Baby #5 gender and name reveal- March 2014

St. Patrick's Day was a big day for our family this year. Not only did we have Lucky Charms for breakfast and Lamb stew for dinner (the first a big hit with the girls, the second, a big hit with Kyle), but we were also able to find out the gender of Baby Willman #5 (a big hit with Mama!). Through my doctor's office, I was able to schedule an early ultrasound at 16 weeks just for finding out the baby's gender. 

A whole four weeks earlier.  I know. I am obviously a perfect specimen of patience during pregnancy. 

As a brief explanation: I have a hard time really connecting with my pregnancies- especially early on. It is hard for me to fully realize the whole thing is real and that we are actually having another baby. Even when Waits was born (you would think that by baby #4 I would have a better grasp of the whole concept, but no...) I was still completely in awe as they handed him to me, I couldn't believe there had actually been a real little person in there the whole time!

Finding out the gender and having a name picked out as soon as possible really helps me to feel connected to our baby, to feel like they are already a member of our family, and not just some imaginary person that will eventually exist. Something that I find really funny is that with our first three pregnancies we only ever had a girl name picked out before finding out the gender. Boy names were just tough for us for some reason- which ended up not even mattering since they were all girls. Pregnancy #4 comes around and for the first time we finally had a boy name picked out before the gender reveal, which ended up coming in pretty handy when they announced it was, in fact, a boy.

This time around, we still had our girl name that we had picked out if #4 had been a girl, but were yet again struggling to decide on a boy name. We just couldn't find a name that we both liked. I will never admit to having any kind of mother's intuition when it comes to predicting the gender of our babies, but considering the previous four coincidences, I thought it likely that this baby was going to be a girl, based on that alone.

When we went in for the ultrasound (and when I say we, I mean the whooole gang! We like to include our other kids to help them feel more involved with everything, plus they are always so excited to find out), we were slightly disappointed to find out that the baby was sitting straight up and down, with their little bottom right up against my cervix, which made for a difficult time getting a look at the goods. As the ultrasound dragged on, our little posse began to get squirmy, so Kyle headed out to the waiting room (where a kids movie was playing) while the ultrasound tech decided to do a vaginal ultrasound to get a better view. I sure do love a persistent ultrasound tech! :) Literally, within a few seconds of having the wand in place, we had a perfect view of the baby's gender:

Baby Willman #5 is a baby BOY! We are so excited that Waits is going to be having a little brother!!!

In the first picture below, you can see the unmistakable evidence. :) In the second one, you can see a front view of his sweet little face (on the right), and the last picture says that it is another picture of his face, though I don't see it...

When it comes to gender, we have absolutely no preference at all. Honestly. We love all of our kids, they are each individually special, they have all been so sweet, and boy or girl has made no difference to us. That being said, we were really excited to find out that we were having a boy this time around knowing that Waits will have a brother so close in age. We can only hope that they will be little buddies and lifelong friends and a great support for one another as they grow up.

Knowing this new dynamic in our family, it has been really fun to start making plans about things like eventually having a girl room for the big girls and a boy room for at least our two little boys to share. We have packed away our girl clothes, because we won't be needing them for a little while, and I have started stocking up on newborn summer clothes since Waits was born in February... in Provo... so everything we have in newborn size is sweat pants and fleece and hoodie jackets... not very August-baby friendly.

It was a long two weeks (for me, at least) before we could finally decide on a name for our little guy. Kyle was right in the middle of a very time-consuming school semester, which left very little time for talking about baby names, and those few minutes where we could squeeze it in, we found ourselves at an impasse. Kyle had a list of names that he liked, and I had a list of names that I liked, and it seemed that neither of us was willing to budge.

After two weeks of referring to the baby as the-baby-boy-in-Mommy's-tummy at least twenty times a day- both with the girls and with Kyle- I couldn't take another day of not having a name picked out! As I gave a name-choosing-ultimatum, Kyle actually resorted to looking through baby name books (which we actually own, but haven't pulled off the shelf since before Minnette was born!), while I pretty much shot them all down. Then finally Kyle found a name that he loved, which I didn't love,  but I didn't hate, either (this was huge!). It was very similar to a name that I had already been thinking of, so I asked Kyle for a compromise. I'm usually super anti- nick names. And by that I mean that I pretty much hate them. In my opinion, if you are going to call your child something, just name them that! Here's where I throw that rule right out the window (well, sort of...). We decided to name the baby the name that I liked, and Kyle can call him the name he liked, since he just liked how it sounded. Does that not sound like a real compromise? I guess it's really not, but it worked for us. We tweaked the spelling to what Kyle and I both agreed was a little more masculine than the name I was originally wanting, Kyle picked out the middle name and there you have it... our little guy FINALLY had a name:

Locklan Barrett Willman

(can also be called "Lock" or "Bear")

Whew! (bet you had no idea it would take so long just to say a gender and name, did you?) I am so, so glad to have a name picked out, not mention one that Kyle and I both love (though, for different reasons), and I feel really fits with our other kids names. Nothing like having a Minnette, Aurelle, Jovi, Waits and BOB.  Haha.

So excited to meet our sweet baby boy  Locklan in just a few months!