The Update

Well, we were right (I have to admit, I love being able to say those words!). "Mr. Baby," as Chris has now dubbed our still nameless unborn child, is a boy. Since, as I mentioned in my last post, there have not been any girls born in the Paxton line in several generations AND all the Ownbys and Duffies (my father and mother's sides) have boys first (and yes, I know that has no genetic bearing, but it has emotional bearing)... we kind of assumed it was a boy. We've been calling him "him" for the last 4 1/2 months, except when I would catch myself and try to say "or her" so that I would not gender confuse my child in utero (probably not possible, I realize, but something I thought should be avoided nonetheless).

While our little one was not particularly cooperative in the ultrasound, we did get one picture that I like very much. Please excuse the poor quality, and forgive my explanation (I can NEVER read these things without help - they just look like black and white blobs to me... so I'm going to explain for you). Imagine Mr. Baby is lying on his back. The picture cuts off on the left at about his belly button, and his head is about 2/3 of the way to the right (I have no idea what the white blob is on the far right). He is looking straight up, so we are looking at his profile; his little button nose is pretty easy to see. Just below the nose is a white blob above his chin; that's his hand. I'm not sure if he's sucking his thumb or just posing for "The Thinker," but the fist is definitely there.

I think my only disappointment, which may be too strong of a word, is that we were MUCH closer to having a girl's name picked out than a boy's name... but oh well, we have time. So, for the record, we have NO idea what we're going to name him, but once we decide, we'll probably tell you. In the meantime, I've had fun scouring Houston (for we are back in the US this week to finalize visas and other paperwork) to make my list of baby things we'll need. It is an interesting challenge to figure out the BARE MINIMUM of gear and equipment needed for Mr. Baby because we don't have any extra space in our little Paris apartment or convenient ways of getting things to Paris other than suitcases and extra bag airline fees. However, the cost difference (and variety) of baby gear here versus Paris is worth the trouble of getting it on this side of the Atlantic. So the quest continues, and my mom and I are having fun in the process. Other than that, not much going on. We still appreciate your prayers for our little guy, and we hope your new year is off to a wonderful start.