It's a...

Boy!

I think I was more excited for yesterday's ultrasound than I have been for the last 7 Christmases (probably put together).  It was a long appointment and involved a lot more views of the inside of the baby than I'd expected.  We not only saw the hands, arms, legs, feet, and face, but also shots of the spine, brain, heart, and kidneys.

And boy parts.  

After spending the last 16 weeks trying hard to be gender neutral and always say "the baby" or "him or her" (or "it" when I'm being verbally lazy), it's a mental shift to start thinking about him as "him".  My son.  Even though I've been feeling kicks every day this week, something about seeing the ultrasound and how much like a person he looks has made it so much more real.  I didn't have any kind of emotional reaction during the ultrasound - in fact I was trying to lay as still and quiet as I could - but I think it's catching up with me.

The ultrasound tech didn't give us any feedback from the procedure other than that she "found all the ultrasound landmarks" but she didn't run screaming from the room to find the radiologist either.  She did say the baby was breech at this point, but from a quick consultation with Dr. Google, it seems like most babies flip over on their own between 20 weeks and delivery so it's not an issue.  Other than that, I have to wait until my next doctor's appointment in 2 weeks to hear the real results from the radiologist.

Here's one more shot that shows the baby's hand up by his chin:

After the appointment, we went home and made many, many (probably too many) blue frosted sugar cookies to share the big news with everyone.  I'm taking some in to work this morning, and we'll see our church group friends tonight.

 Now I'm off to run and brainstorm boy names.