First Ultrasound

Yesterday Bradford and I went to our first ultrasound appointment. Of course, I was running late, and Bradford beat me there. He was waiting for me in, you guessed it, the waiting room. Luckily, it wasn't packed with hormonal pregnant women (thank god for getting the next-to-last appointment slot), so his wait wasn't too awkward.

After a few minutes they called me back. The nurse told Bradford that he didn't need to accompany me, because they were just getting a pee sample. Well, I obviously needed him. First, I could not find the restroom. I ended up asking a very pregnant woman where it was and then proceeded to make some inappropriate comment like, "I can see you have been here before." Then, once I got into the bathroom, I realized that I didn't have to go pee. I peed before I left work. It took some effort to squeeze a minuscule amount of pee into the cup. Now, at this point, I am worried about what a poor pee sample I just gave. But, then I realized that there were no pee cup lids in the bathroom. Where were they? Was I just supposed to walk down the hall and to the lab with an open pee cup just waiting to be splashed on some innocent, unsuspecting bystander. So, I am now standing in the bathroom, holding my pee cup, and looking around for a napkin or something to drape over it as I make the long trip down the hall and to the lab. Good thing I thought to look around, right. Because, as I did, I noticed a metal door in the wall with a sign on it that read: "Open, place cup inside, and then close." How about that...they didn't want me to walk down the hall with an open pee cup after all!

After I put my pee cup inside the box I went down to the lab. They took my weight (123lbs) and my blood pressure (the nurse, "ah, great blood pressure"). While they were doing this, I watched one of the other nurses stick a bunch of test strips in the pee cups she had lined up on a counter. I noticed a pee cup with very little pee amongst pee cups FULL of pee...I bet you guess who that pee cup belonged to.

I told Bradford this story when I got back to the waiting room. He looked at me like he was reconsidering bringing a child into the world with such an ignoramus and said, "Of course there was a box in the wall to put your pee cup in." I mean, is this truly common knowledge?! Who knew! I must have missed that in all of my education.

It wasn't long before my name was called again. Bradford came with me this time. Before I knew it, some lady named Nancy squirted jelly on my belly, stuck an instrument on top of it, and pointed out our little baby on a screen. You can see it, below.



Now, the arrows point to the actual baby. She did this for our benefit. She said it was just in case we couldn't find the baby in the picture when we looked at it at home. I mean, I am sure I looked pretty crazy-eyed laying on that table with goo on my belly staring at some static-ey screen trying to look for anything that resembled a baby...but, I think she underestimated me. After she pointed it out the first time I got the point. And, in any event, I had Bradford. HE would remember where the baby was.

Nancy said the baby was smaller than she expected it to be -- instead of 7 weeks and 3 or 4 days the baby measured 6 weeks and 6 days, putting my estimated due date at October 15. That means that right now we are 7 weeks pregnant...but, at the beginning of that, not the end. Just a few days off. The doctor did say that the estimated due date could change, and that we would know more at my next ultrasound.

We heard the heartbeat. I forgot about that. It was fast. And, we could actually see the heart beating on the fuzzy screen. This confirmed what I had been told by the small stick with the two pink lines -- I am, in fact, growing a human in there.

After our ultrasound we saw the doctor. We didn't really have any questions for him, because we read so many books and Internet articles. He did comment on how quickly we had come back to see him. You see, we went to see him on Jan. 28, 2009, and explained to him that we were trying to have a little baby. He filled us in on a bunch of things and sent us on our way, telling us to come back when we were pregnant. Well, he said we certainly were efficient, seeing as how we were sitting across from him on Feb. 25, less than a month after he sent us on our way.

The doctor also, upon looking at the ultrasound photo, said, "Looks like a boy."

What else? Oh yeah, they took my blood and gave me a pregnancy calendar thingy as a consolation prize. They also gave me a bag filled with scary stuff -- like hospital pre-registration stuff. I don't really know why I would need to go to the hospital. I suspect that, one night while I am sleeping, the stork will magically get the baby out of me and I will wake up and there it will be. No hospital necessary. No comments on this delusion please.