A Mother's Day Surprise

When I was pregnant with Jude I decided to wait until he was born to find out if he was a boy or a girl. I had this old fashioned idea that Chris would be the one to see first, hold up the baby, and announce (with pride), "It's a [boy]!". This time around I wanted the other experience of knowing beforehand, partly because I wanted to have both experiences but mainly because I wanted to see if we needed to buy a few girly things or if we were all set with Jude's boy stuff for Baby Two.

On Tuesday, I had my anatomy scan. I'm about twenty weeks along, and this was my last planned sonogram. The telling bits are formed down there, so on Tuesday, we were able to see if I'm carrying a Little Lady or a Tiny Cowboy. However, I felt that having the sonogram tech tell me as we were looking at a screen (which, frankly, I can hardly make heads or tails out of anything), seemed a bit anti-climatic. Therefore, I devised a little surprise to be revealed on Mother's Day.

We had two different photos of Jude printed up, Chris and I recorded our guesses, and we had the sonogram technician circle Baby Two's gender and seal it up in an envelope with the sonogram photo of proof to be opened at our Mother's Day celebratory brunch:

We ended up celebrating Mother's Day yesterday, so Chris and I opened the envelope together with Jude as we enjoyed a nice brunch at Eastside Cafe. I was so surprised!

My best friend Brooke peeked in the envelope on Tuesday before she left for California, so she knew before Chris and I did. She was able to stuff the Mother's Day cards to our family with the correct photo of Jude's little announcement, that way the women in our families were able to be surprised with us on Mother's Day, too.

I am still in a state of disbelief! Initially I wanted a boy since I have so much boy stuff I'd like to reuse, but I am thrilled to welcome a daughter into our growing family. Jude is going to be a great big brother, and I'm already dreaming of a lavender nursery and tiny dance shoes. I am very happy, most of all, that Little Lady Bird (don't judge-- I'm testing out in utero nicknames) is healthy, thriving, and still on track to come into this world on Jude's second birthday on October 2nd. It's going to be a fun summer prepping for LLB's arrival.

Happy Mother's Day to all you other mothers and mothers-to-be. Enjoy your special day!