Thursday, June 23, 2011

It's A Girl! (We Think...)

Pregnancy is a very convenient and all-inclusive excuse to use for just about anything; namely for why it's been two and a half months since my last blog entry. Not only is it convenient, it's also very valid... In the past four months, between trips to the bathroom (both to pee and puke...pregnancy is not pretty, people), frequent naps, doctor visits, working hours, and what limited social obligations I've been able to keep, it's hard to find any time to sit down and write an update that's more in depth that a quick Facebook status post. But at 20 weeks and 3 days into my pregnancy, things have finally started to quiet down and slowly return to normal, which I'm sure Tyson appreciates almost as much as I do.

After what has seemed like FOREVER, we've finally reached the halfway point and are now in the home stretch of the pregnancy. Just 137 days (give or take a week or so) until we get to meet our beautiful daughter, and we could not be more excited!

"Wait, daughter?" you say, "But I thought... Last I heard you were having a boy!"

Yeah, that's a funny story.

At 11 weeks, our doctor made a preliminary guess from an ultrasound that we were having a boy. Of course, there's a lot to still be determined at 11 weeks, and we were very careful and mindful of the doctor's warnings not to take that guess to the bank. At 15 weeks, just before Mother's Day, we asked our doctor if he might be willing to give us another ultrasound and make another guess about the gender since we were hoping to be able to tell our moms as a Mother's Day present if they should expect a grandson or granddaughter. Again, our doc said his best guess was a boy, but warned us that it was still too early to be sure. We told our families just that, and we were all content. But a few days later, curiosity got the best of me, and I bought an over-the-counter gender test that a cousin had told me about to see if we could confirm the whole boy/girl question. The Intelligender test claims to be 90% accurate at as early as 10 weeks, so I felt confident taking it at 15-16 weeks. The results were a very obvious BOY reading, so we proclaimed to the world (via phone and Facebook, of course) that we were having a son, and thus began to plan accordingly.

Fast forward to our 19 week ultrasound last week. I'm half-sitting-half-laying back in the vinyl doctor's office chair with my feet up in those stirrups, and the ultrasound tech asks us if we would like to find out the gender of our baby. We respond yes, and Tyson adds that we are pretty sure we already know what the results will be, since our doctor estimated a few weeks ago that we were having a boy, and a gender test confirmed it. We make small talk with her about the name we have already picked out for our son, when all of a sudden she gets quiet. And then she says, "So... You were thinking it was a boy...? Because what we're looking at here are girl parts."

I can not begin to describe to you the speed with which our jaws hit the floor as she pointed to the three white lines clearly displayed on the screen (classic telltale sign of a girl baby on an ultrasound picture). And then we just laughed, and Tyson said, "Well I instantly hate all boys now." Already an overprotective father to his little princess! :)

So anyway, a girl it is. Tesa Jane, to be more clear. Tesa, a combination of her parents initials, Tyson E. and Stephanie A., and Jane, the name of Tyson's absolutely amazing grandmother, a woman that baby will be forever honored to be named after. And seriously, Tesa Jane? How much more refreshingly Southern can you get? At any rate, she's already quite the débutante in the sense that she does not let me forget she'll be coming out into the world soon. I think even my doctor is flabbergasted with how much she likes to kick and squirm around in there! Tyson likes to say she's already high maintenance like her mother, but I think we all know she comes by it honestly from BOTH of her parents!

I'll try not to let it go so long between now and my next post, but until then, enjoy this YouTube video of what I can only imagine is the happiest baby in the world. Hopefully Tesa's temperament will be similar to this adorable little one!

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