Thursday, January 29, 2009

It's A Boy...I mean a girl...



For those of you who don't know my ultrasound history this should be interesting. I was pregnant with my third child and went in for my 19 week ultrasound. Everything looked great. The tech mentioned she was 97% sure we would be having a little boy. Daryl and I never saw any convincing evidence of this (we already had a boy and knew what a Reed boy looked like) but determined she was the expert. I was very content to keep in boy mode. This was great news. Max would have a little brother to play with. January 28th came and in a few short hours Benson Lewis Reed arrived. The doctor set him on my tummy. He looked so much like Max. He looked to be very preemie. I was a bit puzzled. He was only 17 days early. And was a healthy six pounds. I noticed he was having some trouble breathing so after hugs and kisses, I handed him off to the nurse to weigh him and clean him up a bit. I was so excited to finally have my little bundle of joy. Daryl, my Mom and I were all saying how much he looked like Max and wondering if his breathing was getting better. After a few minutes the nurse very hesitantly interrupted and said "are you thinking you have just had a little boy? Because this baby is most definitely a little girl."
You could have heard a pin drop. For a few minutes nobody said a word. I was in shock. Once my brain processed the moment, I was so excited to go buy pink! I didn't have any girl names picked out. Ruby Mae went about 2 days as baby girl Reed. After about 2 weeks in the hospital Ruby was diagnosed with congenital hypothyroidism. Which means she has no thyroid. After some research we discovered that many techs mistake the female body part as male when it hasn't fully receded. This is very common in hypothyroid cases. If you have ever seen a preemie little girl you know what I mean. Since the thyroid controls development she was a full term baby that looked very preemie. The good news is she takes synthetic thyroid everyday and is responding very well. She is very intelligent and is growing normally.
So here I am pregnant with my fourth child. A few weeks ago I had my ultrasound. The tech announced I would be having a little girl. I am very content to stay in girl mode. Ruby will have a little sister to play with. Great. Sound familiar? Well, Daryl and I both saw convincing evidence of the girl "prediction". I think it is safe to say little girl will be the most likely outcome. We just won't take it to the bank.

Wednesday, January 28, 2009

Christmas