It's a Girl!

We found out last Saturday at our Gender Reveal Party that Baby T is a girl.  We are completely surprised, and honestly we still think it might be a boy... Here are some pics from the day:

Edible Art made the cake- it was so delicious!

Chip and Lauren let us throw the party at their house which was so nice.  This is their lovely dining room.

Everyone voted on what they thought the gender would be by wearing a blue bowtie or a pink bow.

 About to find out...

 Pink Icing= Girl!

We are so excited for a Girl (and still in shock)!

The gender of the baby was determined at our 18 week Ultrasound, just 2 days before the Gender Reveal Party.  We waited to find out at the party (see my last post on how we schemed everything up).  We did however get some bad news at that ultrasound...Baby T will be born with a Cleft lip (and potentially Cleft Palate).  Another complete surprise.  This is not something that runs in our family and I feel like I have been so diligent ever since I got pregnant by trying to do all the right things.  There is really no explanation for it, AND it is more common to show up in baby boys than girls (another reason I still think it might be a boy).  It's a fairly common birth defect (1 in 700).  As the doctor explained it though, if you have to have a birth defect this is the one to have.  Surgery has come a long way over the years, leaving only a minimal scar.  The best case scenario is that it is only the lip, and only cosmetic (not related to any other issues or syndromes) and the baby could have surgery as early as 3 months old.  Everything else on the ultrasound looked normal, so we are hoping for a best case scenario but right now we really don't know anything else.  We are meeting with the cleft team at Duke Children's Hospital on June 10th and they will have reviewed my ultrasound pictures and have more information at that time.  They are supposed to be one of the best teams in the country for this type of surgery, so we feel blessed that we live in this area.  I will also go back for another ultrasound at 28 weeks (mid July) and they should be able to assess the severity better at that time (and I will confirm gender again, just to be sure!).  We are sad/mad/disappointed/scared (the list could go on), but we are trying to stay optimistic.  We have great family and friends who have already been so supportive and we know God wouldn't give us something we couldn't handle.  It will be a little extra work in the beginning, but we are feeling up to challenge.  More to come, Stay tuned!