What a day!

What an emotional roller coaster this day has been! I was so, so nervous all day...which, I always am on ultrasound day, but the pressure was on today because my dear, sweet friends from small group planned the most lovely gender reveal party for us. But of course, because I'm super impatient and couldn't wait any longer than we already have, I made them plan it for tonight. Three hours after our appointment. So what if something was wrong with one of the babies? What if they didn't cooperate? What if we couldn't tell for sure what they were? We would have less than three hours to either adjust to/deal with bad news or cancel the party because we had nothing to reveal. So, naturally, I was a nervous wreck.

But we got to the appointment, the babies were all healthy and (eventually!) cooperated, and we were able to have the party tonight!!

So, are you ready for this?

A - Girl.

B - Boy.

C - Boy.

D - Girl.

We are over the moon. We can't believe it. Two of each!! The best news ever.

Of course you probably want to know how it happened, and you totally should want to know, because we literally have the best friends in the whole world who put so much thought into how this party happened.

We got to our appointment at 3:00 and after Annie did all her measuring (and I breathed a sigh of relief that all of the babies were healthy and had heartbeats), she turned our screen off so we couldn't cheat and then found each baby's gender on her screen. We called my friend, Kali, and Annie stepped outside to tell her the genders so that she and the girls could go to work getting the reveal part of the party ready. They filled 8 black balloons with either pink, purple, blue, or green paint and then pinned the pink and purple ones to girl canvases and the blue and green ones to boy canvases. Then Jeremiah got to pop each balloon to show us, one canvas at a time, what each baby was.

Here's how the amazing thing went down:

Sheer joy that we at least had one of each.

Insane relief that they were an even split. And also much laughing that I had them exactly backwards (I was convinced A and D were boys and B and C were girls. This is going to take a while to get used to.)

Our family. Three boys. Two girls. This mama is beside herself.

So now, some bummer news. After Annie left, Dr. Grant came in to tell me that I'm already starting to have contractions and am now officially on bedrest. No work. No errands. No fixing up baby nurseries. No playing with my sweet preschooler who will have no concept of why this is necessary. Just laying on my back, trying to remember that this the best thing for the babies and that getting them here as healthy as possible is my first priority. I'll be honest. I bawled. Like, before we even left the office and then the whole way home from Columbia (have I mentioned that my husband is a saint?!?). I was just completely, totally, emotionally unprepared for that news. I just really thought I had another month in me. We knew this day was coming, but we've been so blessed to have so many good reports that I didn't see this being the day he would say I needed to get in my bed and stay there. I'm allowed to get up to eat, shower occasionally, and use the restroom. Other than that, Dr. Grant's instructions were that "your job is to be as lazy as possible. This will be the hardest work you've ever done." And from what I've heard from other mamas who've had to be on bedrest, it totally will be. But for now, at least I get to do it at home and can see my people. And if being as lazy as possible keeps me here and not in the hospital, I will do it. Don't get me wrong, I'm probably gonna pout about it. But I'll do it. For 14 weeks. Ugh. See? Pouting.

Ultimately, great news today. Healthy babies, two of each gender, and an amazing group of friends, co-workers, and family who rallied around us tonight to celebrate the good news and encourage us in the bad news. We are blessed.

I'm exhausted and probably incoherent at this point. I'll post more later (Lord knows I'm gonna have some time!), but for now, please just know how much we appreciate all of the love and support you all have shown us. And also, we're probably gonna start taking you up on offers of bringing us food and playing with our kid. :)