It's a....

Today was one of the best days of our life. Seeing our baby for the first time and hearing his heartbeat were all sweet moments of joy and victory over infertility, but being able to see our baby, looking like a baby and moving all around... I treasured every second of it.

As most of you know, for any ultrasound, they require you to empty your bladder an hour before your appointment and then to drink 24-32 oz of fluids in less than 15 minutes and then hold it for the remaining time. This makes it easier to see everything on the ultrasound screen. However, it's not easy for a pregnant woman to do! I struggled to guzzle down the water and then really struggled to keep it in. I needed to go so badly and I was so excited about finding out about our baby soon.

When they FINALLY called my name, we rushed back to the ultrasound room. I had Jesse and my mom with me. I would've loved to have my brother too, but they only allowed 2 people to be in the room with you. So, I promised my brother he would be first on the list of people to call. The tech made sure we wanted to know if it was a boy or girl first and then proceeded to look all around. I was instantly excited to see a profile of our baby appear on the screen. The first ultrasound 13 weeks ago only revealed the tiniest blob on the screen. Now I could see legs and arms and a face, everything! She checked out his head size, his brain size, his heart valves, his kidneys, and his little penis... because YES! He's ALL BOY! I was very surprised, but moved by it. Tears rolled down my cheek at the announcement of it.

He is such an active baby! He flipped over several times, one minute with his head on my right side and the next minute with his head on my left side. And he's quite the kicker as well. The ultrasound tech just worked with whatever position he was facing. We got the whole thing on video, I think, but it's on VHS so I have to re-record it onto DVD before I can post it. However, these are some of the pictures we got, which I'm pretty happy with:


(Side profile of our baby)


(Profile of Baby's Head)


(Kinda weird looking, but skeletal view of baby's face)


(Baby's face in 4D)


(Side view of baby in 4D)


(Our little football player- future Heisman Trophy winner)


(Little legs crossed at the ankles)


(Baby's footprint)


(All boy!!!)


(Bye bye for now! See you again in 5 months, my baby boy...)

I did get to finally go to the bathroom in the middle of the ultrasound. My bladder was getting TOO full, so she allowed me to go and then I came back so that she could check out some more stuff. We had quite a long wait before seeing Dr. York personally from there. When they called me back, they weighed me, like normal, and I haven't gained any weight since my last appointment. I feel like I'm doing good in that department. I'm not worried about my weight, but I know that because of my pre-pregnancy weight, I shouldn't gain more than 15 lbs total. So, 3 lbs in the first 19 weeks makes me feel like I'm doing good. In addition to that, I found out that the placenta and amniotic fluid weigh nearly a pound and I found out today that my baby is nearly a pound. So, that's only 1 lb that I've gained aside from that.

Anyways, after the ultrasound, Dr. York told us that everything went really well. She said that our little boy is looking healthy and growing well. She said that he weighs 11 ounces. They can't tell how long he is because he's all curled up and has no baby fat on him, but the info I get in my email says he should be about 10 inches long (head to toe). She said that he's measuring a few days bigger than my due date. It's not enough to change the date since they normally only change it if there's a week's discrepancy. But, actually, the size he is now matches back up with my last period date (when it didn't at first). She said that based on his size alone, my due date would be August 23rd. For now, though, she's keeping the date at the 25th. After that, she measured my belly, but didn't say anything about it. I assume, since this is the first time she's measured it, that this will be the baseline number for the future measurements. She answered any questions I had and then scheduled my next appointment (just a normal check up) for May 1st.

After the appointment (2 hours after we originally got there!) we went to my brother's house so that I could surprise him. He was very happy for us. And, once we made sure our dads and brothers knew, I called all of my friends and aunts and cousins. Everyone was very excited for us. Most were as shocked as we were- my one aunt being the only one to have guessed correctly from the beginning.

I love how much Jesse has been getting into this pregnancy too. The other day, he was out with the guys and came home really late. I was totally asleep and didn't even know he had come home, but he laid down next to me and just held his hand on my belly for about 20 minutes while I slept. That makes my heart well up with joy! Yesterday, when I asked him where the instructions were for my ultrasound, he said it was by my "OGBN" book. Hey! I can't expect him to know everything perfectly!!! I just smiled to myself. As we drove in the car after the appointment, I would look over at Jesse and he'd just have a big smirk on his face! I love how excited he was. And, even though I won't have the little dresses and pig-tails at this point, when I think about my brother and my husband (who I refer to as "my boys") I now think about having all three of "my boys". I also think of Jesse playing his drums and now holding his little boy on his lap and playing with him. Those thoughts bring me joy!!! And, when we sat down to eat, I thanked Jesse for the work he did on our yard this afternoon, for folding the laundry, and for making dinner. His response, "Thank you for giving me a baby boy." I didn't do it all on my own, of course, but I'm so excited that we finally know and can start planning and acting accordingly. As soon as my brother-in-law moves out (in the next month), we will put the nursery together and, now that we know, I'm sure I'll be doing some shopping and probably getting our stroller too.

So, I'd like to introduce you to our new baby boy: