Boy or Girl???

Before I even thought about getting pregnant I always thought that finding out the sex of the baby is such a buzz kill. A woman grows this child for 10 months (40 weeks) and has to go through all of the ups and downs of pregnancy - then the moment when pregnancy ends it's all over (or just beginning depending on the way you look at it) the doctor say's "It's a ...." and you're like "Ha - I already know." I ALWAYS felt that if you are going to go through x hours of labour that there should be something at the end that was similar to an award (because we all know they do not hand out awards at the end of it for having the longest labour or being the quietest (thanks Katie Holmes) I'll never win this one...lol.

I believe that everyone has the right to make whatever decisions they want when it comes to there body and I will never judge them, but for me finding out the sex of the baby was never one of those things I was willing to budge on.

I remember sitting in the car with B talking about "if" we wanted to find out the sex of the baby (we had just found out we were expecting) and he said "yes", I was thinking - how am I going to explain to him that I don't want to know. However - the more I starting thinking about it the more I wanted to find out. With the wedding quickly approaching and not only wedding showers being planned but baby showers too!! I figured it would be nice to have everything planned for the baby before it gets here. If you know me you would know that I'm a planner (only when it comes to my personal life). I have a day book that I take everywhere with me and I'm not too sure what I would do if I ever lost it?? I began thinking about all of the things I would be able to plan if we knew the sex of the baby! So I threw my "buzz kill" theory out the window and B and I decided we wanted to find out the sex.

Months leading up to the ultrasound B and I had started talking about names we would call the baby. B is a BIG super hero fan!! He mentions to me that he would like to name his child if it's a boy : Peter, Bruce or Clark"e". It took me bit to figure out what he was talking about?? Peter Parker, Bruce Wayne and Clark Kent. LOL ... B is so clever... at first I thought he was kidding, but he wasn't :) Fortunately we are not giving birth to a 40 year old man so Peter and Bruce are out of the equation (sorry if that's your name), which leaves us with Clarke. At first I was not a big fan of the name but it really started to grow on me. Then I made the mistake of telling my mother about this name - now she is calling our "unborn" child "Clarke". Not only does she call the baby this but she gets creative and starts putting it on things and sending it to me. Now- My mother is the sweetest lady in the world and does everything out of the kindness of her heart (she has a very big heart) she is also EXTREMELY thoughtful but I was not ready to commit on a name. What if we have a girl?
Girls names??!!?? If I really like a girls name - Brian doesn't and if Brian really likes a girls name then that name was either been someone I did not like or she was a "promiscuous" girl in High School. Clearly I'm not bringing my child into this world and give her a strippers name. As I'm sure you can guess we have yet to settled on a girls name. This whole naming thing will be alot easier if we are having a boy!!!

Ultrasound day comes and the Technician said she "thinks" she knows what we are having- but B was not in the room and I made her wait to tell me. She goes through all the babies limbs and shows us the heart and let's us hear it and says "Do you want to know what I 'Think' it is?" and I looked at B in total excitement and she told us ..... she is not 100% sure but she "thinks" it's a girl!!!

What??? We are having a Girl! I have always said that I would be happy with whatever we had, boy or girl but I have such a great relationship with my mom that I always hoped that some day I might have a chance to experience it too!!!

NOW - We have been told that she "THINKS" it's a girl but they can not be 100% at this stage? Because they were unable to get all of the pictures the first time I had to schedule another appointment to go back and have the rest of the pictures taken. Yahoo!! we can have a second opinion on the whole sex thing!! I went in for the ultrasound and I had the BEST tech ever!! The baby was not cooperating and she literally had be standing on my shoulders to try and push the baby so that it was not stuck any more. The Baby was not very happy at first when she started pushing and moving my stomach all around but eventually the baby came free and she was able to get all of the shots. (I was very thankful because they would have made me go back another time to try and get the rest of the shots- that would have made it 4 ultrasounds in 6 weeks!!) This lady was super funny and said "I can't see a penis" so it must be a girl!! The way she said it made me laugh.

Still unofficially we are having a girl. I will not be painting the nursery PINK (since I'm not a big fan of the colour) but I caved the other day and purchased a swaddling blanket in Pink and Brown, so I'm starting to come around. I sometimes still think in the back of my head that this may be a boy?? (like a 5% chance) but I guess we'll know in just over 3 months. Time is flying!!

PS- We are not going to share the name of the baby until she is born. There are a couple of reasons but primarily because we still can not settle on a name, so I guess she'll be baby Mann-Smith- (Thorpe- that's for you P) for a little while longer!!