It's a...boy?!?!

That is exactly how I felt during my ultrasound last Monday as very clear little boy parts appeared on the flat screen monitor in front of me.  I had joked with my sister a few days before, that if they told me it was a boy, I would tell them to look again.  But even my untrained eyes couldn't deny his obvious gender, and I guess he was pretty sick of being referred to as a girl because those little knees were wide open. 

I had been so sure it was a girl...we all had.  This pregnancy has been so different than my first.  I felt sick all the time and I had strong food aversions among other physical symptoms that I never really experienced with Jake.  Not to mention how emotional I felt/feel with this baby.  I can cry at the drop of a hat, and I just assumed this was because my body was coursing with all sorts of extra estrogen from a baby girl.  Then you add how I was feeling to the fact that Jacob kept telling us we were having a girl.  It didn't matter how many times we asked him or how we phrased the question, for the last 4 months his answer has always been the same, "It's a girl"  Who argues with that?  Remember he did tell me I was having a baby before we told him.  He was right about that, so I just figured his little spirit remembered who was next in our family.  However, knowing Jacob, I wouldn't be surprised if this was the first joke of many that my boys are going to play on me.  And don't think Daddy won't join right in on that fun. :-)

To Arthur's credit, a few weeks before the ultra sound, he did have a dream about our new little boy very similar to the one he had had with Jacob.  However, even that wasn't enough to sway us from believing Jacob.  We just figured Arthur's subconscious was playing the "what if" game.  But we should have known better, Arthur's dreams always come true.

The funny part is that people have misinterpreted my insistence that was a girl for some great longing for a girl.  So many of our family and friend have asked if I am sad or upset that I am having another boy.  I am the opposite actually.  I am ecstatic to have another boy!  Having Jacob has been the best thing that has ever happened to us, how was we be anything but excited to do it again?  I love the idea of Jake and his brother growing up together (not to mention the money we will save by reusing all of the cute clothes we got for Jake) and I hope and pray that they will be the kind of friends my sister and I have been throughout our lives. 

They already look like brothers!  Baby Boy #2 on the top, Jake's 18 week ultrasound on the bottom...I could look at these profiles all day!

Arthur is also trilled to have another son.  Due to his training, he was unable to come to the ultra sound with Jake and I.  So after my appointment I went to store to enlarge some of the photos and bought a blue gift bag to put them in.  When I arrived home, he was already there and dying to find out.  As I handed him the bag I said, "I guess I will be staying home by myself while you boys go hunting."  No man has ever smiled so big.