Oh boy, was I wrong!

We decided it would be a fun Christmas surprise to find out the gender of our baby with our parents while we were on the island of Oahu. I booked the appointment and dodged questions from my mom about whether or not we would be finding out this time.

When the time for our appointment came around, our first full day on Oahu, we spent the morning at the Swap Meet. It was hot and rained a little on us, and Axton fell asleep in the car too early. We all took turns sitting out in the car with him so he could nap and the rest of us shopped. I told everyone we had to be somewhere at 1pm. On the way from the swap meet to the appointment, I remembered that the receptionist with whom I had made the appointment had told me to eat something before coming in so that the baby would be active. I remembered when I was pregnant with Axton, how jumpy and move-y he would get whenever I ate anything sweet, so I grabbed a Rice Krispy treat and shoved it down just before walking into the Ultrasound place.

Our parents were excited when they figured out what we were doing, and as we were shown into our room, I took a poll.

"So what do you think we're having?"

Girl, girl, girl, girl. Michael, my step dad, was the only one to say boy.

I thought back over the last 14 weeks of knowing I was pregnant. Almost every time I thought about the baby, I imagined it as a girl. I thought about how different this pregnancy was from Axton. With Axton, my psoriasis went completely away - with this one, it's gotten way worse. I was sick for a much longer time, and in different ways. I thought about how I had worried about loving a girl, and wondered if it would feel different from loving a boy. My rational brain tells me, "It's your child! Of course you will love it the same!" but another part of me always wondered, "But won't it be weird to breastfeed a girl? I mean, girls have boobs, too. It's just...weird." For some reason, it felt like loving and caring for a boy in this intimate way came more naturally than it would for a girl. Anyway, it didn't make sense in my mind. All I knew was that I already knew how to love a boy, so I knew another one would be easy. And fun, to see how he would be alike and different from his brother.

But I honestly didn't think it would be a boy, so I didn't want to get my hopes up by thinking about it.

"I think it's a girl, too." I said out loud to our parents and Adam. But a tiny voice in the back of my head said quietly, "Don't forget...it could be a boy." But I didn't believe it for too long.

The ultrasound technician came in and told me to lie down on my back. I did so and pulled up my shirt. Axton wanted to be up by me on the bed, and the tech told me that was fine. I pulled him up and sat him down next to me and the first thing he did was blow a giant raspberry on my bare belly, making us all laugh. He liked the laughter and blew on me a few more times.

The tech pushed her wand against my belly and the hot gel, and swung it over my skin. She showed us his back and spine and head....and then she moved it and I caught a glimpse of something.

I saw that. I thought, yanking my head over to the technician.

"You might already know what it is...." she said with a smile. Then she brought two little legs into view, and sitting just between them was.....

"IT'S A BOY????" I shouted, tears immediately springing to my eyes.
"Yep!" she said, as everyone else oh'ed and aw'ed. I covered my mouth and cried, surprising myself with how much emotion I felt. "I wanted another boy so bad," I choked out, not knowing just how much I had wanted it until now.

Tears continued to fall as we all watched him jumping and doing somersaults.
"He so hyper!" the technician commented. I laughed and told her about the rice krispy bar. She commented several times throughout the ultrasound at how active he was. At one point, she said, "Oh my gosh, he was just twerking! Did you see that?" A burst of laughter escaped my lips. "No, I missed that," I said.

She switched the video to the 4d mode, which I wasn't expecting because we hadn't paid for it. It was still kind of hard to see all of his facial expressions since he is still so young and tiny, but it was neat to see him in something other than the black and white blobs you really have to learn to decipher.

When we were all finished up and they had given us our CD with images and video, we headed out to the car. Adam put his arm around me and said, "That was so fun!"

I said, "Yeah it was. Can you believe you're going to be the daddy of two little boys?"
He shook his head, his eyebrows raised and a look of bewilderment on his face.

Me either. 

ps We are having a REALLY hard time deciding on a name we like. Suggestions PLEASE!!