18w2d

We had our "big" ultrasound today, and found out we're having a ..... baby! We were really glad that we had decided not to find out the sex - it just seemed like it would be very anti-climactic to be told by the ultrasound tech. Not the right choice for everyone, but definitely for us.

She looked at all kinds of things, starting with the brain, which measured at 18w5d, so we're basically right on target. The next organ for examination was the heart - it was so cool, we could definitely see all four chambers of the heart moving in sync as the heart beat (and the heart-rate was 147bpm... according to the old wives, that indicates a girl). She looked at the kidneys, but I couldn't see those. The stomach was a black hole in the middle of the baby. The ribs and spinal cord were really obvious, as were the hands and feet when she pointed them out - you could see the bones in each very clearly. We got a really cute picture of one of Phred's feet! We also have a picture of his/her whole body, some shots just lying there, then a few more with the thumb in the mouth.

After the u/s tech was done, a doctor came in to look at a few more things. He wasn't nearly as playful or informative though - he turned the screen so I couldn't see it anymore, and basically just clicked around pretty quickly. He said he was checking the same things the u/s tech had looked at, as well as looking for additional abnormalities.

He gave us his little lawyer speak "Everything looks perfectly normal, but of course, there are things that can't necessarily be caught on an ultrasound". But the good news is that everything did look normal, no areas of concern whatsoever. Phew!

Aftter I wiped the gel off my belly (my belly button was full of it! and my belly ring did kinda get in the way, so M was angling again for me to take it out. We'll see...), we hung around for a while until my doc was ready to see us. She told us that the blood test we had done (the quad screen) for various abnormalities came back normal as well. Another phew.

And that was about the extent of the appointment. All around good news :-)

The other thing that my boss (who's also pregnant) mentioned to me the other day was that her belly button feels flatter than it did before. I immediately stuck my finger in mine, and sure enough, she was right! I've been making daily checks ever since. hehehe. It feels so funny!