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| Big brother Hayden reveals the big secret |
We planned for this appointment from the moment it was set. It was written by the Gods on high...Hayden would not attend this appointment. For our own sanity, it had to be this way. The last appointment, although relatively short in duration, was an exercise in adult restraint. Four year olds were not meant to attend doctor's offices. They should be banned along with non-service animals. They are a distraction. You are trying to receive critical information about your body or mind all the while you have a preschooler hanging upside down counting to 100 and rambling some gibberish about Power Rangers and Spiderman.
So we dropped him off with his Aunt and made the drive to Emanuel Hospital. May I say, the hospital campus and it's adjoining medical office buildings are stupid. Although I found the building I needed with relative ease, if I were dumb it would have been infuriating. We were called back to the ultrasound room after filling out the required paperwork and the excitement began to build. The ultrasound tech started the scan and we got the first glimpse of our baby in over a month. One thing was noticeable immediately...the baby had grown quite a bit. I know that different machines produce different images and sizes but this looks like an actual baby and not a gummy bear.
A few things we noticed immediately.
The Dexheimer Head. The tradition continues.
Really long legs. Going to be a basketball star. Even better than Keilee.
I get the logic behind checking the gender of the baby towards the end. The parents treat this as the most valuable piece of information they take from this appointment because it shapes the way they raise and treat the child for the rest of their lives. "People need to buy baby shower gifts!" Pink or blue, blue or pink! I get it. It's what we wanted to know, I'm not making excuses. The logic is that the parents need to remain calm for the ultrasound and the doctor's need to measure the baby's various body parts to make sure everything is normal and the baby is healthy. They look for certain things that will alert them to potential problems down the road.
The tech couldn't get a good visual on the gender-identifying parts immediately, but said something to the effect of, "I can't really tell yet, but I'm thinking this is a girl." The smile on Nikki's face was muted. I could tell she wanted to jump off the table and do the tootsie roll but for whatever reason (maybe she was shy around the tech) she smiled a half smile at me while looking me directly in the eyes. I knew she was happy to have a little girl to put in tutus and ruffle-butt undies.
After the tech left to get the doctor to go over the scans, she became giddy.
The doctor came back in and said that everything they could see looked good and healthy. There were a few things they couldn't make out from the scans because the baby was at the wrong angle or position. We will return to the doctor in just over three weeks and they will look for the things they missed the last time.
Then we had to meet with another doctor to discuss Nikki's birth plan and possible future permanent contraception (which will be the topic of my next post). We were starting to get hungry and were glad we decided to leave Hayden behind as our time at the doc's reached the three hour mark. We were finally able to leave and we headed to get balloons.
We like to be creative. We just don't always follow through with our great ideas. We bought three balloons of each color, the aforementioned pink and blue, so we could announce the baby's gender. We also bought a poster board and some Sharpies. With some pink card stock from Aunt Cari, we created the sign and set Hayden up with the balloons in hand so he could let the blue bunch go, announcing to our family and the digital world we were expecting a girl. He didn't completely understand what we were doing, but he had fun with it anyway.
So in mid-December, be prepared to welcome little Miss Averie to the world.
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