Go Blue

... and I'm not talking about the Dodgers. It's a boy! We found out at the big ultrasound last Friday where the technician took a bazillion measurements and said he looked great and weighed approximately 7 to 8 ounces at this point. It was a completely emotional and surreal experience. With every day that passes, I think about our new reality. A boy!

It was a whirlwind weekend that began after Paul's class ended at 4:45 p.m. He wanted to miss the class altogether so we could leave earlier, but that wasn't an option. We hit the road immediately after he was done which was just in time for rush hour on Interstate 5. Good thing it was a Thursday because we weren't stuck in traffic for too long (LA traffic doesn't always suck... remember that!). Going up the 5 through CA is a stinky and boring trip. Stinky because of the beef ranches (hello, slaughterhouse) and boring (lots of farms and a few prisons - not much else). It took us 8 hours to get to Chico and checked into the hotel at 1 a.m. knowing the ultrasound appointment was for 8:45 a.m. - which meant getting up at 7:15 so we could both shower and get ready. Ugh! I know we'll get little to no sleep with the baby, but honestly, I'm good without "practice." Whoever thinks you need to practice sleep deprivation must be sleep deprived.

ANYWAY... we got to the scanning place, they took us back to the room, and they had a monitor for us to watch that was separate from the tech's screen. It was AMAZING! T and Paul pretty much knew what they were looking at. I could figure out the obvious parts (bent leg, thumbs up). The scale was just off though... first we'd be looking at the length of the spine from head to butt, then it'd be zoomed in on something. She measured lots of things and gave us the highlights... including gender (she'd asked us at the beginning if we wanted to know). She freezes a screen and asks "so what is it?" Paul and T say at the same time "it's a boy!" I'm still sitting there like "are we still looking at the leg or thumb or something?" I had a private ultrasound tutoring session afterwards with the still pictures the tech printed for us. Yes, now I can see... it's a boy!

The rest of the weekend went just as fast as it started. After the ultrasound on Friday, we went to T's house and played a couple games, met their oldest daughter (she'd been at her mom's the last time we were there), went out to dinner, then went back to the hotel so the kids could swim. Paul had to stay in the room and do homework... bummer. The next morning, we got up early to see a soccer game, check out some RV parks that I'll be staying at with Mom and Bill in February while we wait for the baby, and have a brunchy/lunch. We ended up leaving NorCal early afternoon and checking out another couple RV parks on the way south and then settled in for the 8 hour ride home. Oh wait... something memorable for Paul that I have to document here: we saw a Ghiradelli Chocolate OUTLET store and ice cream shop on the way up, so we had to stop there on the way back home. It's in the southern end of Modesto right on the 5. 'Twas chocolate heaven! We made it home by 11, got up the next morning to get the dogs from my Mom and Bill, came home so Paul could pack for a business trip, then took him to the airport. There was no 'down time' this past weekend... but who cares. We're having a healthy baby in February. And it's a boy.

The shot that proves it's a boy!

This pic is too cool - the spine! (head in lower right)

The leg, all bent and comfy!



Footprint :)