Oh boy.

I have always wanted to have a daughter. A blonde, curly-haired, giggly little thing who would love wearing dresses and having tea parties. A little girl who would rock her dolls to sleep in my childhood baby doll bed, dress up all the Barbies I saved for her, and devour all the Nancy Drew books I've collected since I was a kid.

I knew going into this there was very little chance of us having a girl. Nate is one of four boys; his dad is one of three. Breyers just always seem to be boys. But I held on to the hope that God knew how much I wanted a little girl, and that it would be mean to send us a little boy when He knows how much I love to shop. (It's a fact, boy clothes just aren't as cute.)

But then four of my college friends had girls right in a row — in October, November, December, January. And I just knew that was the end of the road for my dream of having a girl. There was no possible way that five of us would all have girls. The pink streak had to stop somewhere, and I knew it would end with me.

Maybe that's why I started dreaming about having a little boy. I dreamt about his baby blue nursery — everything from the pattern on his sheets to the pictures on his walls. I dreamt about him sitting on the couch with his daddy, watching football (we have yet to determine whether he will be a Vikings or Bears fan). I dreamt about him chasing Mattie around the yard, grabbing her tail and giggling. I never saw his face in any of these dreams, but I could see what our life would be like with him in it.

The more I thought about having a boy, the more excited I became. Of course, there was still part of me that longed for a girl. But as I drove up to the clinic on Friday, all I could think was - I don't care. Please God, I just want a healthy baby.

"A healthy baby" is what every newly pregnant woman says when someone asks "Are you hoping for a boy or a girl?" It's the pc answer to that question, because you know there are no guarantees that you'll make it through your first trimester, or that your baby will be born without any birth defects or disabilities. Being the loud-mouthed person I am, I had no qualms about saying "GIRL!" whenever someone asked me that question. But over the course of my pregnancy, my maternal instincts began to kick in. Before that ultrasound, you worry about EVERYTHING. I worried that I wasn't feeling the baby move enough. I worried that they would find markers for down syndrome or that the baby would be missing a limb. I worried that the baby would be inexplicably ill and unlikely to survive. All things I know have happened to other mothers — other women with perfectly healthy bodies who never thought for a second those things would happen to their baby. And so the desire to have a girl over a boy became a total non-issue. All I wanted was a healthy baby.

Which he is. Our baby boy is beautiful, and healthy, and growing just as he should (though a little on the chunky side, go figure). Nate and I are both out of our minds with excitement. The moment we saw our little man up on that screen, we fell in love. And everything became very real. This bulging stomach of mine is home to our son, a little boy we love with all of our hearts and cannot wait to meet. A little boy I wouldn't trade for all the curly-haired girls in the world.

Thank you, God, for our healthy little one.

These are pictures of pictures; the tech warned us not to make copies or scan them. So, this is the best I can do for now! The first is his cute little profile, in the second one his little hands are up by his face, and in the third one he has one arm up above his head.