Encore

Sometimes it happens to the best of us.  Sometimes we have to eat our words and hang our heads for making such bold statements without having taken measures to back up such claims.  I am, of course, referring to this post which I made a little over two years ago.

 

Here we are again.  What has now been dubbed "Encore" will be making his/her debut sometime around January 9th, 2013.

 

 

The poor child is already draping its arm across its head wondering why God placed it in such a loud, boisterous, and crazy family!

We decided not to find out the gender.  Yes, we are boring like that.  It just doesn't matter to us (or maybe matters a little too much to a certain party who would rather be pleasantly surprised on delivery day than to have 4+ months to dwell on a 4th girl!).

 

Our ultrasound tech did not seem to have made it to class the day they were taught what to do if expecting parents do NOT want to know the gender.  She spent quite a bit of time running over the baby's image in what is best descibed as us laying on the floor looking up at the baby while it sits in a chair, buttocks and thighs being what is seen.  She also sent us home with this gem, which is a frontal leg shot up to about the hips.  We left the ultrasound about 80% certain that Encore is a girl since we didn't see anything hanging there in all those views.

Then after coming home, we examined this shot a little more closely.

 There is a suspicious looking lump protruding beneath the umbilical cord.  So perhaps it is a boy?  Our guess is back to 50/50 boy or girl.  I can't tell one way or another.  The heartrate is higher like all the girls have been but that could just be a wives' tale.  I can't tell based on how I carry because since the twins stretched everything out, Hannah laid low and Encore is also low already.  I guess we'll find out in January!

While it certainly wasn't in the cards to have a #5 anytime soon, if ever, we are taking everything in stride.  As my grandma said, sometimes God blesses some of us more than others!  The only negative to adding to the family is that since I had decided Hannah was the last, I got rid of everything baby.  So we have to start over in collecting equipment, clothing, and everything the little one will need.  Beyond that, we are very excited.  Carter really hopes it will be a brother.  We have no name ideas to share because we find ourselves in the same place as last time.  We can't agree on any boy names and the criteria for our girl names limits the available choices and we can't agree on those either.  Everything will be a surprise in January!