Gender Reveal

Remember how I said in my lost post that    life is messy?
Well, sometimes things happen that take you by surprise. Take the next big, or rather huge, event in my life for example.

I had spent most of my life, for whatever unknown reason, being fairly certain I would either

A) not be able to have children at all
B) it would be really difficult for me to become pregnant

This was something I was so incredibly worried about on my own and then Rick came along, openly saying he always thought more about becoming a father than getting married - until we met of course. I couldn't imagine taking that away from him if this were the case. I've spent so much of my time reading about causes of infertility and different home remedies or herbal treatments that have been said to help, aiming myself with as much knowledge as possible for the time that we started trying to have kids only to be told by a doctor that I had some certain issue that prevented it. I wanted to have every tool in my belt to fight it and beat the odds.

Well, so very fortunately for me, I was wrong.

Two short weeks after picking out and buying my wedding dress - and moving our wedding up to March instead of the original date in October, I got a positive test. Of course, it happened to be a day where Rick was hours from home at a training for his Reserve unit and wouldn't be back until later that evening. With such big news there was no way I could tell him through text message but it was so incredibly hard keeping it to myself when he asked shortly after "so how is your day going" I just wanted to be like "oh you don't even know".

He FINALLY got home and I gave him a book that was all wrapped up, then stood back to tape his reaction. The book was "Dude, Your Going to be a Dad". There was quite a bit of disbelief. I was so down on myself about the possibility of infertility that I think he started to believe it to. He didn't think I knew what I was talking about when I showed him the positive test, but as a mom (well, mom to be) you just know. Ladies, if you want to announce a pregnancy to your significant other using a test I highly suggest a digital one that will clearly state "Pregnant" because they don't understand the whole one line, two line or +/- systems.

Disbelief then turned to worry. It's a big deal knowing you are going to be responsible for something so tremendously important.

But now? He is about to lose it waiting. My due date is quickly approaching and talks to my belly on an almost daily basis saying things like "hurry up" and "just get here already".

The timing of this pregnancy has been so wonderful, too. Oh, and the pregnancy itself, so far, has been incredible. I'm one of those women other pregnant women probably hate because I have been fortunate to love every minute of being pregnant.

We got to see our little tadpole for the first time on New Year's. We heard the heartbeat shortly before this so we were confident enough in the pregnancy to announce it to everybody for Christmas. For his dad we had him solve a picture puzzle. I wrapped a onesie with his mom's favorite sports team on it and we let her find out by opening it. Then for my sisters I made a t-shirt for each one of them and let them open it on Christmas night.

In between the disbelief that this pregnancy was real and would stick and getting to where I am now, very hugely pregnant and being told by everyone I am "about ready to pop" - we had the most exciting gender reveal I could have hoped for!!

I had seen all the cute reveals where there was a cake with insides one color or the other and I especially fell in love with the big box full of balloons that were pink or blue. Then I watched as they became more and more overused - and I wanted my OWN reveal. Something I had never heard of being done before. Something big and bold and in your face.

So after much careful planning. Lots of debate on what the results would be (I was certain for about a month before we found out Baby J would be a girl and Rick was certain that, because I was so certain, baby would be a boy) we finally got our answer.

I had planned my ultrasound for Valentine's Day, because that was the first date they offered me and there was no way I could turn it down. What better present on such a day?? Our gender reveal box was specifically picked to honor the holiday - a heart shaped box that originally had chocolates in it.

The words "Boy or Girl?" were written on the outside.
And inside contained four smoke cartridges. Two pink and two blue. This was the part I had someone else set up for me so we wouldn't know which were which. We had them number coded instead, and had our ultrasound tech (who I must say was absolutely and positively WONDERFUL! I loved having her so much, she did exactly what we requested without any complaints) tell us which number to light. Then, I went back to work with the results in an envelope and waited.

And waited
     And waited
          And waited

Everyone dressed in their "team color". Myself and three of my sisters picked pink then Rick and one of my sisters picked blue. Finally, everyone else stood back and we stepped up, with lighters in hand, to put the big debate to rest.

Super excited because...

PINK SMOKE!!

 Shouting, "I told you so"

Now, you can see just how exciting this moment was for especially me. I cannot imagine just sitting in a hospital room being told one way or another - although there is absolutely nothing wrong with it! I'm sure it would be a very intimate and private moment to share. But this, this was amazing. All of my immediate family was there with me, we have the reaction on tape and in pictures, I got to be loud and excited. The suspense leading up to lighting those wicks just made it so much more exciting. Totally worth the wait. I loved every bit of this and as always, I would recommend a gender reveal to anyone!