Vanilla

Ice....Ice....Baby

It's finally time to make the big announcement. Swan baby #5 is cookin'! We sent this picture to all our family and friends today after our 20 week ultra sound this afternoon. Baby is healthy and looking great.

Why did we wait so long to announce? Lots of reasons, but the biggest one is the simple fact that pregnancy goes by faster when no one knows you're pregnant. Also, I get sick of people trying to coddle me and tell me what I should or shouldn't be doing while pregnant, or aren't I so tired or so sick, or I can't believe you do that when you're pregnant, etc. And, because, well, let's face it...sometimes people's comments can get pretty rude when they discover you're on your fifth, and I just don't want to hear it. This baby was absolutely planned, not a surprise. And we are very happy to be expecting. (Five has always been my favorite number.)

So, right after I took a positive pregnancy test, Aaron and I decided that we'd wait as long as possible to announce, just for fun. The weeks passed and I wasn't showing at all, I have a really long torso, so it takes awhile before I start to show anyways, and this time I wasn't showing as early as I did with Ollie, and we began to wonder if we could go all the way to 20 weeks without saying anything and announce the pregnancy and the gender at the same time.

And that's what we did. And although I started showing some at about 18 weeks, I'm still not wearing maternity clothes. And I was able to pull off the secret by being very selective about which shirts I wore where. And here we are at 20 weeks. We didn't even tell the kids until we were in the van on the way to the ultra sound. I knew that the cat would be out of the bag once the kids knew, so we just found lots of ways to talk about it around them without actually mentioning that I was going to have a baby. :) I was kind of fun actually.

After we told the kids in the car on the way to the appointment to find out gender, we asked our kids what they thought it was going to be. Linc and Ivan said boy, Del said girl. Then there was a little pause, and I said, "Aaron what's your guess?" And Aaron said, "It's a girl." And Adelia's eyes lit up and she got all excited and said, "I was right!" We had a good laugh, and then explained to Del that we didn't actually know yet, but that Daddy was just guessing.

We need to back up for a minute. I had my first ultra sound, around 12 weeks, to determine the baby's due date. As my doctor was performing the ultra sound, he told me that a new study came out a couple of months ago about the positioning of genital tubulars. At 12 weeks, genital tubulars look the same for boys and girls as far as the development of them is concerned, but according to this new study, the genital tubulars of boys point upward, and the genital tubulars of girls point downward. Apparently my doc is currently testing out this theory, or involved in the research of it in some way. Anyways, he told me that based on my baby's genital tubular position, that there was about an 80% chance that it is a girl. He was also very clear that this was just a hypothesis based on a new study, and that when I came back for my 20 week we could just as easily discover that our baby was a boy. Even though it was nothing certain, I liked that the doc gave us his best guess. It made the next 8 weeks much less suspenseful somehow. Also, at that first ultra sound, the doctor determined that my due date was December 8th.

Fast forward to today. My doctor did a very thorough medical exam on the baby. Baby is as healthy as can be, and measuring right on track for a December 8th due date. In Krystal terms, a December 8th due date means the baby will most likely come right around Thanksgiving, which is on November 27th this year. If baby comes as early as Oliver did (two weeks) it will be born on November 25th. If baby comes as early as Lincoln did (10 days) it will be born on November 28th. If it comes as early as Ivan did (6 days) it will be born December 2nd. And if it comes as early as Adelia did (4 days) it will be born December 4th. So there's that thought to chew on.

Doctor Anderson saved the gender reveal for the very last. He couldn't find anything between the legs, so low and behold, his first prediction was right! We're having a baby girl! Adelia was very excited. And so were Aaron and I. We've kind of always leaned more towards a girl. Not that we knew for sure or anything, but I would have been more surprised to find out it was a boy, than I was to know it's a girl.

Yay, for us, we're having a girl! Let the name brainstorming begin! Okay, let's be honest, the name brainstorming begins the instant the pink plus sign shows up. But now we can narrow it down, and really start to focus. Nothing even close to official has been decided by Aaron and I yet. But here is my list. Aaron disapproves of the vast majority of these, so don't have a hernia just yet. Also, I am aware that some of these we won't use because of our last name. But these are the names I like based solely on first-name merit alone.

Ruby
Mavis
Sadie
Rosalie (nn Ross, as in my dad's middle name, NOT rose.)
Eleanor
Rue
Haven
Reeve
Wren
Cornelia (nn Nellie or Corrie)
Pearl
Maeve
Finley
Agnes (nn Aggie)
Scout
Lark
Maven
Primrose (nn Prim)
Prudence (nn Prue)
Cali
Reverie
Sarah
Nellie
Ella
Charlotte (as a middle)
Linden (as a middle)


...And more being added every day.