And baby makes five...

In case you hadn't already heard, the McLochlin family will soon be adding another member. No, it's not another cat or dog or fish (though Maddie has been asking for a hamster.) Nope, it's a human baby this time. I'm currently due on June 1st, but will probably be having a c-section the third or fourth week in May, depending on my doctor's availability.

To say that the girls are excited would be an understatement. Here is a picture of the little note Maddie wrote to the baby today as we were waiting for our 20 week ultrasound:

Dear baby, would you let us see you

We had mentioned to them there might be a chance we could find out whether the baby was a boy or girl. It all actually depended on whether or not Bill wanted to know. That's because I already knew. Yes, I've known for the past month or so what we are having, but I've kept it to myself. See, Bill and I had originally planned to wait until the baby was born to find out. We were excited about the surprise. Well...

I went to my appointment last month and happened to bring the girls with me, as it was during a time after school. The girls were excited to see the baby and my doctor agreed to show them on the ultrasound. I hadn't even planned on finding out anything. We were all just excited to see the baby moving around and waving. (The girls were in awe.) So, I'm lying there and my doctor suddenly asks,

Did you want to know the sex? Because I know the sex if you want to know. I can REALLY tell.

Now, tell me what YOU would say at that moment! Curiosity overcame me and I agreed she could tell me, but not to let the girls know (since I knew they would probably tell Bill who didn't want to know.) Her reply was, Well, does XY mean anything to you? Yes, I know what those two little letters mean, but it really took me a couple of minutes to wrap my brain around it. I was just in such shock.

So, I kept this little secret to myself for the past month or so. I'm a HORRIBLE liar, so I tried not to say anything at all about it if possible. Bill soon realized that I knew and would try to trick me into accidentally saying something. Do you have any idea how hard it is to keep a secret from someone who is trying to get it out of you, but you're keeping the secret because he really doesn't want to know? Trust me, it's very difficult!

Well, today was our 20 week ultrasound. We discussed finding out beforehand, but I told Bill it was completely up to him. He was undecided (for reasons he can explain in a separate post) all the way up until the ultrasound began. The tech asked if he wanted to know. He said that he wasn't sure, so she said she would wait until later to even check that area. First, she would do some measurements while he thought about it. Well, the first thing she measured was the baby's stomach. And, of course, it was quite obvious that there was some extra anatomy near that little stomach and those long little legs. A few minutes later she asked again and Bill said that she could tell him. She then pointed out that we are having a little BOY!

Yes, I already knew, but in that moment I just lost it. Bill and I were both teary-eyed, and the girls were jumping up and down. They had wanted a brother all along! In fact, while we were in the waiting room, Maddie had been mentioning she hoped it was a boy. When Bill asked how she would feel if it turned out to be a little sister, she said she would be only a little disappointed!

According to the tech, everything looked good. The baby is healthy and actually measuring more than a week bigger. They didn't move my due date, but instead said they'll just keep an eye on how big he is as time progresses. It was so amazing to see the ultrasound. It was so different than the ones we had seen when Maddie and Josie were babies. It had so much detail. We saw his little lips and nose and eyelids. He spent most of the time with this hands up by his face, a finger in his mouth. Then he took his finger out of his mouth and started opening and closing his mouth, almost as if he was babbling to us. The tech said he was probably swallowing fluid. She then showed us his little heart (we could see chambers and all), his spine, his long legs (just like Maddie's ultrasound), and his bladder. She showed us his bladder again later in the ultrasound and noticed that it was smaller. Apparently, he had emptied it during that time. One of those things you never think about the baby doing while it's in the womb...

We've already had some people ask, but although we did cave in and find out the sex, we aren't telling the name until he's born. One reason is that we actually haven't decided between the 2 names we have in mind yet, and we want to see which suits him better. The other is that now we have to leave something as a surprise. So, everyone will have to wait until May to see what this little guy is going to be called.