The Legacy Begins

The baby is really kicking around nowadays. The first time I felt him/her move, I was terrified. I had the impression I had accidentally swallowed something alive and it was going to burst out of my stomach at any moment. Like Will Smith in one of those Men in Black movies when the alien swallows him. Or the alien in Space Balls that pops out of some guy's stomach. It was not an endearing moment for me. It's still not super endearing LOL, the baby doesn't exactly snuggle my intestines or softly pet my bladder. He/she is a little more forceful in his/her movements.

It is hard to use two pronouns for one person. Let's do away with all that since we had our ultrasound and we know the gender!

We scheduled our ultrasound for Monday at 1pm. This is my first child, so excuse me if I use way too many details. I want to remember everything. We showed up extra early to fill out paperwork, they emailed it to me but we don't have a working printer right now. When they called my name, Curtis and I were lead into a room and I laid down on a reclining bed with 2 pillows to put my feet up on. A nurse put a towel around the top of my skirt. I pulled my shirt up and she put another towel around my shirt so that my clothes wouldn't get wet from the goop they use for ultrasounds.

A few minutes later, our ultrasound technician appeared. She was very sweet and we enjoyed the hour or so that we spent with her. After she put a mountain of gel on my belly (and I mean a MOUNTAIN, I swear she used an entire bottle of that goop) she began the ultrasound. The baby was head down and we saw a cross-section view of the torso first thing. It was really confusing at first, but I instantly knew that we were seeing the heart. And of course, I started crying there and didn't finish until the end. But not bawling, I was proud of myself for that...I kept it together for the most part.

I had no idea there were so many things to do during an ultrasound. This is our first and only one for this baby, so there were all kinds of measurements she needed to take. Leg bones, fingers, head, spine, amniotic fluid, cervix, etc...everything had to be measured! And sometimes the baby isn't in the right position, so she spent a lot of time poking the baby trying to get some rearranging. It was amazing to see the heart beating, for her to point out kidneys and lungs and brain. The most exciting part were the few times we caught the baby moving, legs or arms or fingers...a few times we saw the head turn back and forth! It's so commonplace to get pregnant and have a baby but so miraculous and crazy at the same time.

So at the beginning we told our technician we didn't want to know the gender...but after 30 minutes of trying to get baby to move around, she forgot and ALMOST told us. But she stopped in time, we closed our eyes while she got the footage of the gender, and then later wrote it down on a card and put it in a sealed envelope. All in all it was a fantastic experience, after a lot of hard work we did eventually get some profile shots (which are the ones that are easily recognizable as a baby) and had some good bonding time with our little one. We were not expecting, however, the "skeletor baby" and "silly putty baby" affect that ultrasounds and 3d ultrasounds have on intrauterine children.

After the ultrasound, Curtis and I drove to the City Target in Seattle. Curtis picked out a gender neutral gift bag and tissue paper (he did a great job, is was really cute) and then we picked out a boy and girl newborn outfit. After we paid for everything, I waited in line at customer service and hoped that whoever I got would be willing to help me with my plan. I asked Cecilia, who was the lucky lady to get me at her register, if she could open our card that told the gender of our baby, put the corresponding outfit in the bag with tissue paper and then return the other outfit back onto our card. I told her it was our first child and we were really excited to find out if it was a boy or a girl. Cecilia seemed really confused at first but seemed excited when she understood. I turned around for a minute and played on my phone while she got everything ready. She put receipt and card into the bag so there was no chance of me accidentally spoiling the surprise.

We wrapped up at Target about 3 or 4 in the afternoon. My plan was to walk around Pike Place market and then find somewhere to eat dinner, where we would open the present. We rarely come over to Seattle so it's always a fun trip to be downtown and Pike Place is so cool on a sunny afternoon. Puget Sound was GORGEOUS blue and there were flowers everywhere. I had a great time exploring Post Alley and some of the shops inside of Pike Place.

Curtis found a nerdy shop where I bought him a Star Wars lunch box. It took 3 tries to get him out of there, he was so excited everytime he turned around.

That is Malcolm Reynolds' gun for those that don't know. Curtis' birthday is Nov 21st, hint hint.

Our friend Geb Black, who is in Seattle for a month or so, met us for dinner around 6. We always enjoy Geb and his wife Amy and their 3 kids who live in Dupont, we were glad to share this moment with him. The place I had planned on eating for price and GF options had decided to close at 3 that day, so we went to a place Curtis had tried recently because it had a great view of the Sound. The sun was coming in through the window, the Sound was bright blue, and I could see multiple big ships moving through the water. It was absolutely perfect. After we ordered, I opened the present to find...

We're having a boy!

After discovering the gender, we immediately started talking about names. Curtis is the 3rd and so he either wanted to name our son Curtis the 4th or Elwin Ransom Boyd. I am glad to say, he chose Elwin. I was not excited about Curtis' middle name (Albert) neither did I like the idea of having 3 living Curtis and the ensuing nickname for our son. For those that don't know, Elwin Ransom is the main character in C.S. Lewis' books Out of the Silent Planet and Perelandra as well as a pivotal character in That Hideous Strength...the character goes by just Ransom in the books.

After a delicious dinner of fish tacos and burger, Geb, Curtis, and I walked down to the pier for some ice cream and then the long trek back to our parking.

I was SO tired on the way home. There was a lot of walking and a lot of stairs (for those of you back home in Texas who have never been to Seattle, there are a ton of steep stairs to get down to the water) but despite all of that, it is one of my favorite memories and was one of the best days we've spent in Seattle so far.

The next day, Tuesday, we had our friend Emily Mason shoot some gender reveal photos for us. I'll be posting those soon!