"It was just so incredible..."

Thu., November 29, 1990

     Guy's been working til 5:30 every day this week except for yesterday he was able to go see Dr. Rand & have the ultrasound with me.  They'd said we could bring a tape if we wanted so we did.  It was strange though, they made Guy stay in the waiting room first.  She started doing the ultrasound on a tape for the doctor.  But she didn't have the screen turned where I could see it.  She was talking into the microphone but I couldn't hear her much cause she was talking so soft.  I heard her pointing things out & said something was intact.  When she finished that she called for them to send Guy back.  Then she turned the screen so we could see and started.  It was incredible.  The baby was moving around so much.  I'm surprised I haven't felt it yet.  She pointed out the different parts.  We could tell the outside parts ok but she showed us the heart beating, the spine, and I forget what else.  At one point it looked like the baby turned its face to look straight at us.  She froze the picture for a few seconds so we could see the face, it's mostly just light & shadows but you could tell the difference between the eyes, nose, & mouth.  I started crying cause I was so relieved that the baby looked just fine.  I was waiting for Guy to ask but he didn't so I asked if she could tell what it was.  She said she'd try and went from a different angle.  I couldn't tell what she was seeing til she explained it.  She was looking from like underneath the baby's bottom & you could see the legs sticking out and she said that it looked like a girl and froze the screen and put an arrow and "girl" on it.  Then I started crying even more.  I was squeezing Guy's hand the whole time and squeezed even harder then.  She looked from another angle that made it look like the baby's head was on the opposite side.  That confused me til we looked at the tape later.  But when she was on that angle the baby just arched it's back and threw her arms up like she was really stretching.  It was just so incredible - I didn't want it to end but she stopped it & I had to go clean up & give a urine sample.  Then they took blood and we waited to see the dr.  Oh, the girl did my weight and took a pound off for my shoes.  She didn't give me a chance to explain that the nurse doesn't do that.  But I told the nurse when she did my blood pressure & she added the pound back on.  Anyway this time it was 114 - the nutritionist had gotten 115 & 1/2.  So the drs. official weight for me is 114, a gain of 5 lbs. since last month.  He said that was good.  I asked him about the places that hurt sometimes when I cough & he said that's the ligaments.  I told him that sometimes it feels like urine leaks out when I cough & he said that's normal.  He showed us a picture of how the bladder is right under the uterus and coughing normally causes a downward pressure but with the extra weight of the uterus pushes it even more.  I guess I feel better about that but still in the back of my mind I wonder about having a weak cervix.  I'll be seeing a different doctor next time, the day after Xmas.
     I felt so happy after seeing the dr. & ultrasound.  I just hope she's right about it being a girl.  Dr. Rand said he'd probably do an ultrasound again later to be sure the baby's growing enough.  But by the measurements it's right on schedule - 19 wks. tomorrow.