Point of Interest

Often I start to get a bit bummed out when a vacation is coming to an end, especially when it's one that has been as fantastic as our trip to Iceland was.  This time fortunately we both had something to look forward to upon returning home: our second baby ultrasound :) That's right, 20 weeks down and 20 weeks left to go!

Picture from hotel in Iceland - 19 weeks

This past Monday I had both my ultrasound at the lab downtown as well as my regular OB appointment at Sunnybrook.  I had been looking forward to this ultrasound because all of my friends had told me how much more you can see of the baby this time around.  I was also eager to be reassured the baby was doing well after all the physical activity during Iceland.

To my disappointment the baby wasn't very well positioned (again) and I really didn't see that much from the ultrasound.  For the first half hour I just watched quietly on the screen as the technician made measurements and recorded her observations, speaking softly into I-dunno-what.  The only things I identified on my own were the spine and the beating heart.  Check. Check.

Then I was asked to elevate my hips to try and get the baby to turn. It was somewhat awkward having your belly exposed and covered in gel, putting your feet on the bed (knees up) and then arching upwards in a sort of bridged position.  When that didn't seem to work she asked me to repeat the pose but this time "shake my butt".  I could only hope this was still part of the ultrasound procedure and I wasn't going to be featured on Candid Camera. 

Eventually the technician made all of her measurements and invited Mike into the room.  I thought this would be the fun part, where we would see all the fingers and toes and see the profile of the baby's face.  Nope. Not even close.

I couldn't tell one blurry image from the next.  Finally we asked whether she could tell what the sex of the baby was - we had both been very eager to find out. Not surprising, she said she wasn't technically allowed to tell us....but she said she would show us.  Hm, I thought. First hint. It went something like this:

Technician: Here's the first leg (oval-ish blob)...

                  And here's the second leg (circular blob)....

                  And here's a "point of interest" (grin, hint hint)

Mike laughed, concluding it was a boy.  I thought she was showing me the first leg again.  In the end the doctor at Sunnybrook confirmed that we are in fact having a boy and everything looked perfectly normal.  Check (sigh of relief).  A healthy baby boy - how exciting!

Oh yes, and when the technician gave us some ultrasound photos to take home with us she said almost apologetically that there weren't any good profile photos because the baby wasn't well-positioned. We were both fine with that but I was not prepared to see a 3D image of what looked like a clay baby after it had melted.  It was terribly creepy and I made Mike throw it out.  Baby photos shouldn't be frightening.  We kept the other three :)