It's A....

We are 23 weeks along, and it's a GIRL!  

EEEEEEEKS!!!!  The Swanson house is about to add a baby girl to the mix!!  WHAT?????  Our house is literally split down the middle on how we feel about this precious little girl coming our way.  From the beginning Jeff has wanted a girl,  G has adamantly said "neither, but a boy or nothing!", and I have been indifferent.  The above picture captures all of our responses perfectly :)

We wanted to find out what we were having but wanted it to just be the two of initially, so we had our Dr. write it on a piece of paper and put it in an envelope so Jeff and I could go to lunch together and open it.  When game time came we were both kind of nervous and I could not decide what was the best way for us to open it (When it comes to small relatively menial decisions in life like how we should open the envelope to find out what we are having  I literally can't make up mind because there's too many options that COULD be the better choice.  Give me life or death decisions any day but seriously the small details in life somebody just make them for me otherwise we will be here discussing this decision for the next week)

Our time at lunch began to go down the "Ash path of too many options" for opening the envelope and so my dear husband decided he would open it, and buy a little gift that would tell me.  Thank goodness he just made the executive decision because all I was thinking was, "which one of us should open the envelope, should the other one film it or take a picture,  what if Jeff is disappointed if it's a boy, what if I secretly wanted a boy or a girl, should have gotten someone to capture the moment on camera besides just us two, and so on and so on, so much so I couldn't bring myself to open the dang envelope!!  

So we parted ways after lunch and I headed to the bookstore to find G a new book, and Jeff headed to the baby store to open the envelope and buy a gift.  When we met up he had a great poker face, I literally couldn't tell if he was disappointed or doing an awesome job keeping the suspense.  Up until the point I opened the envelope I really hadn't cared one way or the other, so I was surprised at my response in finding out it was a girl.  I was super excited, shocked, and of course my mind instantly starting going down my "Ash path of too many options"...  I don't know how to braid hair, how do you potty train a girl...G ran around our backyard naked for a week and it worked, what if she loves Barbies...I hate them, I hope she always knows she is beautiful because God created her exactly how He wanted her, please don't let her struggle with body image issues...she is beautiful, for G a diaper was a perfectly acceptable outfit...I think girls require more than that, I hope she will always find her worth in Christ not by what some man tells her, hormones...high school...and hormones, she is not watching Beauty and the Beast...worst girl movie ever...you can't change a raging beast into your prince charming by just loving him, it will never happen, it's called abuse!!  That was just the first 10 seconds after finding out :)  I laugh/cried for the next 30 minutes as Jeff and I talked about a GIRL!!  He was so cute an excited as soon as I opened it he didn't stop smiling ear to ear for the rest of the day.  I am sooooo excited to share life with a sweet baby girl, just feels so weird after almost 9 years of straight up boy life!  Bring on the pink baby!!

I'm pretty sure the pics we have of G's response pretty much explain everything he was feeling.  Even though he was devastated at first and cried the rest of the night, he does on occasion say sweet things about the baby and when he feels her kick in my stomach says "hey little sister you stop kicking your big brother"  I actually think he's excited but embarrassed to admit it, which is fine.  Work through the feelings little man, your wife will appreciate your ability to do that someday!

Secretly a little excited to find out...

Not so secretly devastated by the mere glimpse of something pink :(

We have about 17 weeks to go until we meet our sweet little girl and can't wait to see how she changes our lives.  How blessed we are to have a girl on the way, and a boy for the last 8 years!