Carrot Week

Welcome to Carrot Week - week 21!

Week 20 was a full and exciting week for us at the Lo-Bialucha headquarters. Firstly, we have been lucky to have our great friends Jim and Kerri visit is from London. They arrived about a week ago and we just left them today as they headed for a brief tour of historic Boston. It was so nice having them stay with us for a few days, then head up to Lake George in the Adirondacks together, for a relaxing 4th of July weekend by a beautiful lake... pictures from the trip to come.

As mentioned in the previous entry, we had our big ultrasound on Wednesday. My appointment was for 9am so my morning started off with instructions to have a pee at 7am, then drink 16 oz (about 2 full glasses) of water between 7 and 8 then hold the pee until my appointment. I had my doubts as to whether I would be successful in holding anything in my bladder as as this has been one of my greatest challenges (as exhibited in a recent minor bladder control problem whilst sneezing).

Thankfully some concentration and steady breathing helped me to do as instructed and U and I headed to the radiology department of North Shore Medical group, which is also where my OB is, and luckily were called in pretty quickly. We had wanted to capture the experience on video but were told we couldnt. I lied down on the examination table and just like on TV, a gooey conductor jelly thing was squirted on my belly and the ultrasound technician said she needed to take a lot of pictures. Her tone indicated that we were not to disturb her whilst she did her job so U and I quickly assumed our role of well-behaved un-demanding patients and quietly waited and watched.

The technician put the ultrasound probe on my stomach, and gently pressed and moved it about, looking for what I could only assume was our baby...

Yes! We see something that resembles a human head, then the rest of the body as well... I anxiously look for the heart beat and cannot see the little flicker we had seen at the first sonogram..... She magnifies it with the computer... phew... there it is, hooray! I elicit an inaudible but massive internal PHEW and smile.

The next 20 minutes or so we watch as she looks closely at Baby's brain, takes images, the heart, takes images of the 4 different chambers, feet, hands, legs, arms, a beautiful spine... it all goes so quickly and I just want to shout STOP! SLOW DOWN! Let me see my baby!! She continues to do her thing without much attention to us.. finding what she needs and saving images whilst we hungrily lap up what information we can.

Suddenly I realize she's found baby's posterior from the bottom up view... and I catch myself saying "aha..." and smiling to myself. "Do you want to know?" she asks. I think I already do, but U and I say at the same time... "Yes, if possible."

She magnifies the image, takes a picture and says "thats the leg, thats the other leg, and THAT (points in between the legs), is the peepee".

...I was surprised, yet not surprised at all since I have "known" or had a gut feeling/irrational sixth sense/illogical assumption about the baby being a boy, since I first found out I was pregnant. "That's your son" I say to U, who is looking at me lovingly. I know he'd have loved a little girl to spoil rotten, but I can see his heart and mind already at one with our boy. We feel great cause we are getting to know so much about our little one!

The technician then zooms out a bit and we see Baby Bi squirm, kick then put his thumb in his mouth! She then pans to his face and we see him open up his mouth then close it again. We are in awe and in love.

She finishes off, hands us only a small handful of the many images she took and tells us that the radiologist will report to my OB on the scans. I know this is so, and also know that she is not really qualified to advise us about medical matters, but I can't help but ask.."how does everything look? Is it all ok?" "Everything seems fine" she answers, and I feel better although still wishing I could have a copy of all the images so I can go home and play doctor myself.

U and I leave the office practically skipping with the little print out in our hand. We get in the car and I call my mom. "You're having a grandson!" I say. "Wow, so it really is a boy after all!" exclaims mom. (That same afternoon she goes out and buys half a closet full of baby clothes - most likely gender specific :-))

So there we have it folks, tis' a wee lad we're havin' and since the ultrasound, he seems to be eager to make himself further known as the jabs and kicks Ive been feeling have grown in intensity and frequency and U can now enjoy them (with hand on belly) on occasion as well. Without further ado therefore, U and I are happy to present pictures from Baby Bi's first photoshoot.

Sucking on his hand

he has U's nose!

:-)

And from the exterior perspective