Baby Kaden! :) : Gender Reveal!

So, we went for our appointment on Friday the 16th. We were under the impression we would be having our anatomy ultrasound, but it turned out there was a scheduling error. We met with a new midwife who is interning at my birth center. She was... okay, I guess. She's not my midwife, though. I freaking love my midwife, and I'm not interested in working with anyone else. She said all my measurements are on track and my weight is fine. She took baby's heartbeat and actually told us the rate, which was around 150. My midwife isn't really into numbers and measurements. As long as we're healthy, she's happy. Eventually my midwife came in to make sure I didn't have any other questions. We told her we thought we were supposed to get the ultrasound done and had a party to cancel if that wasn't the case, so she offered to try and figure it out. She said gender determination at 20 weeks isn't really her strong suit, but she'd try. Of course, my little stubborn angel glued his little feet together the whole time, so it didn't yield any results. However, it was the first time we got to see baby's skeleton, which was AMAZING! I'm so amazed at how much baby has grown since we first saw him as a little blip on the screen. :) We were able to schedule our anatomy ultrasound for the following Wednesday.
Wednesday we went to the imaging center to get the anatomy ultrasound. The tech called me back and had Lisa and Shane wait while she did the measurements and such. She didn't say much, but she didn't say anything was wrong, so I'm going to assume all is well. She did ask me if my parents were the ones in the waiting room, which my husband did NOT appreciate when I told him. :-P When she finished, she let her assistant take over and called Lisa and Shane in. They then tried for like 10 minutes to find the gender and baby was NOT having it. He had his little legs all curled up and wouldn't move for anything. I cried the whole way home. Partly because the party was ruined and mostly because I wouldn't get to know what my precious baby was until possibly my next appointment on September 13th. So very frustrating! Then Lisa called and told me my daddy wanted to schedule a 4D ultrasound so we could try to salvage the party (and all of our sanity).

Friday evening we made an appointment at BabySteps4D, which was absolutely fantastic! The lady that owns it is amazing! She apparently was super bored b/c she didn't have a lot of appointments that day, so she did a lot more than she was supposed to. We got their really early and chatted with her while we waited for Shane to get there. She told us some hilarious stories, including a baby that flipped her off 4 ultrasounds in a row. FOUR. Bahaha. Anywho, I told her we didn't want to know out loud and she said she's really bad at not slipping (she made it, though, YAY). It was a super comfy bed with a TV across from it so I could see everything. WAY better than the anatomy ultrasound where I didn't see the screen once. She turned off the TV while she looked for the gender so Lisa and Shane couldn't cheat. It took her all of 2 minutes to find. Apparently baby decided to stop being so uncooperative, which mommy REALLY appreciated. Then she turned on the screen and showed us baby's sweet little face over and over. He kept putting his hands over his head like "leave me alone!",

Exhibit A

which he did in all three ultrasounds, so I think he really hates them. By the end he was just completely over it and turned to face my back. Silly baby! We also got a cute little elephant that plays a recording of baby's heartbeat. I listen to it all the time! <3

Mammaw with the elephant! :)

Saturday we had the party. It was less than a 24 hour wait and it felt like a week and a half! It was so wonderful to share that moment with all of our friends. I've always wanted to do a gender reveal, so I'm so glad baby finally cooperated. It was perfect! :)