So yesterday was the big day! To be completely honest, I was a wound-up ball of nerves before my appointment. The last time I saw my baby it looked like a shrimp, and even though I can feel little Pickles wiggling around, I had a hard time picturing an actual baby.
I was also hoping the baby would cooperate by spreading its legs and showing us the goods. I drank plenty of juice and water before hand to get it moving around. If Pickles didn’t show us I’d have to pay out of pocket and drive an hour away to have another scan.
The ultrasound wasn’t just to discover the gender, but to check out its anatomy. I really wasn’t prepared for what I saw. It was unbelievably amazing. I could see its head, but not only that, you could see the skull and brain, complete with the left and right hemispheres (WOW!!!)! Then we saw its kidneys, bladder, stomach, heart, arms, legs, etc. It was a 45-minute appointment to just look at everything! The technician was measuring all its parts to get a better due date and to make sure the baby was growing on the right track. Everything looked good, but I have a routine appointment in a few weeks to go over everything. I hope I can look at the photos he took again!
Now to the part everyone wants to know about! When it came time for him to look for the baby’s “parts,” the tech initially had some trouble since the baby was being a prude and kept its legs shut. I poked and pushed on my tummy to make it move around and it must have moved enough, because he said he was 95% confident what he saw is the correct gender. Here’s hoping that’s true!!!
Oh! And the baby peed!!! I didn’t see it, because I was keeping my eyes from looking at “the money shot,” but my friend and the tech were cracking up over seeing it pee! How crazy cool is that?
After my appointment, which was at 9 am, I had to wait for my husband to get online so we could video chat. I would have LOVED to do one of those fun gender reveal parties you see all over Pinterest. Or shoot, I would’ve loved to have had my husband by my side at the ultrasound, but our circumstances didn’t allow that to happen, so I came up with the next best thing. I figured out a way that we could find out the gender together (it’s explained in the video) and I’m so thrilled it worked out.
Jessica Lynn is a 20-something expat from New Mexico, living in Italy as an Air Force wife and new mom. She writes about life as a military wife, travel, food, health, pregnancy and everything in-between!
