Finally back

Our vacation was great, but we were supposed to return on Sunday evening - the same night that a blizzard hit the East Coast. Our flight got canceled. Luckily we had driven from the Keys up to Fort Lauderdale to catch our plane, so we ended up going to my dad's new house in West Palm Beach - he happened to be there for the week, so we had a place to stay. The airline couldn't get us on a plane until this morning. I was so nervous that I'd miss my ultrasound appointment, but I went to the hospital directly from the airport and made it with some time to spare. The only really disappointing thing was that it didn't make sense for Andy to come, since we'd have had to drag the luggage with us. I had called yesterday about rescheduling, but there were NO open appointments in the next few weeks, so we had to do it this way. My best friend ended up getting out of work a little early, so she met me there - it was nice not to be all alone, and she got a kick out of seeing the Pad.

Speaking of the Pad, everything looks great - no problems that they could see. Size right on track, heart OK, brain OK. And...

...it's a GIRL!!

The ultrasound tech (and then the doctor, who came in and looked too) said that they never say with 100% certainty what the gender is, but the Pad's legs were wide open, and they showed me the three little horizontal lines that generally mean girl parts and said they're 90% certain.

Wow. A daughter. I can't get my head around it. I hadn't had a feeling one way or the other about what gender the Pad was, but I was so used to all those months of knowing I was having a boy, and in some ways this has felt like a continuation of the last pregnancy. That's one good thing about having a girl - it will make it easier to separate this pregnancy emotionally from my pregnancy with Joseph.

She's very active and was waving her arms and legs all around on the ultrasound. We got one great picture just after she kicked both legs way up over her head, almost like she was about to do a somersault. I wish I had a scanner - I'd post it if I could. It's adorable.

My daughter. I can't believe it.