Introducing Emalyn

I apologize for the horrible quality of the picture of our sonogram but it's the best I could do without a scanner. This is a long post with lots of details but I want to document it. Today we had the 18 week sonogram and found out we are having a baby GIRL!!! We will name her Emalyn, after my grandmother who was VERY special to me. My Omie's name was Benola Emalyn Bertowskowitz (not sure about the spelling of the last name). What a horrible German first and last name and such a pretty middle name! I've always loved that name and I'm so happy to name our baby girl after such a wonderful person.

It's been a long path to finding out if this baby was a boy or girl. Back at our 14 week sonogram little one decided she wasn't ready to let us know what she was yet and flipped over and showed us her little hind end the whole time. A few weeks ago I took an at home test called the Intelligender where you use your urine to predict the sex of the baby. It said we were having a boy. I was surprised because this pregnancy seemed more like mine with Maddi but at the same time I figured we don't have many girls in our families so another boy would make sense. Maddi was very upset that she was having another brother and Cade was starting to show that he was feeling a little threatened by having a baby brother because he is Momma's boy. I really didn't care if it was a boy or girl but I didn't want a boy only because Brett and I couldn't decide on a name. Last weekend we decided we both liked Drake and decided we'd name the baby boy Drake Todd. We both have brothers named Todd whom we adore so I was totally fine with having another boy.

This morning when we got to the sonogram they said I hadn't drank enough water and she was sleeping away all curled up in the fetal position. I drank at least 28 ounces of water very quickly but she still wouldn't move. They couldn't get the measurements they needed so they told me to drink some coffee and walk around for 10 minutes. I do not like coffee, but I wanted this baby to move so I drank some nasty coffee and walked up and down the hallway. Maddi and Cade were with us and they walked with me the whole time and Maddi commented how I would do anything for this baby because I drank coffee for it. We went back in to finish the ultrasound and baby was moving now. She paused it and asked us for sure if we wanted to know what it was and we said yes, for sure, and then she said "it's a girl!". Maddi shreeked with excitement and Brett and I looked at each other to make sure we heard correctly. She pointed out that it was very clear that there were no boy parts. It brought tears to my eyes because I was just so happy for Maddi. She has prayed for a long time that she would have a sister and God answered her prayers! In fact I probably prayed that we wouldn't have any more children but I'm glad God answered Maddi's prayers and not mine. I am very excited about adding another baby girl to our family and watching the kids love on her for the years to come. Cade was surprised to hear it was a girl and even had some tears in the car later but I'm not so sure how real the tears were. Deep down I think he is relieved that he will always be my "favorite" boy. Maddi said she wanted to run around the neighborhood ringing doorbells telling everyone she is having a sister. I think she's pretty excited...As far as the rest of the sonogram everything looked great and as far as we know there aren't any issues. We'll find out for sure when I go to the doctor when we get back from our 3 week vacation to Florida and Texas. We feel blessed that this is a baby girl and now we'll continue to pray that she's healthy.