A little more detail from the detail queen...

Tilt your head to the right, this is a great face shot. Eyes, nose, and she totally looks like she's smiling with that tiny mouth!

You know I couldn't just leave it with "It's a girl!"; I've got to give you the whole story. :)

First of all, this was my first time having an ultrasound tech do my ultrasound. I had two private practice doctors with Max (one in NY and one in WA). Both had their own machines and did their own ultrasounds. It was always really quick and I got several ultrasounds with them. I really loved that. But the doc who delivered Max retired from OB, so now I'm with a nice family practice doctor. Anyway, so I had never had to do the full bladder part of having a real in-depth ultrasound. Drink 32 ounces of fluid one hour before your appt. and DO NOT empty beforehand. I thought I was going to die! Well, not die, but it was excrutiating. She checked out my bladder and whatever else she needed to see with that first and then let me use the bathroom. Sweet relief!

It was so fun to see our little baby. I always feel like I need to talk to the screen and say hello, which I did. At one point during the ultrasound she did a huge yawn or something and we got to watch as her little mouth opened so wide and closed. It was very cute. She looks to us to be healthy! At first she wasn't very cooperative with the gender check. Legs were pretty firmly crossed. So we went on with other measurements and went back to that. Just as the tech was telling us that they were still crossed and was pointing out the legs, our cooperative little babe opened up. I've seen a lot of ultrasound pictures, not only my own, and so I stole the tech's thunder a bit, I think, when I saw the three lines and said, "That's a girl!" She said that she definitely agreed. And she says that nobody has ever come back to tell her that she's wrong. She also told us that she wouldn't say anything unless she was quite positive. Nice to hear! So we're planning for a little woman to join our family! Tyler knew it all along - he's been saying that it's a girl from the beginning. I guess he stole all of my mother's intuition because I just wasn't sure. We are so, so thrilled!

We'll keep you all posted on the name. We're pretty sure on it, but are going to give it a little time amongst ourselves. Thanks for all of the well-wishes! We can't wait to meet this new little lady; we're halfway there!

**In case you were wondering, we did take the header picture ourselves. I know, I know, we are so talented with the camera! Not sure if this was me or Ty, we both took shots like this. It's a view from our favorite park - Waterfront Park - where Max and I go a lot. When the tide is low we can head out on the "beach". We throw rocks into the water, look for little crabs and I keep Max from heading straight in. I love where we live; it is so, so beautiful!**