Boom Boom

Ladies and Gentlemen, there is, indeed, a baby growing in there. And it has a beating heart. Oh, and there's just one in there! (thank you!) My OB appt was yesterday and Mr. Random got to come with me. I'm so glad he was there!

We got there early after dropping off one of our cars to get a new blower motor (yay....) but I still managed to drink my requisite 32 oz of water before they called me back a little before my appointment time. That was for the ultrasound. Now, I don't know where I got this idea, but I thought when you had a 1st trimester ultrasound they used the dildo cam. Honestly, the only ultrasound I've been to was my best friend's when she was 18 weeks and they were checking her cervix (she wound up getting a cerclage) and they used the dildo cam for that. I was kind of dreading it.

Imagine my happy surprise when that was not the tool of choice after all! Nope, all I had to do was lay back, pull up my shirt, unbutton my pants, and suffer the goopiness of the jelly she squirted on my belly with little ceremony. And then the tech pushing on my bladder. I swear she was trying to squish the urine out. :)

But really, it was painless. So first we saw the full bladder, and she thanked me for filling it so full of urine. Yeah....um...you're welcome? It's not feeling so great to me, but sure. Then we saw a small circle that she said was the yolk sac. Crazy! I didn't realize it'd still be there and the placenta is actually still forming! I was staring in disbelief, trying to ignore the pressure on my bladder, and take it all in but the tech was so quick! It was like, and here's your baby, and now I'm measure the crown rump length. And I'm measuring it once more. Okay, and next, here is your ovary, and your other ovary and you are done! Well, there was a little more to the appointment than that, but that's what it felt like. And it was probably only about 5 minutes long. So, we saw the yolk sac...and then, there it was...our beautiful little....

blob.

I've heard people describe their 8 week old baby as viewed on ultrasound as a gummy bear. This sounds cute. We did not really get a gummy bear on the viewer or our printed pictures. No, it was a blob. And then on one print out Mr. Random observed the outline of a fish. Or a shark. Not exactly a cuddly sort of comparison, but, it does look remarkably like one.

Anyway, so we see the little blob and are assured that yes, that is, in fact, our baby. A baby! And as I'm staring at the blob, trying to believe that it is, in fact, a baby, growing inside my very body, I see it. The heartbeat. That was probably the best moment for me. More than hearing it even because we only heard it for maybe 5 seconds and it was over before it could register. It was before she'd zoomed in even, as I stared that the blob, trying to make sense of it...there it was. A pulsing little spot in the middle of the blob. I totally blurted out: "Oh my God, Mr. Random! The heart beat! Can you see it?" And then the tech zoomed in closer for some measurements and we could see it very clearly. A little pulsing flicker. So cool.

And then we saw my ovaries (really? if you say so...) and that was about it. Then I got to leave a urine sample (thank you!) and was sent back out to wait for my doc appt. And then found out that somehow it had been mysteriously canceled, they weren't sure how. So they got me in with someone else. And we waited. And waited. About an hour. When I asked what the deal was the in-take person was surprised I hadn't been taken back yet. Yeah...me too. But, in the end, we did get to go back, and the lady we saw was sooooo nice! She seemed genuinely excited and was such an upbeat personality and was a lot of fun. How she could seem so excited when I'm sure she sees newly pregnant women multiple times a day, I do not know, but it was appreciated.

We talked a bit more about what I can expect, we got a bag of goodies with parenting magazines, a binder about pregnancy and our hospital choices, and a sample bottle and some lanolin for my poor boobies that will suffer so much upon attempting breast feeding. :) She said that I could have 1 cup of coffee a day if I wanted, much to Mr. Random's dismay (he thinks I should have none...and so far, I have had none, but I just wanted to know what my boundary was). :)

Oh, and we talked about baby's gender. I think it's a girl. Mr. Random's leaning toward boy. But the doc we saw said she was leaning toward girl too. And that she has been right every time she's guessed, but she has to guess around 14 weeks. She thinks it's a pheromone thing. I see her for my 12 week appt, so we'll see what she thinks then. :)