"The" Sonogram :)

On June 2nd Joe, Avery, and I headed to the doctor for our sonogram.  I was one day shy of 20 weeks and FINALLY feeling better (as "normal" as you can feel when you're pregnant :)).


This would be our BIG sonogram... that is, if we were choosing to find out.


Last time, I didn't want to find out before birth and Joe kind of did - but he willingly and graciously went along with me and we didn't find out.  I told him that he could make the call with our next baby.  Sooooo, this time around, I asked Joe what he wanted to do - promising to go along with whatever he decided.  Surprisingly, he said he didn't want to find out!  He said he really enjoyed the surprise at the end, as well as going out to the waiting room and announcing "It's a GIRL!" :)


So, once again, we decided not to find out until Baby Itty Bitty's arrival in October. :) We have just been praying for a healthy, happy baby.


The thing is... with "Baby Spanky", this sonogram was MUCH easier (read about here).  The sonographer said she avoided any "telling" areas completely so that she wouldn't accidentally say anything.  She promised me that not even SHE knew what we were having...


This time was different.


We told them as we went in that we were choosing NOT to know (which was hard - of course I can't wait to know what I'm having!).


As the sonographer got started, we could already tell that this baby is quite a bit more active than Avery was. :) It was SO fun to see him/her dance and wiggle around!


It was really fun to have Avery there.  She kept saying, "Oh Mommy, it's a picture of your belly!".  We would point out different parts and she would get SO excited.  Joe would point and say, "Avery, do you see the nose?  There's the nose!" and Avery would say, "Oh yeah!  I do I do!  I see the nose!  Awww, it's SO cute!". :) Of course, when we tried to show her the heart moving, she said, "Oh yeah!  I see the nose!".  Ha ha.


(Sidenote - now and then Avery will get out my tripod and have me sit still.  She'll say "it's time to take a picture of your belly, Mommy".  She'll "look through" the camera and make a shutter sound, then say "I got a good one - the baby looks great!")


Back to the sonogram...
As we watched her check all the measurements, kidneys, heart, etc... kind of out of the blue she says, "Are you SURE you don't want to know what you're having?"


My heart skipped a beat.  She knew!


I asked the obvious: "So you know what it is?" and she said she definitely did.  Aaaaah!


For some reason, it got MUCH MUCH harder right then.  I mean, it was one thing when NO ONE knew what we were having... now this complete stranger knew and I didn't!!!!!!


I hesitantly answered that, no, I didn't want to know yet...


To make matters worse, the sonographer asked about 5 more times... one time she even turned to Avery and said "Avery, I could tell you right now if you're having a little brother or sister!"  Oh good grief.


We were asked yet AGAIN if we were sure we didn't want to know... I turned to Joe and said, "Babe, what do you think?  It's up to you."  Joe said "Um, I'm 50/50."


Fifty-fifty?!?!?


I put my hands over my face, and in my head I heard myself say, "Okay, just tell me already!" - and I thought those words were coming out... but all that came out was "Aaaaaaaaah!"  I'm not great at making decisions on the spot and I was SO torn!


But I stuck with our previous decision.  It just about killed me.  It was SO hard.  The sonographer gave us one last chance as we walked out, telling us that the knowledge would die with her - they don't put it on our chart - that way no one can accidentally tell us.  Goodness.


I later told Joe that if had wanted to, or even said 60/40 I would have gone with finding out... he thinks I should have more say, so he left it up to me even though he would have been fine knowing.  Oh well!  Ha ha.


We don't know.


I'm okay with that.


Is it October yet?!?


Sigh...


So, finally - the pictures you're waiting to see!

Our Baby Itty Bitty is doing wonderfully - right on track with where he/she should be. :) All major organs are functioning - they can even check different ventricles in the heart - how crazy is that?  Brain is good - kidneys processing fluid - heart is great.  We are so thankful.  So blessed.  All arms/legs/fingers/toes are there (which for some reason is always a huge relief to me)!


Did you know that "nowadays" they give you a disc with your pictures as well as some video loop from the sonogram??  SO COOL!  I'm only posting the pics because #1 the videos are in a weird format and #2 I'm afraid some of you in the medical field might be able to tell what we're having - this sonographer didn't avoid "that area" at all! :) Ha ha.


One video shows Baby Itty Bitty wiggling/dancing all around, another sucking on his/her hand, and yet another waving at us.  The wave did me in.  I cried.


So even though we don't know if we will be giving Avery a little sister or brother, we are just thanking God for a healthy baby.  The miracle of this life inside of me... well, I never get used to it.  I'm in awe.  God never ceases to amaze me.