Beanie has a Name!

On May 5, 2000, my high school sweetheart anxiously waited for me to get home from work. I was a server at the local Mimi's Cafe and my shift ended quite late. When I got home to my parents' house, he was waiting for me. Still in my uniform, he guided me up a ladder and onto the roof, where he soon proposed.

On May 5, 2011, I held the hand of that same sweetheart as we walked into the perinatologist's office for our second trimester ultrasound. That day would be the day when we learned the identity of our first child... the child we wanted for a very long time... our miracle baby.

Boy or girl? Jack or Katelyn? Who would be joining us in September?

The ultrasound tech was cautious to make a declaration. She wanted to be really sure. Soon she mentioned she thought she knew, and she told us. A huge smile spread across both our faces. The tech kept looking and soon confirmed it again. Finally, she stated, "If it were me, I'd paint the nursery." She seemed pretty convinced.

As we all know, ultrasounds are not 100% accurate. We will be looking to our 3D ultrasound in about a month to confirm. In the meantime, we are over the moon and can not wait to meet this baby...


GIRL!

Katelyn Marie Carter

Her name is very special. We have known our first daughter's name for over a decade now. My mother's name is Kathy. My mother, sister and I all have the middle name Lyn (or Lynn). Ryan's mother's middle name is Marie and his grandma Nanny's middle name is Marie as well. Lots of women are represented in our daughter's name.

We loved watching our little girl on the big ultrasound screen. Here are some highlights...

We call her our little "ball baby". She likes to be curled up in a tiny ball. In several of the pics, her knees are practically touching her nose! The tech said she’s going to like to be swaddled. I am glad she is snuggled in tight.

What a wonderful day that was! And what exciting news. But we kept the secret until Mother's Day. I didn't get to tell my parents we were pregnant in the way I had planned, so I settled for an in-person reveal of baby's gender.

I bought a pink picture frame that read, "It's a Girl!", placed an ultrasound picture inside and wrapped it up. After church on Sunday, we went to my parents' house. On the way, we called Ryan's mom, step-mom and grandma and told them about Katelyn. When we got to my parents', most of my family was there waiting. My mom unwrapped the picture frame and delightful chaos ensued.

After 7 Mother's Days full of heartache and tears, what a wonderful memory has been added now. This will be the day we told our family about Katelyn.

I still struggle to find another word for grateful, as that one is just not good enough...