It's a girl!

Yesterday morning, I woke up at 5:30am nervous and anxious for the ultrasound. Rosebud hasn't been as active as Adam was and that concerned me. She moved a lot at 13 and 14 weeks and then by 17 weeks only moved occasionally. Scott, my friends and the doctor all tried to comfort me, but I was still nervous. And when someone pointed out that often when you're pregnant with twins, the babies won't move as much because they run out of space. Well, we know of 8 sets of twins on my mom's side of the family. The last few days before the ultrasound were pretty tense as we imagined the possibility of two babies. It hasn't helped that Adam has said from the beginning that there were "2 girls" in mommy's belly. Some people said we would have known before 19 weeks if twins were in store, but not necessarily. We hadn't had an ultrasound yet. My blood test wasn't until 11 weeks and the HCG hormone (if it's high it can mean twins) levels off and declines between weeks 8-10. And we didn't have the AFP test or any birth defect testing done and sometimes those will divulge twins. So going into this ultrasound, we both felt anything was possible.

The ultrasound was scheduled for 9am with a 10:30 doctor's appointment following. We arrived to the lab at 8:45 and thank God, we were called in early. Little Rosebud, like her brother, was difficult to photograph for the sonographer. However, unlike her brother she was calm, sleepy and mellow. She simply didn't want to move to show the sonographer her spine or all four chambers of his heart. So we have to go back on March 26 for additional pictures. The sonographer reassured us that nothing is wrong. She said she can see the spine and heart fine, but because stubborn Rosebud wouldn't move into a better position, she couldn't get the pictures and measurements she needs for the doctor. And the doctor confirmed that. So we're not worried.

After all the measurements were done, we said we wanted to know the gender so if she could see it please let us know. Now I have to admit, I took a crash course online on what boy and girl anatomy look like on an ultrasound. I knew we were looking for "lines" not...hmmm how do I say this..."tubular" shapes. So when she rolled over Rosebud and said, "here's the bottom" I held my breath. But then she pointed to the "lines" and said, "this means it's a girl." I literally shot my hands into the air and said, "hooray!" Scott beamed from ear to ear.

Based on the measurements she took, Rosebud is a little bigger than Adam was at this stage. So we could be expecting another big baby, but who knows. It's early to tell. It did look like she has long legs and arms. But that was just my own opinion, I didn't ask the sonographer what the measurements were.

Two hours later we were done with our doctor appointment and left the hospital. Both Scott and I had messages from excited friends and family dying to hear the news. The visit took longer than we thought because ultrasound forgot to send the report to the doctor, so a few of my friends were nervous thinking something was wrong. But, all was well. And most everyone we talked to were so very excited that Rosebud's a girl. :)

Tuck!

Scott and I celebrated 6 years of marriage on Saturday. We went for a drive and ended up in Jamestown which is 99 miles from Bismarck. We ate at Buffalo City Grille, which was nice and reminded us of a restaurant we once ate at in Sacramento. 2008 also marks 9 years since we first met.

Yesterday we watched the Superbowl and I am THRILLED that the Giants won. I still haven't forgiven Tom Brady and the Patriots for stealing the AFC championship from the Raiders in 2002. I remember that night as if it was a few weeks ago. We went to Auntie Jo's for cioppino and then all of us crashed on her sofa and floor to watch the game. There it was January 19 with 2 minutes left to play. Raiders were ahead 13-10 when Brady attempted a pass but was tackled by Woodson and fumbled the ball. Biekert recovered the ball for the Raiders and the Superbowl was in sight. Then the stupid official, as usual, sided against the Raiders during a play recall and said the tuck rule applied. With that, the Pats got the ball back, tied it up with a field goal and in OT won the game. Because of 9/11, the Superbowl was postponed one week, and was rescheduled for 2/3/02, the day after our wedding. As the Raiders marched towards the 'Bowl, Scott and I made plans to buy Superbowl Aloha shirts to wear as we left our wedding. And, since we would have landed in Kahului just minutes after kick-off, we planned on immediately finding a bar to watch the game before even going to our condo. But, alas, that dream was dashed because of a supposed tuck. So, imagine my glee last night when Tuck, a defensive lineman for the Giants, sacked Brady 5 times! I'm pretty sure that retribution was served. Now only if Tuck was a Raider and last night was the AFC championship game. Oh well, a girl can always dream.