Almost time to find out what gender our baby is

The previous two days passed so slowly, I thought they were never going to end. Nights of little sleep certified my excitement and impatience, and a low tolerance of anything non-baby was its manifestation.

We left nice and early, getting over to Heidelberg a good hour before our appointment time. We filled some time by getting a coffee and a bite to eat at the nearby McDonalds; a lot of people and families have no doubt done the same thing at one time or other.

Arriving at the hospital we parked and caught the elevator to the imaging department. We said yes, we’d like a DVD of the scan please, and we sat down. I really was getting anxious, it felt like my heart was beating for two rather than my wife’s! Her name was called, we went into the room and took our positions – she lying on a bed and me sitting next to her on a chair, both of us looking up at a monitor that was fixed to the roof. It was a good set up, which was nice as we knew it was a 45-minute scan on this occasion.

The obstetrician asked if we wanted to know the sex of the baby and we both quickly said ‘yes’. She then put the jelly stuff on my wife’s belly and we started seeing some images of our bub. It was pretty active again, jumping around all over the place like a prize fighter after one too many Gatorades. After only a few minutes the obstetrician said she was pretty sure she knew what it was but she wanted to have a closer look over the next little while to make sure she was 100% right. We then got to see the heart, kidneys, stomach, arms and legs before finally, we were told:

We are having a boy!

I was pretty excited and so was my wife, it was really nice to be able to put a gender to it and narrow our field of names by 50%. Shortly after my wife was allowed to go to the ladies and I waited for her while the obstetrician went and did something. When my wife came back I asked how she felt and she was giddy like me, it was awesome just knowing. It really made it a lot more real and for the first time I felt I was starting to get a bit of a handle on my baby’s personality.

The rest of the scan was all pretty smooth, even the cyst on my wife’s ovaries wasn’t cause for concern, it was all ok. We did get a good look at our boy in 4D, which was both cool and freaky. It was cool as we saw a lot more definition, down to his ears and we could even make out what looked to be a smile. It was freaky though as the images did resemble some bad, grainy footage of the ‘Roswell Aliens’ I saw back when my brothers and I were X-Files-philes.

The scan done, we left and walked out into the hall. I called my mother to tell her the first grandchild was going to be a Grandson and my wife called her parents to tell them that their 3rd would be a boy (I have a nephew and a niece on that side). All were excited for us and couldn’t wait to tell everyone they knew! We drove off and headed for some baby shops to look at cots, rockers and car seats. On the way my wife made some more calls to tell our siblings and close friends.

We spent the next few hours shopping for our boy and ordered a cot, car seat and some of the cutest little outfits you’ve ever seen! His room at our new place is really starting to take shape, all it’s missing now is the cot itself, which should be delivered in a couple of weeks.

I can see I will lay awake at night now, thinking and planning for all the fun things my son and I can do together, I cannot wait to be his friend. All those Father-Son things I never got to do as the child, I can now do as the parent. It really is very exciting!

Almost 20 week scan time...

Today is Wednesday the 16th of April. In two more sleeps we have our 20-week ultrasound, the big one where we get a good idea of how the baby is coming along, and also where we find out the gender!

I won’t rehash previous musings on gender-discovery, but I will repeat my utter excitement at finding out! I cannot wait to get to know our child, and one major way we can do this prior to it being born, is of course by learning what we are having. It will make it so much more ‘real’ I think, and give it more identity. Naturally it will help name selection but we’re pretty well decided on that front anyway.

There have been a few flutters recently, the wifey has felt a bit more movement of late. Sadly I am yet to feel it, my hand always seems to arrive just as bub settles down for a snooze after its workout. That first sensation of feeling the little one kick me, that will be pretty darn special.

We are getting a DVD made of the ultrasound and I will post a snippet on here at some point over the weekend.

In addition to the first ultrasound on Friday, the weekend also marks our first wedding anniversary (on Sunday). A nice dinner out on Saturday will be followed by a picnic lunch in the Botanic Gardens where we married, and a coffee in the beachside suburb where we had the reception. Happy times, and I didn’t think this time a year ago that we would now be 20 weeks pregnant, a lovely development though of course!

A foetus at 12 weeks gestation

Not long home from our first ultrasound!

I’d been looking forward to it for the past week and all day at work I couldn’t concentrate properly – lucky I had a day full of meetings and could kind of zone out and think of our baby.

On the train home I was so excited and grinning like an idiot, I couldn’t wait! Arriving at the radiology clinic, I met my wife who had arrived just before me. We walked inside and had a seat, waiting for her name to be called. The wife was a little uncomfortable, owing to being told to drink plenty of fluids beforehand and to hold them in! All I had to do was sit there and wait, much easier for the men…

We walked into the room when her name was called and braced for a glimpse at our baby. It came up on the screen and I got a little dizzy, seeing it right there made it all so real and took my breath away. The radiologist said it was too early to tell its gender (which I already suspected but hoped otherwise), but we got great views of its head, arms, legs and bum – it seemed to keep flashing us, cheeky bugger.

The real magic was hearing its heartbeat, a regular 154bpm. I couldn’t believe we were hearing our little one’s heart, it was magic. I may have welled up a little, but kept myself in check. From head to toe our kid is about 6.2cm long, normal for this stage but tiny when you think about it!

A scan of the wider womb region revealed a cyst on my wife’s left ovary, which made me shit myself and wonder what was going on. The radiologist said it was nothing to worry about and that they generally go away, but it would be monitored and could be drained or removed safely if need be. I was a little sceptical but a quick Google search just now has confirmed that we shouldn’t worry too much just yet and that they seem to be more common than I’d realised.

The major discovery of today is that we are 12 weeks and 5 days pregnant, which is 6 days more than we had thought. We now have an official due date of September 11, not all that far away!

Some other measurements were taken and will be checked against my wife’s blood test results and age to determine the chances of Down’s Syndrome. Not sure when we get that result but I’ll of course post when we do.

Today’s been a great day and one that’s made me want our baby right now, though everyone keeps telling me to enjoy my sleep while I can, so I’m taking that advice on board.