Last time I posted ultrasound photos, the men in my life could barely make heads or tails of them, but tried to be polite, while the women all remarked that they were the most clear 10-week ultrasound photos they'd ever seen and how cute the baby was. The contrast was so funny to me!
To help orient you, the baby was lying transverse (aka, horizontally) and facing down. In this photo, the head is on the right of the page, bottom on the left.
In the next two photos, the head is on the left of the page, bottom on the right. Look how clearly you can see the facial features! At one point, the baby was sucking its thumb; the baby was actively moving throughout the session. When the photos were being taken live, I could have counted the vertebrae. The technician pointed out the chambers in the heart, the brain, the stomach, the bladder. She even offered to tell me the gender, but I stuck to my promise to Chris not to find out! We agree in principle, but it's oh-so hard for me not to know this time around!
How very exciting! And I'm happy you didn't find out the gender, because it's more fun for us on the sidelines to get the call or email after the birth that says "It's a Boy!" or "It's a Girl!" I like the surprise at the end :-)
ReplyDeleteYou're more patient than I am--I HAD to know if at all possible! :-)
ReplyDeleteLooks like a cute little one, whatever gender it is!
Since you mention not finding out, I wanted to share my experience with that topic. Did you find out with John?
ReplyDeleteI've done both knowing and not knowing. After having both kinds, we figured with #5 a surprise might be a nice change. People who like to wait say stuff like, it makes it more exciting/ you do better in labor because you want to find out what the baby is, etc. So we tried it.
I have found none of those incentives to be true. Actually, I feel that my pre-birth bonding with the baby while pregnant is significantly impacted by not knowing. When I found out, I was able to call the baby by name, get used to saying "he" or "she," etc. When I didn't find out with Agnes, not only did we not have 20 weeks to get used to the fact that we were having /another/ girl :-) (honestly, no matter that you'd be happy with either gender, you do tend to develop a preference over 40 weeks for one or the other, no?), but I still blank out when trying to think of her name. And, I did not feel that I "knew" the baby and it was harder to feel the continuity when she was born of her being the same baby that had been inside me (compared to the ones I knew about).
If possible I am always going to find out in the future. It's just as exciting to find out at 20 weeks as at the birth, IMHO. And even if you've had that gender before there is always some gender-specific prep that is needed and the lead time is really nice to have. Just a perspective from one who's been on both sides.
(PS it's also cool to know what it is when people see you in the store and guess by how you're carrying. Everyone ALWAYS tells me I'm carrying a boy. It's only been true once. LOL.)
It took a couple of minutes, but suddenly (s)he popped out like one of those hidden 3-D pictures. What great fun to see a little smile on the face of my second (of many, I hope) grandchild.
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