New Love.

The whole family is so excited for our new baby-love to arrive in a couple months.  

I had no idea how interested the boys would be in the whole process when I first told them they were going to have another sibling.  They've been very patient and know that the baby needs to grow before he/she can come out and meet them.  Max talks to the baby every day.  Sullivan gives razzberries and kisses.  They both hug my belly every night before bed completely unprompted.  

I never imagined that they would both embrace this experience so much, but I love that they have.  This baby is already very much a part of our family even though we haven't had formal introductions yet.

Because of this bond the boys have already formed with their new sibling, we decided to take them to our 3D sonogram.  We initially planned to go by ourselves, but something about that just didn't feel quite right.  The boys are so involved with this pregnancy and truly understand that their brother or sister is in my belly.  We thought they'd love to see the baby's face to make things even more real for them.

And here's what we saw...

These images are not as clear as we got with Sullivan, but we definitely got a good glimpse of our little ones face.  The baby was all curled up, hugging the umbilical cord and had arms in front of the face most of the time.  We DIDN'T see any boy/girl parts.  The sonographer said she couldn't even tell with the way the baby had his/her legs crossed.  We asked her to stay away from the bottom half either way.    

I thought baby resembled Sullivan quite a bit.  The lips and ears were very similar to what we saw in his 3D sonogram, but then we saw the baby frown a couple times and looked so much like Max :)  

The boys were unbelievably good for the first half.  They sat quietly and watched the big screen with nervous little smiles on their faces.  I was completely surprised by their behavior...sitting still and politely answering the sonographer's questions about preparing for a new sibling.  

About 20 minutes in they got antsy.  Fighting for the seat closest to me and bickering over their snacks.  The funniest part was that you could see the baby's reactions to the background noise on the sonogram.  Frowning at each outburst the boys made.  I could have watched the baby for hours, but it was time to call it a day before we traumatized all of the dreamy-eyed first time parents in the waiting room with the boys' antics :)  I had unwisely scheduled the appointment near lunchtime and things were going to spiral out of control quickly if we didn't get out of there.

We left with pictures, a video and full hearts knowing that our new love is just patiently waiting to meet us too.