Baby G... irl!

We're having a baby girl!

How stinking cool is that? It makes this whole baby thing real. Some day, she will get her ears pierced. Some day, she will have a boyfriend. Some day, she will come to me crying because she is a hormonal teenage girl. Some day, she will get married. Our baby is a real person. A real girl. This is getting crazy. 

She kicks all the time, now. She can totally dance. Sometimes I feel bad because I don't think she has enough room, and I feel like she's banging on my insides asking me to let her out. I realize that babies like that claustrophobic comfort stuff. And if she came out now she wouldn't be happy or healthy. So, I'm going to make my first hard mom decision and I'm forcing her to stay in my belly for 20 more weeks and then she can come out. It's for her own good. Don't argue with me. 

I bet you want to hear about the doctor's appointment. Ok, I'll tell you. We didn't go to our normal doctor's office. We went to an office in the hospital that we will deliver her at. We were having our full anatomy ultrasound. It was an hour long ultrasound done by this fancy guy who knows a lot about looking at the baby on the monitor. He went through and measured all of her body parts, he checked her heart valves, looked at her brain, looked at her face and lips, and did a bunch of other stuff. She's perfect. There was not one thing wrong with her. Wanna see how cute she is now? Like, really. She looks like a baby. A super cute baby. 

She's smiling! 

Such a happy baby girl. 

CUTEST FOOT EVER!

She has biceps. For real. Look at that. She isn't even born yet. I guess we know whose muscles she'll be getting...

The dude asked if we knew the sex, or if we wanted to know. We said yes. 2 seconds later, he checked and told us she's a she! That was a weird feeling. Knowing that she is girl. It gave her an identity. Like I said earlier, it made her even more real. My brain felt like it was going to explode (how many times has that happened in the past 5 months?). I had so many thoughts. I didn't want to put up her crotch pic. I thought that was weird. I feel like it's violating her. I'd be mad if someone put up a crotch picture of me. 

I have already bought so much stuff for her. Don't tell Scott. Wanna see the snow boots I just ordered off Etsy? 

I'm sure you're saying to yourself "Why would a baby need snow boots? Especially when that baby lives in Southern California?" Well, she needs snow boots because they are freaking cute, ok? I have a feeling this pattern will continue. Sorry, Dave Ramsey. I want things with ruffles on the butt. We're painting her crib yellow. I think she'll like yellow. 

Ok, back to the appointment. Basically, the guy went through and looked at everything and then called the doctor in to take a look and they both said she was the most perfect and cute baby they have ever seen. Then we left and skipped down the hallways. We giggled a lot and hugged a lot and brainstormed names while we planned out her future.  I want her to do whatever she wants to do. As long as it's not drugs or the Marine Corps. She is not allowed to be a Marine. 

We ran a couple of errands on the way home and then Skyped with our parents to tell them the news. We decided my dad got to know first because Scott's family got to know that I was pregnant first. We captured his expression with a screen shot: 

He said he knew it would be a girl. He has 4 sisters, Scott has 2 sisters, and I am a girl. Good reasoning. He also told us that we would be so emotional and in love when she came. I totally believe that. I'm so emotional now. I cannot even imagine what I'm going to be like when I can actually hold her. 

Next up was Scott's mom. Scott called her and woke her up to make her get onto Skype. He made her cover her eyes while we got our little sign in place:

She was also so happy. She was even dressed appropriately! She is sending me pink bows to sew onto everything. 

We then called Scott's dad because he doesn't have Skype. Scott said he seemed a little disappointed but I thought he sounded happy. He just wants us to have a healthy, precious baby. I am anxious to see him interact with the baby. He's going to love her so much. 

Finally, we Skyped with Amber and called Danielle. They were both excited. Except for Danielle, she was asleep. She was as excited as you can be when getting woken up in the middle of the night. I woke up to an excited text from her the next morning, of course. Speaking of Amber and Danielle, they threw me a really cute and heartfelt baby shower a couple of weekends ago. The day before their shower my friends from Texas through me a vintagey Anthro inspired baby shower, it was right up my alley. They were both the greatest baby showers ever. I have not yet posted the pictures, but I will realllly soon! Here are two different albums, one that my sister Danielle posted of the Oklahoma shower and one my friend Danielle posted of the Texas shower. 

 The next day we sent out a text to our close friends letting them know, which was immediately followed by a mass email to our extended family and friends that included pics. I'm sorry we couldn't tell y'all in a more fun way but it's been a pretty crazy two weeks and I don't feel like I have a lot left in me. This is as good as it gets this time. 

That's the whole story. My next post will hopefully include pictures of all of her sweet gear and the beginnings of her nursery. 

Other things happening in our lives:

My mom is in the hospital. She had a seizure and fell face first onto the kitchen floor. Thank God, my dad and I were there. It was horrible and awful and scarring but we were able to help her and she wasn't alone. She broke several bones in her face. She had surgery, got 4 metal plates in her face, and is now recovering. She will be transferred to a recovery nursing home where she will stay for 20-100 days. Then she will be moved to a hospice/nursing home where she will live. I thought about writing an entire feelings post on this but I know that would only cause you guys to feel bad for my family. Don't do that, just please pray. God is the only thing that can fix her and our broken hearts. Pray that God heals her dementia. Pray that the insurance pays for her hospice care. And please pray that my dad is comforted during this entire process. 

Scott is doing great as a sergeant. He is settling into his role and learning more every day. He was made to be a Marine. 

A couple weeks ago we met the Young Life San Clemente Area Director at church. I did not think I wanted to do YL right now because of all that is going on in life. But of course, God had other plans. I met with him today and I'm pumped to be a leader! Scott can't make the full commitment to be a leader but he'll help out as much as he can. We are both so excited God has lead us to this. We love Young Life. We fit there. It's gonna be great. 

I'm sitting at a coffee shop and they have an Internet time restriction. I wish I could write more but they are going to kick me off. I'll leave you with some of my wishes for our sweet, tiny, baby girl:

I hope she's confident in her self and in her body. I hope she's cool. I hope she loves Jesus more than anything else. I hope she likes to have painted nails. I hope she likes to play outside. I hope she's creative. I hope she makes friends with everybody. I hope she is sweet. I hope she loves me and her dad and always wants to hang out with us. I hope she knows we love her a lot. I hope she tells her friends I'm her BFF. I hope she has a really fun BFF, other than me. I hope she likes to cook. I hope she's compassionate. I hope she wants to live radically for the Lord. I hope she knows Texas is her real home. I hope she doesn't want me to buy her expensive clothing, but instead likes to go thrifting and sale rack shopping. I hope she doesn't have a stupid boyfriend. I hope she some day has a super cute boyfriend. I hope her husband loves her the same way Scott loves me. I hope she has a talent, like singing or painting or something. I hope she enjoys physical activity. I hope she doesn't say cuss words, unless it's funny. I hope she grows up to be exactly who God wants her to be. 

Also, I have been stalking baby blogs (duh), and these are some of the posts that moms have written as advice for friends and family who are visiting the new baby and new parents. I think they are pretty great. You don't have to clean my bathroom but I'd love for you to bring me food. 

http://avital.blogspot.com/2011/03/how-to-be-best-post-partum-visitor-in.html#axzz1JdTIvWli

http://lipstickjunglegym.blogspot.com/2011/04/brand-new-momsa-must-read-for-you.html

http://www.wild-and-precious.com/2011/07/taking-care-of-new-moms-guest-post.html

http://itsahuntlife.blogspot.com/2011/08/guest-post-jora-from-domestic.html

Thanks, love you!

Sergeant Gilchrist.

Ok, it's decided. I'm going to start posting belly pictures. I have some plans in place for a method of how I want to do this, but I won't reveal that yet. It is definitely going to happen, though. I think blogging is a great way for me to share this time with our friends and family that are far away, as well as document the pregnancy for later! Who knows, maybe I'll even turn it into a book or something... For now, here's one:

Baby and me after church at 16 weeks. 

I have 2 showers this weekend! Yes, I said two. My friends and family love me so much. Or they love this little baby inside of me. Either way, the baby and I get to go home and see everyone we love! I am so excited. I feel so honored that my sisters-in-law and my friends are working so hard to make this weekend perfect. I have only had one shower in the past, and that was my wedding shower. It was such a great day. I remember smiling so much and being so happy and humbled that all of those people came to celebrate with me! Kind of like I felt at our wedding. But without boys. Scott cannot get away from work to come home with me, which kind of bums me out. He doesn't seem too upset by it and that's mostly what I was worried about, so I'm thinking less about leaving him behind and more about how excited I am! I'll give all the details of the showers next week-ish. When I get home next week I'll have a couple days to get the house together and grocery shop. Then Scott will come home from training and then one of my favorite friends, Katie, is coming to visit! We've got a busy next couple of weeks. I hope my tired body can make it through.

Baby at 16 week appointment.

We went to another doctor's appointment on Monday. This was the first time I've left the doctor's office and not felt overjoyed. Does this make me a bad mom? We were hoping to find out the sex of the baby, but the doctor couldn't tell yet. If our baby is a boy, this does not make him any less of a man, if you know what I mean... It's still early. I'm only 16 1/2 weeks. We are hoping to maybe find out at the end of the month. We can't decide if we want to share the news with everyone or if we want it to be a surprise. We'll let you know one way or the other when the time comes. The doctor's appointment went well, it was fast. He did the sonogram for a while, because he was trying to find a you know what or a you know what. He forgot to give us pictures and then I asked for them and he went back in and did them quickly. They aren't as clear as the previous ones. It's ok though, we got to watch our baby's heart beat on the monitor. It made the entire appointment worth it. The baby's head is down to the right. His or her body is up to the left. And that stick looking thing running along the baby's upper side is his or her arm! The doctor said the baby was waving goodbye. We didn't have as many questions this time. I think I asked him about sleeping on my back, if I'm sleeping enough, and if I'm gaining enough weight. I've gained 2 pounds since my last appointment, but I feel like I look as if I've gained 20. My belly is getting bigger and life is getting harder. It's more difficult to bend down. It's more difficult to find clothes that fit. It's more difficult to button my jeans. Honestly, I don't button them anymore unless I'm wearing low-waisted jeans that hit below my belly or if they are extra stretchy. I'm still not sold on buying expensive maternity clothes but I did see that H&M has a maternity line... that might just change my mind. A sweet friend of mine is giving me a box of her old maternity clothing that I will get this weekend at the showers. Yay! We'll see how much longer I can put off actually paying for elastic waisted pants.

In husband news:
Scott had 4 cysts on his head. The doctor cut them off last week. Wanna see?

These are the cysts after they were removed from his head. Where do you think they keep stuff like this? Do you think there is a room full of different things extracted from people's bodies?

Here's one of the spots where a cyst was removed. He has like 10ish stitches in his head. 

He's doing just fine. The only time he even mentions them is when it's time to clean them and when he accidentally hits them on something.

He's doing so fine that he decided to go off and get another meritorious promotion. You can read all about it in my last post. Today was his ceremony. It was so neat! I have not gotten to be there for either of the last two ceremonies so I got right up in their faces and took pictures. I'm sure they really appreciated it...

Scott saluting his Company Commander, Captain Peterson.

"My collar's feelin' pretty heavy."

Lastly, we did our first Pinterest project this weekend! I love it! The house is coming along, sorta. We'll put up curtains tonight and I'll take pictures after that. 

Love love.