baby #4

Husband and I went to the ultra sound together.  The technician was training a new technician which was kind of fun because she went a little slower and carefully explained lots of details about what she was looking for and different possibilities.  When the tech first touched the instrument to my belly, anticipating finding the head, we immediately realized baby was breech so we got a quick view of the back end first.  But the tech hurried away before we got a very clear idea of gender.  I thought maybe a boy based on the quick flash I had seen but waited to express my opinion.  We looked at baby's brain and various organs.  They looked at baby's cord, lighting up the colors to see the blood flow.  What I thought had been evidence of boy highlighted as cord, turning my suspicion to a girl as we continued.  Baby had one hand tangled through the legs, making it a little harder to see but we got clear views of hands and feet and even 3D images of face.  The tech saved gender for the very end but as she approached it, I saw clear suspicion of boy and pointed it out.  She laughed and congratulated us, confirming baby is definitely a boy!  So our baby boy appears to be healthy and doing great.

We took a quick tour of the labor and delivery, pleased with our options and getting more and more excited.

Since I was leaving that afternoon for an out-of-town race, we collected the girls, eager to share our news.  They gathered around a large wrapped box.  When asked for a final guess, much to my surprise, they said boy.  Until that morning, Husband and L had consistently guessed boy but A and E were adamant that baby would be a girl.  Even I thought girl (perhaps out of habit? but that makes me 0 for 4 on accurate predictions, Husband now being 3 for 4).  They tore into the box releasing blue balloons into the room.  They delighted at the balloons and L quickly clued in first, reading the message on the balloons and announcing to sisters "It's a boy!"  They squealed and dancing and twirled around the room with an overabundance of glee and enthusiasm.  They got to call a few family members to share the news and eventually settled in for a quick lunch as they suggested names, none of which are being considered.