It's a Girl!!

We had our ultrasound this morning!  I have pictures, but my scanner is not cooperating, so I’ll have to post those later.  But I wanted to share some of the stories surrounding this big event.  Ruth (16 months old) stayed with my mom, and Matt, Luke (almost 4), Emma (almost 3) and I went to the appointment.  The ultrasound tech was fantastic.  She zoomed in on shots and “rewound” and played things back in slow motion, pointing them out to the children.  They got to see our little lady opening and closing her hand and opening and closing her mouth.  Really beautiful.  The lips and the fingers looked so clear.

The ultrasound tech was having a hard time getting a good look at the “gender area” because our very proper and modest daughter had her legs closed, but each time the tech could get a view of that area, she kept saying, “I think it’s probably a girl.  I don’t see anything there.”  Once she overheard Luke whisper to Matt, “But it could still be a boy.”  She said, “Your sister seems so quiet!  Surely she couldn’t give you that much trouble!”  (Thankfully, the children were exceptionally well behaved and quiet.)

By the time we left the ultrasound, we knew the gender with much more certainty (apparently she’s not so modest after all).  I asked Luke how he felt about having three sisters and he said, “EXCITED!” (and sounded so)!

We headed to my Mom’s house to pick up Ruth.  When almost there, we said to the children, “Well, we have some news to tell Nannie, don’t we!  What are we going to tell her?”  And both of the children shouted “We’re going to have a new baby!”  Hmm.  We’ve known this much for about three months now.  “And what else??” we prompted.  “And everything is OK!” Luke said.  You know, he’s right.  That really was the best outcome of the ultrasound.

So we pulled up to Nannie’s house without having actually arrived at the end of our discussion of what it was we really wanted to tell Nannie.  When we got inside, the children gave Nannie the same peripheral information, until finally, Luke said, “Oh yea, she doesn’t have a p*n*s!”

Later on, I let Luke call my brother and sister-in-law to tell them the news.  When Uncle Ryan asked, “So, what happened at Mommy’s doctor appointment today?” Luke began a very thorough answer.  “Well, the lady told Mama to lay down on a bed.  And Mama did.  And then we sat down in these chairs.  And there was a big screen up on the wall.  And we could see the screen, but Mama couldn’t see the screen because she was lying down …” (at which point I interjected that yes, I could see the screen) “ … and Daddy was with us and we brought some books to read …”  And I think he would have gone on like this forever, but he got interested in something else and wanted me to take over the phone call, so I promptly shared the awaited news.

We took the children to Cracker Barrel for lunch and while there, we talked about names.  Emma suggested we name her “Jesus”.  Although we agreed that that is a very special name, we didn’t think it would be quite right for a little girl.  She then suggested “Jacqueline” or “Evadne” (names of twin girls in a family of our dear friends).  Luke thought “John” or “Peter” would be a good name.  (I promise, he knows it’s a girl.)  Matt suggested to Emma that perhaps we should name the baby “Daddy”.  Looking right at her Daddy, she said, “No!  That’s a man!  Daddy is a man!”

It’s funny, with the first three children, we had first and middle names for both genders picked out long before the ultrasound.  This time, here we are with nothing … or not much.  Though we didn’t intend to create any type of pattern with our children’s names, it has been pointed out to us that Luke, Emma and Ruth are all names with four letters.  Also, as Uncle Ryan (the physics teacher) pointed out, we’re due for a two-syllable four-letter name this time.  Any suggestions?