Pink!

We will soon be seeing a lot more of this around our house!!!

Our ultrasound was yesterday afternoon, and, seriously, I have to tell you that I was a bit nervous about the whole deal. On top of wanting to make sure baby is healthy and developing correctly, I obviously was anxious about gender.

Let me first say that I LOVE my boys. I honestly think that if I had to choose having all boys or all girls, I would probably pick boys (although I speak from NO experience on the girl end). They are wild and sweet and they love their mommy.

And because of the trajectory we have been following, I would not have been too surprised to find out we were welcoming boy #4. The odds of having 4 boys in a row are just crazy, and it would have been interesting to have it happen to our family, but I wasn't sure I could go there mentally. Kind of like how my mind always jumps to what our grocery bill will be when the boys are 18, 17, 15, and 14. Seriously?! I feel like we spend a lot on food now! And, oh, the rough-housing and potential for broken household items and broken bones just multiplies!! But, I honestly have to say I was prepared for whatever God gave us.

Then on the flip side, I always just imagined that I would have at least one girl. Someone to shop with. Someone to sit quietly and color or read stories with (I guess that's no guarantee with girls, but, you know?). Someone to dress in pink, pick out Christmas dresses for, and fix her hair--aside from just using water to slick down the sticking up hairs :).

So all these things were flashing through my mind and I realized I was sort of holding my breath as I laid down on the ultrasound table. I could tell the tech was looking right away for us, and while I wasn't sure exactly what I was looking to see, I knew I wasn't seeing what I had seen three times previously. She said, "I know what it is, do you?" To which I very quietly replied, "It's a girl???!".

YEP!! 100%. She said I could buy all of the pink I wanted to.

And, to be honest, my first emotion was excitement and my second was just pure relief. 5 years of wondering through pregnancies and deliveries if I will ever have a girl, the sadness that it may never happen (I'm pretty sure this was going to be the last Hicks' baby, regardless of gender), listening to the boys repeatedly ask for a sister, and gazing sadly at the 80% of the children's clothing store that is taken up by girls clothes, while I wander quickly through the minuscule boys section (actually--that may be a prudent choice on the store's part because little boys have NO attention span for shopping--it's get in and get out)--all of those feelings just disappeared because now I have an answer.

And, wow, it feels great!