It's a ...

BOY!!

I'm not that surprised because it just follows the tradition in John's family where girls are born first followed by boy. It was a little surreal to find out after all of this waiting. I really had no preference one way or another because I felt like someone would be disappointed no matter the outcome – Mara because she wants a little sister and John because we wanted a boy to pass his name down to. It'll be a change to have a boy since we're so used to having only a girl around. At least we already have a lot of toys that Mara will be able to pass down even if we can't use most of her clothes.

The baby was measuring a little on the big side. He is 13 ounces, which is about an ounce more than expected at this stage in my pregnancy, and most of his measurements were closer to 21 weeks in size (I'm only 19 weeks and 5 days). But, everything measured in proportion and all of the tests they did during the ultrasound came back good.

Here are a few of the pictures we got from my visit. The first couple are with the baby's head is on the left with the abdomen in the middle of the picture. He's facing the camera, and you can even see a little bit of his left arm and leg. The last picture shows that he's all boy. :)

We'll probably go to a special 3D/4D place in a couple of months so she can see her little brother before he's born. We should get even more pictures from that experience.

Today was a little bittersweet because October 23 was my due date for my first pregnancy last year. It was also about the time my second miscarriage started. But now we have something positive to mark this date as well. :)