It's a ......

Today I went in for my 16 week check-up on the baby to see how everything was going. Mike was unable to get out of work today, so I asked Emily if she would like to go with me to hear the baby's heart beat. She has been super excited about getting to go. The last time I went in, the doctor found the heart beat right away and the baby was moving all over the place. Today, when the doctor went to listen to the heart beat with the doppler, the only thing he could find was a very slow, quiet heart beat.

I was concerned immediately about the pace and I said to the doctor, that the heart beat was way too slow. He told me that the doppler was picking up my heart beat and that he hadn't been able to find the baby yet. No matter where he put the doppler, there was silence. I looked over at Emily and she looked like she was going to burst into tears. I told her everything was fine, even though I was trying not to freak out myself. The doctor told us that he wasn't worried yet, but that we would need to go to a different room with him to do an ultrasound.

I think it took everything I had, to not burst into tears when I sat down on the ultrasound table. Thankfully, right away we were able to see the baby's heart beating and everything looked fine. I couldn't resist myself and asked the doctor if he was able to tell what we were having. I told him that I didn't think that Mike would be too upset with me for finding out with out him. We are supposed to have our big ultrasound on the 20th when I'm 18 1/2 weeks. He was able to tell almost right away and got a good little shot of the baby's bottom, where there was three little lines......I looked over at Emily and she was grinning from ear to ear.

Emily and I tried to think of a way to share our little secret with the rest of the family. So we stopped at Hallmark on the way home and picked up a cute little pair of baby socks. We wrapped them up and had Jacob, Mike and Kelsey sit on the couch together after dinner, and explained all about our scary adventure that we had.

Here is Mike unwrapping the surprise that would tell them what we were having. I love the looks on their faces. My mom already knew, because she was insistent that we tell her right away when we stopped by her house to tell about what had happened.

Can you tell by Jacob's reaction to the color of the socks what the baby is?

It's a GIRL!!!

Thankfully, Mike wasn't upset with me for finding out and told me he knew all along that it was a girl. Jacob is warming up to the idea, he had really had his little heart set on a little brother. He is actually taking it a lot better than I thought he would. He even told me tonight that he thinks he wants to be in the room when the baby is born. I don't know what I think of that yet. I've always had pretty smooth deliveries, but I would feel horrible if the kids had to witness something scary. The kids watch a lot of baby shows with births, so I think they would know what to expect.....but, I'm going to have to think about his request.

We didn't get a picture today, but this is what a 16 week baby would look like if you could take a peek.

Here is my 16 1/2 week belly. Don't look to closely at me....it was after 10 p.m. when Kelsey took this picture of me....my hair has gone flat....and all my make up has melted off. So far I've only gained about 2 pounds....I wish that I could count the weight that I have put on the last few years towards this pregnancy, but unfortunately it doesn't work like that!