Saturday, October 25, 2008

Doin' The Ultrasound Boogie!

We went in for the second ultrasound yesterday morning at the regular OBGYN office that will be taking over now. After some parking adventure we went in and joined my sister in law in the waiting room. Then we waited. And waited. And waited.

After an hour or more they called her in. She had to have blood taken and her history so we staid in the waiting room for that. Then she came out and told us that since the exam room was so tiny they would only allow one person in there with her. Naturally my wife went, so I didn't get to see the ultrasound live - just a couple stills.

The machine was reportedly nearly a couple decades old, so the images weren't as clear as they might be, but I could still make it out. But my wife tells me she could see the arms and legs moving! It's an energetic little guy or gal in there. The doctor says you don't always see that, but when you do it's a good sign. W00t!

Monday, October 6, 2008

One Baby On The Way!

Okay, the poll is closed and of the many many guesses - okay, one guess - nobody guessed right.

We have one baby on the way. The results couldn't have been better. By every measure it's right down the center of the expected range for a healthy baby. We even counted the heartbeats together.

baby sonogramThere were three of us in there besides my sister in law: me, my wife, and my mother-in-law. Since it was done with a vaginal ultrasound probe (the dildocam, as my wife calls it) we were huddled together towards the head of the table. We all got a good view of the screen, though. When the doctor announced he spotted the heartbeat (which was obvious when he held the probe still for us) we were all elated. It was such a relief. Here you can see one of the stills he printed out for us. The baby is over the little "X" and the yolk sac is above it to the left. Both are within the amniotic sac.

Afterward in conference with the doctor he told us we had walked in the exam room with a 15-20% chance of a miscarriage, and walked out with a 5% chance. Our next ultrasound is two weeks after this one, but with the OBGYN practice that's taking over.

Friday, October 3, 2008

First Ultrasound's Friday Morning

It's almost 2AM and we're heading out for the first ultrasound at 8AM. My mother-in-law is tagging along. My wife has mixed feelings about that, in case things go badly, but she was in the waiting room for the transfer so maybe she's good luck.

I'm nervous. I'm really scared of things not turning out right, but I've been trying not to show it, and not to think about this these past two weeks. If things go bad I'm going to have to be the strong one. I guess I'll cry on my own. Hopefully it won't come to that.

But even though I've been trying to occupy myself and not think about it, this has been the slowest damn two and a half weeks of my life. Yeesh!

I had been thinking of putting up a poll to have visitors here guess how many we had growing and whether any looked to be identicals. I've decided not to, though, unless and until we see a healthy fetus in the ultrasound. After that, I'll put up a poll for a few days before announcing the real result. Hopefully it'll be fun.