It's A Girl!

We're thrilled to share our big news with everyone:
We're expecting a baby girl March 22, 2011

I'm 20 weeks along, so half way!

We're so grateful to be pregnant, and to have come this far.  She is my 5th pregnancy and today was kind of bittersweet because we had the ultrasound, and it just happened to also be the due date of our last pregnancy.  My miscarriages have always been the hardest first when you find out you've lost the baby, the DNC or passing of the baby, and then again on the baby's due date.  But today our exciting news about this girl made the loss of the last baby easier to handle, although I can't help but think about the last pregnancy at the same time I'm cutting out fabric to make Ellaria her baby quilt.  Miscarriages are hard, but one positive thing I've found is a deeper gratitude for these occasions when we do have a healthy baby that survives the dreaded 12 week appointment.  Those past, and potentially future heart breaks make me more grateful to be a mom than I would be otherwise.

We actually knew this baby was a girl for a while.  Out of nowhere Rhett had a strike of father's intuition and came home and said he knew it was a girl all the sudden.  He was the same way knowing RJ was a boy.  So far he's been 2 for 2 accurate on just knowing. 
But this time we went into his work--the resident's clinic one Sunday afternoon to clean out his mailbox and while we were there he did an ultrasound.  Their machine was pretty old, and Rhett hasn't had that much experience doing ultrasounds yet, but as we were leaving he said he was 50% sure it was a girl--the same accuracy with no ultrasound, lame.  A few miles down the road he upped his confidence to being 70% sure it was a girl.  By the time we got home, he was up to 90% it was Ellaria after all saying: "I looked at that baby's crotch a lot, and not once did I think it could be a boy."

So I actually started making/ planning baby girl crap based on his 90% surety, and today we found he was right all along.  RJ will have a little sister.

We're naming her Ellaria.  It's Italian, but I think the Italian spelling is actually Ilaria.  A four-syllable name can be kind of long, so she's already nick-named Ellie.  We've been telling RJ about the baby and he says: "Baby Ellie's in your belly!"  We've had mixed reactions about the name.  Years ago our nieces said they don't like Ellaria, and they told me they plan to call her exclusively Ellie.  Kind of funny.  We thought as an adult she may prefer Ella as an option to shorten it too.

It's surprised me how excited I've been with the idea of having a daughter.  I always thought I'd be an all-boy mom, but I've been really thrilled about a daughter.  Having a girl is fun to think about the cute stuff to buy/ make, but at the same time it is terrifying to me.  When I heard this talk about mother's relationships with their daughters, I thought how glad I was I didn't have daughters--the pressure and responsibility.  With boy's their hero would be Rhett and I always felt good about that.  But now I will have a girl of my own and need to step it up I guess to be a better example for her.

Anyway, this pregnancy is going well.  Ellaria is healthy and I am in the happy stage where I'm not sick anymore and feel like my energy is back.  My gut has popped, although I was home visiting my family and Herschel (little brother) and a brother in law both asked if I was pregnant.  I thought the news had spread.  Actually, a few weeks ago my older  brother visited us and said he thought I'd just "let myself go since I was married".  So I think this protruding gut in the front is obvious I'm pregnant, but apparently I'm still in the "chubby or pregnant? phase".  But my belly is big enough I can't breathe when I bend over.

I feel like a Twinkie trying to bend in half.