It's a....

It's a BOY!!! I had a Dr's appointment last week. I was only 18 or so weeks and thought they wouldn't do an ultrasound until I was at least 20 weeks, but they did! They did an anatomy check where they measure pretty much everything ie. the brain, the femur, the kidneys, the heart etc. He was squirming all over!! The technician had a very difficult time getting the heart rate and determining the sex cause he was all over the map. My heart just swelled with love for that little wiggly creature. I saw every little vertebrae and his cute little hand pushed up against the side. In the previous ultrasounds, the baby looked very blobish with only a slight human form, but this time it looked like a real live baby. The reality of it all sunk deep into my heart, and my eyes brimmed with tears.

Before the ultrasound, I hadn't really felt him move yet...or at least I didn't know if I had. It was so surprising to me to see how much he really was moving. Since the ultrasound I've had a better idea of where he is in my body, and when I'm driving or sitting very still, I THINK I've felt little tickles in my belly. It's a very interesting feeling...much like gas bubbles but more tickley. Maybe I'm making it up...maybe I'm not.

As I drove home, I thought long and hard about being a boy mom. Was I really up to it?? I guess there is no turning back now, but all I have to say is that I'm glad that learning to be a good parent is a slow process and they don't come out as teenagers who back-talk and have issues or are confronted with sex, drugs and all the evils of the world. I sometimes have small panic attacks when I think about being a parent, but all I can do is my best, and then let my children make their own decisions for good or ill. We've embarked on an interesting and long path. We'll see how it pans out.

Matt and I read through the top 500 most popular boy names of 2007 in the US, the top 100 in the UK, Australia as well as the top 100 in Italy. After all that, I still only like 2 or 3 names. Matt and I had so many cute girl names picked out. It'll be a struggle. Maybe we'll just call him "Bud" until we come up with something better.