It's a....

This morning we had our anatomical ultrasound. I had to drink a TON of liquid so that my bladder would be full. 32 fl oz. That's a little less than 3 soda cans. I managed it in 20 minutes, but my stomach was not happy with me.

We got there on time and Ellie LOVES "Momma doctor" because it has a little plastic table in the waiting room that is exactly her size. They usually have a couple of toys too. She is very content to play there for a long time, but usually we don't have to wait that long.

Anyway, we went in to the ultrasound and the lady said she would do what she needed to and then she would talk to us. So we watched while we measured the wiggly little thing. Or tried to. The baby was totally curled up in a little ball. Finally she had me empty my bladder (thankfully!) to help get the baby out of that position. (Of course as soon as I stepped outside the room, both bathroom doors shut at the same time and I had to wait.)

It worked. A little bit.

You can see the cute little profile, and a little hand up by the face. You can also see the spinal cord and some ribs. You can also tell how curled up the baby was. If it was moving, you would be able to see the heart beating and the mouth moving.

I LOVE that little nose!! The braided looking bit up on the top left is the umbilical cord.

It was so weird to see the baby move and feel it at the same time. It was a wiggly little thing.

Just a warning: you might have seen some of the 3D ultrasound pictures. They are pretty cool. But I don't particularly like them. Why?

Really? Are they trying to give me nightmares? That's the baby's face, with it's hand up by it's forehead. My baby DOES NOT look like that. That's just the image they caught. And for some reason the ultrasound technician thought I would want it. It looks like the guy from Gooneys. "Heeeeey yooooou guuuuuyys!"

Eye sockets anyone?

So finally she asks me if I have had any dreams or impressions about the gender of the baby. Without any hesitation I say I think it's a boy. She asks if I want to know what she thinks. "YES!!!" 10 minutes later.... 

"Um, the umbilical cord is right between the baby's legs, see?"

No matter what angle she got, she could not tell at all. And no amount of bladder-emptying or poking could get the umbilical cord to move.

Grrrrrr!!!! On one hand, I am SO frustrated! My sister-in-law is about 6 weeks behind me, and she will probably find out the gender of her baby before I will find out ours. On the other hand, it's kind of exciting to think we might not find out until the baby is born. And I'm not usually one to think something like that. But I think we get one more chance at an ultrasound.... in 10 weeks.

I might go crazy.

But the baby was healthy and wiggling and the doctor said everything looked exactly on track, which apparently doesn't happen very often. There's usually a plus-or-minus few days for the due date that get tossed around after an ultrasound.

Anyway, that's my news. Yay for healthy babies! Boo for shy babies!

And yay for steak tonight!