Julie Price, left, introduces her two sons, Levi and Gauge, to their new baby brother earlier this month. Based on eight ultrasounds, the Price family was expecting an 8 pound, 8 ounce girl. But when Price delivered, she found out all of them had been wrong, not only by gender but by weight as well. Above, Price gave birth to Riley Cole, a 12 pound, 12 ounce baby boy. 

Julie Price was expecting a healthy baby girl when she went to deliver. All eight of her ultrasounds had told her so. But what she got instead was a big — a very big — surprise.

When Price, a 27-year-old Springville resident, received her first ultrasound she was 18-weeks pregnant. The nurse asked her if she wanted to know the gender of her child.  Price said no, and had the nurse tell her son Levi, age 9, instead. 

Price and her husband BJ, who had a birthday coming up, then let Levi tell a local baker the gender of the child, and the baker baked a special cake for a birthday/gender reveal party that the couple planned.

Over 40 friends and family members were on hand when the cake was cut and the pink inside was revealed.

“We were thrilled it was a girl,” said Price, who along with Levi has another son, Gauge, age 3. “We went overboard — pink room, pink clothes, pink everything.”

Price also had two baby showers where she received lots of pink, frilly items for a little girl. Price had five more ultrasounds that all said she was having a baby girl, and big baby girl at that.

“The last ultrasound I had they said that I was going to have an 8 pound 8 ounce little girl,” she said. “We named her Ava Leighann.”

On Feb. 3, the baby was coming and Price went to St. Vincent’s St. Clair. In the delivery room, she watched her husband’s face as the baby arrived, and she saw him give a confused look. In his hands, the doctor had a healthy, bouncing baby boy.

“I was stunned,” Price said. “I looked at my husband’s face and there was this look of fear and disbelief and wonder, like what is going to happen next.”

Price, who was shocked and still under the effects of anesthesia, said she kept repeating, “He doesn’t have a name, we don’t even have him a name,” and “I’ve loved the wrong baby, I haven’t been loving the right child this whole time.” 

Whatever trepidation Price had about not loving the right baby however quickly melted away.

“As soon as the nurse brought him from behind the sheet, and I saw his face — he had these big, beautiful chubby cheeks — then nothing else mattered.  Now I can’t imagine my life without him,” Price said.

But just when Price was getting adjusted to the idea of having a boy, she got another surprise.

“I was thrown again, I just couldn’t believe what they were saying. They said he weighed 12 pounds, 12 ounces. I was expecting a 9-pound baby girl and I got an almost 13-pound baby boy.”

It was her husband BJ who came up with the name of their newborn son.

“I had him at 7:53 a.m., and by noon when they came to do the birth certificate BJ had picked out a name, Riley Cole,” she said.

Cole, as his family calls him, is now over three weeks old and has been a blessing to his family. Price had to sell a lot of her pink, baby girl items online, and it hasn’t been easy trying to change everything from pink to blue, but Price says it was worth every minute.

Although Price says she and her husband are not planning on having any more children — not even to try for a little girl — she does have another reason to celebrate soon. Price has a special birthday coming up, one that is special in a couple of ways.  Price was born on Feb.  29, a rare “Leap Year Baby.” Not only that, Price was born on her mother, Karen Smith’s, birthday. Karen is also a rare Leap Year Baby. 

All in all, this February will have been a very happy and exciting month in the Price/Smith households.

“I was stunned. I looked at my husband’s face and there was this look of fear and disbelief and wonder, like what is going to happen next?”