Baby Girl!

In March, I had some blood tests to test for birth defects with this new baby.  With me being at an “advanced maternal age,” and with Asher’s heart, the recommended a little additional testing.  With the blood test, they look at the partial chromosomes of the baby’s that are in the mother’s blood.  They can check for Down Syndrome as well as Trisomy 13 and 18.  They can also tell you the gender.  We were planning on finding out at 20 weeks, but I figured if we could find out earlier, and then I would just know it was a boy and not hope for a girl, that would be better. 

The test took about a week to get the results.  They called me on the phone and said that the baby looked like it had very low risk for the chromosomal defects they tested for.  She then told me the gender was a girl.  I paused for a minute, then asked, “How accurate is that?”  She told me it was at least 97% accurate, similar to the accuracy of an ultrasound, and then said, “Why do you ask?”  I explained to her that I had four boys, and she replied that she thought my hesitation was because I was disappointed!  I could hardly believe it.  After four boys, a baby girl would be joining our family as the last addition.  Shane and I were both excited, and the boys were too, although Davis is still saying he’ll believe it when he sees it’s actually a girl. 

We announced the arrival of a girl to our household with this picture on Instagram and Facebook.  I didn’t even try to get Asher to make the “surprised” face, but he just went along with what his brothers were doing.