what a week...

So the last 2 days I have been home sick with cold. All of this free time has been spent thinking about the events of this week. It has just been so surreal.

Let's start from the top.

We are officially 5 months pregnant. 20 weeks. HALFWAY THERE. We had our second ultrasound Tuesday morning to see how baby is growing and developing. So far so good. We also had the ultrasound tech write down baby's gender and seal it in an envelope. Our plan was to go out to dinner that evening and open the envelope then. I--of all persons--was surprisingly calm. The afternoon of waiting flew by for me. I found stuff to do at the house to keep my mind off of the creeping hours. Nick, however, was at work with the envelope. Given my track record he didn't trust me not to peek. He and a co worker tried to peek through the envelope. He said he wanted to open the envelope at work so bad, but the only thing that kept him from doing it was knowing how upset I would be at him! (rightfully so :) )

When he got home, we got ready to leave and were off. We spent the time talking about what we thought it would be, what our reaction would be, and how surreal the whole situation was. We were going to find out the gender of our baby. OUR BABY. Us. A baby. I mean, we knew we wanted to start a family, but we were wanting to wait a while longer....obviously God had another idea and surprised us a year early. SURPRISE! You're pregnant. I was convinced we were having a boy. I loved the idea of a little version of Nicholas running around. Nick wanted a daddy's girl from the beginning.

Fast forward to the unveiling...I opened the envelope first. I look at the card and saw "GIRL". I sat a minute until it registered. I laughed...then started crying (happy tears, by the way). I passed the card to Nick b/c he didn't want me to tell him. He took a minute, then it clicked. He laughed and grinned and said "No way". We spent the rest of the time talking about how surreal the whole thing was. We had to keep looking at the card just to make sure we weren't dreaming.

Even now, I don't think it has really sunk in. Knowing the gender has solidified the fact (in our minds) that we are having a baby girl. Due January 22. Ready or not.

What a miracle our baby girl is. These last 2 days I've seen how our mindsets have changed. This isn't just a baby. It's our baby girl. Our daughter. Nick talks to my belly more...which I love. I talk to her more...she can hear us...which is amazing.

These last 2 weeks she has been moving and shaking like it's going out of style. Even now while I'm typing she is doing some sort of acrobatics in there. It feels so weird...to have this person content in their watery world inside my belly. It's neat to watch my stomach move....our little alien. :)

In the meantime, we are so excited and so scared. We know our life is changing and will be different when our new little one joins us. By God's grace and the support of our family and friends we will be okay.

For now, I'm just thankful that God gives us 40 weeks to prepare.