planning. and a picture of the baby!

I had hoped people would be excited to hear our happy news yesterday. Expected it, really-- I mean, it's happy news! But seriously-- people (including all of you) BLEW US AWAY. My phone was basically dead (from the constant email/FB notifications) by like 10 a.m. I am so incredibly overwhelmed by the support and excitement of what feels like every single person on earth-- so thank you. I told Matt halfway through the day (when I had a mere (haha) 50 blog comments and 30 FB comments) that I wanted to print out all of them and put them in Baby B's baby book. Now there are double that many comments, plus emails, voicemails, texts...holy cow. And I still want to print them all out because if Baby B ever wonders whether she was wanted, whether she matters...I want her to know. I want to point to the hundreds of comments, to the people saying they've been praying for her, to the people excited to meet her...and it'll give me some really solid evidence to prove that yes, you were wanted. Yes, people were ECSTATIC about you. I really can't wait.

My mind is all over the place- forgive me. I've gotten about 8 hours of sleep this week. I love the people suggesting I rest up now-- WHO CAN SLEEP WHEN THEIR KID IS COOKING IN SOMEONE ELSE'S BELLY?!??!! I am far too excited, with far too many things to think about and plan, to get any sleep. Alas, I may be making a date with the beloved adrenal cocktail if my mind and body can't get back on track soon. Blech. 

We have only known about the match for a week. So no worries, people who think I've been keeping a secret/living a lie for months on end or something-- YEAH RIGHT. Like I could ever do that!! 

I want to share so much about how the match went down, about how we found out about the situation, about everything...but I'm not going to right now. Suffice it to say that this situation started out like every other situation we've had, only this time it ended with us being chosen. With phone calls with the birth mother. With joy and peace and the hope of a baby. So basically, it's been the best situation ever. :)

The baby's mom had a doctor's appointment yesterday. I was so thankful that she texted me afterwards with an update! All is looking healthy and well and Baby might be here quite a bit earlier than we were anticipating-- like, before Thanksgiving!! She'd been given two different due dates previously (for mid-Nov and early Dec) and now they're putting it even earlier, so...seven weeks should be plenty of time to prepare, right? No one really NEEDS nine months, right? Ha! That's what I'm telling myself.

I'm preparing by spending a lot of time looking at Pinterest. Ha. But seriously...it's true. Sometimes I diversify by researching baby products and registering for the ones I like best. Then I become overwhelmed and do more exciting research, like about birth announcements and how to fix baby hair. Our lawyer is busy doing the boring legal things, which is going well, and we are working on getting our bloodwork and physicals done for our home study. Sometimes I wander into our nursery, which is basically an empty room with curtains. Then I feel overwhelmed by the emptiness of it, so I go back to Pinterest and print some free printable artwork. So basically I'm a champ at this baby-prepping thing. I should teach a  class, maybe. 

SPEAKING of classes- Matt and I thought maybe we should be really awesome and take some of the parenting/infant classes at the hospital. That's a normal parent-in-waiting thing to do, right? But I couldn't make it past the class descriptions. The 'Parenting Basics' (or something like that) class promised to "teach you the identifying characteristics of newborns" and I totally lost it. REALLY? I'm picturing a diagram of a baby with arrows and labels identifying arms, head, etc. Newborn babies are characterized by looking like small humans that cannot walk, talk, or do anything for themselves. You will recognize them by their high-pitched shrieks and poopy diapers. I don't know. I just feel like I don't need QUITE that basic of a class...I always was an AP class girl, ya know.

Yesterday, after updating me about her doctor's appointment, the baby's mom texted me an ultrasound picture from that day. Holy. Crap. I was in my co-worker's office at the time and she can attest-- I FELL DOWN on the floor, crying. She (and she's five months pregnant with a girl herself!) rushed over to see what was the matter, and then when she saw the picture, she sat down next to me, sobbing with me. In about two minutes, everyone in the office was sitting on the floor in that office, crying and fighting over my phone as we struggled to discern what the heck all the white blobs on the sonogram were-- but agreeing that it was most definitely the most beautiful blob-baby anyone had ever seen.

Despite the label (GIRL) and arrow, no one could figure out what we were seeing. So another co-worker took it on herself to call up a friend who is an ultrasound tech and convinced her to come by our office so that she could 'read' the sonogram to Matt and I!!! (More tears) So she did, and here is Matt and I getting educated about the first picture we have of our baby girl. (Many thanks to Diana for thinking to take pictures of us)

The reason no one could tell what the picture is is because it is evidently an extreeeemely zoomed in close-up of our baby's lady parts. Ha. The baby's mom has not been 100% convinced it was actually a girl, so apparently this is the indisputable evidence. So there is no head, arms...all you can see (if you're an ultrasound tech, because I STILL couldn't really see it) is lady parts and the umbilical cord. So...probably not the most flattering picture the girl will ever take, but I must say that is some adorable cord and amniotic fluid, wouldn't you agree??! I mean, one of her cord thingies looks like a rubber ducky, so that must count for something.

Time to get back to work. Thank you again for all the love and support yesterday-- I tried really hard to respond to comments and will get back to it today, but please know that we read and loved and cried over every single one. You guys are incredible. Thank you thank you thank you.