IT'S A .....!!!!!!

Week 17 kicked off with our big gender appointment!!  I posted the day before with predictions of what little Baby Barton is and some of the Old Wives' Tales.  Between Darrin, our family and friends, and Facebook predictions, the votes were overwhelmingly for our Little Love being a little boy.  I still had no feelings one way or the other.

At Thanksgiving, we gave our families this homemade scratch off card...

Everyone was told that they would know the gender as soon as they started scratching off, but after they scratched the box completely, they would also know our little baby's NAME! :) Everyone said "Wow! I can't believe y'all have already agreed on names!"

The morning of our big appointment! Can this count as my Week 16 pic? It was only 2 days into Week 17. :)

The ultrasound was pretty quick, but it was awesome to see our little one wiggling around and so much more developed than before (last u/s was at 9 weeks and wasn't nearly as clear).  The spine was very defined and we could see the little feet and TOES!  We could even see that the little one had its hands tucked back behind its head.  The tech pointed out that she could see the little baby's mouth opening to swallow fluid and we could watch it go down the throat and swirl around in the stomach.  It was amazing!  After a few mins she said "Ok, are you ready to know what it is!?" and then she said... "It's a little GIRL!!"  Whoa!!!!  Honestly, we were shocked.  About a million things ran through my mind, but I couldn't even tell you what they were, it was kind of a blur.  How amazing! :)

The ultrasound tech was so nice and took these pictures for us.

Darrin is already wrapped around her little finger!! :) I can just see him with painted fingernails having a tea party at a table the height of his shins.  haha!!  I hope I can be even half the mother and friend that my amazing Mom is to me, and I know she will be the ultimate Daddy's girl ...much like her mommy.  :)  We are so blessed with amazing parents and can't wait to be the same kind of parents to our little girl!!!

 

So, for the big question - what is her name?!  Well, take a closer look at our scratch off card...

 

"No girl name needed...we're sure this baby is a boy."

Truth be told, we were having trouble committing to a girl name and we were so certain that it was a boy that we figured this box would never get scratched.  You'll just have to wait a little longer to find out what she will be called! :)

Thanks for loving our baby GIRL!!