20 Week Ultrasound!

Yesterday was my “big” twenty week ultrasound, after having the dates changed twice (once by the hospital and once by us) I was more than a little antsy to get there. I’d woken up that morning and informed Dan that we were going to find out the gender, I’d decided that I’d experienced having a surprise and this time I wanted to know, Dan shot me down with a flat out no and we continued debating about it the entire morning. I do agree with what he’s saying, it was awesome to hear “It’s a boy!” in the delivery room and it totally kept me going during what was a particularly crappy labour, that at the end of it I would discover whether we were having a son or a daughter, but damnit, I want to know now! I have no decent excuse for it, I’m just impatient.

We got to Westmead and after being sent to three different places by people who didn’t have a clue where the new location of the women’s health clinic was we finally showed up half an hour late and my wonderful Doctor came out and grabbed me whilst I was stuck in a queue a mile long and panicking about being so late.

The set up was excellent, they had a massive plasma telly placed on the other side of the room so I had the perfect view from the bed, the whole experience was so different from the only US I had with Declan that ended up in me walking out of the room crying my eyes out, the tech was rude, he said no more than ten words to me, and wouldn’t let me see the screen. This tech was awesome and explained what she was looking at as she went around. Declan was fairly good although couldn’t care less about watching the telly and seeing his sibling.

Everything is perfectly healthy, all fingers, all toes, functioning heart and other organs, no cleft lip, absolutely perfect except for one thing… s/he’s already taking Daddy’s side. Dan gave in once we were in the US room and said that I could do whatever I wanted, but that I’ll regret it, so the tech went down south to see what we were having, only to see absolutely nothing, those legs were crossed and that baby was not going to give up the goods for love nor money! There wasn’t even the slightest hint of what we might be having so I am as lost as I was before. First ten weeks with this pregnancy I was convinced it was a girl, the second ten weeks I was convinced boy and now I’m just completely lost, it’s driving me insane! I need to plan and prepare and instead I’m going nutso trying to think what I might be carrying. On a better note, we did manage to come away with some 3D images of the face, not perfect as he’s buried it into my uterus walls, but they’re fairly interesting to look at, far better than the blurs and shapes of traditional ultrasounds.

I also found an explanation for my different size and shape, looking at pictures from my previous pregnancy from the side I am at a size now comparable with when I was 27 weeks before. Declan firmly sat on my hips, he laid right across my stomach with his legs on one side and his head on the other and just chilled out making me very wide. This baby is almost standing up, with her feet stretched out to the bottom of my uterus and her head waaay up high in my stomach, from the back I look like a size twelve with no extra weight on my hips, just a massive and very high bulge out the front, the placenta has also attached itself up high and to the front so that’s adding to my size. I’m just grateful to know that it isn’t all doughnts!

Halfway there, I’m on the home stretch now and for the first time I’m actually starting to get really excited about all this, last time I didn’t have much else to focus on other than being pregnant, and this time I’ve rushed off my feet with looking after Declan that I haven’t really had a chance to sit down and take it all in, it’s starting to feel real now! Ack 😀