Stubborn....Part Deux!

As my last post stated, we were supposed to have our BIG ultrasound on June 26th. By BIG I mean finding out the gender of our baby. To our dismay, on our follow up appointment on June 12th, the doctor advised us it would be a better idea to wait until July 10th instead so everything they look for aside from gender is developing normally. I was upset but still had the "whatever" attitude knowing we would eventually find out whether it we will be having a boy or a girl. Mal on the other hand, well, she kicked up the frustration a notch or two. In fact, three days later we found ourselves at Early Images, a photo studio across the river in Indiana that specializes in 3-D ultrasounds and gender determinations. The setting was somewhat different than what you would see at a normal doctor's office. If you've ever had the luxury of sitting in home theater of someone's basement, that's kind of what this felt like. Minus the ultrasound equipment and lack of popcorn and candy. After a few strokes of the magic wand over Mal's belly, the baby was still cross legged. We couldn't believe it! Not again!!! But unlike the doctor's office, there was no giving up with this technician. She had told Mal to drink plenty of cold water beforehand because it seems to make the baby more active as they tend to move away from the cold temperature of the fluid. She also kept telling Mal to take deep breaths as we anxiously looked at the movie theater sized screen on the wall across from us. We kept our fingers crossed and said a few prayers. Well not really. But the answer to the question we had pondered since becoming pregnant in early April had finally arrived. The three lines, or the little hamburger as the technician called it, were pointed out to us. IT'S A GIRL! came the cry from out tech. Mal and I laughed and smiled at each other in relief and happiness. Finally, we knew what our baby was going to be. And more importantly, we didn't have to use the common names of "baby" or "it" as our point of reference. Instead of depressed and left wondering yet again, we were on cloud nine.



I think I can speak for Mal when I say that we would highly recommend a non-medical facility that specializes in early gender determination such as Early Images to any pregnant couple. Especially if you cannot wait to find out the sex of your baby (Mallorey Anne). We even walked away with a 3-D photo of our unborn daughter in the womb. It was interesting to look at to say the least. It appeared as though she was trapped inside of a bubble, with her little hands out in front as if she was trying to push herself out of it. Personally, I think Kylar has already developed Mal's round pointy nose and Mal thinks she has my big movie star chin. Only time will tell!



Flash forward to today. After Mal did her classic routine of showering and shaving for her "OB" or "NKOTB" as I like to call it, we were out the door and in a real hurry consider both of us were starving. I stand corrected. The THREE of us were starving. So we made a pit stop at McDonald's about 15 minutes before our appointment to grab a McGriddle and some pancakes. Turns out we made there in plenty of time and actually were not called back to the screening room until 20 minutes or so after we arrived. Our doctor's office was oblivious to the fact we had determined a few weeks before that Kylar Marin Burns was well on her way. That being said, Mal and I hadn't really discussed how we should react when the nurse reveals the big news. Luckily I followed Mal's lead when she told the nurse "we kind of figured that" as she turned to me and smiled.

The nurse continued the anatomy ultrasound and checked Kylar's bladder, umbilical cord, kidneys, stomach and head sizes, brain and heart. Not to mention the hands and feet. Everything turned out normal. The nurse also attempted to check Kylar's facial features for deformities, specifically cleft lip. And wouldn't you know it, instead of the legs being crossed this time, it was her arms. They were covering her entire face as if to say "hey get that camera out of here!" We all laughed harmoniously and shook our heads in disgust at the same time. And just when we thought the arms might have a chance of unfolding to reveal her beautiful face, Kylar used her apparent gold medal winning gymnastics and pulled her feet towards her head! We couldn't believe it. Just when we thought she couldn't get any more stubborn, she goes and pulls something like this. Too bad we can't discipline her yet haha. Just kidding.


But no words have rang out so true than when our doctor walked through the door post-ultrasound and said out loud "Who has the most stubborn baby ever?!.....You two do!!!" as she pointed fingers at us. I played innocent and said it had nothing to do with me. So I kindly pointed at Mal and said Kylar is hers :-)

Because Kylar likes to play peek-a-boo without showing her face, she bought us another ultrasound date on August 7th. In the meantime, we'll be starting on her nursery. In all of its pinkness. We'll keep you posted.

What's in a name!?!

As Randy had said, we tried to find out the sex of the baby to surprise the Stevens' side of the family while we were up in Chicago. But, the baby was stubborn.
While we were up there, we decided we would still tell my family the names we picked out. I came up with the idea of playing hangman with the names. It was a lot easier than I originally thought, so it was not as much fun as I hoped. But oh well. I won't go into much detail since everyone knows how to play hangman. The names we decided on are:

Boy: Kooper Collin Burns (we let Collin chose between Collin or Foster for the middle name. He obviously picked Collin).
Girl: Kylar Marin Burns

We will let you know when we find out if the baby is a boy or a girl.