All is well and it's a....

SURPRISE!

First, we had our level 2 ultrasound yesterday, and as I suspected, baby #2 is looking normal so our risks of downs syndrome have gone back down to that which is normal for someone my age. The doctor went on to say that the ultra sound, like ours with Kaua, was "boring" meaning all looked normal, which is what we love to hear.

Second, the exciting news about this ultrasound is that we stuck by our decision to keep the gender of the baby a surprise for birth. I'm uber proud of myself and my resolve to keep the gender a surprise because I sooooo want to find out now and it would make naming the baby so much easier. And my DH wanted to find out the gender but was willing to defer to my choice to keep the gender a surprise. Because this may be our last child (I'm really thinking two children will be enough for us, b/c they are a handful and they are expensive!!) so I want to experience the excitement and surprise of finding out a baby's gender at birth.

During the ultrasound we told the technician that we wanted to keep the gender a surprise for birth, so she had us look away when she viewed "the goods." But she did confirm that the gender was readily apparent to her. In my head, I've construed that to mean that the baby is a boy, but my husband pointed out that it could just mean that she's experienced in these matters and can easily tell at this point (19 weeks 3 days) the difference between a girl and a boy on ultrasound. Of course, I'm hoping that DH is correct, because I am sooooo hoping for a girl.

But of course, any gender will be a blessing as long as the child is healthy. Which based upon the ultra sound is looking to be the case.

The other interesting piece of news that we learned from this ultra sound is that i have an anterior placenta. I asked about this because I haven't really been feeling the baby consistently like I did with Kaua at this point in the pregnancy. The technician confirmed that I indeed had anterior placenta which explains why the baby's movements haven't been as pronounced. I have only just very recently felt the baby and been sure that it was the baby.

So now that we've passed another hurdle of angst, the next dilemma - naming the baby and deciding where to give birth- here without the guarantee of receiving an epidural, or in the city (which will include with it tremendous expense and inconvenience, but will mean receiving an epidural for sure).

Thank you God for the great news!