I remember studying development in intro biology and Human Neuroscience, and being completely freaked out by how many things could go wrong. It doesn't surprise me that a lot of women are like myself and go through one or more miscarriages before having a successful pregnancy. What is incredibly astonishing, however, is that is ever works at all. After two false starts, it looks like it is finally going to work out for Drew and me!
I found out on August 19th that I was pregnant. Prior to the 19th, I had assumed I was not because I thought I was having cramps and my basal body temperature was low. When I woke up on that Wednesday morning, however, I was very dizzy and generally felt lousy. I took a pregnancy test later that day and sure enough it was positive. Drew and I were both very cautious this time and tried not to get our hopes up too much. One week later, I thought I was having another miscarriage and canceled my vacation to Portland. Luckily, that was a false alarm. When I went to see my doctor at 6 weeks pregnant, she did an ultrasound and we saw a heartbeat. At this point the baby just looked like a peanut. My doctor is incredible and offered to see me every week until I felt confident in the pregnancy. So the next week we went back for another ultrasound. This time the baby had more than doubled in size and it looked like a honeybee. I went back to see the doctor again a little over 2 weeks later (at 9 weeks and 5 days). This time we were able to hear the heartbeat with a Doppler. After this appointment, Drew and I were getting more optimistic but we still did not want to tell everyone until week 12.
Today I had my 12 week ultrasound and everything looks great! The baby has grown a lot and actually resembles a human now. I am relieved that I will indeed be giving birth to a vertebrate. Anatomical markers indicated a really low probability of Down's syndrome. The little guy was also moving around quite a bit. I know that when I am able to feel those kicks, he is going to be keeping me up at night. And yes, I am calling it a "he". Although we cannot be sure for another few weeks, the picture of its legs and bum show a protrusion that looks like 'boy parts'. Moreover, the women doing our ultrasound said that she would put her money on a boy. So now it is difficult to think of it as anything else. Anyway, Drew and I are both thrilled and walking on air today. The due date is April 28th. I think that this means our little one will be sharing a birth date with someone. My Uncle Tom's birthday is the 23rd, mine is the 24th, and Drew's dad was born on the 27th. So it will be fun to see if the baby chooses to share or if he manages to sneak in his own birthday.
On the picture on the left I think that it is trying to suck its thumb. Because Drew and I were both thumb-suckers this poor kid doesn't stand a chance. The picture on the right is of the top of its head. It has a left and a right hemisphere!
Here the baby is waving.
I really feel like he is trying to show off his boy parts here. But I could be wrong and we won't be sure for a few more weeks.
This is the profile of its head.
Labels: pregnancy
