Sunday, September 21, 2014

Our Ultrasound: Meeting our Little One

I haven’t been blogging much lately because life has been busy. Tim has been back in nursing school for a month and we are both working full time. It has definitely been challenging and I am trying to be more helpful with house chores and cooking. I have also been feeling pretty tired and spending a lot of time laying on the couch and watching TV, but I am trying to change that! Anyways, back to the story. We had our ultrasound at the end of August when I was twenty weeks along. Before my ultrasound a lot of people were predicting that I was having a boy, and I had been pretty convinced as well. About a week before the ultrasound I realized I should also start bonding to the idea of having a girl so I wouldn’t be too surprised if I was having a girl. I started to get more excited about the idea of having a girl but I wanted to be happy with both outcomes. My main concern was finding out if there were any developmental defects, but again I had to learn to put that in God’s hands in trust in his providence. Overall I was mostly excited to see our baby and how much he or she had developed since the 8 week ultrasound! I wanted to know who this human growing inside me was.
                On the day of the ultrasound I worked in the morning and then took the afternoon off. Tim had to come straight to the appointment from school and we knew that he would probably hit traffic and be a bit late. I got to the appointment early and instead of waiting in my hot car I decided to check in early. Unfortunately they called me back within five minutes and were ready to start the ultrasound early. This made me nervous because Tim was only about to get out of class at that time.  The ultrasound technician informed me that they have to take me as soon as they can after you check in; I quickly called Tim to leave him a voicemail about what was happening. We started the ultrasound but I let the technician know that I wanted to wait until my husband came to find out the gender. It took me a little while to get oriented and figure out what I was looking at, but after I did it was really amazing! My favorite part was looking at how perfectly developed and intricate the spine was, I know that is really random but it was impressive. It also took away concerns of spina bifida. Everything looked really good and I could see the heart and everything! I would occasionally check my phone but Tim had not contacted me so I started to get worried. The ultrasound technician was really friendly and she told me about her three children and talking to her helped distract me from worries about where Tim was.
                Throughout the hour long ultrasound, we kept trying to get baby to change position because baby was head down and it was hard to get certain measurements and angles. The technician kept having me lay on my side, then lay on my back, then onto my other side. Baby was very stubborn.  Of course this made me think about labor and hope that we won’t have a similar problem.  She also had use the bathroom twice to see if that would get baby to change position, I even jumped up and down, nothing. About halfway through the ultrasound Tim finally arrived, what a relief.  I had told the technician that Tim was a nursing student and joked with her that she should quiz him on the baby’s anatomy. It was really nice because she gave him a run through of all the pictures she had taken and told him everything looked good (they aren’t really supposed to comment on anything and she hadn’t said anything to me haha). While Tim was there we continued trying to get baby to move, once she had me cough and baby finally moved but before she could take a good picture the baby moved back to the favored position. It was pretty funny and apparently in eight years of being an ultrasound technician she has never had a baby this stubborn! We finally got to the end and I had to remind the technician that we wanted to find out the gender. She showed us the perfectly formed genitals of a baby girl! I looked at Tim smiling and told him that he was right since he was convinced we were having a girl. We were both really happy to finally know who our little baby is, Gianna Rose Barbeau. One of my first thoughts walking out of the office was oh boy this means we have to handle teenage dating years with a girl first yikes! I know this is many many years away but having a girl is stressful. Aside from those concerns, I am so happy to have a little girl. After the ultrasound I went and bought a newborn dress it is adorable!
                We skyped with our families that night to share the good news because we could not wait or make them wait any longer. I had tried to rehearse using neutral pronouns in my story before we revealed the gender but my first attempt failed. We skyped with my family first and as I was telling them the story I accidentally said “she would not move” which my dad caught onto. My family was really excited to find out, I think they would be equally excited no matter whether it were a boy or girl though. She will be loved by many people. When we told Tim’s family I decided to just tell them sooner before I accidentally gave it away. The funny part was as we were about to announce that it’s a girl, Tim’s mom shouts it’s a boy! And we had to say sorry it’s actually a girl. She had a dream it was a boy and that was why she was convinced. I made a onesie that said “Gianna Rose Barbeau” to show them as we made our announcement and that was fun to share with them.  Everyone is so excited, especially the grandmas and the five aunts who can’t wait to shop for little girl clothes. I can’t even handle how cute baby girl stuff is, even Tim was surprised by how precious the dress I bought Gianna is.

                We are having a girl! It is going to be a really exciting adventure, even though it will be challenging at times. I am excited because I know she will be mommy’s helper as we have other children.  I want to thank everyone’s prayers for us during my pregnancy I really appreciate it. We definitely still need the prayers as we prepare to meet Gianna in January ! 


No comments:

Post a Comment