Baby news

I'm almost six months pregnant now, and I have been DYING to know baby's gender (and that everything's okay, because moms worry). Our midwife doesn't do ultrasounds, so for Diana I volunteered as a model for ultrasound tech training at the local pregnancy resource center. It works out very well and it's free, but they legally can't tell you your baby's gender since they're not a medical clinic and run into liability issues. So they basically browse over the area and let you speculate wildly.

Now Joseph and I and everyone else who cared to guess have felt that this baby was a boy for a long time. By the old wives' tales about fetal heart rate (lower heart rate for a boy and higher for a girl), this baby seemed like a boy (HR around 120-135). But really, there's no way to know without an ultrasound and I REALLY wanted to know whether I needed to be preparing for a boy or if we'd be able to use all of Diana's old clothes, blankets, etc.

With slight distrust, I talked to our insurance company who said they'd cover an ultrasound as long as it was ordered by our midwife even though they wouldn't cover our midwife. Weird. But that was all I needed to set up an appointment at the hospital. Our visit reinforced how much I hate hospitals and the medical system but love the sweet nurses and technicians who make it work. The tech who did our ultrasound was incredibly nice and very well practiced. She breezed through our ultrasound, got us some great pictures, and though he was mostly modest and difficult, we determined that we're having a little boy!

We're very excited, but part of me is a little baffled since I don't know what to do with a little boy. I remember being a little girl and I can understand what Diana is thinking and feeling. I've been assured that little boys are sweet and love and need their mommies, though, so I think we'll have a great time. Here are some pictures of him:

Here he is in 3D with his little hand jammed up under his nose.

Baby's profile

To my surprise, several people alluded to the fact that I had been hoping for a boy or had wanted to have the first Sullivan boy. Thanks to pregnancy hormones, my memory is already worse than it has been, but I'm almost certain that's not the case. As the oldest child, the first grandchild on both sides of my family, and the first girl, I always resented the idea that having a boy was superior to having a girl. Sure, in most cases, the family name is passed on through a boy, but I don't think either one should be valued any differently for any reason. When I had Diana, someone mentioned that we may have lost our chance to have the first Sullivan boy, and that actually bothered me a lot. Who cares?? One day Diana may change her name, but she is just like her dad and in her manners and characteristics she is a Sullivan through and through. Some days I wonder if I shared any part of my genes with her!

So yes, we are thrilled to be having a little boy, and no, that wasn't what I was "hoping for," I just felt like we had a boy in there. Just had to get that off my chest. We don't have a name yet, but we're going through some family names (and some names that we just like). We may break the tradition of naming a baby after a family member. I was encouraged to consider some of the Cespedes family names like Eulalio, Atanacio, Leopoldo, etc. but I'm not sure how well that will work for our little guy. I will do everything I can to avoid having a child named Marcus Aurelius Apollo Creed Sullivan, which is Joseph's current top choice over Maximus Sullivan. It should be fun preparing for him in any case!