Happy birthday, Mom!

So last week, I asked my mom what she would like for her birthday.  She kind of smiled at me and said, "you know what I want from you."  Therefore, without further delay (I apologize that it's been a few days already), here it is:

Ben took a picture of the screen in the office.  It turned out being much more difficult to get a picture of the print-out they gave us.

A little face...!

This was taken at our 20-week mark, on Tuesday.  I teased Ben that she already looks like him.  Note: I say 'she' because both today and the day we got the ultrasound have been 'she' days.  Way back when we were deciding whether or not to find out the sex, we made a compromise.  I didn't want to find out, but Ben didn't want to refer to our unborn child as 'it,' so we alternate every other day.  Tomorrow, the baby will be 'he.'

Everyone has been asking us about names.  The truth is that we have narrowed our list down to a few names that we really like and will probably use, but we're not ready to reveal them yet.  Since we are due on Christmas day, we're all about surprises - name, sex, and all.  In the meantime, our families have given us some wonderful alternatives to call the baby in the meantime.

My brother came up with Thunder Rawlings Horse (girl) or Salsita Hussein III (boy).  My sister-in-law and I discovered that Experience is a family name on both sides.  We're not really sure whether it was used as a boy or a girl name, so we can use Experience on either day.  Some of our favorites came from my 5-year-old cousin.  For a girl, he came up with Little Miss Daydreamer, and for a boy he came up with Little Miss Giggles and (when his dad pointed out that he didn't know any boys that were called little-miss-anything) John Deere.

According to my nursing textbooks, she is now about 10 inches long from crown to heel and the ultrasound tech told us that she weighs about 12 ounces.  And, for anyone who cares to know, I'm getting pretty big myself and I'm glad to finally be looking pregnant as opposed to just looking like I've gained weight.

I don't think either of us has ever thought so much about Christmastime so early in the year.  Ben has already  said several times that it seems like December will never come and sometimes I feel that way too, but I think I have it a little easier.  I can feel her moving every day now.

And so this is our shout-out to you, Mom.  Happy birthday, from all three of us.

Two arms