Hair-bow or Bow-tie?

Patience is not a virtue I was endowed with.  I can be very impulsive at times, and when I know what I want, I want it now. (3 month engagement, bought one of the first houses we walked through, decided I wanted a kitten and brought one home after the first KSL ad, decided I wanted another kitten and brought home another one that day, etc etc.)  So when Doug mentioned that one of his coworkers would go to this place in the mall for an ultrasound to find out the gender early, naturally I was on board.  They claim they can tell the gender as early as 14 weeks, but I didn't trust going that early.  Then the longer we waited, the easier it got to "just wait until the ultrasound at the doctor at 20 weeks."  Plus, I'd have to call to make an appointment, and if you know me, you know I hate talking on the phone.  (Sidenote: You can tell how much I really want something by how quickly I will make the phone call to get it done.  When I saw the KSL ad for Pepper I only deliberated for about 5 minutes before I made an appointment to go see her.)

The Friday approaching my 17 week mark Doug texted me, "Should we find out the gender tomorrow?"  And just like that, I was on board again to go early.  Surprisingly enough, there were even appointments still available for that Saturday, so I made one and then had to patiently wait.  When the time finally came, I was excited and nervous (just like I get before my doctor's appointments).  The guy (doctor) who runs the place was super nice, and right away we were looking at our little baby on the screen.  He asked which gender I thought it would be, and since the beginning I've thought it was a girl.  He said in his experience, mothers are right 80% of the time.  We saw the little heartbeat first, and I was amazed to see the little bones for the spine.

Already practicing yoga

This was the first still shot we saw, and he said he could tell from the profile which gender it was.  I still think he was pulling our leg (that somehow he'd seen a bum shot before focusing on this), but he told us it was a girl, "look at those pouty lips, how could it not be a girl?" he said.

It's a girl!

But then we got to the definitive angles to prove she was a true girl.  Even though I've been fairly certain (95% sure) from the beginning, I still felt awed and amazed to have it confirmed.  It's not an "it" anymore, just using the pronoun "she" makes it feel more real.  There's still a tiny part of me that worries "she" will turn into a "he" by the time I go to my next appointment, but logically I know it's silly.

This is one of my favorite still shots.  Look at those tiny little fingers.

It was a fun experience going there.  He spent quite a bit of time with us, pointing out different body parts.  We got to see her move around, and it was just so reassuring to see activity and know she's okay.  I have my real 20 week ultrasound this next week (Sept. 24th) so we'll see if her gender changes.

Other news: I think I felt her really move for the first time on Sept. 5th.  It was super weird, like a fish flopping around in my abdomen.  To be honest, I didn't really like it and poked at her to make it stop.  Since then I've felt other flutters here and there.  Sometimes it's subtle, like a little tickle, and sometimes it feels like I have a frog jumping around in there.