Journeys With a Pregnant Lady

Ultrasound

Today was the day. Went to the hospital to have our fist ultrasound. Let me just say that everything went well. Baby is great.

Heartbeat.... check (155 beats per min.)
arms..... check (two)
legs..... check (two)
head..... check (one)
spine.... check (one)

Those are about the only things I could make out.

I was nervous today. But you all know that if you read the blog. Kim had to drink a certain amount of water in order to help the ultrasound work well. So she drank 32oz of water, which she had to hold in until after the ultrasound was done. I wanted her to feel like I was as invested in this appointment as her, so I drank 32oz with her. When we got to the hospital I immediately had to go. I tried to be a sport and sit and "take it like a man", but alas I thought, "Screw this". So I caved and went to the bathroom before we went in to the ultrasound room. In my defense I didn't "go" this morning before I drank the water. So I wasn't properly prepared for the extra fluids. I tried, and the intentions were there.

We waited a while in the waiting room. The wing of the hospital that the ultrasound area is in is older. So the waiting room although clean, looked dated. I think dated things look rundown sometimes. We had to wait a while so I tried to watch TV. The TV wasn't that good. Jumpin' Jack Flash with Woopie Golberg was on, but the TV was so old and faded you could barely watch it. I thought that wasn't a good sign, I hope the equipment they use is up to date.

So we waited.

When we finally went in the room with all the equipment, I was pleasantly surprised. The stuff is new. Or at least looked new, which goes a long way. The nurse lubed up Kim and bang we were on our way. After a few compulsory measurements, she said here is your baby. So cool…. the little tike flailed her arms and spun around, she did all sorts of things. Later I noticed that some of the movement I thought was the kid’s was the nurse just repositioning the sensor thingy. But she did do stuff.

The machine they use for the ultrasound has all sorts of things that would be useful for us parents. It can record pictures and video onto about six different formats, including an only okay copy picture printed on some sort of cash register receipt paper. I asked if I could have video or digital copies put onto a disc. Nope. You know why? Cause the video and cool stuff might be used in a law suit or something. Bogus. They only give you the cash register receipt, and you cherish it. I treated the flimsy little prints like gold, gently folding the images she gave us. It is funny how my urges to protect her, even unborn, are already strong. I felt like I needed to have those first pictures of her protected at all costs.

I have included one of them above. I didn't feel like drawing in Photoshop to show you where everything is. I will tell you it is a side view. Her head is on the left while she lies on her back looking straight up. On the right are her little legs and in the middle-top are her little arms and hands.

The only hitch in the process was that the nurse seems to think that our calculations on how far along Kim is might be off. The little girl inside Kim has the measurements of a 12 week six day old baby and we the math wizards have her at 11 weeks and six days old. Who is right? There is exactly one week difference there. Well, she said since we are so sure on the number they would use ours. So as I write this our little girl is about to turn 12 weeks old. At least she is for now until the doctor decides to change it later.

Posted by him at July 27, 2005 11:39 PM