Our Second Baby is a....

GIRL! 

Don't let the blue topper fool you! The inside was PINK!

Can you believe it? I still can't!

The whole story of finding out the gender was a tad dramatic.

On Thursday night, I confirmed how many cupcakes I needed with the baker and the various details of the transaction. We were set!

First thing Friday morning, she text me that she had a family emergency and wouldn't be able to bake them for me. I completely understood but at the same time I was panicked! I was supposed to host 30+ people at my house the following morning and who could I possibly get to bake an order on such late notice?

She ended up connecting me with her aunt, who lives in Tulare and is actually my uncles (on my moms side) sister! We made plans to meet up after my appointment in Visalia (pretty much halfway for both of us) and it was done! Whew. Crisis averted.

I work a normal day and at the right time I started drinking LOTS of water. If you've been pregnant and had an ultrasound you know how incredibly uncomfortable it is! There was already a lot of stress on the appointment because Bryan had a gig just past Fresno and he'd have to leave early. I got to Hanford Imaging and they told me there would be a delay which meant Bryan was going to miss the entire appointment.

When that came to light, I was really upset. I couldn't believe that he would have to leave the appointment early let alone miss it entirely. He sat with me in the waiting room and I asked my sisters to come be with me. I was feeling fairly emotional about it all but was handling it fine. I went to grab my phone out of my purse (and I still had the large bottle of water that was almost finished) when I almost dropped the phone AND the water! I ended up doing this weird seizure-like move to catch them both but not before water from the open bottle splashed all over Bryan completely soaking his white shirt and leaving a large wet spot on his jeans.

That was the moment that I started to do the hysterical embarrassed laugh/cry thing in the completely packed waiting room. Maybe you aren't familiar with it but unfortunately, I am.

Sigh.

By the time my sisters arrive, I've pulled myself together and Bryan is ready to leave. He was already ten minutes past the time he was supposed to leave but he just knew that as soon as he walked out the door, they would call my name. Sure enough, it happened.

You'd think that the appointment/day couldn't get any worse but you'd be wrong!

I get in the room and the technician apologizes for the wait and I played it off but said I was bummed that the delay made my husband miss the appointment. My sisters say they are going to take pictures and a little video to show him and the tech says she can't allow that due to HIPPA. This I'll never understand because I am the one consenting to the photo and video being done so I can show my husband. How is that a violation if I've allowed it. Ugh! I gave my sisters a look and they nodded, totally prepared to take pictures for me. Yay for sisters!!

We start and I get to see the baby, but I'm so upset by the whole ordeal that its hard to get into the appointment. Also, she doesn't move the screen so that I can even see anything which was frustrating Then she tells me that I won't get any print-outs of the baby because THEY ARE OUT OF FILM.

Uhhhhhhh.....what? I can't tell you what cuss words were flowing through my head but I can tell you there were many and they were colorful. Unless there is a reason, this is my ONE AND ONLY ultrasound and I have nothing except unlawful photos to show for it. Nice.

Then she says I am measuring smaller than my due date and she doesn't think she'll be able to tell the gender. I track everything regarding my period and our sexy time (Hi Mom!) and I was like, but the dates don't match up. She said I was measuring a little over 16 weeks and the first day of my last period had me at over 18 weeks. According to my memory (and app) there is no way I could be that far behind because there wasn't a tell-tale dot on the calendar indicating.....ya know.

AT MOST, I could only be a week behind. I explained that Shepherd always measured small and even if I had had him at term, he would have been a small baby. Bryan and I are small in the stature sense so I think it's all relative.

Anyways, I told her I hoped that it worked out because I was supposed to host a bunch of family the next day and she said she would definitely do her best. You could tell that she was flustered too so my sisters and I started trying to lighten the mood and laughing a bit, which worked wonders. She ended up letting us take a few clearer pictures that the sneaked ones to show Bryan. And obviously, she was able to see the gender. She stated (probably to cover herself) that she could see the gender but that "it seemed early, and its never 100%" so that didn't really help my confidence, but she confirmed with a tech-in-training who was there and they felt confident enough to write it down.

We end up leaving and I pick up Shepherd and my mom and we drive to Visalia to drop off the envelope. My Mom and Larry ended up being the stars of the show because they drove early the next morning to pick up the cupcakes, brought over their coffee pot and creamers and coffee and basically saved my life. My mom even ended up staying with me Friday night to help me clean up and set up for the next morning. Big, huge, wet kiss shout out to them for all their help.

Friday came to an end (good riddance) and the next morning, surrounded by our family and friends, we found out that we are having a precious girl... probably. ;)

It all worked out in the end, as things usually do. I am still in shock that the little girl I have dreamed of, my little Lauriana, could really be coming into the world! It's unreal! I am so excited and other than extreme exhaustion, have felt really good. My hair is falling out like crazy and I'm dealing with acne for the first time ever, but all things considered, I'm doing very well and the baby is healthy!

That is all that truly matters.