Best Valentine's Day Ever!

Yesterday was definitley the best Valentine's Day I've ever had! Barely sleeping the night before, I woke up with an anxious smile on my face. We got ready for the day and took Jude to Papa & Lita's house to spend the day. Thankfully, Michael has Mondays off work so he was able to come to both of my appointments.

My first appointment was a standard checkup at my Dr's office. Everything went well, blood pressure was great, no protein in my urine and I even lost 3 more pounds (exercise during pregnancy is a wonderful thing)! We got to hear the heartbeat, even though baby was going crazy and very hard to "catch". 

After appointment #1 Michael took me to my favorite lunch place (this week), ToGos. I was so nervous for the Ultrasound I could barely eat anything. I sat there looking at my phone every 10 seconds. I even started to annoy myself, so I'm sure Michael was having to be extra patient with me. Or maybe he was as anxious as me but just hides it much better, I'm not sure. I started drinking my 16oz+ of fluids that you are supposed to drink before the Ultrasound and felt immediately like I was needing to pee.

We finally arrive at the Ultrasound office and the receptionist informs us that they were down a tech, so appointments would be running behind. Not so good for the anxiety, but I tried to keep myself busy. Eventually I had to tell the receptionist, "Look, either I go pee in a toilet now, or I pee on someone here before I leave." She let me pee. Thank goodness. I felt a lot better after that.

Eventually it was our turn and I was pleasantly surprised to find out our tech didn't hate her life (as pretty much ever other one we have ever had, did) and that she had just eaten two large pieces of chocolate cake and was in a VERY good mood. As she started the Ultrasound, she took a few between the leg shots but didn't say anything. She kept changing the subject and within 5 minutes I figured out she was just torturing us and wouldn't be telling us until the end of the Ultrasound (which ended up being an hour long because baby was doing gymnastics) so I decided to relax and just watch baby. We saw baby put its hands up by its face and wiggle all over the place, we saw the heart beating, we saw legs kicking and it was amazing. I knew in that moment that I was indeed pregnant again and it hit me at once that we are going to have another baby! It is scary, but in the best way possible.

As the Ultrasound came to an end, the tech said, "Okay. Well since I've known since the first shot what the baby's sex is, I guess I can tell you now." She showed us in between baby's legs again and said, "See that? That is the labia." I was in shock. I looked at her and looked at Michael (who had the worlds BIGGEST smile on his face) and said, "Labia? That is what girls have, right??!" and they both laughed and said yes. I couldn't believe it. I was so happy I couldn't contain myself. We thanked the tech, wiped all the goo off my baby bump and I ran to the restroom. It felt like I skipped down the hallway. When I came into the waiting room full of pregnant women, I was very close to yelling out, "GIRL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" but tried to contain myself.

Of course, my phone was about to die, so I hurried to the car to call my best friends, Maggie, Joanna & Brittany. I was able to conference call them and tell them the news together. They were over joyed. Then a call to our friends Jaime & Nick was necessary. They are also expecting a girl (in May) and we couldn't wait to share the news with them as well. It seemed like torture waiting to tell the rest of the world, but since we were going to dinner with out families that evening to tell them in person, I kept myself busy day dreaming about pink stuff and baby bows.

We went to Target to copy some Ultrasound pictures and frame them for our parents and sister Nicole. When we walked into the baby girl section, I was worried that Michael may not be able to contain himself either. He went around holding up cute dresses and bathing suits saying, "Look at this one!! Oh my...look at this!!!" I don't think we stopped smiling the whole rest of the day.

We went to Babies R Us to find a "little sister" onesie to help us share the news with our family. We found the perfect one and hurried home.

 I was dying to tell the girls in my Moms Group, but swore them to secrecy so we could still surprise our family & the rest of the world later that evening. It is so amazing when people share joy with you and are genuinely excited for you about such big events in your life. We are so blessed with the gift of friendship and family.

So FINALLY it was 6:30pm, time for dinner with the family. Nana, Grandpa, Papa, Lita, Aunt Nicole, Uncle Danny & Ari. We ordered our food and squished together on a big table full of Valentine's Day gifts. Once everyone got their food, we passed out the wrapped framed Ultrasound photos and Valentine's Day cards I had made a few weeks ago.

Everyone was studying the items expecting that the cards and Ultrasound photos would indicate baby's gender, but they purposefully did not. We wanted to torture them just a little bit. I then pulled out the "little sister" onesie and held it up. Everyone cheered and was super excited. I finally felt like I could relax and enjoy the news fully. 

Thank you to everyone who shares in our joy with this news.

Oh yes, and she has a name:

Ruby Mae Reese