It's a Boy!

Yes, ladies and gentlemen, that is exactly what you think it is.
You are looking at our son's winkie!


Call it mother's intuition or just a hunch, but I've thought all along, pretty much since that very first home-pregnancy test, that we were going to have a boy.  Since then, I've had dreams about boy babies and I've even had a few friends, coworkers, and one relative stranger predict that I am carrying a boy.  In addition to the hunches and dreams and predictions, I've had both a fortune cookie and a diamond necklace foretell the sex of our little Peanut.

About a week after we found out that I was pregnant, we went to PF Changs for dinner.  Anyone else noticing a theme here?  After dinner, Brad and I were reading the fortunes from inside of our fortune cookies aloud to each other.  For those of you who are used to seeing lottery numbers on the back of your fortunes, the fortunes inside the cookies at PF Changs have a word written in both English and Mandarin on the back of them.   Well, the word on the back of my fortune was jia ting or family and the word written on the back of Brad's fortune was nan hai or boy.  I'll grant you that a fortune cookie isn't a very scientific or reliable way of determining the sex of a baby, but you've got to admit that it is a pretty uncanny coincidence!

Just in case we weren't convinced yet, a couple of weeks ago Brad and I were eating dinner at a local Mexican restaurant, Tara Humata, with some friends from the neighborhood when our friend Mandy mentioned that she could determine Peanut's sex by dangling a diamond necklace above my wrist.  Mandy said that the necklace swinging back and forth would mean boy, while a circular motion would mean girl.  Of course, the necklace moved back and forth over my wrist and I don't know about you, but I think that if diamonds are involved, it's got to be accurate... right?

Even with all of these indications that our baby is a boy, I still wanted to be absolutely certain.  The only way to be absolutely certain is through an ultrasound, so we scheduled one.  My doctor's office doesn't normally do an ultrasound at the 16-week appointment, but I simply could not wait until the 20-week appointment.  We went in today at 11:00.  The ultrasound tech, Cassi, lathered on the goo, apologized for not warming it first, and then we were down to business.  She started by depicting Peanut's position, which was sort of laying on his back with his head on my left and his feet on my right.  His hands were by his face and his elbows were pointing up.  From there, she showed us his little head, complete with both brain hemispheres.  She then moved around to his face, pointing out his tiny little nose and mouth.  Next we got to see and hear his heartbeat at a perfect 148 BPM, followed by his spinal cord.  She eventually made her way down for the money shot.  Unfortunately, Peanut was NOT feeling very cooperative, so she poked around for a little longer and even killed a few seconds by showing us my very full bladder.   After a few minutes of poking and moving around, Peanut finally cooperated enough for her to see his tiny little winkie, which she had to point out for us in the picture above.  At that moment, all of our suspicions were confirmed!  IT'S A BOY!!!