Our Babies Gender!

Hey all!

I just had a pretty hectic past week! First I needed to plan my young women combined activity which I posted here. AND THEN on top of that finish planning the exciting gender revealing party. AND THEN I had a beehives lesson to prepare for Sunday as well. Not to mention while I was completing all this planning I was frustrated with insurance, made a ultrasound appointment for the Friday BEFORE the gender revealing party, made prizes for the gender revealing party, and had to finish grocery shopping last minute because our freezer was packed FULL of broken foods from Dax's job that he brings home.

PHEW!

So, first of all the combined young women activity went pretty great I think. I think the girls had fun and learned a lot about Patriarchal blessings. You can read about it in the link above, if you wish.

Secondly, because we are having issues with getting insurance, had the party coming up, and just really wanted to see our baby through the ultrasound we had to pay cash. Where we live, in monopoly town, the price to pay for the standard "20 week" ultrasound was anywhere from 500-700 dollars! YIKES! The best thing for us to do was to drive an hour to the next city and pay $138 plus the radiologist tech fees which could be anywhere from 50-75 dollars. Including the cost of gas to get to the ultrasound appointment we still only payed about half of the lower end of Monopoly towns ultrasound cost.

Obviously we chose monopoly towns prices because we love to throw our money out the window and use it like toilet paper.

So on Friday the 22nd of August the hubby and I drove an hour away to our Ultrasound appointment that I was so thankful to be able to set at 5:15 pm so that hubby could sleep all day from his overnight job. After getting lost because all towns like to do weird things with their roads, we made it to the office at about 5:05 pm. Technically we were supposed to be there at 5 so we could sign paper and check in. Oops. Luckily they had literally no one else, so it was naturally pretty hectic to get in. With a full bladder I waddled behind the ultrasound tech into the room so she could measure my cervix and placenta before I relieved myself. Naturally I asked if I could go to the bathroom but I guess it's better to measure all that important stuff and risk peeing your pants.

After she fixed all of my information that somehow was still in the system as my maiden name, asked us if we wanted to know the gender (to which we explained the silly string I'll explain in a minute), and measured my cervix and placenta I finally was able to go to the bathroom. I almost didn't mind that my bladder was so full since I got to see the little baby while she measured.

BUT I did mind. Poking a bladder that a baby is already using as a pillow is not a good idea.

After I went to the bathroom I was eager to get back to the room to stare at the beautiful child growing inside my belly. For the next half an hour she prodded around pointing out the 4 chambers of the heart, the heart beating at 140 beats per minute, bones, the brain measurements, little fingers and toes, the placenta wall where it should be, 2 kidneys, stomach and diaphragm, and my favorite: the blood going in and out of the baby from the umbilical cord. She switched it to some infrared where we saw the red hot blood flowing into the baby and the blue cold blood flowing from the baby. Everything from what I could tell looked great, healthy, and wonderful.  

How amazing that this teeny-tiny human was growing, hiccuping, sucking, and squirming around. How magnificent that my body knew just how to take care of this little seed that was growing into a beautiful baby. My mind swam with awe.

The ultrasound tech tried to get good pictures of the face but baby liked their hands there. She said she thought the baby was sucking on his fingers. Poor thing was probably hungry...I was so excited that I hadn't eaten in a few hours. After some sucking the tech pointed out that the baby had hiccups. The only thing that was a little silly was how low I had to pull my pants down. The little goober had their head way down into my pelvic bone making it hard for the tech to see. Eventually the baby moved their arms away and we got a perfect profile picture of the baby. The baby looked just like daddy. I even swear at one point I saw a little boy part.

"The baby is so cute," I whispered
"It is pretty cute, isn't it?" The ultrasound tech replied.

If there was any evidence that made me believe more in God it was this moment. Ever since I had gotten pregnant I felt as though Heaven were everywhere, that somehow- even though I knew I was always looked out for before-I got to actually hold a piece of it no matter where I went. The feeling of Heaven was stronger. The angel baby I had been taking care of for 5 1/2 months was real. It is really happening, and soon I'll hold the little piece of heaven in my arms. I can't wait to know what that feels like just like I can't wait for every new day to feel the movements of love and growth from my sweet baby.

I was sad to have the ultrasound over but excited for the next day when hubby and I would find out what gender we would be having! When the ultrasound tech went to confirm her suspicions of what we were having she had us look away from the screen and spent only a few minutes to confirm the gender. After I cleaned all the gel off my belly we explained to her again that we were going to find out with all of our friends and family at the gender revealing party the very next day. She made sure to let us know before she started the ultrasound that she's been doing this for 30 years and is usually right but it's never a "for sure" thing, it's still a guess. At the end of the ultrasound she seemed pretty confident of what we were having and excited to be apart of our gender revealing. We told her that she needed to take off the caps of the color for the gender we were having and tie up the other two into the bag so we couldn't see.

We had four cans of silly string. The only way you know what color you are spraying is the color of the cap. It doesn't say anywhere else what color is in the can. We had two pink if we were having a girl and two blue if we were having a boy. We left the room and a few minutes later she came out of the room with a tied bag and two cap-less silly string cans. She handed us both with a look of excitement. We then went to the front desk to sign a form that we wanted a copy of the report and a c-d/dvd of the exam to be mailed to us. YIPPEE!

We left the imaging center with our babies first picture and gender in secret cans with excitement and anxiousness.

The next day after shopping, preparing food, and finishing gifts it was time for the party to begin! (I'll probably do another post about all the ideas I used and had for the party when I get more pictures uploaded and games and such collected together.) We all ate some cranberry and barbecue sauce meatballs, homemade rolls (thanks mom!), a mini salad bar, and a mixed fruit salad (thanks best friend!) Later we enjoyed ice cream sundaes or root-beer/orange soda floats. (More on how I changed the recipes linked above later). After we all ate and socialized for awhile I planned some games. I did plan on doing a games called Amoeba, Bowl Game, and Signs but it was getting dark, cold, and some people needed to leave a little earlier to get home. The only activity we ended up doing together is called Team Story Game. Essentially it's where you start at one end of the group and each person must come up with a sentence for a story, playing off of the person before them, to come up with a story. I changed the rules a little bit and had the girls team come up with a story for if we were having a girl and the boys team come up with a story for if we were having a boy. Both stories would be about our baby and would become a bedtime story for our son or daughter after I put it all together. I thought it would be fun for them and for our baby. Here is what all of our friends and family members came up with:

GIRLS TEAM BED TIME STORY:

Grandma Lee- Once upon a time in a land far, far away

Aunt Ruby -there was a little girl who lived in a castle

Grandma Gilliland- and she loved her daddy very much and wanted to find a prince that was just like him.

Grandpa Gilliland- But then Walt Disney came along, grabbed the story and made a movie out of it.

Aunt Ronnie- But she was allergic to Winnie the Pooh. That kept her from finding someone because Winnie the Pooh was the population of the people.

Aunt Amanda- Far away in her castle she felt at home because she was surrounded by loved ones.

Tylene- So her father worked day and night to find an anecdote for her Winnie the Pooh allergy so that she could find true love just like she wanted.

Great Grandma Gunnell- So the beautiful little princess went out to look for flowers to give her mommy but Winnie the Pooh chased her and she said "Let me think of where I can find some honey so I can give it to him" and she went in search of the honey tree.

Great Grandma Jones- Being the first child she expected to inherit the kingdom but...

Great Aunt Tami (with the help from Grandma Gilliland)- her allergy kept her from ruling the kingdom. "Be brave little piglet," she told herself as she went to the store in search of some honey. " Oh...I'm not good at this." She breathed nervously.

Uncle Tanner- She awakens from this nightmare about Winston the Feces and being unable to rule the kingdom because of her allergy, based on their constitution. A constitution that had been completed by a committee composing of members including her father, her father's cousins, and the wicked step mother of the town. Luckily in the preamble there was a caveat made for allowances for people with red hair, which she had, that allowed her to run the kingdom. And so she took her place in the Kingdom as the queen supreme ruler. Luckily she had found a supreme healer who through this new aged tactic got rid of her allergy. His name was ancient lotus. And they all didn't live happily ever after but realistically content ever after

BOYS TEAM BEDTIME STORY:

Uncle Nicholas- Once there was a young lad in a land far away.

Uncle Jacob-He was a poor farmer who only had but a donkey.

Alex- One day, sick of his life of farming he took his donkey and rode him away into the big city.

Katherine- Once in the big city he sold all of his vegetables to get rid of his farming life.

Daddy- While selling his vegetables, there was a knight traveling and he saw courage in this young man and asked him to be his squire. 

Uncle Brent (through Daddy again!)- And then over the years he grew up into a man and his only dream was to become a knight.

Aunt Jade- The young squire who wants to become a knight see's a princess from the castle.

Mike- He then used the left over money he had from selling all his vegetables and bought the princess a castle.

Reggie- But little did he know there was a dragon upon the nearby mountain who was envious of the man's princess and castle , so he took the princess and the castle for his own.

Patricia-  So because the young squire had learned courage from the knight he had courage to go fight the dragon and save the princess.

CJ- Upon entering the dragons lair,  he encountered on the floor, of the murky dark cave a ring.

Great Grandpa Gunnell- The ring, he found out, was actually a key to the treasures of the castle. So he went in, defeated the dragon, saved the princess, found the treasures and bought the entire kingdom for his bride.

In the defense of the girls team they literally had to come up with a story from off the tops of their heads. The camera was all over the place from one person to the next, they had no coordination, half of them were not even paying attention to the others to know what to say next, and they spent most of the 10 minute video. However, it was funny to watch and they did pretty good with having to come up with it all right then. The boys team got to plan a story outline while the girls team were being filmed and planned an order in which they would all go. They all watched the person before them to know when their turn was and to compensate if the story went a little "off" It flowed smoothly and ended well. The boy team maybe took 3 of the 10 minute video to put together a story.

After the team story activity we decided to just do the gender reveal. The hubby and I each got our own can and went out into the grassy field to squirt each other with colored string while everyone watched, took pictures, and filmed.  I was flooded with emotion when blue string came flying out of my can at my husband. I was so overwhelmed with emotions of joy, knowing that my hubby and I were RIGHT from what we had seen in the ultrasound, stress from the week, and exhaustion that the floodgates were broken wide open and I burst into tears! I thought I might cry but I didn't expect to bawl my eyes out all because we now know we're having a little boy!

To end the party I passed out the gifts I had worked on for weeks to those that had guessed it was a boy and then to everyone else when I realized I had a bunch of gifts and candy left over that I didn't want to come home with me. We all cleaned up and left slowly from the park.

I floated home on a cloud.

XOXOXO

     M.E.G