Our Precious Little Sweet Potato's Ultrasound

First of all, I just want to say that it is awfully strange to look into the mirror and realize that your belly button looks quite unfamiliar to you. 

We went in for our ultrasound appointment yesterday, and although we had a bit of a wait, it wasn't too bad. The tech was so apologetic, we couldn't help but be understanding. Apparently, there were some uncooperative babies that delayed the appointments. :~)

Much of the appointment was not at all like what either of us had expected. All my pregnancy books told me that I would receive instructions ahead of time about how to prepare, especially about drinking uncomfortable amounts of water. By Tuesday afternoon, I hadn't heard from them, so I called asking if I needed to know anything for the appointment. "Nope," was the reply.

Um, okay.

Once we got into the room, she had me sit on the rather comfy chair/bed thing and dimmed the lights. She had me pull up my shirt and spread the warmed (thank goodness!) gel on my belly as she engaged us in some small talk (Was it the first baby for us? Are you excited? type questions).

Then she said: "So, first of all, do you want to know?" After a brief glance at each other, my husband the comedian says, "As long as it's not a turtle in there." Oy. We all laughed, and I told her that yes, we did want to know.

I have to admit, I had a split moment just before she put the instrument to my belly where I had this irrational fear that there was something wrong and there wasn't any baby in there. I told Nich about it afterward, and he said he had had the same thought. Isn't that strange?

Thankfully, there WAS a baby, squirming, wiggling, flipping, kicking, and doing everything else a baby that small could possibly do. At one point, the baby was all snuggled up to the side of the uterus, with a hand tucked under a cheek. All the movement made it a bit hard for the tech to get the pictures she wanted, but she kept repeating how easy I was because I was "so tiny." I wanted to say, "Lady, I don't FEEL tiny!" but I resisted the urge. :~) I did ask her about the water thing, though, and she said that often, when moms have to come in earlier for ultrasounds, they have them drink a lot of water to help push the baby forward. Apparently, the water also helps with larger women, but because I was "so tiny," the pictures were coming through crystal clear.

Well, our little baby was quite brazen at the beginning about showing us exactly who HE is in there! Spread-eagled and everything. We got a good laugh about how clearly you could see that he is a boy. "Yep, there he is," was what the tech kept repeating. Well, apparently, he got a bit bashful after that, because for most of the second half of the time we were in there, he had a hand over himself.

So in the end, as far as we (and the tech) can tell, our little baby boy is just fine. His heartbeat is still good and strong at 146 bpm as it has been the last two times we heard it. He weighs in at the itty-bitty size of 8 ounces (0.23 kilograms) - "not even a decent burger" is what the tech told us when we asked her to give us a visual. It's incredible how much detail there is to him when he's still so teeny tiny! I knew beforehand (from working at the pregnancy center) how early babies develop their features (by 7 weeks, they have arms, legs, nubby fingers and toes, eyes), but wow!

The pictures get sent to "guys who spent a LOT of time in school" (according to the tech), and they'll report their results to our OB. So I guess we'll hear next week what they think.

At the end of it all, I pretty much had decided that:
1. I like having a wriggly, squirmy little guy.
2. I want the ultrasound tech's job.

Although she gave us a disc, I'm pretty sure this isn't nearly as fascinating to everyone as it is to us, so I'll post one picture here of Baby Boy G.