As I lay on the table at the doctor's office with the cold, blue ultrasound goo pooling on my swollen abdomen, I almost shot Clarke a knowing and mischievous wink because in a matter of seconds we were about to find out that I had won our gender bet.

The doctor began moving the ultrasound wand across my belly and the baby appeared on the black and white screen, as did the one liter of orange juice I had consumed the previous hour and tried to hold in, even resorting to the infamous little girl pee pee dance while waiting our turn for the ultrasound room. After all a full bladder = optimal baby gender shots!

In spite of the copious amounts of sugar I had ingested to help "wake" up baby, there he lay, peacefully exercising his mouth while he slept. SLEPT. Awwww. My son.

Thankfully, our baby was sleeping with his legs wide open and there we saw it...

...or rather didn't see........

a penis. 

"This looks like a baby girl," the doctor announced. 

She was pointing to the lack of boy parts on the black and white image swimming on the screen just to the right of my belly.

Hmmmm...there must be something wrong with the machine...

The doctor admittedly did a thorough exam of the area in question and determined that she was 95% certain that we were expecting a girl. 

A GIRL?

A GIRL?

A GIRL.

A GIRL!

Clarke was very diplomatic not to sneer or crow about his victory as lesser human beings might do.

Namely, myself.

Instead, he was smiling ear to ear like a proud daddy and I couldn't help but concede the bet and smile myself, because this means that I will have a son and a daughter. One of each.

Aside from our healthy baby sleeping off the orange juice sugar high, everything else checked out great. Translation; the cerclage is holding beautifully and my doctor is fully confident that my body can sustain this pregnancy to (or near to) full term!!! Unless, of course, it doesn't. But let's pray on the glass is half full approach and plan for another December birthday for our little family.

A girl.....we're having a girl...pink and stuff, right?

Time to shop, I think.

Nine years ago, on the afternoon of July 20, 2002, Clarke and I were sealed for time and all eternity in the Boise, Idaho LDS Temple. 

Today, we celebrate our ninth anniversary in the style of 98.937% of all married couples: going out to dinner. Grappling with the inevitable question of where to dine has occupied our thoughts, conversations and research. Yes, sadly, even researching the hot spots to eat in the valley has appeared in our recent Google search history.

As a result of our indecisiveness, we are relying on planned spontaneity. Clever, eh?

Last night we scribbled the name of five or so restaurants in the valley and we're going to put them into a hat. Then, as we're pulling away from home tonight for our anniversary celebration, we'll pull the name of a restaurant out of a hat and that is where we'll eat! 

If we have any energy left after dinner, perhaps we'll make it to the movie theater or home to watch Netflix and probably fall asleep on the couch.

Do we know how to capitalize on romance or what??

I love you my Clarke. Thanks for being such a superhero husband!

It's a tremendous blessing to know that so many people are thinking about and praying for our family. As you can imagine, we are bombarded with the same questions from caring friends and family on a daily basis and those inquiries have prompted me to create a little Q&A questionnaire to answer your questions.

I am doing great; kicking back and enjoying the second trimester euphoria, free from morning sickness of the first trimester and the promised aches and pains of the third trimester. 

My only redeeming symptom is insomnia and if it weren't for Unisom, I probably wouldn't sleep at all.

This past week, I began feeling the baby move, which is the BEST feeling in the whole world!

Baby is awesome. Very healthy heartbeat!

We get this question quite often and we don't know what color to paint the nursery. Yet.

If we're lucky, and our baby is embarrassingly immodest, we may find out at next week's appointment.

Clarke says girl. I say boy. Brock says boy but calls the baby "she."

Regardless, we will be thrilled with either a son or a daughter.

We are 17 weeks and change, or 4 months. The baby's due date is on or around December 18th-20th. Most likely, we will not make it to the third week in December. Our first goal is to make it to 24 weeks, or NICU viability. Naturally, we want to maintain this pregnancy for as long as possible, but should something happen that would result in an early delivery, we hope it is after 24 weeks.

Our next goal is 33 weeks, when the baby's lungs are mature. And finally, making it to full term, or 37 weeks is our ultimate goal.

Absolutely. We are less than two weeks from the time during pregnancy when we lost Amelia. The anxiety of facing another catastrophic loss has kept me up nights and the reality that these things can happen a second time has really dampened the excitement of this pregnancy. Frankly, it sucks not to show any enthusiasm for this baby and go crazy shopping and planning, but we're cautious. And rightly so. However, this is a different pregnancy and precautions have already been taken to prevent a second loss. All we can do is hope and pray and obey the rules. 

Should something happen, like another round of bed rest, no fewer than 98 people have made me promise to call them right away so that they can step in and "help." Our support system is incredible!

Right now, we're doing great and don't need a lot of help. Clarke, in his amazingness, has taken on much of the heavy housework, including laundry, frequently offers to make dinner and clean up afterward and is always active outdoors with Brock. I'm most astonished with Brock and his willingness to help out "momma" whenever he recognizes the opportunity. For example, I have been directed by my doctor to refrain from lifting anything heavier than a purse. Brock is quick to point out when something might be heavier than a purse and he loves to be the muscles around home when daddy is at work. When we grocery shop, Brock likes to push the cart and bag the groceries, in addition to unloading the car when we get home. One day he caught me trying to make my bed and my chastised me for "overdoing" it and offered to help. I LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE my boy to pieces! He is a fantastic helper!

If you really want to help, just keep us in your thoughts and prayers. We are big believers in the immense power of prayer and are so appreciative for all those prayers being sent Heavenward on our behalf.

When you're an adoptive client of LDSFS, you are required to report a pregnancy and your profile is suspended for the duration of your pregnancy. This is perfectly fine with us. You'll notice if you go searching for our profile on itsaboutlove.org, our profile is no longer available. Given our unique and high risk circumstances, LDSFS has agreed to postpone our home study renewal (expired last month) until September, by which time we have to make the choice to renew or not; depending entirely up on our pregnancy. Best scenario is that we do not need to renew and have a healthy, biological baby to bring home this December. Nevertheless, we are not opposed to consider adoption in the future. Friends of ours just adopted a sibling group of three young children and we are over-the-moon happy for them;  inspired that one day we may be able to offer our home and family to adoptive children in like circumstances. 

We will continue to update everyone as the pregnancy progresses. 

Hopefully, we'll have gender news next week! 

We spent the weekend in Washington at a family reunion and drove home in the afternoon heat on July 4th, sleepy, sunburned and racing the clock to arrive home before dark. We had just enough time to empty our car trunk before loading up Clarke's pick-up and heading out to Melba, a small Idaho town of no consequence, except on the Fourth of July, when the town boasts a spectacular fireworks display. 

My brother and his family joined us along a lonely stretch of country road just outside the town to park beside a field and wait for the show to begin. Clarke and Scotty backed their trucks up towards one another so that the kids could play between the two truck beds and the adults could talk. It was a relaxing way to spend the hour and a half wait. In the meantime our lonely country road grew more and more populous with cars and people and on that night you'd never suspect Melba to be a sleepy town as it was alive with crowds and excitement.

Jamin:

Brock:

Alison & Trav

Travis:

Clarke:

Libby:

Relaxing, after an exhaustingly long summer's day, in the back of the truck with blankets and couch cushions was the perfect way to cozy up for the fireworks. As soon as it was dark enough, they started to glitter in the dark sky overhead...

By the time the last embers were falling from the grand finale spectacular, we were more than anxious to hurry to the comfort of our air conditioning and the welcome reprieve of sleep. Our anticipation to get home as quickly as possible was hampered by the miles of break lights that wound their way up every road leading out of pokey, little Melba. We slowly snailed along the country roads while Brock recounted the excitement of the evening and waved around his red, white and blue glow stick. Apparently, there is a setting on the glow stick that makes it look like police car lights and one glance in the rear view mirror sent Clarke swerving to the side of the road in a panic. Fortunately, Clarke quickly realized that it was just the glow stick radiating the flashing lights. Unfortunately for Brock, Clarke quickly realized that it was just the glow stick radiating flashing lights. One tongue lashing and a long, quiet drive later we were all ready to retire July 4th, 2011 once and for all.