"Baby's First Photo"

Yesterday was an adventure and a half! The day started at 7:45 AM with a shower deliveryman sitting in his truck in front of the house waiting for the plumber. =) Mom finally got her shower installed in the basement bathroom (mostly, but that's a story for another blog). Suffice to say that as with many contracting jobs, things ran a little long and a bit over budget. But it's gonna work out, and the dog's about to get a new kind of bath. =D

"You've Got To Be Kidding Me" ...Our Adventure-Part-II started in the waiting room for our sonogram. Mom and the E.P. both took the day off work to be there. I had this anxious beaurocratic-snafu feeling, worried that I didn't have the right paperwork or something similar would go wrong. So I was not wholly surprised when -- Surprise! -- my appt. had been booked for the same day a month ago, and we'd missed it.

Fortunately, they took pity on us since folks had taken off work to be there, and whisked us off to another office a 15 minute drive away in Sterling. Thank goodness!!!

A Wonder in "3D" I had no idea they have this "3D" technology now, that uses a special gizmo to flesh out 2D, black-and-white ultrasound imaging in approximation of another 2D image. (LOL!) The difference is that the image attempts to show the exterior features of the baby - such as what the face looks like - rather than just the see-through alien-skeletal ultrasounds we all know and love.

The pic is bumpy and fuzzy and nearly as hard to discern as the sonograms but you can kinda see a few features of the cute little face. It will change of course, and the plates of the head are still clearly separated, but it looks like she has the E.P.'s nose bridge and my not-as-prominent chin. =D Oh and yes... there's a 75% probability that it's a girl!

Inherently, Inherited-ly STUBBORN! Well, the one trait we knew this baby would inherit was, without-a-doubt, smartassedness, because she's got it from Everyone in the family (Everyone, everyone. Everyone.) At first she was moving around a bit, and this enabled the technician to get most of the photos she needed. But as the poking and prodding continued, jellybean got fed up. She rolled her back up, put herself in the classic fetal position and REFUSED TO BUDGE no matter what we tried to get her to roll over! I emptied my bladder -- nothing. Rolled on both sides. Gave the technician permission to poke away. Nothing worked, she would. not. be. moved!!!

Which is quite sweet, really, because I used to be like that, as was my Dad. As is the E.P., my Mom, his parents, and most especially his Grandmother! (It's clear that some traits carry on whether families are all blood relatives or not. =D )

So hopefully, I won't get a call saying that I have to go back in so we can get a better picture of that one heart ventricle. But it also means that we didn't get a second look at they naughty parts, but they seemed feminine enough during the one look.

Taking It All In It took a while for me to process all the information we got in the sonogram, due to both the mad dash to get there and the fact that I had a job to do immediately afterward. So my brain was in practical-get-'er-done mode.

Additionally, one of my greatest life fears has always been that I'll have a disabled baby. We didn't have the quad-screen done (a test to see if amniocentesis is necessary to see if there are problems) because it wouldn't change the result -- we're keeping this baby regardless. That means that this sonogram is the first best method of detecting issues such as down syndrome, etc. So I was more concerned with that (while in my practical-state) than with how cute and cuddly she looks.

I got to do that later at dinner, after the day's work was done and I had time to actually look at the pictures the technician gave us. She's so cute!! (But don't all mother's say that? LOL!)

Update: The RN at the Doc's office yesterday said that we will be surprised at how much the baby will resemble the 3D pictures. She said she still has hers on her fridge -- and her child is 2 yrs old! And apparently still looks exactly like that fuzzy orange shot from the womb. =)

Update to the Second Power: We dug out my baby pics last night, as the E.P. had never seen most of them. There is a striking similarity between the 3D shot and my newborn baby pic in the mouth and chin. The resemblance is uncanny. Seems pretty clear: The baby has my chin & the E.P.'s eyes! And she's not even born yet!!!