It's a.....

....LONG STORY! Wow...so much excitement leading up to the big day. May 9th - the day we would find out if we were having a boy or a girl. Due to work, I changed my appointment from May 3rd to May 9th so that made it 5 weeks between doctor visits. I had a TON of anxiety, just wanting to make sure the baby is okay. I have had some pain in my side and was not sure what was going on there, so I was extremely ready for today to get here so I could talk to the doctor and SEE the baby/make sure it was still moving/ heart still beating. So here is how today went....
      Brent and I get there and start off by getting off the elevator on the wrong floor. No big deal...We make it to the right floor, we sign in and waited and waited and waited. Now, I completely understand the waiting process, so I do not stress (but I do know I have a TON of people waiting on us to call them when we get out). They call us back to get weight/blood pressure, etc. I had LOST 3 lbs...so bells start going off in my head. The nurse asked if I had felt the baby move....I said no....In my head I am trying to think logically "they have to ask this, but most people are not feeling the baby move yet". Somehow, my mind still stresses a little bit - what if I AM supposed to be feeling the baby move. (NOTE - I have WAY too much of my mother/grandmother in me and worry more than needed at times like this.) After this step during the last 2 doctor visits, we are moved to a small waiting room. Today, they tell us to go back out to the main waiting room...where we wait some more.
         Finally, they call us and 5 other couples back...we are the last ones in the line and when we turn the corner, we have no idea where to go. We have to ask someone where we needed to go, which was frustrating!! Once the nurse gets us to the room, she says - next time we will do the ultrasound, what are you here for today? (WHAT?!?!?!?!?) We both speak up - TO FIND OUT THE GENDER!!!! The nurse gets a hand held fetal heart monitor out and uses it on my stomach to hear the heart beat. She turns it on and we listen....

silence....we continue to listen....

silence....she moves it around all over my stomach....

silence....I start crying.....

silence.....

FINALLY we hear the heart beat. What really only took minutes seemed like such a long time to me. My heart went from sheer fear to overjoyed!!!! She apologized for scaring me so bad...but all I could think about was that wonderful sound that was our baby's heart beating. After seeing the doctor and asking about a million questions, she tells us to go across the hall to find out the gender. We took that as the same room we have been to the last two visits - but no, "across the hall" meant "go out of the doctor's office and across the hall" so again, we were confused on where to go. I am shaking still from the possibility of the heart not beating.       
           Once we get across the hall, the nurse asked us what we were there for, she was not told we were coming over to see her.....AAAHHHHH!!!!! WE WANT TO FIND OUT THE GENDER!!!! Needless to say, this was a VERY STRESSFUL doctor visit!!!! (Please note: we ARE happy with our dr office, we understand sometimes visits are just like this.) So...after all this - WE ARE HAVING A......

GIRL!!!!!!!

Her heart rate was 149 beats per minute. She was continuously moving her legs (I hope I can feel some this soon :). The nurse checked and she has arms (something you cannot see in the pictures so far, so of course, I needed some reassurance:). It is WONDERFUL to finally say "her" or "she" instead of "the baby".  Our hearts are just full of joy!!