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It's a ... boy?! Photo captures mom's surprised look after delivery

One couple found out what happens when the ultrasound technician gets it wrong.
Beaufort Ray's Arrival
Surprise!Lauren Jolly Photography

One North Carolina mom got a huge surprise — an 8-pound, 5-ounce surprise, to be exact — when she found out she'd given birth to a baby boy.

Nancy Ray, a 32-year-old mom of three in Raleigh, thought she was going to have another girl, since that's what the ultrasound technician told her and her husband, Will, weeks earlier.

That didn't happen.

Now a photo of the moment they found out the baby was a boy has gone viral.

"I was just holding her and saying how beautiful she was and when it was time to cut the cord, I turned the baby over and I said, 'What is that — is this a boy baby!?'" Ray told TODAY Parents. "The midwives said, 'Yes, we were waiting for you to see!' My husband runs over to check to make sure it was really a boy and he proceeds to literally fall on the floor. It was just hilarious. We were in shock on a lot of levels."

They named the boy Beaufort.

Ray, a wedding photographer, also has two daughters, ages 1 and 3.

Beaufort Ray's Arrival
Nancy Ray and her husband, Will, got a huge surprise when they found out their third baby was a boy. Lauren Jolly Photography

"We had gender surprises with our first two and we were totally shocked that both of them were girls," she said. "And I would do a gender surprise every time, but my husband was like, 'Listen, I have to know if we're having three girls. I need to wrap my head around this a bit.'"

So at an ultrasound around 18 weeks, they asked. But apparently the technician didn't get as good of a look as she thought she did, Ray said. And the only other ultrasound Ray had during the pregnancy was at the very end, to make sure the baby was head down, and it was "low and quick," she said, so they didn't see the baby's sex.

"It was just an honest error," she said. "I'm not mad about it or anything. It turned into a great story."

Beaufort Ray's Arrival
Will Ray collapsed to the floor when he found out he was getting a son. Lauren Jolly Photography

Although Beaufort was born in December, Ray's story spread after she and her birth photographer, Lauren Jolly, recently shared the hilarious photo, which shows Ray's eyes wide open in surprise and her husband peeking under the baby's blanket. Ray also wrote a blog post about her birth story.

"My husband is the happiest he could ever be," she said. "He always wanted a boy. He has just loved every second with him."

And Ray? "I love being a boy mom more than I ever thought I would," she said.