2o weeks...and the gender...

Well, here we go again...this is the repost of the most recent post that I lost in cyberspace:
So when I scheduled our 20 week appointment, I specifically told the parents that it was for two days later than it really was. I was hoping to be able to pull something off to surprise them with the gender of the baby besides a simple phone call. For those who don't know or remember, my parents live in Orlando and Doug's mom lives in Jackson, MS. So a simple phone call is the default method of notification...how boring. So the grandparents were expecting news two days after we hopefully found out.
So the day of our appointment, I placed a special order. Doug and I thought we would send them little Chinese style take-out pails with custom decorated fortune cookies. The pails I ordered were yellow, with fortune cookies dipped in chocolate and covered in yellow sprinkles. The card said “Pssst: Our appointment has changed. Call us for details.” I ordered them in the neutral color because we were racing against the clock. Our appointment was at 1:30 CDT. The cutoff time for orders from this company – Lady Fortunes – was 2:00 CDT (noon PDT). So I did that just in case we weren't finished with our appointment or we couldn't determine the gender with certainty. I explained the situation to my confectionary consultant and she told me that she would try and delay the order by about 30 minutes to give me time to call back after our ultrasound to let her know if it was a girl or a boy. That way we could change everything from yellow to pink or blue. And we got lucky...
Doug and I met at the doctor's office and immediately were taken in for our ultrasound. We were so anxious to find out what we were having but more importantly that the baby was healthy. The ultrasound tech asked if we wanted to know the gender and we both practically screamed...YES! I told her the earlier the better because we had fortune cookies to modify if we could. So when you watch the ultrasound DVD, the picture goes from the baby's face right to the “goods”. But at first, the baby wasn't cooperative. The legs were crossed and blocking our perfect view for determination...so the tech jostled the baby around a bit to see if we could get the legs to spread...and we did! The tech almost gave up in her quest for gender identification when all of a sudden there it was. She said to us “You're having a” - this is when I completely thought she was going to say girl - “boy!” Doug and I immediately met eyes and our jaws dropped. This is not what we were expecting...
We looked at every possible inch of the baby and determined that everything looks good thus far. The baby is healthy and looks great! Thanks to the Lord! He is about 6 days ahead of schedule which makes sense given his parents, and we are thankful that everything looks great at the halfway point.
So when the ultrasound was over, Doug went to the waiting room to wait for the nurse to call us back to meet with our doctor. I ran into the hallway and called Lady Fortunes. I told Alex it was a boy, and she was ecstatic. We changed everything from yellow to blue and changed the cards to read “Roses are red, violets are blue, we know what we're having, now so do you.” Each grandparent was to receive one pail of cookies – with the big reveal.
Now let's move to Tuesday...Doug and I go to work, and I am immediately preoccupied with the delivery status of the packages! At 10:15 EDT my dad's package is signed for in the mail room of his company. I am getting butterflies in my stomach waiting for the phone call with his excited voice on the other end...nothing. So back to work...but occasionally I'm checking the status of the moms' packages...nothing. So I go to lunch and soon after I return to the office, my mom's package is delivered. Then the butterflies really start up. I immediately start an email to Doug to let him know that my mom's has been delivered when my cell phone rings...it's her! I answer it as nonchalantly as possible, and the first words out of her mouth are “You are a stinker!” Gee thanks mom...tee hee Then she proceeded to tell me that she thought it was an early Mother's Day gift. It took over 5 minutes and the assistance of her coworker, Judy, to help her realize that it was the big reveal and not a Mother's Day gift...sheesh! So I let her go and try to get back to work...but inevitably I'm checking the tracking of the last package...nothing.
Then I check one more time and it's been delivered! I grab my cell phone and place it closer to me so I don't have to search for it when it's ringing loudly...nothing. So I email Doug to let him know it's landed. He's not received a call either. So I check the tracking status again and sure enough someone named Taylor signed for it...neither one of us knew who that was but that probably meant that the office was closed. So I called my mother-in-law to see if was in the office. It turns out she had called in sick that day because she was really under the weather. Huge bummer for many reasons. So I told her that Doug and I were trying to be sneaky and send her a package. She joked that she'd need to get dressed and go to work just for that. I told her we'd figure out a way to get the package to her. We did. Her boss picked it up from the business next door and drove it to her house. Becky immediately opened it and was ecstatic! At first, she was so excited that it was fortune cookies that she didn't even care when we had sent them – although she thought at first it was for Mother's Day. Then she quickly realized and called me to share her wonderful, loving words of excitement! We chatted for a little while; then she called Doug to visit with him about the news. Two down, one to go...
So getting a tad bit frustrated I called my dad and asked him is there was a box on his desk. He told me now so I asked when the mail was delivered at his office. He told me that the mail room had called him to let him know there was a package for him. I told him that it was from me. That seemed to peak his interest so I told him to call me after he opened it. An hour and a half later...nothing. So I sent him a text message to see if he had opened it...nothing. So about a half hour later, I called and asked if he was still swamped with work...that would be the primary reason he would delay retrieving the package. He asked if it was an emergency. I told him “kind of”. So he told me he would open it and call me. And that's what he did. He was very excited, and we ended up chatting about the baby for about 3o minutes. It was very nice. We talked about his grandfatherly instinct into gender determination and all that jazz...it was great!
So that's the story about our big reveal to the grandparents regarding the gender of our baby...it was an adventure pulling it off and interesting the day of the reveal. But it was memorable for everyone which was the point of the efforts. Thank God for fantastic grandparents and a healthy baby boy!