Oh, Baby!

This new little one seems bound and determined to give us some scares.

I wrote previously that we had two scares with spotting. Fortunately those have been our only episodes of that. We're not done yet though!

We went in for our anatomy ultrasound on March 4th and got to see how much baby had grown. We stuck to our guns and did not find out the gender. We did get some cute (albeit fuzzy) pics of baby.

Profile shot, right hand in a fist above the eyes.

 

 left leg

 This is as if you were looking down at the baby lying on it's back with the head (not seen) on the right. The left arm and hand are most visible, the right arm is just above, and both legs are to the left of each respective arm.

The ultrasound tech was not very nice (she yelled at Evan and was rude to us) and we had to ask someone else to print out the pictures for us. She also told us that since the baby was sitting so low, they couldn't get a good enough visual on the heart and the spine. She was so matter of fact about it, I wanted to punch her. We didn't even get a, "It's probably nothing to worry about." from her. All we got was, "We can't get a clear enough image to see if all four chambers are there or if the spine is intact." Like I said. I wanted to punch her.

Fortunately, I later got a call from my awesome Midwife saying that they weren't too concerned, and that if I wanted to go back in just for reassurance then I could. So we did.

We had to wait three weeks (I'm guessing so the baby would be bigger and more developed), so I went back on March 28th. They got a great view of the heart and spine this time and everything checked out just fine. My Mom went with me this time and she reeeeally wanted to know the gender. I told her the only way was if she could keep it a secret and not give it away at all. She couldn't buy clothes or toys or blankets. She agreed and asked as I was walking out of the room. I swear what I heard the tech (a different one and MUCH nicer this time) say was, "It's a guh...ey." So I still don't know.

Another profile shot.

Head on the left, fist in the middle.

A few weeks later I got another call from the Midwife saying my amniotic fluid level was slightly low and that the baby was measuring small. Great. Don't EVER look up on the internet what "might" be wrong with certain indicators during pregnancy. She wasn't too concerned again, but wanted me to go back in another three weeks to measure the fluid level again and baby's growth.

At first I thought we just had another small baby like Rylin. I told the Midwife (who also doesn't know the gender) that we might just make small girls. We decided that if the baby was still measuring small at the next appointment, that we would find out the gender. If it's a girl, that means we just make small girls. If it's a boy, then we would have more to be worried about. It turns out though that only the head was measuring behind, everything else was on point. This was a completely new scenario.

So I upped my water and protein intake, and I also got better about taking my nasty omega-3 supplements. Yech.

I headed back in for ultrasound number 5 today, April 22nd. Fluid levels are now within normal range and the baby's head moved from the 5th to the 20th percentile. Yay!! It is still measuring a week behind me, and two weeks behind the rest of the body, but they said it's still considered normal and they're happy that the baby (and head) is growing. 

Left arm and hand are stretched out right on top of left leg and foot.

Left foot, the toes are the long lines.

This one is a little harder, but the baby is looking straight ahead at the camera and the nose in is the middle of the pic.

 Baby's belly is on the left, right leg and foot are stretched out near the bottom and left leg is stretched out just above it. I can't tell if that's the umbilical cord or something else just to the right of the belly.

I still don't know the gender, but I'm pretty sure it's a boy with a small head. Todd thinks it's a boy too. Rylin insists that it's a girl and that her name is Olivia. Evan has no clue how much his world is about to change.

And no, we still don't have any names picked out or even narrowed down. I'm only slightly anxious about it because our process with naming Evan was so painful. I've looked at every name in every book in every language. Nothing matters without Todd's input though. I keep telling him to pick out some names and he keeps putting it off. He's really liking old English (think OLD OLD English) names right now. Any suggestions?