It's a .....

GIRL!!!!

I went to the MFM this morning.  I was going to meet Jeff there.  The appointment was for 9:45am.  Jeff had surgery this morning that started at 7am and it was going to take a couple of hours.  9:45 was going to be a perfect time for him to come and see the ultrasound.  At 9:30 I text him, then I call him, then I page him.  I got a call back from a number I knew was the other hospital. 

I hear, "Hi, this is Nurse X and I am calling on behalf of Dr. Nelson." 
I said, "Well this is his wife, is he still in surgery?" 
"Yes.  He said you should probably start without him.  He will be there shortly."

So I went in and after explaining to everyone how "Yes, I will be 36 when I give birth, by the baby's age I will be 31." whew!  They needed that info for the transnucal - this is a test where they look at a little flap of skin on the back of the baby's neck and measure the thickness combined with the age of the mother and a finger prick to determine the likelihood of downs syndrom, trisimone? 13 and 18. (3 genetic diseases).  While that IS important, that is not why I was there....show me the "saddle view" please!

He looked and said, "Do you know what your having?"  I said, "A girl?"  He asked, "Did you cheat and look?" - smiling.  I told him that that was what Jeff thought, so I said it.

He then proceeded to make his disclaimer statements to me.  He said, "At 14 weeks I can tell you exactly what you are having and I will not be wrong.  I have been wrong once, I told a girl at 11 weeks what she was having and then on a visit at week 15 realized I was wrong."  He then continued with "You are 13 weeks and I have no doubt that you are having a Girl."

After I had left the office, I paged Jeff again, and the nice nurse called me back.  I asked her to ask Jeff if he wanted me to tell him or if he wanted to see the dvd of the ultrasound.  He thought about it for a moment and said to go ahead and tell him.  I told the nurse it was a girl.  She then said to Jeff, "Dr. Nelson, I know what your having now and you don't...maybe I need to hold this over your head for a little while."  I could hear lots of laughing in the background, then she said, "It's a girl."  I could hear a lot of whooping and hollaring.  Of course Jeff saying, "I knew it."

I met him outside the hospital by his car around 11:30 (it was a nasty surgery that lasted 4 hrs instead of 2).  He just shook his head and said, "Now I really am going to be surrounded by women!"  He did leave me with a chore.  I now need to look for bedding and get paint and everything ready so he can get the nursery together. 

I am now done with my first trimester. I have about 6 months left.  Seems like just yesterday it was New Year's day and I was thinking about the fact that I had 7 months left.  This month has flown by!  It is now time for shopping! :)

What Jeff thinks...

I am going in to the MFM's offiice in a few minutes, but just wanted to put down what Jeff thinks the baby is and why....

I was about 8 weeks along and I had run out of progesterone.  I knew there was a vile at his office, so after church we drove down to Forney to grab it.  I saw the doppler machines and asked Jeff if he would see if we could hear the heartbeat.  It told me it was probably too early and we wouldn't be able to hear it.  I of course begged and being spoiled, Jeff gave in.  Of course we couldn't hear the heartbeats because it was too early and I then begged him for an ultrasound to make sure everything was ok.  Jeff just shook his head (repeating the words, "spoiled, spoiled, spoiled") and gave me the ultrasound.  He measured the heartbeats and it was like 177 bpm.  He was like, "Ok, we are having a girl."  Aparently a faster heartbeat "usually" indicates a girl.  Of course, everyone has to have their opinion, "my kids had fast heartbeats and they are boys" etc.

We were having another ultrasound later and Jeff told Dr. Shisler his theory on how it was going to be a girl.  Dr Shisler said, "You don't really believe that stuff do you?"  Jeff said, "Well, I have see it actually be somewhat accurate."  So Dr. Shisler said to me, "What you need to do is look up the Chinese Calendar...that is scary accurate!"  Jeff and I had to chuckle at that...She is calling the fast heartbeat voodoo, but the Chinese Calander is good?

I did try the Chinese Calendar, you use the month of conception and the age of the mother when the baby is born.  Here's my problem....our baby was conceived in August 4 years ago.  So what do I use?  August age 31, August age 36, Nov (when the baby was put in me) 36?  I get different results....

I have been girl focused this whole time up until this past weekend.  I went to the Aggie basketball game, and up on the jumbotron, they had put the cutest little boy who got so cute excited to see his face on the screen.  And then as we were leaving there was a bunch of boys tossing a football around and a little toddler boy who was carrying a football around. (the football was as big as his body and head, so it was like it was a little football on legs!)  He was just running around with the ball and then he stopped and watch the big boys throw the ball to each other, so he tried throwing it but it only went a few inches in front of him...he threw his arms up like he had just made a touchdown.  Melted my heart!  So now I am conflicted about what I think I am having.  I am honestly ok with either gender.  I was always ok, just wanting a healthy baby, but I did have that nagging leaning to one side feeling of a girl before and would I be disappointed if it was a boy?  After this weekend I can honestly say I will be ok...I have about an hour before I will know now.  Hopefully the baby will cooperate with us and flash us it's privates!  (How weird to hope for that!)

1st Official OB appt

I had my 1st offical OB appt today.  I am 10w 6d today.  Dr. Shisler used the doppler on me to see if we could hear the baby's heartbeat.  She warned me that it still is a little early to hear it and that if we didn't hear it we would do an ultrasound.  Well, we heard it!  It was pretty neat.  I was a little disappointed though because I would not be getting an ultrasound.  So Dr. Shisler ran to the other room and grabbed the ultrasound machine.  The office staff saw her run for the machine and bring it in and they became worried that something was wrong with the baby.  Dr. Shisler calmed them down and said, "Nothing is wrong.  We just want a few pictures too."  I think I am spoiled! :)  She got the machine to take some good pictures. You really can't see the arms and legs too well, but you can definately see the shape of the head and body of the baby.  It bounced around a little for us, but then was very content to just go to sleep.  Dr. S kept trying to jiggle my tummy to "wake up" the baby so we could see the arms, but it was just tuckered out!

I did start crying during the ultrasound this time.  It became a little more real for me during this one.  You could of course see the heart beating away and you could see the cord pulsing as well.  I am a week from the trimester mark.  It is weird how it has seemed to fly by....although August does seem like forever away!

Vote for what you think the baby is going to be if you haven't already.  If each family member wants their own vote...go for it.  The transnucal appt is actually going to be Jan 27th - This is Grandma Phil's birthday, so hopefully I can give her a great present by telling her if it is a grandson or a granddaughter.  I will be exactly 13 weeks on this day, this is the beginning threshold of when we can tell the gender...hopefully things will continue in the same trend and we can tell what this little eskimo is...need to get the paint for the nursery!

Stick a fork in me...I'm DONE!

Ummm...on second thought, this may not have been the best title!  hahaha!  I am done with all my shots, no more progesterone!  From now on, the baby is responsible for making it and keeping my uterus happy.  Here is a "shot" of my needles...

This picture somehow does not capture the gravity of the situation...  Luckily, it is all "behind" me now! (did you get it?  huh? huh? huh? did you get it?....behind me...did you notice the "shot" of the needles too?...hehehe...I "crack" myself up!)

Lunch with Jeff

I had lunch with Jeff today, and shocker I know - I got an ultrasound.  I am 9 weeks 5 days along.  Because I don't feel pregnant - no throwing up or nausea- I am a little nervous about whether I am still pregnant or not.  Just a little gun shy!  My first question is always - "Do you see the heartbeat?"  So on que, I asked my question and Dr. Shisler was like, "Oh yeah and look your baby is waving at us!"  We could see little arms and legs today!  It was totally awesome!  It wasn't just a blob/stick with a heartbeat anymore.  It was more like a little baby!  No I don't have a picture, the machine wasn't cooperating with us and we couldnt get it to zoom correctly to take a proper picture.  7 more months till he/she will be here!