20 weeks, and snake...surprise

20 weeks! And I'm not even wearing scrubs!

When I knew I was giving that talk at Wellesley, I took three vacation days this week--Monday and Tuesday to get there and back (if at all possible I like to limit all business-like travel to 24 hours, that way, it's not any different for the kids than me being on call) and Wednesday to decompress in case travel was awful. GOOD PLANNING, ME. Having the extra day off also allowed me to squeak in my 20 week OB appointment without too much logistical hassle, which was nice. I like making doctor's appointments for the morning if I can, because I figure it's less time for the practitioners to accumulate serial delays over the whole day of seeing people (they are inevitable, and really not their fault, especially if they are trying to do a good job with each patient), but because of my work schedule, usually I have to make appointments for the afternoon.

Also, I would like to point out (see above) that you can find plenty of maternity-ish tops in non-maternity sections, see that Old Navy tank up above. It probably won't work in another month or two, but generally (and this I found with my first two pregnancies as well) Old Navy and some other stores tend to cut their clothing overlarge and somewhat billowy, so what may be a really unflattering shape for a non-pregola (I would never have bought this shirt under other circumstances) works out great for the parturient, at least up through the second trimester. Also, non-maternity clothing tends to be cheaper, because it's not considered "specialty." More choices in cut and color too. I got a whole scad of these T-shirts when they were super on sale after Christmas (I ordered my usual size but in "Tall" so I could have a longer shirt-tail to cover the unfortunate elastic waisting of my pants) and they look much better than regular maternity T-shirts, which can tend to have more of a tent-like cut. Anyway! Girl talk! Clothes! Shopping!  (These links are not sponsored, by the way, I just thought I'd share what I've learned from clothing myself these past three pregnancies. Especially since, not knowing what I know now, I gave ALL my maternity clothes to Goodwill this past Spring after we moved--like, SMOOTH MOVES, EX-LAX.)

Wait, what?  You want to know about what?  The...oh!  Right.  The ultrasound.

Let me say first that I really like this OB practice we're with.  I was a little less than crazy about the group that we used for Mack (and obviously I'm not going to say who they were), but given that we've moved since then and would probably be delivering at a different hospital anyway, it was as good a time as any to switch practices.  Anyway, this group is a bit smaller, more personal, and they spend quite a bit of time talking to their patients, which, even as a third-time-arounder, I really appreciate.  Also, for all of the routine ultrasounds, an OB is actually doing the scan himself, which is very nice, especially since he really explains what he's looking at and isn't bound, like a tech, to not make diagnostic calls or say certain things for medicolegal reasons.  Anyway, we like both doctors with this group a lot, and I think they are excellent clinicians.

And we got some really nice pictures.  (Ignore the "Wondershare" watermark, it's just because I had to download some software to do the video file conversion blah blah blah nerd talk. CARRY ON.)







"Hey little guy!  Look at him go!" said Joe, when he saw Thing 3 moving around.  (I'd forgotten that he's only seen still images thus far.)

"Yeah, he's moving around a lot now," I confirmed.  We walked through the head, the heart, the abdomen, the cord, looked at his little face, his arms, his legs, everything.  "He looks great!"

"Yeah, he does," the OB, measuring this that or the other thing.  "Although, if we keep calling him 'he,' I guess we should actually look at that part too, to confirm."

"Oh yeah.  Sure, take another look."

"What did I say last time?" the OB asked, flipping through my chart.  "We said boy?"

"You said you were 99% sure he was a boy, but you also said couldn't get a super-fantastic view."

"OK then, so let's see here..."  He looked.  Then he looked.  Then he looked again.

Joe and I also looked.  "Uh..."

"I said boy?" The OB froze the frame. "I was wrong there.  Nope, totally wrong.  It's obvious now.  Huh, funny, usually when I made a wrong call, it's the other way around."

"Well, it was only 16 weeks..."

"Yeah, more difficult to say on a 4 oz. 16 week fetus...though, usually, I have to say, it's pretty obvious even at that stage.  Regardless, I think it's pretty clear now."

"Wait, so..."

"It's a girl.  100% certain this time.  You guys are having a girl."







WE'RE HAVING A GIRL.

Well, hell.  I hope she doesn't mind wearing a whole lot of blue clothing for the first 3 months.

Obviously we're thrilled to bits and aren't fussy about the clothing--and whatever, babies can't read anyway.

HOLY SHIT, WE'RE HAVING A GIRL.