If you didn’t figure it out, our secret mission to Richmond this week was for a special ultrasound!
When I first heard about 3D ultrasounds, I researched them in my area, hoping to do one in the third trimester for those cool 3D photos. I was surprised to find that they’re not nearly as expensive as I imagined they would be, and also – that they do sex determination for a very reasonable price. That got my mind cranking, and when I realized the “20 week find-out-what-it is” ultrasound at my doctor’s office wouldn’t be until I was nearly 23 weeks, going down just shy of 17 weeks sounded like lots of fun. And we’d find out our surprise a month and a half earlier!
We scheduled an appointment at Inner Child Imaging for their gender determination package of $99. Upon arrival, the owner Dave was there to greet us. He was super nice and escorted us into the imaging room where I sat in a recliner with a nice view of the plasma TV in front of us. You can actually bring a crowd if you’d like, and in the third tri they can make a DVD for you to share as well. I think it’s so cool to have a video you can show your child one day of when he/she was inside of you. I know I’d love to see that of myself – my mom barely even has any photos of her pregnant with me!
We opted for the 2D since it was less expensive and Dave said the baby would look kind of weird in 3D since it didn’t have the fat stores of the third trimester, but he was nice enough to switch to 3D a few times for us and we got several pretty cool photos! They are a bit hard to see because he’s so young, but still neat:
Sucking thumb
His face! [Although kind of obscured by hands!]
Dave had told me to hydrate well and eat something sugary before I got there – to ensure the baby was active. If I hadn’t been so full from lunch, I might have used that as a good excuse for an ice cream (!), but I settled on a piece of hard candy instead. The baby was quite active inside! Matt and I are always most amazed just watching the baby move around in there. So much personality comes to life!
The baby was sitting on his legs the whole first half of the scan. He had them tucked beneath him. Dave thought he saw a glimpse of what he was looking for in the first few minutes, but said he didn’t want to declare until he was sure. Matt and I both knew then that it was probably a BOY!
A little while later, after I drank some sugary juice and Dave wiggled the baby around a bit until his legs finally stretched out, until he suddenly declared: “YUP! You’re havin’ a boy!” He was sure of what he saw: little boy parts. He has only called the sex wrong on a boy once, and he was very sure this time, so we’re counting on it to be right.
Little legs
I can’t say that we were shocked – because we obviously knew that there was a 50% chance of boy or girl! But it was so weird to know and imagine a HIM in my head. The baby I had been imagining up until now -was genderless. Flip-flopping between boy and girl constantly. But once we knew, it was almost like I had a new baby to get to know, and it felt a little funny at first. Like he [the baby] knew more than I did. But by the end of the day, after pretty much non-stop thinking about him, he was mine again : ) And cuter than ever!
View from right profile, sitting up, arms wrapped around head: “No more photos, I’m not ready to come out!”
After we left the studio, we went shopping! Although we weren’t really hunting for anything in particular. We went to Baby GAP and I decided we should buy him something to celebrate the day when we first “met” him. All the clothes in Baby GAP were adorable!!! Little polo shirts and tons with little bears on the pockets. We decided on this silly knit bear hat – hopefully he can wear it home from the hospital and join his bear brothers!
We had lots of fun telling our families that evening. Multiple Skype sessions were involved, and we handed Karen the stack of images and put the “It’s a boy!” on the bottom. Everyone was excited to know, but we’re keeping the name zipped tight until he’s born (although we still haven’t even decided).
Lillian even got to get in a few excited meows! She is very excited to be an Aunt Kitty.
Matt’s dad is a radiologist and his wife, Cheryl, is in the medical field too, so we sent them the ultrasound photos, unlabeled, and had them guess the sex! They did a great job using medical terminology while reading the ultrasound photos over Skype, but it was a little hard to read a still photo 🙂 They were excited to see boy parts!
I know there are strong schools of thought about finding out versus waiting until the baby is born, but I am SO glad we did this. I don’t think it will change much about how we’re proceeding – the nursery colors will stay the same, and I like green and yellow and orange way more than I like pink or blue. But a bond has been created that wasn’t there before, and this makes the name decision much easier!
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