Second Ultrasound!!!

Isn't he or she beautiful? Okay, so after you take the black and white ultrasound picture and scan it, you do kind of lose some of the zest....but I'll try and fix that tomorrow...

We had our second ultrasound today and our exit interview with our fertility clinic. It was great! We were taken in right away and as soon as she got the ultrasound fired up, there our baby was....twice as big as last time!!!! We sat and stared at the beautiful black & white picture on the screen and watched that heart go crazy! The nurse was kind enough to keep the screen tilted my direction and take her measurements (usually the pull the screen away, then bring it back when they're done).

So we were able to see how she measures the baby from 'crown to rump' (I've read that as soon as the tail disappears in a couple weeks they baby will then be measured 'crown to toe'...but right now there's a tail). Then we got to see how the heartbeat was calculated...it was so neat. So, they zoom in real close on the heart (which was beating so beautifully) then she pushes some button and the screen splits in half...on one half you see the baby and the heart beating and the other half of the screen has a BUNCH of lines running across the screen. It was very confusing...but John was able to pick up pretty quickly how the heartbeat was in fact being measured. Every time the heart beat a little gray-ish black circle would appear in between these many lines. Then she would measure from one circle to the other...and presto it told us that the baby's heart was beating at 154 beats per minute...EXCELLENT! (Way to go little baby!) Anything above 100 is out of the 'scare' zone. Last time the heartbeat was 120 bpm....and we were told that it would get stronger...and it did!!!!! Woo-hoo!!!

We brought our camera (which has a video camera on it) and asked if we could take a video of the heartbeating. She did have to leave the room to ask and we were told no for liability reasons...but we tried; we thought it would be cool. I suppose that memory would just have to stay with John and I; we will cherish it forever.

So then we met with Dr. Jacobs for our exit appt. He walked in the room and said 'Thank You'....he thanked us for not making a liar out of him. He said that with a girl young as me with great quality embryos he was still so surprised that we didn't get pregnant in October. In our post-negative result visit, he mentioned that a 'girl my age with great embryos' typically takes 2 tries to get pregnant with IVF. That did put some pressure on.....but we pulled through!

At the time of our appointment I was a bit nauseous (still haven't thrown up yet, but I do get nauseous about 4-5 hours throughout the day)...so Dr. Jacobs suggested a 'sea-sick bracelet' (which oddly enough, John's sister, Sandy had just suggested it this past weekend when I got so car sick going up to the Chili party). So ran out to get one...we'll see how it works tomorrow.

Dr. Jacobs mentioned that the baby was growing at a great pace. The baby measured 15mm - just between a half-inch and three-quarters....right on target with my daily book.

He also mentioned that 97% of miscarriages would have happened by now...so we shouldn't worry.

I did ask if the heartbeat could read anything into boy or girl at any point....he said 'have you ever heard of the term B. S.?' Hahaha! Okay, okay....I know that many people says it works, but I also know several people that have said it was fast, but a boy or vice versa. He said that we'd have a better chance of guessing the gender this early on by throwing a dart on a board.

OOh, ooh.....one other cool thing...I mentioned that I couldn't wait to see the arms and legs (right now the book says they resemble 'paddles'). The tech said well, let's see....and there they were....tiny, tiny little arms....I swear the baby was waving to us showing off his/her proud little arms!!! It was very exciting!

Despite all these wonderful things, this is still such a surreal experience. When I see the baby on the monitor, it is so cool to think that this baby is actually inside of me. But on a daily basis and even almost every second that I think about it...I still can't believe it!!! I just keep thinking...patience....for over half the pregnancy I'll be able to feel the baby move and I cannot wait for that feeling!

After the appointment, I went back to work and told everybody at work....only a couple people knew. Everybody was very excited for us. They hadn't known how long we've actually been trying (since I've been there just under a year)....so I briefed them on the story, but it's still so much more. :) I was very excited!!!!!

We are so blessed.