The Sweet 16th Surprise

16 Weeks
This week has been a FUN week for us to say the least! We started off the new week at Babies R Us to look at furniture and some other necessities that we wanted to see in person rather than selecting online: the high chair, car seat, stroller etc. I also found these Preggie Pops which are a tasty treat to help with sickness thanks to a fellow pregnant friend. They're all natural lollipops with aroma therapy and flavors that help ease the queasy feelings - highly recommended! (The sour flavors are my favorite of course)


On Tuesday afternoon we sneakily went to Focused4D in Hillsboro Village for an elective ultra sound to find out Baby E's gender!! We had scheduled this back in January when we realized my anatomy scan with our OB would occur while Dennis is away and we really wanted to share this special moment together. I knew a couple other moms and moms-to-be who have been here and really enjoyed their experience. Of course we knew just because we had the appointment didn't guarantee Baby E would cooperate. So our back up plan - and what we've told the grandparents we were doing all along - would be to ask my OB to write down the gender in a sealed envelope at my anatomy scan and we would open it together when I got to LA. That way we'd still find out together. Then we'd wait to reveal to family and friends once we both were home at the beginning of April. Almost a whole month from now! Side note: We're having a "baby moon" the last week in March while Dennis has a few days off in LA. I'm REALLY excited to have some time quality time together with sunny weather, yummy food and I've scheduled myself a little mommy pampering while we're there too!


As we pulled into the garage Tuesday afternoon, I received a text of this bible verse from one of my best friends praying for us to have a good appointment: 

Psalms 139:13-14 "For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother's womb, I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well"

Our prayers were answered and we had a wonderful appointment! The ultrasound facility is SUPER nice, clean, friendly, warm, inviting - much more intimate than the doctor's office. The receptionist and technician are both genuinely nice people and we'll be going back at the end of May for a fun 3d / 4d visit. We got a few photos of Baby E, a 15 minute DVD of the actual ultrasound (yes we've already watched a couple times) set to music and the tech even did a sneak peak of what the 3d ultrasound looks like. We got to see Baby E's sweet face in 3d - so awesome! There is a couch, a few chairs and a huge screen in the room so we could see Baby E up close and in more detail than the normal small screen at the doctor. As instructed I ate sugar about 30 minutes before our appointment in hopes Baby E would be active. The little heart was beating about 156 per minute yet Baby E kept those legs crossed the whole time- mind of their own! We tried a few tricks to move those legs out of the way, turning on my sides and wiggling my tummy around. It was so neat to watch Baby E started kicking and even throw a couple punches inside. The technician never quite got the open legged position he was hoping for BUT we did get to see what we wanted...


Fast forward to Thursday. We invited both of our parents over for a "dinner to see Dennis off before a long run". I'm sure they knew something was up because he's left plenty of times and we've never had a farewell dinner before. But we weren't budging and wanted to surprise them not only with the gender but the surprise itself! Some of you all knew this appointment was coming but we wanted the grandparents to have a fun, special moment of their own. And we also wanted a few days to let it be our little secret. After dinner we brought them upstairs to show them something we had in the nursery and Dennis said "You know we were going to go for more neutral bedding but then we found out we're having a boy and got this instead!" 


Yup - it's official, Baby E is a BOY! We are extremely excited to meet our sweet bundle of joy in August. Words can't explain how special Tuesday was for us, the day will be remembered forever. It is surreal knowing I'm carrying our baby, our son, a HE. And until we can agree decide on a name we will continue calling HIM Baby E. We are thankful to God for the blessings Baby E has already brought into our lives and thank you all for your prayers during this journey- they are felt and much appreciated!

Have a great weekend!
Love,
Dennis, Denisse and Baby E
PS - This week Baby E weighs 3.5 oz and is 4.5" long. I felt butterfly flutters for the first time on Wednesday. Hands down our favorite week so far!!