ultrasound – Angel Wheeler

We are officially on the countdown. Tomorrow we hit the 39 week mark. Only one more to go. Maybe. And I am pleased to announce that I have finally crossed over into the land of excitement.

We went to the doctor yesterday for a sonogram and a check-in. While I was working yesterday morning and anticipating the idea of seeing her face, I became overcome with joy and excitement. As I laid on the sonographer’s table, I imagined a little face that would look exactly like the one we will behold in just a few more days. How lucky we are to get a sneak peek. The sonographer lubed my belly up and began rolling her wand around as we gazed at the screen. We saw her kidneys, her bladder, the umbilical cord. We heard the heartbeat and saw the blood flowing through the veins and arteries of the cord. We discovered that she is head down (locked and loaded) as I like to call it. She is estimated to weigh 7 lbs 11 oz, but that estimate can be off by a pound either direction. And then the sonographer rolled her wand on her face.

I would love to show it to you, but she doesn’t like having her picture taken. Her hands were covering her face.

Here is a side profile we got with her hands as the big blob in front. That is a beautiful eye though, isn’t it?

I’m beginning to think she might be a stinker. When we wanted to find out her gender, she didn’t cooperate by keeping her legs crossed, now when we’re dying to see her face, she decided to play peek-a-boo instead.

So the sonographer applied this vibrating buzzer to my belly to try to scare her, and when she finally moved her hand,we got a picture of her. However, my dreams of seeing a beautiful baby vanished. I can’t tell whether she looks more like an orangutan or Mike Jagger.

It’s the nose. And the lips. Some wise people I work with told me she’s all smushed in those tight quarters and it can’t be an accurate picture. So, tonight I stood before the bathroom mirror and I smushed my own nose to compare it with hers. Then I made my husband smush his nose. There we sat staring at each other with our noses smushed flat trying to decide whose nose she has. I’ve decided she has Mick Jagger’s.

Remember, we have no TV here. This is what people with no TV do.

But look at these older pictures. They were taken on the same day back in October.

: The pig-nose, receding chin baby

The nose doesn’t look the same in any of them. In fact, the baby doesn’t look the same in any of them. So basically, we won’t know what she looks like until she slides out and hollers. Still, I’m preparing myself to feed her lots of bananas and teach her to the words to “I Can’t Get No Satisfaction.”

When we saw the doctor yesterday, we were pleasantly surprised to discover I am dilated 2-3 cm. He said it could be any day now.

And so we wait to meet our little girl.

And she’ll be beautiful.

I’m on top of the world. I’m just on top of this beautiful, dadgum world. It’s as if scales have fallen from my eyes and I see things in a new light.

In case you haven’t been following my life, first off, I’m pregnant. With my first child. At age 36. With this came a scary test that informed us that our baby was at an increased risk for Down’s Syndrome. A 1:75 possibility. I stewed and fretted and cried, then I prayed, and others prayed, and the Holy Spirit granted me a peace that passes all understanding.

Today, we had a consultation and an ultrasound that looked for certain “markers” of Down Syndrome that the baby may display. If any of these markers were found, it increased the risk for the disorder, and if they weren’t noted, it decreased it. Some markers they look for and measure are the thickness of the skin at the base of the neck, the length of the bones, the amount of fluid around the baby, the veins and arteries in the umbilical cord, certain spots in the heart, and others.

God is good, and if you don’t already know that, well, you need to. There were not any markers found! I praised Jesus out loud right there lying on that table. The absence of markers does not mean our baby does not have anything wrong with it, but it does mean that the chances went down 50%. So now the odds are about 1:150. And that sounds pretty dadgum good to me. We were offered an amniocentisis to determine 100% for a yes or no answer, but we declined. Our faith is in God, not in medicine. You know I’ve never been the “one”. I’ve never won the lottery, I’ve never been struck by lightening, and I know that I know that I know my baby is normal (as normal as can be expected with the parents it’s been given).

I am praising God to day for His goodness. His mercy. His grace. His gifts. He has given me something that I never dreamed I could ever need. And I’m thrilled to become a mother.

I’d like to believe that even if the test hadn’t turned out positively for us, I would still be praising God. I’m just so thankful and relieved I am not experiencing the other end of the spectrum right now. Praise the Lord with me today!

On a different note, during this ultrasound they were able to determine the sex of the child. I have some wonderful, caring, loving people who are throwing a reveal party for me. I had never heard of a reveal party before my principal approached me with the idea. It can be done several different ways, but generally speaking it works like this: the ultrasound technician puts the gender in an envelope keeping it a secret, even from the parents. People are invited over, and in some way the sex of the child is revealed to everyone during the party, including the parents!! Yes, you are reading that right. We do not even know the sex of our baby.

Our baby was VERY uncooperative today. It decided to stay sleep with it’s little legs crossed. The technician was getting frustrated, but she perservered. Finally she was able to get a good view. She told us to turn our heads from the screen, while she took the picture. It was then stuffed and sealed in an envelope and hand delivered to my principal by me. It was much harder than I ever imagined it would be driving home with that envelope in the car! But we didn’t peek. I do admit I held it to the light, but still couldn’t see anything!

Tomorrow we will be finding out whether we need a blue nursery or a pink one. I can hardly wait.

I wish you all could be there, but since I feel like you are all experiencing this with me, please join me in spirit and cast your vote.

The result will be announced tomorrow!

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