Truly Blessed – 20 Weeks, 1 Day

Today was our 20 week scan. The scan was booked for 2.15pm. We both had work in the morning so it went very quickly and was nice to keep busy. We then had the afternoon off work as we weren’t sure how long we’d be – last time we were waiting quite a while.

As it happened, we didn’t have to wait long, probably about half an hour max.

I lay down on the bed and get comfortable as the sonographer prepares me and I have my belly button panic. I told her I have a fear about my belly button and she thought I meant seeing it so said “don’t worry, its dark” – the thought ran through my head that surely that was worse then realised she didn’t know what I meant so told her NO, of her touching it. She said she would try not to but might have to we would have to see…eek! After that initial panic, then there is that anxious wait as she puts the probey thing on my tummy for those words “and there’s the heartbeat” and then I inwardly sigh and start to relax.

She was very thorough and spent quite a while going through the body pointing out various body parts and organs and all the measurements they look for, showing the lips to check for cleft pallet, the four chambers of the heart and the valves that take the blood out. I’m amazed, firstly at the wonder of technology and secondly that she can make sense of the fuzziness that is presented to her on the screen in such detail – to me, much of it looks like static! “There’s the stomach, kidneys are there”…er, yeah, of course there is .

Thankfully, the head size was average \o/ and all measurements were good. She had no concerns which was a huge relief. She was very matter of fact going through everything we were looking at so I nearly missed it when she pointed out the stripy bit, which showed three white lines, which showed the three bones (my heart skips a beat) that tells us its a girl!

Wait a minute…she said a GIRL!

I look at Stuart and he reaches out for my hand and a tear flows down my cheek. I try my hardest not to crack up and I just about hold it together so hopefully the sonographer doesn’t notice.

She also said my placenta was good and Anterior which is good – I had heard that this may mean you don’t feel baby moving so strongly and she agreed because apparently the placenta acts like a cushion between baby and me. I regularly still feel baby wiggle (like now on my placenta) but I guess it may be a bit longer before Stuart feels the kicks on the outside.

Unfortunately, she was being a little pickle (the baby, not the sonographer) and wouldn’t, as the sonographer put it, pose for photos so I was sent to enter my bladder. She did wiggle around a bit as a result but still not enough to take any amazing photos but we got 6 OK ones.

After all was done, notes updated and photos received, Stuart told me he’d asked her how certain she was we were having a girl. She said you could never be absolutely certain (which we knew) but that she was 98% sure. Up until this point, I was keeping a little bit of me prepared that there was still a real chance that we could still be having a boy. Of course, there is still a 2% chance and that is still a chance but 2% I’m liking the odds that we will, indeed, have a little girl.

Yay! Girly clothes shopping here I come!!! *Does a little dance*. To say I’m over the moon that it looks like we are having a healthy baby goes without saying – that we are having a healthy girl….that’s just the icing, cherry and sprinkles on the cake!

Finally – here are my most recent (19 Weeks, 6 Days) bump photos: