Celebrating "Baby Maggie"

Yesterday, was a day we'd been waiting on for some time! The day we would find out if our little one was indeed the "baby Maggie" that Ella Kate had predicted. It amazes me how kids know these things. Seriously....when I was pregnant with Noah, both the kids said the whole pregnancy that he was a boy. We chose not to find out the gender and experience the surprise route (which is a whole other blog entry) so it wasn't until delivery that we were astonished that the kids had been right the whole time! They never wavered. With this pregnancy, Ella Kate has been consistent yet again. "It's a girl baby." And even more recently, "Her name is Maggie." If you asked Eli, he said he wanted a boy, but in casual conversation, I found it interesting that he ALWAYS referred to the baby as "she." When we went in to the ultrasound, I just had a feeling...girl was going to be the verdict. But to backtrack a little...

Ella Kate has been so excited about her sibling! She kisses my belly and talks to "baby Maggie," dreams of the day when her "sister" can dress up as a princess with her and play with her horses, puppies and babies. I love to watch her dream. She was all excited about the ultrasound when we told her she would be going with us. We soon came to the realization though that she was under the assumption we would be holding "baby Maggie" that day. She is very ready for "baby Maggie" to come out of mommy's tummy :) So, we did our best to explain exactly what an ultrasound was. We explained to her it was kind of like watching a movie; that she would see her baby on T.V. You could literally see the wheels turning in her head until she blurted out, "Do we get popcorn??" Brian and I burst into laughter, as did she due to the obvious funny she had just made. I decided then that she would have her popcorn for her "movie."

Here she is sitting with Daddy growing ever so impatient as they were running behind schedule...go figure. Didn't they know an ancy little girl was waiting to see her "baby Maggie" for the first time and eat popcorn whilst seeing her???

They finally called us back, and Ella Kate settled in immediately asking if she could "eat her popcorn." The ultrasound tech was a little confused so we explained to her about Ella Kate's prediction of Baby Maggie and the origin of the popcorn. She got quite a kick out of this and insisted we write it in her baby book! The ultrasound started and as always, I was taken aback by the awesomeness of life. God is so good and so creative!!! We watched as Baby Maggie kicked and stretched, and even sucked her thumb!! There are just no words to describe the feeling you get when you look on the screen and see a living person that you helped create! God made it possible for us to take part in creating life and it is truly amazing!!! It has never gotten old seeing any of my children move on screen for the first time.

Details are breathtaking!!! Every little finger and toe was perfectly fashioned. A sweet little mouth was there (just waiting a few more weeks to be smothered with kisses!!!) Every rib was visible and a tiny little heart was beating inside my tiny child. Not long after scanning those tiny little baby gender parts, the ultrasound tech paused the "movie" and looked right at Ella Kate. ""Ella Kate!" she said. "Guess what that is? It's your baby Maggie!!! You are having a girl baby!!" Ella Kate dropped her popcorn and started clapping and cheering. Our family feels complete and God has graciously blessed us with 2 amazing boys and 2 precious girls. Thank you God for allowing me to take part in creating these special little lives!! What a blessing in and of itself!!

The ultrasound tech printed off a picture for Ella Kate to take to school:

She showed this picture off at school to everyone, so excited that she was indeed having a baby Maggie!!!

Once I picked Eli up from school, I told him about our good news. He wasn't quite as excited as Ella Kate. In fact, his exact words as he flung his hands over his eyes fighting back tears were, "She's just going to aggravate me too!!!!" I assured him that Ella Kate and "Maggie" would play some kind of girly thing together that he cared nothing about and leave him and Noah to play in peace. This worked and he's starting to warm up to the idea of being big brother to another little sister. We headed to Chick-fil-a for lunch and grandmom treated the boys to some ice cream :)

These really are the BEST days of my life!!!!