And the Gender is...

BABY GIRL! That's right, next June (or May if she decides to come a few days early) Trey and I will be welcoming sweet little Kathryn Elizabeth Holmes into the world. We will call her Kate.

At our Wednesday appt, we were supposed to only hear the baby's heartbeat and check my weight, blood pressure, etc. We decided to see if Dr. Haddock would let us take a sneak peak to try and find out the gender. I'm 16 weeks at this point, and most doctors like to wait until at least 18 weeks. But it is Christmastime, and we thought we could appeal to this if she needed convincing. Only, no convinving was needed. When Trey asked, Dr. Haddock said "Sure, I have no problem with that. Let me just make sure Jules (the sono tech) has some free time." Easy enough. And sure enough, Jules was busy but so willing to accomodate us. I just love my doctor and her staff.

It was so fun seeing our little one bounce around on the screen. She is one active little baby now. It was difficult getting an accurate heart rate reading because she moved so much. And she looks like a little baby now!! The first three sonograms we saw (weeks 7-9) she was just a little peanut on the screen. Now she has a head, arms, legs, and a belly filled with food from her mommy. It took Jules a little while of shaking my tummy to get our little girl to uncross her legs...she was just a little modest. We didn't mind waiting because it was so neat watching her. I don't know how people really understand those sonograms without help. Sometimes I couldn't tell what was what until Jules explained it, and sometimes I couldn't even tell after she explained it! When Jules said, "This is a little baby...GIRL!" we were both shocked. We are having a girl. Wow.

It all seems so much more real when you know the gender and have a sono picture of the profile of your baby. When we got home from our appointment, I went straight to Wal Mart and walked around the baby section, looking at all the sweet little girl clothes. I laid awake most of that night thinking over and over, "a little baby girl, a little baby girl." I can't believe it. I just knew we were having a boy, for no other reason than I just thought that's what we were having. I am so excited to have a little girl, though. Really, all I want is a healthy baby, and I'd be thrilled to have a boy or a girl. What a blessing that the Lord is giving us a sweet little girl!

Kate is named after her grandmother (Kathryn is my mom's middle name) and her aunt (Elizabeth is my sister's middle name), two godly women who have been instrumental in my life. Her name means "pure" and "consecrated to God." Exactly what we want our little girl to be! I look forward to watching Trey be the daddy to our sweet girl. He is going to be amazing. He is already madly and tenderly in love with her. It is so precious.

Thanks for your prayers and for sharing in our excitement. We love you all!