Thinking Pink

By now most of the world probably already knows, but I wanted to share the news in this little corner of my world as well.

We had our 20 week ultrasound for Baby #5 on December 12th, the Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe. A friend told me it was a sign: Our Lady left roses for Juan Diego and was sure she would send us a rose as well. I was so worried that we'd get bad news I could think of little else. I had not yet felt the baby move...at least no movement I could tell was baby.

As we sat in the lobby at the local hospital they made the announcement that it was the Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe. While the hospital is no longer a Catholic one, it made me happy to know that some of it's Catholic roots remained.

Mercifully, we only had to wait about five minutes in the lobby. Relief flooded through me when I saw the image appear on the screen, and I saw an arm move up to baby's face. Baby was sucking or chewing on its fist! The technician was great about telling me as she checked each tiny part of baby's anatomy that all looked great. Baby is healthy and developing normally! She also told us what everyone else was dying to hear: IT'S A GIRL! We were sent a rose! As I lay there on the table I felt our daughter move, and knew exactly what it was. I have a strong suspicion that I had such a mental block of anxiety I couldn't let myself believe that it was really her moving.

The only concern the ultrasound revealed was the position of things in relation to the previous C-section scarring. Because of this I am transferring to a larger, high-risk hospital an hour away for the rest of my appointments, where I will have an MRI in the next couple months. (Also, my doctor is now on mission in Guatemala with her family for the next four months, so this was coming anyway.) My anxiety about this has faded as I continue to pray for a safe delivery for our baby girl and myself, and trust in God to carry us through.

We have had a name for a girl picked out ever since expecting our first baby, but we changed it about three years ago after I spent a month studying our family tree on Ancestry.com. I discovered that Eli's late grandma Berst, who died of cancer in 1962 at the age of 43, was named Adeline Marie. It was such a pretty name, and considering Eli had been trying to talk me into naming a boy "Clarence, Cal for short" (his grandpa) for so long, I thought he would appreciate it. (By the way, I cannot hear the name "Clarence" without thinking of the movie "It's a Wonderful Life".)

Adeline Marie with Eli's dad, Joe, as a baby. The story I've been told is that Adeline gave birth to baby Joseph in a room above the bar that she and Clarence owned.

The boys were excited for the news. Ian points to my belly and says, "A baby?" (which sounds more like "bebe") then shakes his head, points to himself and says, "A la Bubba." (Maybe he speaks French and I just haven't realized it until now?) Liam gagged. He's anti-girl everything at the moment, but I'm sure he'll have a change of heart eventually. Gavin kept asking when was she going to get here? That long?! And Aidan was wondering if she could share his room with him, but we explained that when she is old enough she will move into the spare room Dad uses for sleeping while on overnights. Which at the moment looks like this:

Which means I have a lot of work to do downsizing what we store, and shelves need to be put up in the attic room so we can transfer the rest of the totes in there. There is a dresser and an armoire in the garage that I also need to paint (white) and fit in little girl's room...preferably sooner than later, but we'll see how that goes.

I found a set of sheets for the bed already that are not manly like everything else:

I'm so excited to decorate a room NOT in blue and red or orange for a change! Don't get me wrong, I'm excited to get the boys rooms decorated too. But I've been deprived of girliness for much of my life and I feel the possibility of going a little crazy on this. Knowing she will be a daughter of mine, she will probably prefer her brothers' rooms to her own. And so then I will move into her room. 😊 These are some ideas I've saved on Pinterest:
           


And the clothes.... I've started girl clothes collecting! The first thing we received was a cute little pink and white fluffy dress from a sweet friend. And then our sister-in-law gave us a layette set and a sleeper for Christmas. And then I hit an online clearance sale. I got her "coming home" outfit, which is a gray and pink flowered sleeper. I am being careful though, knowing that mistakes have been made in the past, so I am keeping the baby boy clothes until she is born. Just in case. But if my husband knew of all the online shopping carts I've filled and just never clicked "Submit Order", he'd be scared.

16 weeks to go!