving.

The Tech did a great job showing us everything, explaining what she was measuring and how it was measuring up. This was great especially for Jared, who tends to be extremely lost during ultrasounds.:) We got to listen to the best "version" of her heart rate to date. I swear, I could listen to that sound all day long... need to figure out how to make a recording of it off the dvd.

Finally, it was time to look between the legs. The tech zoomed in on the area our little exhibitionist was easily showing between her wide spread legs, and laughed  - every ultrasound she had done that day was the same gender. I was now 99% sure of the gender, but was too scared to say. Could my original dream of having a baby girl first really be coming true? (And for the record, I was totally beyond thankful/ecstatically excited/over the moon at the thought of having a baby boy too. But - I have been raised around BOYS my entire life. If I had a girl first, I was guaranteed my daughter, and the rest could be all boys!) I looked at Jared and asked him if he could tell. He looked shocked and bewildered, "Its a boy!" he said in disbelief! The tech and I looked at each other and laughed - what the heck was he looking at?? With the push of a button, GIRL, popped up on the screen. That last 1% assurance that I had indeed NOT seen a p.eni.s  was all it took for the water works to start. Actually, who am I fooling, the screen could have read BOY, and the tears would have still flowed, with me saying "Oh, hey my little man." Heck, they are flowing now just typing it, and thinking about the day we might see BOY on the screen. Happy tears, I promise!:)

Back to my husband's confusion.
Jared:"So what exactly are we looking at here?"the tech circled the tell-tale area, and again zoomed in.  "Oh, I see it now."
Me: Babe, what on earth were you looking at?"
He points to the appendage on the screen that he had thought was the genitalia. It was her femur! The tech and I died laughing!
Me: Thank goodness she is a girl... if we had been pregnant with a boy, you would have needed counseling to handle all your fears of horrible "inadequacies" your son was going to have/experience.:)

Afterwards, we went to a little Italian dive that we like, the same place we celebrated this years anniversary, the night before we found out we were pregnant. And of course, started making the phone calls to immediate families, and sending out texts to our friends and family, followed by the inevitable facebook announcement. Her name made it to facebook at amazing speeds! Luckily, once the name was attached to an actual baby, we got a lot less criticism on my rather unique name tastes. We wrapped up the night at bible study with the college kids.

A little back ground on her name. Elliott, is my maiden name. I have loved the idea of it being a girls name since I was  teenager. There are a few female Elliotts out there, but they are few and far between, which I love! Faith is another name I have loved forever, and the combination sounded like perfection to me. My conservative straight laced hubby was not a fan of the name initially, but it evidently grew on him. When he got back in town after the week we found out we were expecting, he gave me a hug and said," I think its a girl, and her name will be Elliott Faith, because I do like the name Elle, and even Ellie, and this has been, and will be, and journey of Faith for us." I love we have  story to share with her behind her name! After we knew she was a girl, Jared looked and me and asked," is that our Elliott Faith?" I told him it was up to him. "Its Elliott Faith."

Can you believe I still haven't bought anything for her??? I did do some window shopping last night, but nothing purchased yet. Have no worries, that will change soon! Her daddy has definitely taken another step into "Daddy-dom." Right after he was sure she was a girl, the first words out of his mouth were," Oh no, soon she will be dating, then its time for her to get married, and I have to give her away." Ha ha, Sweet hubby, we have many more years before we have to worry about that!

Speaking of marriage, my dear friend Michelle, has a little boy Noah, who will be six months old next week. Evidently, we are setting up a pre-arranged marriage for these two. Noah went and bought Ellie some gifts yesterday, and here is the smile he gave his mommy when he learned what they were doing.:)

How stinking CUTE is  my future son-in-law!?:)