December 27, 2011

Spontaneous life-changing decisions

(I'm going to ignore the fact that I haven't posted anything for more than a month. I'm already thoroughly disappointed in myself that I haven't used this blog as a way to document my pregnancy. But work is crazy, the holidays are nuts -- you all get it, right? Sigh. OK, moving on.)

When we found out we were expecting, after we did the whole "OMG!" tearful hug, dance-around-the-room, "I can't believe we're going to be mama and daddy!" thing, T and I had a serious talk.

Decisions needed to be made.

Where would the baby's room go?

Breast milk or formula?

Which college football team will this baby be forced to root for?

You know. The really important stuff.

And somewhere in and around deciding that, although we're not planning to force our child to love the University of Virginia like Daddy, we are NOT raising an Ohio State fan, we decided we were not going to find out the gender.

"There are so few true surprises in life," T said convincingly, as I was kind of wavering back and forth. "You know: We're in the delivery room. You're screaming. I'm telling you to suck it up. And the doctor says -- OW."

(At this point I hit him. Obviously.)

His point, among the sarcasm: That moment, when the doctor says "It's a girl!" or "It's a boy!" is one of the only real surprises left in life. Why would we want to deprive ourselves of that?

It made sense.

So. It was settled. We informed everyone of this decision shortly after announcing Baby G's impending birth, and were met with mixed reactions. Most folks were excited about our more traditional approach; our parents were annoyed they had to wait to buy gender-appropriate toys and booties.

But really, it didn't change much from our perspective. I'm not a fan of pink, so the nursery was always going to be blue, anyway. Our son would have stuffed animals; our daughter would learn to play catch. This was not the end of the world.

During our 20-week ultrasound, everything went as planned. We confidently answered "No!" when the ultrasound tech asked if we wanted to know the gender, and we got to see Squirmy doing his happy, squirmy thing on screen all the same. All was well. When the tech informed us that our child was stubborn (SHOCKER) and didn't want to show his/her face, meaning we'd need a follow-up ultrasound in a few weeks to get those measurements, we didn't bat an eye. Easy peasy.

When that 22-week ultrasound rolled around, the plan was on track. Goop on the belly, Squirmy squirming, ready to roll.

Except this time, when the (new) tech asked us if we wanted to know the gender, something weird happened.

I looked at T, we made eye contact and said, in unison, "Yes!"

Um, what?

We hadn't discussed this change of plan. Our minds were made up. No one was wavering on the way into the doctor's office.

Apparently 9+ years of marriage means your brains are melded to the point where you make spontaneous, life-changing decisions AT THE SAME TIME.

While we were still reeling from this apparent simultanously 180-degree turn, the ultrasound tech said, casually, "Oh. OK. It's a boy."

...

Just like that.

No big deal.

A boy.

A BOY.

BOY!!

We stared at her in disbelief. (For some reason, we'd both become convinced we were going to have a girl.)

Our shock must have been evident, because she felt she needed to drive the point home by creating this picture, with an arrow conveniently pointing to the evidence at hand (click to enlarge):


(She also wrote it in block letters at the top left, with three exclamation points, in case we STILL hadn't wrapped our brains around it after leaving the office. Smartass.)

I looked at T. He looked at me. We stared at the tech. She snorted. We cried. And grinned. And laughed. And asked, "Are you sure?" about five million times.

(We would have reacted this way if it'd been a girl, too, you know. We are emotional schmoes, regardless of gender.)



**********

So today, as I arrive at 31 weeks (!!) please allow me to scream from the rooftops: WE ARE HAVING A SON!!

We are so incredibly thrilled.

I've been feeling great, aside from some low back pain (this boy -- BOY! -- loves to lay looooow in my belly, and apparently stand on my spine) and massive heartburn (duh) and occasional weepiness-interspersed-with-yelling-for-no-reason (triple duh). The child is moving around all over the place and has perfected the one-two punch maneuver, in addition to the somersault.

Life is good.

I have many other things to share, but this post is long enough. For now, let me leave you with a few more pictures of our boy.

First, a profile shot:



Are you as bad at deciphering ultrasound photos as I am? Here's a labeled version; he's facing left (click to enlarge):



And yes, that's his leg extending straight out over his head in the shot above. He is in this position for every.single.ultrasound. I tell T this means he's going to be a ballet dancer. He prefers to think "kicker for the NFL." :)

Profile shot number two, in which T swears there's a pretzel floating around with the child:



And finally...the bottoms of both of his feet. I mean... COME ON.

13 backtalk:

Wrestling Kitties said...

YOU ARE HAVING A BOY!!!! AHHHHHH!

A son. Love it.

Sooooo, does this mean Henry and your little one are destined to be best friends?! I will assume yes.

I love that all of a sudden you both changed your mind and wanted to know....that is awesome. I think no matter when you find out it is still such an amazing surprise, it is just up to the parents on when they want that surprise and it sounds like it was perfect timing for you two!!

Henry ALWAYS had his legs by his head (we said he was going to be a dancer). Infact, we never got a good face picture because his legs were always there :)

Oh I am SO happy you did what was right for you in that moment and found out the gender. YAY YAY YAY!!

P.S. I would be equally excited for you if it was girl, but I am a little bias right now as I am LOVING having a son and it is all little boy stuff for me!

Wrestling Kitties said...

P.S. Love the pictures of your son :)

Jamie said...

personally it was the three (3!!!) exclamation points that got me.

congratulations. :)

Shannon said...

CONGRATS CONGRATS CONGRATS! I couldn't wait either to find the gender.

Your little guy looks awfully cute in fetusform. :)

Iris Took said...

Congrats on your little pretzel!! So fun!

Glad to see a post from you :)

Wendy said...

Awesome! That's so neat how you both just decided you wanted to know! Yaaaay!

Sarah said...

Damn, I'm a poor guesser.

But absolutely 100% congrats...I want a boy!

Ky • twopretzels.com said...

AH! I don't know where my comment went.

I just checked back - after Craig said, "Did you read Shannon's blog? It's so nice she's having a boy" - and I realized that my comment didn't show up.

What I said was:

I COULD READ about you and your baby for DAYS. I would scroll down 3,029 times and risk carpal tunnel JUST to hear what's going through your brain right now.

Next, don't beat yourself up about not blogging. This won't be the first (or last) time that you experience an unexpected hiatus. We'll be here. Waiting.

THOSE FEET?! Oh, Shannon - those feet. THOSE precious little baby feet. I love this child already.

I cannot even believe that you're 31 weeks. SHANNON. NINE more weeks. Your baby boy is almost fully-cooked.

(I can't wait until we can start calling him by his name.)

And, best of luck getting away with having a non-buckeye. Given your geographic location, you've got the odds stacked against you. Buena suerte. (Good luck.)

Dear sweet friend and my dear sweet friend's husband: you two are going to be INCREDIBLE parents. I am so glad that this baby boy chose you two. I am so over the moon for you both.

Unknown said...

Oh Shannon. . . I can not wait until we are calling your boy Fred or Tim or David or whatever name you chose. Whatever. . . just so happy that you will be welcoming a beautiful boy (ballerina or football player) into the world in a few short weeks.

When I looked at your ticker I was SHOCKED. Oh my goodness. . .it seems like yesterday that we heard the announcement!

His nose is precious. And his lips. Sigh. . . so excited for you to experience this most wonderful arrival.

So excited!!

Malissa said...

can i please kiss his little cheeks, pinch his feet and touch his cute baby boy nose?!? omg - 64 days left on the ticker? NOT possible. i'm SO, so happy for you and T. tears of joy and happiness and love emerged throughout the post!

love you. and this baby BOY!!!!

Mickey D. said...

Yay! Congratulations! How wonderful for you both!

I love that you both decided the same thing at the same time! And, you know, no matter when you find out, it's still a surprise.

Have you discussed names? Will you be sharing? It was fun for us to keep that a secret.

Best wishes for the rest of your pregnancy!

Olivia said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Randa said...

So stinkin' cute. Congrats! Only 8 weeks to go! Holy cow!

I'm Reading:

 

Written Permission | Creative Commons Attribution- Noncommercial License | Dandy Dandilion Designed by Simply Fabulous Blogger Templates