Inquiring Minds Want to Know

Thank you all for your emails and phone calls saying you're waiting patiently for an update on our appointment we had last week. I didn't want to post the update until I had scanned a picture, and it has been a hectic few days for both of us.

Enough babbling... Look! It's our baby! I know you're anxious to know if we decided to find out the gender, but I'm going to be mean and make you wait.**

This was taken at 19 weeks and 6 days. The baby's heartbeat is 152 bpm and the baby weighs about 10 oz. The doctor says that everything looks good, and he will be sending a full report to my midwife.

The appointment was both exciting and disappointing. First, let's start with the exciting part. See the baby's hand in the picture? We actually saw the baby wipe his face! It was so very very cute!

Now for the disappointing part. Both Michael and I were hoping the appointment would be a "Grand Tour of Your Baby." You know, something along the lines of "And off to your right, you see the baby's foot with 5 toes. Now if you look to the left, there is the baby's heart. Any questions? Ok then, let's move on..." But instead it was "And there is the baby's hand" click "and there is the baby's stomach" click "and there is the baby's kidneys" click, which left us thinking "Wait! Wait! Go back! I didn't see!"

But the important part is that the baby is healthy!

And now for the exciting news that I know everyone has been waiting for! Is it a boy or girl? Did we break down and find out? Well we have an answer for you!

It's a ...
.
..
...
....
.....
......

Baby! Yay! We're so excited!

We ended up deciding not to find out the gender. Actually I intended on convincing Michael to find out, and we were discussing it all the way up to the end when we were waiting in the lobby for our appointment. However, there was this cute couple who overheard us talking and they spoke up. The woman said they are expecting their 5th baby and they've never found out the gender (so far they've ended up with 2 boys and 2 girls). She told us a little about how it can be frustrating to not know, especially towards the end, but the moment when the doctor hands over the baby and says "It's a boy!" or "It's a girl!" it is the best feeling in the world.

Now I know that the moment when the doctor hands over the baby is bound to be the "best feeling in the world" regardless of knowing or not. However, the way she spoke made it all seem worth the wait. Damn her.



** That is, of course, forgetting about the fact that you could always just scroll down to the bottom of the entry to find out right away, but how many of you were really that smart? =)