It's a... GIRL!!!!!

My dream was right! Well partially anyways (so far). :-) About 2 months ago, I had a dream. I was picking up my baby to put her into a stroller or seat. I didn't see her face as I was picking her up from behind but my baby was a little girl with short, wavy brown hair, about 1-2 years old and wearing a dark brown and blue polka dot dress. I woke up wondering... is that my baby? I'm a big believer in dreams and intuition so I kept wondering when I'd find out what we're having. The closer we got to the big appointment, the more sure I felt. So did Jon. I even started knitting a baby blanket in pink and brown! I figured if I was wrong and having a boy, I could give the blanket to someone having a girl as a gift.

April 5th came and when I showed up, it turns out they had rescheduled my appointment and forgot to call me. I was upset and tried really hard to hide my tears but they came anyways. Oh, gotta love those pregnancy hormones! I had to wait till next Monday, the 12th. Only a week but it felt like an eternity. In the wee hours of that Monday, I got sick... really sick. I couldn't keep anything down. Turns out I had the flu! I forgot how much I hate the flu! Thank God for Jon and him being able to clean me up because I was too weak to do it! He takes such good care of me. I'm blessed to have him in my life.

After trying to be strong and convince myself I could still make the appointment, I had to reschedule. There was no way I could make it. I was too weak. At first they said I'd have to wait until May 5th BUT then they had a cancellation at another location for Tuesday! I'll take it! I'll make it somehow!

Tuesday morning came and I felt better. Still a little weak but good enough to handle this appointment! Jon made it at the last minute from work, right before the nurse was going to give up on checking the waiting room for him. Whew! Close call! I really wanted him by my side. This is his baby too and I wanted us to find out together.

She did the measurements first and Baby is measuring on schedule. The legs measured a couple days behind but I've learned babies in development have spurts so it's nothing to worry about yet. We didn't get to hear the heart beat but this time it was 143. Last time it was about 152 (beginning of March). She said that was normal though as it depended on how I was feeling (more calm, excited, etc.) and how the baby was feeling (resting, moving a lot, etc.).

Baby LOVES to keep its legs lose together and tucked. But after much pushing (gently) on my tummy, she saw those 3 tell-tale lines on the ultrasound that usually mean a girl. :-) Eeeeeeeiiiii!!!!! A girl!!! Of course, she can't be 100% positive as ultrasounds aren't perfect and she kept her legs pretty tight most of the time but she was willing to say she was 90% sure it's a girl. Sigh, how is it possible to be so in love with a little being that we haven't met yet?

We're NOT running out and buying everything pink though!!! I've never been a big pink fan after I was maybe 10 years old and don't see why a baby girl has to be in pink all the time. Seems a little silly to me. Besides, I love color and hope she will too. So that means purples, reds, blues, greens, yellows, you name it! Daddy Jon is already planning to put her in San Jose Sharks Teal! :-)

If I had to say what "theme" we're have for our baby things, I'd say baby Noah's Ark animals. It was gender neutral and I love the colors or light greens, yellows, blues... basically like spring time. Happy colors that are still soft and soothing.

We had names picked out for either boy or girl and it's nice to start using a name for our baby! True, it may change once she's born but we're pretty sure we're sticking with it. It just feels right. It came to us pretty easily. Spelling may change but I think that's it, if anything. But we're pretty set on it. :-)

Jon picked the name KALI (pronounced Cali, Kah-lee). We were inspired during our trip to Hawaii back in August 2008 back when she was just a twinkle in our eyes. So we've been playing around with K girl names for a while. I just found out recently that Kali is also the name of a Hindu goddess, consort of Shiva! She is a Mother Goddess, of time and change. I chose BETTIANNE as a hybrid of my grandmother's name from my dad's side: Barbette Ann. She was one of the great role models in my life besides my own parents and my 2 grandpas (her husband, John and my grandpa on my mom's side, Zenon). My grandpa John used to call her Bette. I also kinda wanted a Betty to keep up the Archie comic book name thing (ask my dad about my name. ha ha!) Bettianne is a combo of Betty and Ann which comes out to mean graciously consecrated to God.

I think she's in for great things! A real life Angel! Hee hee!

We can't wait to meet you Kali Bettianne Smith!

Week 17:


Week 18:


Week 19: