New Baby is a...

GIRL!

I tried my hand at capturing some cute, big sister-announcing gender reveal shots. It kind of fell flat because, well, staging photoshoots with a two-year-old when you're not a professional is ridiculous. Also, I had to bribe her with hot chocolate and getting to watch Mickey's Once Upon A Christmas. Imagine if I hadn't bribed her? And, staging photos is not my thing. Let's all take a moment and recognize the following: a) there is very little in-motion blurriness b) she is looking in the direction of the camera and c) is making reasonable faces. (minor) Mom wins! Now, have a good chuckle and enjoy!

"Hmm...a present that's not real and something pink..."

"Oh, it's a pink tutu. These are my jam!" (not that anyone can tell it's a tutu because someone wouldn't hold it up correctly)

"I'm just going to keep my eyes closed, hugging the tutu, and ignoring those weird pictures of 'the baby.'"*

"Mommy said act surprised. Here's what I got for her."

"Psh. She didn't like that attempt. I'll try again."

"Gee whiz! Mommy is so high-maintenance about this surprised face. HERE YOU GO!"

"But really, tutus are mine."

"And now I'm done posing. Oooh...look at this Christmas tree."

"Yes. This is way more interesting."

So there's that. At least I made an attempt, right? 

We're definitely having another little girl (those ultrasounds are quite accurate- I asked lots of clarifying questions, and the ultrasound tech gave very satisfactory- and anatomically specific- answers). We're excited! I come from a family of two girls and really love it. I think being a girl and having a sister is awesome (looking at you, Amiee!). I think some folks might be feeling like Brad got the short end of the stick, but he's actually pretty jazzed. He really likes Claire and me and figures he'll like New Baby just as much (well, as much as he likes Claire...not as much as he likes me, obviously). 

And while I find 4D ultrasounds to be a little creepy and alien-esque, the ultrasound tech got some pretty specific facial shots like this one:

It sounds weird, but this shot looks VERY much like a shot we got of Claire at my 20-week appointment with her. Crazy. Also, how sweet is it that her hands are folded under her right cheek? That's how Claire often sleeps at night.

And this shot of her very long legs:

Ankles crossed. So ladylike. This ladylike position almost proved to cause trouble with determining girl parts or boy parts, though.

We set up times to Face Time with our parents later that day, and I was going to text the ultrasound shot as a teaser. Then, Brad reminded me that both of our dads are doctors. Neither of them work extensively with ultrasounds, but my dad (as a pediatrician) works extensively with babies and Bill (as a urologist), well, he works extensively with a very particular system of the body that is involved in the gender revealing process. They're both INCREDIBLY good at their jobs, so we decided to send the face shot instead. I got a snarky reply from my dad about that having nothing to do with gender. (Outsmarted, Daddy!) We did let them see the, ahem, telling shot over Face Time. Dad guessed correctly (exactly why we didn't send it earlier!), and Bill declined to guess. I texted the shot to Tim (brother-in-law who is graduating from medical school in the spring), and he totally got it right (nice to see that education at play).

No, we still don't have a name picked out (refer to this post for more on that). We are still talking about it (obviously) but have not landed on anything. I know that's disappointing to the masses, but alas...it's how things are. It's the season of Advent and waiting, after all. Claire wants to name the baby "Dinosaur." I have vetoed that one, funnily enough.

The baby is healthy and going strong. I'm feeling a bit better in general, which is fantastic. I'm still on quite a few medications to keep all of the sick under control, but I'm able to do more these days. Thanks to everyone who has been praying for me! It's so encouraging to feel a little more like myself.

And to close this post, here are a few candids I caught of Claire this morning after she asked if she could look at the baby (ignore the morning-time mess):

*I should mention that Claire doesn't currently have actual feelings of animosity toward the baby. She honestly doesn't really get it, so she has no feelings about it. The snarkiness in the commentary is supplied solely by me for your (and my) amusement.

Also: if the formatting of this post is wonky, I'm sorry and have NO IDEA how it got that way or how to fix it. I spent an inordinate about of time trying to fix it and then decided to stop wasting my life when there are important things to do. Like laundry. And making hot chocolate.