Surprise!

Guess what...

I knew we were having a girl. Found out in October.

Everyone who knows our personalities wouldn't be shocked that I really wanted to know what the baby was and Keith really wanted it to be a surprise. But I didn't want to ruin it for him so figured I could deal with waiting until birth to see if we had an XX or an XY.

So, when the genetic counselor called to let me know that my amnio results were normal, I made a spontaneous decision to find out the gender and vowed that I would keep the secret and satisfy both of us.

I don't remember this from my last pregnancy, but EVERYONE asks if you know what you're having. I quickly figured out that the only way to successfully keep my secret was to make everyone believe that I didn't know at all. In other words, saying that I knew but wasn't telling anyone, wouldn't do at all. Even my doctor didn't know that I found out.

For the rest of the pregnancy I enjoyed shopping the sales for adorable girl clothing... and I really enjoyed it :-) But aside from the jubilation of shopping and nursery planning, I just liked knowing that we were expecting a little girl.

Two of the closest people in my life, my Mom and Christina, both questioned me the week before Anna was born, asking if I truly didn't know what the baby was, because it was very out of character for me to do something like that. By that time I was a pro at pretending and insisted again that I didn't know :-)

I'm proud of myself for never once slipping and ruining the surprise for Keith. The only time I thought he might suspect something was toward the end when I insisted that we were all set with a boy name but really needed to work on a girl name :-)

I thought he'd be impressed when I eventually told him that I had known. That moment came as soon as we were alone in the delivery room, about an hour after Anna was born. To my surprise, he was really disappointed! He thought we were in on the surprise together. And at that point I felt bad and regretted telling him. At that point I felt like I could have continued to keep the secret, like, forever. Oh well.

During the five months that I kept the surprise, I grew more and more excited about how my in-laws would react to the news that, after five grandsons, they finally had a granddaughter. When Keith called them on Thursday morning their reaction didn't disappoint.

So anyway, I think that's the biggest secret I'll ever keep. I don't regret my decision to find out because I really enjoyed knowing that we were expecting a girl. And I must say, though I had five months to imagine what it would be like to have a girl, it is much, much better.

The surprised Daddy and his girl, who he adoringly calls Honey.