we are having a boy!

my gut feeling from the beginning was that we were having a boy, but as time passed i started second-guessing it. almost everyone else guessed boy, which i find impressive. 

on one of my "second-guessing" days i googled old wives tales about how to tell what you're having, and several of the myths supported boy. (such as craving salt, not sweets.) my crazy dreams had included guest appearances from michael jordan, clint eastwood and kobe bryant. all people who definitely do not normally enter my waking stream of consciousness ... hmm.

i had my yoga instructor snap this after class last week because i love the way the walls are painted in the yoga room (so peaceful), and because i have to solicit random people to take weekly shots for the sweet belly book my friend gave me. or succumb to selfies. or forget. mostly i forget.

{18 weeks}

i used to say i wanted to "be surprised" and not find out the gender until birth, but as soon as we knew i was pregnant that changed and i wanted to know. lance (who always said he wanted to find out) says he knew i would change my mind, so he never worried about it when i claimed i'd wait and be surprised. it's like he knows me better than i know myself or something.

we counted down the days and were so excited for thursday - the day i would find out our baby's gender. 

so naturally when i left a meeting i had all morning, i had a voicemail from the doctor's office saying that i would need to call and reschedule because the ultrasound tech had an emergency and was out all day. womp womp. i sat in my car saying, "are you kidding me?! i can't believe it!" until i started laughing. i felt terrible when lance called that night excited to find out and i didn't know yet, but how could we not laugh about it?! of course this would happen.

thankfully i got in for the next day, and everything looked great at the appointment. she knew right away it was a boy. and the miracle of pregnancy and birth and LIFE hit me all over again. any misgivings i had about finding out the gender beforehand (because it might be less special than being surprised) vanished as i realized that finding out your baby's gender is incredibly special whenever you find out. 

it was one of the best days of my life. i had not anticipated how special it would be. i also hadn't anticipated how much it would make me miss lance, but telling him when he called that night was so much fun. he is thrilled. i told him right away - he had warned me awhile ago to not play any jokes about it when i told him. which i had not even considered at that point, but wanted to do as soon as he mentioned this stipulation. proving yet again how well he knows me.

"every child begins the world again." [henry david thoreau]