This morning, before Amanda and I went to see the baby doctor, I told her that while I’ve been really excited to find out what our baby’s sex will be, and I’d be excited to find out what it is, I didn’t think I’d have a huge reaction. I mean, I’ve said all along that I’d be happy with a boy or a girl. But when we were told that we actually were having a girl there were so many things that rushed through my head and I have to admit that there was a tear or two that escaped.
The biggest question we’ve been getting as we’ve called our friends and family is, “What are you going to name her?” (It’s so cool ro be able to say “her” now instead of “it”.) We’ve got four or five names we’re trying to decide on. I do want to go ahead and pick one though, because I want to have that connection with her from the get-go.
After we left the doctor we decided to head to Target to pick up a dress. Other people have gotten some things for the baby, but this was the first item we bought for her.
Anyway, we’re really excited and can’t wait to have our little girl!
Outside of the day’s excitement about us having a girl, we did a bit. Amanda’s grandparents went by the Frazelles’ to drop something off there, along with the newly framed autographed Duke poster I got for myself. Earl did a great job on that. It’s just a wooden frame painted Duke blue, but it looks really nice.
My rule for my autographed Duke basketball posters is to use the same from over and over, just putting each subsequent year’s poster in front of the last one in a poster frame that I have (until they win another national championship, at which time I’ll get another frame and start over). This year’s poster is about four feet long though, so I had to get something a little more custom.
We hung out there for a while until someone mentioned hot dogs. That got me to wanting a Trolley Stop hot dog. Barry wanted one too so we drove to Trolley Stop, but they were closed so we went to Tower 7. He got a tuna taco, which honestly sounds disgusting to me, and I got a quesadilla. Amanda asked me to pick her up a chicken taco so I did. Barry paid for it all, saying it was in honor of our daughter.
After Amanda and I left the Frazelles’ we went back to our place for a little bit before heading downtown to eat at Reel Cafe. We’d made plans with Justin and Lisa Hauenstein a few days ago to do it, and Nick and Amy Warkentien tagged along as well. They drove separate though because they had some friends arriving for a visit from Charlotte later on.
We ate, talked, had a nice time. After we finished Nick and Amy took off and the rest of us walked up and down the Riverwalk for a little bit, just chatting and hanging out. I really like Justin and Lisa, but we haven’t made a lot of time to hang out with them since we met them.
Amanda had two dreams about today’s ultrasound over the past couple days. The first one was that we showed up late so they wouldn’t let us have it. In the second they said that since we had the emergency ultrasound a few weeks ago to make sure that the baby was okay they wouldn’t let us have one today.
So today, Amanda and I got up this morning and went to the baby doctor to find out if we were having a boy or a girl. We didn’t sit in the waiting room too long when we were called back to one of the examining rooms. We both thought this was a little curious because normally you get your ultrasound then you get your exam. It turned out that for some reason there was no note of us being scheduled to have said ultrasound, which is what would show us what we were having.
Amanda handled it pretty well, I thought. The nurse came back and told us that the ultrasounds were all booked up today. Amanda, trying not to get too upset, told the nurse that she had taken the day off of work for this and that there had been times when we’d had to wait for a long time in the waiting room because someone else had needed to get squeezed in. Amanda was firm but not rude.
The doctor came in and talked to us a little and when forward with Amanda’s exam, which was just listening to the baby’s heartbeat. While that’s always nice to hear, it’s nothing compared to seeing the baby or finding out the sex. Amanda’s fine, by the way, except that her iron is a little low, so we picked up some iron supplements for her later.
After the exam the doctor put us back in the waiting room and told us he’d see what he could work out. Amy Warkentien showed up a few minutes later and Amanda told her what was going on. The lady next to Amanda said the same thing had happened to her before. Apparently the place just isn’t the best at keeping up with who’s scheduled for what.
Amy got called away for her exam, and a few minutes later we were too. We thanked everybody profusely.
I don’t really know what to say about the ultrasound. It’s one thing knowing that you’re having a baby, but knowing what sex the baby is going to be just throws on a whole new layer of reality. The ultrasound technician showed us how we could tell that she’s a girl (Amanda later joked to people that it was great that she’d had her legs spread to show us, but she’d better not spread them any more until she’s married) then showed her to us at a few different angles. She was moving around a bit. We saw her stretch and yawn, which was amazing, and we saw her tongue. We were also shown that her bladder was full, which wasn’t a surprise to Amanda.
My eyes were glassy and there was a tear or two that got out. We headed on out of there and decided to stop by Target to pick up a dress for our baby girl. On the way we called a bunch of people, Amanda’s mom being the first one. Amanda asked if she wanted to know if she was having a grandson or a granddaughter and Karen said she had to think about it. She hemmed and hawed for a minute then asked what the name was going to be. I said, “We don’t know yet, we’ve got a bunch of girl names.” Then I clamped my hand over my mouth, not having meant to say that, but she was excited. We then called Amanda’s dad, Phil, then my parents, Amanda’s grandparents, tried calling my grandparents, our siblings, the Frazelles (we called Hannah first, who was screaming like we knew she would), the Warkentiens, the Lambeths, Jason (who had a dream last night that we were having a girl), Aunt Robbie and I think a couple others throughout the day.
We also put the news on Facebook and I sent out a newsletter, and we’ve gotten a number of responses from those.
After we got home we took some pictures of ourselves with the dress we bought at Target, then took some pictures of the dress, the pants to go along with it and some little shoes we bought.
I’ve had so many thoughts go through my head. How sweet it will be to have a little girl and how wrapped around her finger I’m sure I’ll be. How I can teach her how to surf, and watch her play on the beach. How worried I’ll be when she starts getting into boys and going on dates. How I’ll be able to walk her down the aisle. There’s just so much.
Amanda was hoping for a girl. Part of it has to do with the fact that she’s the only girl in the house (Bruce, Harvey, Cobb, even our fish Gotham and I are all male), but I think it also stems from the fact that originally we both wanted a girl. Andra had the first grandson on my side of the family, so I was hoping to have the first girl until Andra’s second child turned out to be one. After that I honestly didn’t care anymore.
The majority of people seemed to be leaning towards a girl, actually. Michael, Hannah and Aunt Robbie all said they would like to see us have a boy, but Amanda, her mom, her grandma (three out of her four granchildren are already girls, not to mention the two of her own), Jason and I think a couple other people wanted a girl.
It really doesn’t matter though. All in all, she’s healthy so far and that’s all I’m concerned about.
