We caved...

With our last pregnancy with Jake, we did not know he was a boy.  Even with the lengthy hospital stay and numerous ultrasounds, we were strong in our resolve to be surprised on delivery day.  And what an awesome experience it was to hear "It's a boy!" when it was all over.

Well, this pregnancy, as early as it still is, has already beat us down and weakened our resolve for the same kind of experience. With all the complications, we've really had to shift gears and deal with the pregnancy differently than we had planned.  And because I now find myself with suddenly a lot of down time and the opportunity to bond with this child - not to mention time to do a lot of online shopping, we decided we had to know: are we buying pink or blue?

So during our next ultrasound, we found out that we are having....

A GIRL!!!

This is great for a couple reasons: First, although I LOVE my little boy and the excitement he adds to our lives, the thought of having TWO small active boys bouncing off the walls of our house (and the resulting carnage) makes me cringe.  Second, because of the chances of her being born early, the simple fact that she's a girl means she has a better chance of survival and should have less complications.  There's a term the NICU staff has for caucasian male babies: they call them "wimpy white boys". Apparently, statistically they just don't do as well as their female counterparts. More proof that female is the stronger sex, (haha, like we needed any more proof).

Now, don't get me wrong, I haven't failed to recognize the fact that my life will be over 13 years from now when I have TWO hormonal teenage girls in the house, but I choose not to think about that right now.  All I am focusing on right now is the sweet little girl in my belly who needs me to take it easy and keep her in as long as possible.