And now we know ; )

So as you all know, I have been completely convinced that I'm having a boy. I went in to the anatomy ultrasound expecting my suspicions to be confirmed and look at my husband and say "I told you so."

That didn't happen. Much to our surprise, WE'RE HAVING A GIRL!

I am so excited to pick out little dresses and make matching bows : )  Oh, and we can't forget about the totes full of barbies from my childhood (barbie dream house included) that I will get to pull out in a few years and see my precious memories relived with my sweet baby girl. I'm already busy making wall art and planning the nursery decor. It is so much more fun to look at girl items. She is going to LOVE shopping with mommy!

My mom came with us to the ultrasound and as soon as we left the first thing she said was "I can't believe she's so big already." If I read the ultrasound report right, my little girl is measuring larger than what my April 18 due date would put her at. I wish I knew a little more about reading ultrasound reports because I really think it changed my due date to be more like April 10. I guess I'll just have to wait til after Christmas when I go back to my doctor and ask.

While we were waiting to go in for the ultrasound we were talking about names and how I didn't want to have to try and come up with one for a girl because I had been so torn. As soon as the ultrasound tech told me it was a girl I knew there were only two options. Within an hour of the ultrasound, I knew the name I wanted for my little girl.

Violet Grace Jaeger is her name. There are about a million reasons for why we chose this name. Violet is a name I chose when I was very young and started reading the series "The Boxcar Children" by Gertrude Chandler Warner. Violet is a character in the books and I thought it was just the most beautiful name, and it's stuck with me ever since. As I grew older and started thinking of baby names and learning more about the significance of a name and how God created women, I decided that I wanted my girls' names to exude beauty whether in meaning, sound, or symbol. I also want them to feel connected to family. I didn't know before, but Violet is a family name on my biological father's side. I like that the name Violet is not just a beautiful flower, color, and family name, but that it also represents a great love for reading that I had at an early age: something we both agree we deeply desire for our children.

Grace as a concept I think is the greatest gift aside from salvation that God has given us (and let's face it, "Grace" makes a better sounding name than "Salvation").  Grace is the name of one friend who never doubted my judgement in choosing to marry my husband, Cameron. She stuck by me 100% and it meant the world to me. I had great adventures with her in college and remember our friendship fondly. Grace is also family. Grace is the name of my husband's grandmother, the one who's diamond is in my engagement ring. As it turns out, grandma Grace's best friend was named Violet.

We have so many reasons to hold her name dear and so many great memories and feelings tied to the words violet and grace. I am really happy with the name and crazy surprised how easy it was for us to settle on it after finding out that we're having a girl.

Where you least expect it

Since the introduction of Zofran to my life, the whole pregnancy thing has drastically changed. I go shopping. I even do a little grocery shopping. Lack of nausea doesn't mean smells don't affect me or that I magically have energy to do a bunch of errands, but it does allow me to get out for small trips assuming I rest whenever I feel the need to- I've been putting those benches at the front of store to good use- and even opened up a folding chair once and just sat down next to the display for a little bit.

Due to the coming holiday, I have family on their way to my house right now and it wasn't until last night that I realized that while I have a guest bedroom with a bed, sheets, and comforter- I don't have any guest pillows. Pregnancy has slowly claimed every spare pillow we had so that now, there are no extras. Because of this, I decided that I better head to Walmart to pick up a few.

I went in for pillows and chicken broth- after circling the parking lot forever and finally deciding to park way out in Timbuktu I decided that I didn't want to have to come back until the holiday was over because it was so packed and it's just MONDAY- during the day- seriously, don't people have to work? Anyways... while in the store I started thinking of other things I might need or want, and having decided that there is NO WAY I want to come back to this store until after Thanksgiving or subject any of my family to having to fight the crowds, I took a "go ahead and buy it now" attitude. Better to have too much than to have to fight the crowds later.

Well... that lead to a fairly full cart of groceries... and I was there by myself. After having walked the ENTIRE store, I was thoroughly exhausted, and as I was lifting groceries out of my cart at the checkout I was thinking how on earth am I ever going to have the energy to lift these AGAIN into my car?

Thanks to Cameron's influence, I now talk to the cashiers wherever I go. He's really taught me to take more notice of people and treat them with not just kindness, but interest. His ability to talk to and take interest in the lives of people he doesn't know is one of Cameron's best qualities.

But back to my story- So... I'm talking to the lady at the cash register and asking her how her day is going and she starts talking to me about my day and asking about the baby (I may only be 18 1/2 weeks along, but I look VERY pregnant regardless of what I wear). It was a really nice conversation and as she was finishing up she looked at me and said "you look really tired, can I get you some help with those bags?"

WHAT? I'm at Walmart. They don't help you with your bags. In fact, I don't think I have ever in all my experience with the store even come across an employee remotely capable of helping me with a service they do offer. If anything, I have through experience come to rate Walmart as being the store with the absolute worst customer service in the history of the concept. Yet, this woman saw the relief on my face when she offered the help and immediately called someone up to the front to come push my heavy cart out and load everything into my car.

The guy who came up to take me out to my car was friendly too. He asked me about the baby and told me about his family member who is also expecting. He even sorted out the bags with cold things in them and put them up front so I could just take those in at home and leave the rest for someone else to carry up.


I never ever would have expected such kindness and service at Walmart. Yet, right when I needed it, there it was.

The Wonder of Choices

Today has been the best day in a long time. I called my doctor early this morning to make sure the huge blood vessel bursts in my eye weren't serious (they're not, btw- completely normal). In the process, I mentioned how much I've been struggling with nausea and that I was interested in some relief- enough said. They called in a prescription for Zofran to my local Walgreens and I couldn't be more thankful.

I don't know if it's the tea or the Zofran, or the combination of the two- but today I had the energy to not just go into my kitchen- but to actually clean it! That's right. I did the dishes. I cleaned the counters. I even scrubbed down the sink. I picked up my living room too. Maybe that doesn't sound lovely to you, and I'll agree that while I hate feeling miserable so often, it has been nice to let someone else take care of the chores- but it's so much nicer to have a choice in the matter. Today, for the first time in a long time, I had that choice. Standing to do dishes didn't make me gag. Pulling out the trash didn't completely wipe me out. I was able to do several chores before getting tired. I know that right now I don't have to keep up with the housework, but it's so nice to have the option to do it myself if I'm so inclined.

In other news, I think I may finally make a trip up to Longview next Monday! If this is really what the happy little pill does for me I think I can make the trip by myself. I miss my mom. I know she'll be down for thanksgiving, but it will be nice to see her sooner and to be able to pick up some happy fall/christmas decorations from the house. 

13 days until we find out if it's a boy or a girl!