Ultrasound Day!

Can you believe it's already been 18 weeks? It's flown by pretty quickly, but the last couple of weeks I have been very eager to find out if we're having a boy or a girl. I took this picture yesterday, my first "bump" picture of the pregnancy. I feel pretty big already. And of course big sister makes the picture cuter.

Nate is on spring break this week, so I gave him a choice about today. He could either go to Bekah's again with Georgia, which he loves, or he could go to work with me for the morning and then come to the doctor appointment to see if he was having a baby brother or sister. He chose the second! So this morning he came to work and sat beside me at the conference table coloring like it was his job. He started acting up and getting really whiny several times and I almost regretted bringing him. But he perked up with a peanut butter sandwich and an apple on the way to the appointment. We met daddy there.

This is definitely a Blake Payne big cheese grin! No denying they're related.

Nate still gets to be a baby even though he's the big brother.

So first things first, we wanted to make sure the baby was healthy. I haven't been too awfully concerned this time around, but I can't say I haven't thought about that first ultrasound with Nate and getting that devastating news. The ultrasound tech started by asking questions about my pregnancies. This is technically my 5th pregnancy, counting the two early miscarriages. She asked me about my pregnancy with Nate and was very interested in hearing about the fetal surgery for Spina Bifida. She said they currently have a patient who is in Cincinnati doing the surgery. She asked how Nate was doing, which gave me the chance to brag on him and show her what a boy with Spina Bifida looks like. She later brought in a nurse who was doing some sort of research following the mom in Cincinnati, and Nate ran over to them, gave them high fives, and ran back to Blake with a little jump. Um, can I just admit this one of my reasons for bringing Nate with me to this appointment? I really wanted the people who give the SB diagnosis to see a child with SB. Mission accomplished successfuly.

Anyway, back to the baby! The ultrasound tech started with the brain, and she explained to me that when a baby has Spina Bifida, often the cerebellum is shaped differently. But this baby's cerebellum is perfect. I said, "So, no Chiari Malformation, great. How do the lateral ventricles look?" Hehe. No need to dumb it down, I understand the terms. The brain looks totally normal, and so does the spine. BIG sigh of relief!

I had told the tech that if she got a good look at the gender, we wanted Nate to announce it. This morning I drew on a piece of paper "It's a ______!!" and Nate colored the paper and drew flowers and rainbows and 5 year old stuff on it. When the tech saw what the baby was (she made me and Blake cover our eyes), she wrote on the page, and Nate got to make the big announcement. Here it is! 

Yay! We're so excited! But not at all surprised--I knew it all along! We got a few pictures, but they weren't all that clear. These first three (sideways) pictures are from the 12 week ultrasound when baby was smaller. It cracked me up to see him all stretched out in there with those long legs.

This time he was a bit pudgier and scrunched in. :) He's a whopping 9 ounces! Here's a profile (head on right, feet top left)

And here's the front of his face. Looks a lot like Georgia's "skeletor" pic that Nate said was scary. :)

The doctor came in and talked to us, and he agreed baby looks perfectly healthy. Of course I had to do a little business while I was there and asked if he would refer pregnant moms to SBAK when he diagnoses them. :) Then I went to have some blood drawn for the AFP test that also checks for Spina Bifida. The tech said if the ultrasound looks good, there's a 95% chance that everything is fine, but we'll do the blood test anyway. I warned the .... phlebotomist? ... that I am a really "hard stick" and she would need to use my hand instead of my arm. Still, she had to take a look at my arm. (eye roll) Why is it that every single one of them thinks they're better than every other one out there. I told her no one has ever been able to get anything from my arm. She did stick my hand, but it didn't work and now I have a massive swollen bruise on that hand. But she did the other hand successfully.
I took Nate over to Bekah's house to play for awhile this afternoon, and when I got there, Georgia and all the other kids flocked to the car. Nate got to announce that our baby is a boy. :) All the little girls were so excited. Georgia just came over and held up her arms for me to pick her up, but as I was lifting her she saw the bandaids on each of my hands. That freaked her out! She was like, "Why you have boo boos on you?!" I took off the bandaids and showed her I was fine, but she was still very weirded out. It was pretty funny.
I'm very relieved. And we're all very excited for another little bundle of joy ... and energy, and responsibility :) to join our family. This little guy has no idea what he's in for!