It's A Girl!

Although Aaron and I were never in a big hurry to have kids, we talked about our ‘imaginary’ kids as if they existed at times; it was always ‘well someday Jack and Annie’… or ‘when Jack and Annie do this or that’…  We always talked as if we were having a girl and a boy.

 

When I was pregnant with Annie, Aaron said he just had this feeling we are having all girls.  I would say before we found out Annie was a girl, I felt 75% sure the gender was a girl and Aaron felt even more confident it was a girl.  I secretly was hoping for a girl when we found out although before pregnancy, I would have told you I would have wanted a boy first.  What’s better than a big brother to a little sister?

Of course having a girl first, I was pretty goo-goo-ga-ga over all the girly stuff.  I was in my element.  Getting pregnant this time around, I somewhat wanted another girl again but a particular experience solidified my want for another girl.  I was in Palmer’s, a deli style restaurant downtown, about 2 months after Annie was born.  I was by myself waiting in line at one of the deli stands and there were these 2 little girls, under the age of 5 that were chasing each other around the island deli stand.  Their giggles were the best thing I think I’ve ever heard in my life, I can still hear and see them to this day.  I just stood there and watched them chase each other with the biggest grin on my face at how adorable they were; thinking OMG…Annie has to have a sister!  I immediately got in my car and called Aaron to tell him that we had to have 2 girls.  At this point forward, all I could envision was 2 little girls.

Growing up my sister and I were roughly 4 years apart; which is a little too far apart to really have common friends or really know enough about each other’s social lives.  If I was going to have sisters, I wanted them closer in age.  My sister and I fought a ton when we were young and we didn’t just fight, it got really physical and we literally beat the living daylights out of each other.  And for being 4 years younger than me, my sister was tough; I did not have the upper hand!  As we got older, sharing a bathroom was the worst thing to ever have to endure with a sister.  Even sitting in the car, if her knee touched my knee, it would send us into a fight.  I can see why we drove my mom nuts at times.  But you know what?  We are good friends today and outgrew petty fighting.  My sister has called me in desperate times and told me stuff she has not told anyone in our family and I have been there to help her.  When she comes to visit, she actually is the most helpful family member when it comes to giving me a hand with Annie.  We actually are complete opposites to this day but I see her for who she is, which is a really caring and compassionate person with a big heart.  We have a great relationship and her visits now are the best.  She lives in Colorado and I miss having her around more often.  Having a sister in life really is a treasure not everyone gets to have and I’m pretty lucky to have a good one to claim and be proud of.

My sister and I at my baby shower she threw for me when pregnant with Annie.  And look, we are touching shoulders without fighting or pulling each others hair, we survived all those years of fighting! #bestsistersever

When I got pregnant the second time, Aaron was 110% certain it was a girl.  I was about 64.7% certain.  And Aaron was perfectly content with having all girls, never disappointed at the idea.  With Annie, we had a nice dinner out and opened the envelope and found out together it was a girl and called our families.  This time around, I wanted something different but yet special to find out the gender.  I know these over the top gender reveal parties are a big thing right now, I think they are fun and cute but they seem like a lot of work.  I did not want to go to a lot of work for a party being we just moved and this pregnancy has left me feeling less than ideal on most days.  We had been recommended by a few people about this place in Des Moines called Prenatal Vision.  They have professional ultrasound technicians on staff and they provide the ultimate experience for live gender reveals.  So we set the appointment and invited our close family. 

When we walked into Prenatal Vision, they have a really cute boutique baby store up front.  After some paperwork, we were called back to the ultrasound room.  It was a very spacious room with soft cushy couches and chairs for our family and a huge viewing screen.  The ultrasound technician was great, I thought it was the most in-depth (2D and 3D) ultrasound and she explained very slowly everything we were seeing and what our baby was doing then she said are you ready for the reveal?  And flashed up the screen in big letters was GIRL!  Of course my family all cheered and it was so fun to all find out together.  Annie was running around the room with her cousin and we were all telling her she was going to have a little sister.  I was ECSTATIC!  My eyes were watering I was so happy.  Of course I would be happy with a boy but all I could see was those little girls running around together and my heart was full!  When we left, we had the full live ultrasound on a dvd we could play back at home along with more print out images of our baby girl.  It really was the perfect experience.

17 weeks pregnant, can't wait to find out! 

Annie and her cousin Eli playing in the waiting room

Heart!

IT"S A GIRL!! 

3D of our baby girl's sweet face

It was also really special for my Grandparents and even my Parents, they had never seen a live ultrasound like this before, back in their times, they just didn’t have that technology so this felt like a gift to them to ‘meet’ their new granddaughter in a way they have never experienced before. 

Annie checking out her sister

Annie helping the tech out

Right before we left, I whispered to Aaron… “Should we tell them the name?”   And we decided it was the right moment to tell our family the name of our baby girl.  To all my readers, you will know her as Baby C (first initial) until her arrival comes.

First family pic of 4

And thank goodness it was a girl because we were struggling with boy names.   So as you probably have figured out from the beginning of this post, many years ago we wanted Jack for our boy name.  Then it became so popular that we changed it to Jackson.  Well then that became popular and so we changed it again to Jaxon (basically pronounced the same but we could use Jax for short).  Aaron was in love with that name and as my friends started to have more and more Jackson’s, I started to lose interest.  My top 3 up to our gender reveal was Hudson, Micah and Jaxon.  And we had no good middle names that went with those options.  Aaron wasn’t big on my other names, apparently because of the Hawkeye football player, we couldn’t have a Micah Hyde.  And even though I loved Hudson, Aaron was still stuck on Jaxon.  But when it came to girl names, it was a no-brainer.  We had the first and middle name down before she was even conceived (and I get the credit for her name btw, luckily Aaron loved it).  So having a girl just took the stress out of the name game.  We never even questioned the name Annie Ashton, we had her name way before too so girl names just seem easier for us to agree on.

What also makes having a girl fun is all of Annie’s old clothes we can pull back out for Baby C.  I’m a little in love with Annie’s wardrobe and can’t wait to dress Baby C in them.  Being that my due date will put them at 2 years and 1 month apart, the seasons should match up pretty well.  We are going to get started on Baby C’s room soon, I think we will keep it pretty close to how Annie’s room is designed, which is white furniture, light grays and pinks. 

And although they will have to share a bathroom, they will have separate sinks – sister fights are inevitably in our future… but the treasure of sisterly love will withstand the test of time.