Our Baby Story: Well, What's it Gonna Be? February 14, 2011

I was so glad that we'd traveled down to see Olivia this past weekend because it always makes the time fly. We spend eight long hours in the car on the way there, keep Olivia occupied all weekend and play play play, and then head back on Sunday with another eight long hours coming home. But really, the weekends always go by so fast because it never feels like there is enough time! Plus, it was the only weekend in between my last doctor visit and my ultrasound and I knew that as soon as that weekend hit, it was only a matter of a couple of days!

Of course, I took the very last appointment of the day because of my awesome work schedule, and because of hubs awesome school schedule, so I sat at work ALL. DAY. LONG. waiting for this moment. Luckily, since it was the last appointment of the day, most people had already gone through and I was one of the last. Not much waiting! I went back and got changed when they called me, and when I walked to the room for the ultrasound, there was daddy, sitting and smiling like a little kid about to meet his idol. In this case, our baby :) OK. Enough of the details leading up to the big event- there is just too much to share here!

I laid on the table and the ultrasound tech got her bottle of jelly and the sensor and glopped it on there. I was nervous that all of the muscles in my body were going to tense up and I was going to become catatonic from the amount of freezing cold jelly that was about to hit my tummy- one of the most sensitive spots on the body to temperature! When she placed it on my belly, I was relieved to feel warm jelly that was actually comfortable. Oh new technology, what a blessing art thou! As soon as that sensor hit my belly, we saw the baby instantly. Since I had not felt much movement for a couple of hours, I was nervous that we'd go in there and he was just going to be dormant and still. Much to my surprise, I was unable to feel everything he was doing in there! The initial readings she was taking didn't really involve hubs and I at all; it was just measuring and observing different organs and functions and whatever else those people do. For us, it was so magical watching our little creation move around in there. I saw hub's face light up and a slight jolt hit his body, but it was so subtle and I thought he was just excited to see the baby, so we moved on.

She showed us various parts of the baby and explained a little bit about them, and she took pictures from time to time of his hand, his legs, and all of the other things us mothers like to have. She focused on his little face for some time, and what we got to see here was SO MUCH FUN. It almost looked as though the baby could see exactly what he was doing; like he was actually observing himself. Of course, we all know that's not true, but we like to play with our imaginations a little. Anyway, at this time, the baby was bringing his fingers back and forth to his lips, and then decided he was going to put them in his mouth. He was using his two middle fingers (ring and middle) to taste, and did that about three times until he decided to roll over, look directly at us, and start opening his mouth and closing it, open and close, over and over again! I'm certain that the tech has seen virtually everything, and rolls her eyes when the parents, several times per day, are going crazy over how cute their little baby is, and how amazing everything their child is doing is. It's got to be something that she doesn't even notice anymore. But this time, she was even looking at the monitor like she was watching a comedy show, and was laughing at how odd this little baby was being. Lady killer!

Another fun thing about this experience was feeling the baby kick the sensor when it got in his way. I noticed that if I leave my hand on my belly in one spot for too long, he kicks it. When we use a sensor to listen to his heart, he kicks it. And when this lady was trying to observe him, he pretty much just kicked her too. I felt it for sure, and the monitor danced all over the place every time he decided to kick. It was hilarious.
One of the things that brought me down for half a second, though, was the fact that I had to divert my attention from the monitor to muffle the screams I wanted to let out. It turned out (after I had a kidney scan a couple days later) that my pain was being caused by a buildup of fluids in my kidney. Well, it was really the office's fault, as they made me drink 24oz of water in an hour, and didn't let me go potty. Well, the baby is compressing my ureter, and therefore the liquid isn't efficiently going from kidney to bladder = excruciating pain. Alas, I digress- it wasn't enough to ruin the experience of seeing my child move for the first time ever!

Finally, the verdict. What did we find out? Well, I'm just gonna say to all you doubters: "Nanny nanny boo boo, stick your head in doo doo!" WE WERE RIGHT! The tech went for the gender portion of the ultrasound, and there was our little boy's "dingy"! And that's pretty close to what I said when I saw it. "Oh, there's his dingy." HAHA! Little did I know that hub's earlier little jolt and look of pure joy and ecstatic bliss was the fact that he'd already seen the evidence that he was having a son, and his excitement made me a happy mommy. :)

So, here are some pictures of our little man. Our funny, dancy, kicky little man whom I cannot WAIT to meet in person. We've met in touch; we've met in ultrasound; time to meet in person!