IT'S A...

throughout the first half of my pregnancy i noticed that there's this game that people like to play called "guess what you're having". i realized that there are up to 2 parties that can be involved in this game: the people who try and make you guess what you're having, and then the people who will guess for you. i liked the latter of the parties, because then i was not obligated to join in the speculation.

my family had been playing this game since the moment they found out i was with child. instantaneously all of my brothers decided that i was incubating a miniature one of these:

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my 15 year old brother, brad, was sure that i'd find this out when one day "THIS IS SPARTA!!!" would echo from my abdomen, followed by a kick, followed by a bout of unconsciousness- since apparently a kick from an unborn spartan will KO a person from the inside out. my brothers then began to make plans to dress the little spartan up in a red cape and helmet to go fight wolves at the age of 7 years. this conversation prompted my youngest brother, cole, to try to "persuade" the fetus to be a boy by popular vote (i think he needs a serious talk about how biology and reproduction isn't a democratic process), and during the ordeal my father came in declaring that he knew "exactly" what i was having.

"oh yeah?" brad said audaciously. "well tell us then, smart guy." my dad glanced around at the expectant room and announced,"she is going to haaaaave- a BABY!" and then began laughing outrageously as the rest of the room erupted into a chaotic din of disparaging comments. (yeah... this stuff happens in my family for reals, all the time).

my mom was certain that i was having a girl from the first week that i started making oblations to the porcelain throne. "morning sickness is always the worst with girls," she said. "i think that you are having one." after weeks on end of violent sickness, i was pretty dang convinced i was having one too.

occassionally, i'd pull this tricky little game on christopher. he was pretty elusive. our conversations would go as follows, with myself instigating:
"so... what do you think i'm having?"
"i don't know"
"do you care?"
"i don't have a preference either way"
"for real?"
"yeah."
"you have no clue?"
"nope"
"you're telling me you have no gut feeling."
"i honestly don't"
"well alright then. so much for this conversation."
"......."
"......."

at last, came the morning of my 20 week ultrasound. before chris went to work, i was FINALLY graced with his opinion that i was having a girl with the explanation that "since you're finding out today, now i can tell you." sneaky man. playing ambivalent for that whole time. anyhow, since he had to go to work that day, my mom and my very curious 18 year old brother, grant, tagged along to the scan instead. the most important thing to me was finding out if the baby was healthy- i had such concerns about it, being the paranoid that i am- it was SUCH a great relief to me when the ultrasound technician let me know that the baby looked normal and healthy. however, finding out the sex of the baby was slightly trickier, as it required the little fetus to open it's legs for longer than a nanosecond- which barely happened. i laid there on the table for SO long, staring at my unborn child's butt, waiting for it. i actually told the ultrasound technician that it was ok to just let me go without finding out right before the legs opened up for a brief moment and we caught a nice glimpse of an absence of spartan parts- which, of course, meant: "it's a girl!" (my brothers were sorely disappointed)
--
later on that night i pulled out the ultrasound photos to show chris (a great deal of them were blurry because little lady staples was moving around all over the place during the scan- she is her father's daughter already). "see, i knew it was a girl." he said, smiling. he was pretty happy about it.

so, what now? it's name pickin' time of course :) we've almost got one... stay tuned. hopefully we won't have to change it at birth... i've been hearing stories of sons who were supposed to be daughters, according to ultrasounds. i guess the only way to know for certain is to wait until the child is born. just a few more months to go!