It's a Baby Boy!

Yesterday was the big ultrasound. Garen made it back in town for it with no problems. Before the u/s, I was instructed to drink 32 oz. of water and "hold it". You do this because a full bladder pushes the baby toward the surface of your belly, making it easier to see them with the u/s. Baby G was there, curled up into a tiny little ball. He had his knees pulled up to his chest, his arms folded up, and his head tucked down. He made it very difficult for the ultrasound tech to take most of the measurements, but she was persistent and got all of them. Unfortunately when she would take a picture of his leg, she had to take 2 - one of the upper leg, then move to the lower leg, then on to the other leg! So when we looked at his little body parts, they didn't look like anything (except a random bone)! His little heart was beating at 155 bpm, and this was the first time Garen was able to hear it. We were shown his kidneys, his bladder, his stomach, and all sorts or other little baby parts. But Baby G only wanted to show us the top of his head! The u/s tech then had me empty my bladder, thinking we were squishing the baby and maybe if he had more room to move, she could finish measuring him. It worked!

We finally got a face shot - straight on, which through an u/s is actually very disturbing! All I could make out were 2 dark areas where the eye sockets were and the bones of the mouth, so he looked like a skeleton. Finally she turned to do a profile and Garen and I both looked at each other like "What is wrong with our baby!" The tech pointed out his tiny mouth, his nose, his eye, and his hand - THANK GOD that was his hand! He kept putting his hand on his head in a fist and it looked like a strange growth on his forehead. When he finally moved his hand away we were able to see a little profile and we could make out Baby G yawning and then swallowing (drinking the amniotic fluid surrounding him).

Then on to the money shot. This was the first, and only, part that Baby G wanted to show us! Such a Grashot. The picture is looking up between his legs at his butt, and as soon as she had it in view, I yelled "That's a boy!" To which Garen responded, "WHERE???" The u/s tech even turned on vein-color thing (which is like a heat detector, and looks like it too, but lights up red and blue where major veins and arteries are) to verify where the cord was - definitely a boy! She took a lot of pictures of that part because it was the only part he readily wanted to show. Garen has been walking around since then with a goofy look on his face talking about how a boy "carries on the Grashot name". He is a proud papa!


So today Garen and I are off to Nashville to register and pick out baby bedding! I'm so excited! I feel like I've been waiting for forever to do this!

As for the rest of the week - there is actually one thing that happened that is reportable. Monday at work I got an awful bloody nose! I'd never gotten a bloody nose before, let alone one that wouldn't quit. I could get it to stop, but as soon as I would begin breathing through my nose again, it would start bleeding again! So I called my doctor and he told me to go to the ER. I was shocked! The ER for a nosebleed?! But Kathy from work took me and I spent the morning waiting to be seen in the ER. Of course, after 2 hours of waiting, my nose stopped bleeding by the time I saw the doctor. Nothing was wrong, just a super dry nose. I had read in the pregnancy book that I'd be more prone to them if pregnant in the winter or a dry area. Garen and I now have a humidifier in the bedroom, and I have to put Neosporen up my nose. FUN. It was quite an embarrassing morning.

As of today, I am 20 weeks and 0 days pregnant....OFFICIALLY 1/2 way through the pregnancy. Baby G is the size of a cantaloupe. I still haven't felt any movement yet. Below is the next belly-shot, and I've been told that I have "popped" although I still feel like it isn't noticable to strangers, so therefore is not yet the "pop", although I am starting to feel like I look pregnant and not just fat.