Our First Baby Photos

Well, on Monday morning i was calling around to some ultrasound clinics in the city and in Whitecourt, and I realized that everyone was booking appointments in May! I had a little panic and called them again and said that I needed the soonest appointment possible. Then one lady that I talked to was really great, and asked me to hold on for a minute so she could look for any cancellations. She got back on the phone and said, well, I have one but it's this afternoon in Spruce Grove. I was a little bit surprised, but took it anyway, knowing that it would be gone if I waited at all. I called Paul at work and he was gratefully able to get the afternoon off so that he could come with me and not have to miss it. We were even able to pick up Paul's mom at his brother Dave's house because she is visiting from New Brunswick. The tech took me in first to take all of the measurements and pictures she needs, and said that Paul and Cathy could come in after. She got me all ready and started to look, and quickly realized that the baby was laying upside down with its head right down low on top of my cervix, and was quite happy there. She needed it to move, and tried everything to try and coax it to move, but to no avail. We got lots of wiggles and little moves, and it turned to its side, but it was sure liking that spot and was not going to move. It had one hand behind its head like it was laying on it, and one up by its face, and both legs were bent up and tucked right in tight, so there was no way we were getting a peek at all. So no, we didn't get to find out what it is yet. Paul says that that means it's a girl cause no boy could tuck his legs in like that! We were a little disappointed by not finding out, but the baby looks good, so that's what we really care about. There are two arms and two legs with hands and feet on them, and we saw the little heart beating like crazy (she said it was at about 149 bpm, which is great). She also showed me some other things earlier like the spine, long bones and stomach, as I have been learning all of those things in school. It is about 8 inches long and weighs about 8 and a half oz. So we have a little grower in there! I was a little sore afterward because she had pushed extra hard to try to get the baby to move, but it went away pretty quick. We only ended up getting the one picture of the baby and it was already printed, so this is just a photo of a photo, and not the best quality. The picture is very glossy and so it was a little difficult to get the picture. But it does the trick. You can see its little head with the nose poking up at the top, its round little belly and some knee tucked up at the end. I think you get a little glimpse of the umbilical cord near the top of its belly too. The other pictures are the first tummy ones that Paul took. I'm at almost 19 weeks now (18 wks and 5 days).