Her first state fair of Texas

Thursday of last week was our "big" sonogram. You know, the one where we find out whether our child is a boy or a girl. In all honesty, this 19-week appointment was accompanied, once again, by more anxiety and fear than excitement. Most other days I'm fine. But I don't know if I'll ever have a sonogram appointment where I do not dread something being wrong.

Of course, I tell myself all the things I know I should. God is in control. This may be my only pregnancy; enjoy it! Everything is fine; just be excited about the baby.

It's hard to do after you've lost a child.

Thankfully, my sonogram last week showed a perfectly normal, healthy baby GIRL! All of her measurements were within one day of my original due date, which amazingly has not changed at all since I first became pregnant. She was wiggling around quite a bit, so we didn't get to see her profile, but all of her organs look normal, and we got a glimpse of her feet and hands. Speaking of the wiggling, I've been feeling her little movements now for a couple weeks and am grateful for each of these moments.

My four-year-old nephew has been calling his cousin "her" and "she" ever since we told him I was pregnant. My co-worker graciously gave me a trunk-load of baby items right before we moved, most of which were pink since her child is a little girl. My drycleaner in Dallas was certain I would have a girl when I told him I was pregnant. The room in our new house that we're going to use for a nursery is already painted a very pale pink. Our child's gender did not matter to us at all, but it is nice to imagine one more detail about our child now.

The "face" sonogram pictures do not show a lot of detail, but John proclaimed right away that he thinks our baby looks like me and she's beautiful. Already he's told me he knows it's important that he tells her all the time that she's beautiful. What a great dad!

The excitement of the week was followed up with a super fun weekend in Dallas getting to see my sister, brother-in-law and nephew. We had a fun-filled day at the State Fair of Texas Saturday, even though I had to forgo the Fletcher's corny dog this year. I made up by partaking of some tornado taters and a funnel cake. A large part of the fun was seeing my nephew so extremely excited about EVERYTHING at the fair: the petting zoo, the cows, the dog show, a hamburger, the rides, the music!

Saturday night was the perfect ending to an exciting day as we sat around with John's family watching the Rangers beat the Tigers 15-5 to make it to the World Series!

Sunday we enjoyed a beautiful morning at the Arboretum with all the pumpkins and fall decor before everyone headed home.

Needless to say, I'm a little exhausted. But definitely happy and so thankful for my family. Including this newest addition of our daughter!