It's a . . .

BOY!

OK, so most people might have already heard via facebook . . . but we had our ultrasound last night and got to see our healthy baby boy.  I think I was shocked.  Happily, happily shocked.  I really would've been happy with either a boy or a girl, but I'd be lying if I said I wasn't secretly hoping for another baby boy.  It'll just make life easier -- we have the two kids bedrooms upstairs, so having two girls and two boys simplifies the longer term sleeping arrangements.  And with this little surprise bundle of joy coming less than 18 months since Isaac joined the family, having them be two little buddies to entertain each other just makes me smile.  I also secretly was pretty convinced that because I had any kind of preference (again, would've been totally happy with a girl though!) that the punishment of said preference would be not getting what I wanted.  :-)  Thus my shock at the ultrasound tech's announcement of gender. I should've known it'd be a boy though -- and how should've I known, you ask?  'Cause of the name.  See, back in the days of my first pregnancy, I was convinced I was having a boy.  I really, really liked the name Annie for a girl (it was my nickname as a kid from my Dad, based on my middle name Ann), but try as we might, we could not come up with a boy name we both fell in love with.  Slowly, the baby in my belly secretly became Annie to me, which freaked me out, 'cause I was still so convinced it would be a boy.  But, lo and behold, we found out we were having a girl, and she's been Annie ever since.  Same story basically with Ellie.  Early on in our pregnancy, we were in a store, when a Mom called out, "Ellie!  Ellie Belly, come here!"  Greg melted, turned to me and said, "I want an Ellie Belly!"  (Although we were still debating Ellie or Lilly for awhile -- so that one wasn't quite as firm as Annie was, we never had a boys name picked out that we liked.)  Along came Isaac, and this time girls' names were elusive, and the boy name just stuck and we ended up with a boy.  This time around we joked about continuing our vowel name streak (A-E-I-and now O) with either the name Olivia or Owen.  I like the name Olivia, but it never really resonated with me this time around (although oddly, it was a name we'd discussed quite a bit for a past baby).  But Owen.  That name just stuck in my head.  I had a hard time not thinking of the baby as 'Owen.'  So, just from past experience, I should've known -- it'd be the name we liked.  (At least, I think Greg likes it -- he's been very mute about baby names this time, and he's never objected, and now the girls are calling the baby 'Baby Owen', so he may be stuck with it, like it or not at this point!)  :-)

Oh, and for those who hadn't read about it on facebook -- we took Annie to the ultrasound appointment with us, despite it being REALLY late.  Then, we let Ellie stay up late with Grandma who was baby sitting at home.  Annie was excited about seeing her baby brother first, and got progressively more and more slap happy while we were there (stopping the ultrasound a few times 'cause the tech and I couldn't stop laughing).  (She was totally being egged on by her Dad too, who was telling her funny stories, just to make her more goofy, I'm convinced.)  I let Annie be the one to call Grandma Karine and Ellie to tell them the big news.  Grandma was very excited.  Ellie on the other hand, started crying.  Then sobbing.  For like the next 10 minutes, and when we got home she was still inconsolable.  My Mom had been trying to explain all the benefits to the new little brother in our family, and how she'll have a new little girl cousin born just a few months before, but this just made her sob harder and wail, "But I want a girl baby of my own!"  My Mom pointed out that she has a sister already, which made her miss Annie who wasn't home yet, and she sobbed about wanting Annie there.  My Mom pointed out how much fun Isaac was and she cried that he was not fun at all.  It should be mentioned that it was two and a half hours after her bedtime, and she seems a bit better with the news today.  Not quite happy, but not hysterical.  :-)