movie star baby

We had our big Ultrasound on Saturday morning! It was very fascinating and exciting, but very nerve wracking as well. I was so afraid the technician would let it slip that the baby is a "he" or "she". Before she started I told her not to feel bad calling the baby "it" since we didn't want to know the gender, but she warned me that she usually says "he" just because she doesn't like to use "it". I understood what she was saying, but I knew that if she said "he" I would automatically assume it was a boy. In the end, she used the term "the baby" most of the time and said "it" once or twice. No "he" or "she" at all. phew!

For the most part it was a very quiet experience. She focused on getting all the pictures and measurements that she needed to get, and I didn't want to disrupt her concentration. I was in the room with her for about 30 minutes while she did her thing, then she got Kevin and Trent from the waiting room and brought them back to the room I was in. This is when things got vocal. She started pointing things out to us and explaining what we were looking at. Some of the parts were obvious to us but other times we had no idea what we were looking at, even with her telling us. We kept seeing the baby kick it's legs around and Kevin kept asking me if I felt it - but most of the time I did not - and he found that very fascinating.

The baby's heartbeat was a strong 140 BPM - which, I'd like to add, was exactly what Trent's heartbeat was at his ultrasound.

I don't know if anyone remembers the U/S picture we got when we were pregnant with Trent, but he basically looked like a salmon, not a baby - so you can imagine how happy we are with the picture we got this time :-P

Looks, it's a baby!

I am assuming that since the ultrasound technician is just that - a technician, not a doctor - she didn't give us very much feedback. She told us the beats-per-minute and she mentioned that a few other things were "normal", but I'm guessing if there is anything wrong or strange we will hear from our Doctor within a few days. Obviously we have no reason to believe anything is wrong so we're going to go about our life as we always do.

Have I mentioned that I can now feel the baby kick? I was actually getting a little concerned because everything I read said that I would feel the baby move earlier with this pregnancy since I already know what it feels like (makes sense), but it actually took me longer with this pregnancy. The reality is, I shouldn't have been concerned at all. My doctor could tell that the baby was moving all over the place when he used the doppler to get the heartbeat at 16 weeks....I guess I was more anxious and impatient than anything else. I first felt movement myself just over a week ago (just shy of 20 weeks) and now I feel it everyday :-)

One thing I forgot: The technician said BBJ weighs approximately 12 ounces right now!

here fishy fishy fishy

This first ultrasound was taken when i was 8.5 weeks pregnant. Technically I wasnt supposed to get this ultrasound but since we werent able to hear the heartbeat using the doppler, the nurse felt it would be best to schedule an ultrasound. It was a very cool experience, to say the least. We werent able to make out much of the baby of course but we were able to see the flicker of the heartbeat and the baby's big head. It pretty much looked like a gummy bear



Fast forward to our 3rd wedding anniversary. We celebrated by going in for our 20 week ultrasound! this was the big one. We got to see several body parts and organs (granted we didnt know what we were looking at half the time) which was very exciting. Unfortunately the nurse gave us only one picture, and a crappy one at that. The spine is very obvious but overall the baby looks like fish. The scariest part is that the baby also feels like a fish in my tummy. I like to joke that im going to give birth to a catfish (dont ask me why i chose that kind of ugly fish). Sadly we wont have another ultrasound taken (unless of course there are problems) but the doctor already informed me that if I were to have another ultrasound we wouldnt be able to make out the baby overall since its so big at this point. We'd see an arm here, a leg there, but it really wouldnt be as exciting an experience as the last ultrasound was. Did I mention that i had to tell the ultrasound technicican that we did not want to find out the gender? But you all know that!! We want to be surprised. Its funny because I keep hearing about couples who wanted to be surprised but then change their minds later in the pregnancy, or they end up regretting not finding out because its harder to shop for clothes, etc. Kev and I dont regret it at all. And thats surprising because him and I arent usually good with surprises. We're the type to exchange presents before the holiday arrives....we're impatient is what im basically saying. They say you have to have a lot of patience with babies, so i guess we're just getting a little head start. I love that we dont know the sex and I can not wait to have the dr or kevin tell me "its a ___" once its born. To me that will be much more exciting than having an ultrasound technician tell me and point to its private parts on a screen (no offense to those who found out this way. We'll probably find out what our next child is in advance). Now we just have to get through 8 more weeks, give or take, and our baby/fish will be here.