Wednesday, November 17, 2010

Can You Guess? (Beware Ultrasound Shots)

I've been waiting to update my blog, knowing I would have news to share this week. We had our big anatomy scan on Monday and discovered two very important pieces of information about our baby. First, the baby seems to have all major organs, all chambers of the heart, all brain hemispheres, etc, etc, that can be detected by ultrasound. Really, I had no idea how much they could see on these things, especially since we didn't get the NT scan.

Secondly...

There's the flagrant butt/private parts shot, which makes it pretty obvious that we're having a boy!

Of course we would have been thrilled to no end at a girl--of course. But we're super excited about a boy. I've had three reasons for wanting a boy, which I've been trying not to think about too much until now. First, I had a younger brother, and I always wished he was older. I think older brothers tend to be nicer to younger sisters because they have some innate desire to protect them (younger brothers...not so much). Second, my in-laws already have a granddaughter, so it's fun to at least have the first of something on that side. And third, we hope to adopt a kid or two in China down the road, and I hear that girls are much easier to come by over there for adoptive parents. So I'm not too concerned that we won't end up with any girls.

A couple more...

We did get the ever-popular thumb-sucking shot:


Though, you may be interested to know that, according to our very experienced and knowledgeable ultrasound tech (who was like a very chatty textbook on fetuses), fetuses are never really sucking their thumbs. It just looks like that. They may be trying to figure out how to get mouths over their hands, but I guess they don't succeed.

If you're extremely experienced in ultrasound interpretation, you may also be able to tell that my placenta is very much on the top wall of my uterus and nowhere near the cervix. It's that smooth, long, gray blob hovering over Peebs's body. The tech said there was no way I ever had a low-lying placenta with it being so high up now, and she was very confused about what my OB was seeing when she said that. So that's good news, though it leaves the bleeding/spotting I had from week 14 to about week 16 unexplained.

One more tidbit. Apparently, our little Peebs is measuring about 5 days ahead. The u/s tech recommended that my due date be changed from April 10 to April 5. I'm waiting to hear from OB to see if she wants to make that official. I'm totally happy to have it moved up, but it seems a bit odd how it all works. What if the baby were measuring ahead at 30 weeks--would they adjust it again? They can't keep adjusting based on measurements. And, more than that, I do know with very little doubt when I ovulated. So April 10 will technically be 40 weeks from, well, two weeks before I ovulated (which was not the first day of my last period). Not that the due date means a whole lot, but my parents will be purchasing plane tickets based loosely around the day, and it would be nice to know whether I should consider myself 19w3d or 20w1d....

16 comments:

Anonymous said...

How exciting!!! There is no doubt that is all boy!!!! I'm so happy for you! Congrats on being halfway through the pregnancy!

Augusta said...

How great to see your little one...and to know it's a BOY!!! Congrats! Technology is so wonderful, isn't it?
April is a great month to have a baby. I recommend the 19th (my birthday), but that may be a little late for your liking! April 5th might be more comfortable.

Jos said...

YAY for a healthy little boy!!! I'm so excited for you Ceejay! I needed some good news today. :)

Nico said...

I would recommend against letting them adjust your due date, where you *know* when you ovulated. They wanted to move my due date up by nine days with Timmy - I went into labor one day before the due date based on my O date (and he was not a huge baby at that point either, 7lb5oz, 20"). I didn't want to be pressured to induce when I was only at or barely over my due date. My 2c :)

Kakunaa said...

Woohoo! Congrats! And I don't get how they can change your date. Some people just have bigger babies! LOL. So glad it went well, and kiddo really did give you a hell of a shot of his wobbly bits!

Lesley said...

What an adorable little boy! I am sure he will be a wonderful big brother some day. :)

cdg said...

:)

sienna said...

congrats on a boy!!!!! haha, regarding the 1st pic, i had NO IDEA what i was looking at until you mentioned that it was the money shot. THEN, i completely got it :o)
i've always wanted a big brother (2 big sister's instead). so happy for you! xoxo.

Oak said...

We measured ahead at our ultrasound but seeing we did a trigger and an IUI - there's no way that the change in due date was accurate, my kiddo is just an overacheiver already - guessing yours is too.

And its funny that you wanted a boy first. I had an older brother and he was ROTTEN to me growing up but I still wanted a boy first - weird! We heard an interesting thought the other day about gender order and someone said, when you have a girl first you have a built in babysitter and helper as little girls like being involved with their little siblings where as little boys take no interest in their little siblings. Interesting but it was definitely enough to make me okay with either one coming out first! :)

Anonymous said...

The placenta can move - so if it was low lying earlier it could have shifted up to where the tech saw it. My sister had that happen to her.

Congrats on your son! That's awesome news!

My nurse wanted to give me an EDD according to my LMP but I KNEW when I O'd and I knew I didn't have 28 day cycles. So she wanted to give me one a week and a half earlier than what I said it should be. When I had my first u/s - they all agreed with my EDD. Go with the date you O'd - you'll be closer to the "real" date.

Alex said...

Congratulations on a boy - how wonderful!

AmyG said...

SO sweet! Yay for you!

ADSchill said...

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cheers!

jill said...

Yay a boy! Congrats :) Glad to hear everything looks good.

Anonymous said...

Congratulations on your little peebs. What a great set of photos.

Anonymous said...

Thanks for the heads up about acupuncture. I will look into it if she doesn't switch positions as the due date gets closer. And you are absolutely right - our ultrasound photos look completely different!!!