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| Half-way There! |
We had our 20-week check-up on Wednesday, November 3rd. This appointment consisted of an ultrasound and conversation with Dr. Sharon, no exam or blood work. Hooray!!! Leading up to this appointment, I was so excited about seeing our baby again and about having new pictures of the little guy to post on the blog. Unfortunately, I left very disappointed. Little E (our newest nickname for the baby) would not show his face no matter how much the ultrasound tech, Mary, poked and prodded, and boy did she poke and prod! At one point, she was pushing on my belly so hard that I was squeezing Brad's hand, sure that my belly would be bruised the next day. I was really sad that even though I endured the pressure that Mary was putting on my belly, the baby would not turn around. We eventually left the ultrasound with pictures of his spine, arm, and boy parts, but no face. The good news it, he is definitely a boy! The bad news is that I got beat up and still didn't get to see his sweet face! I have to admit that I shed a few tears about it, but that is probably just because pregnant-Allie is even more emotional than not-pregnant-Allie, if you can believe that!
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| Spinal Cord and Back of Head |
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| Arm |
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| Little Boy Parts |
After the ultrasound, we saw Dr. Sharon, who informed us that Little E is doing great! That definitely lifted my spirits after the ultrasound. All of his organs are in working order, his heart rate is exactly where it should be, and he is exactly the right size, which means that he is still expected to arrive on March 18th! Dr. Sharon was pleased to hear that we're already registered for childbirth preparation classes and he gave us a homework assignment; he asked us to start thinking about birth plan options. Some of the things we need to consider are doctor versus nurse midwife, pain relief preference during labor, who will cut the umbilical cord, cord blood banking, and several other options that I won't mention. We are pretty certain that we want the baby to be delivered by a nurse midwife, but we haven't really decided anything else for certain yet. Luckily, we have a while to make those decisions.
Now that we know the gender and overall well-being of our baby, the new question that I find myself pondering all the time is, "When will he get here?" I'm so anxious to find out if he'll be early or late or right on time. I'm sure that most pregnant women wonder about this very same thing, but I think it stays on my mind all the time because I so want my mom to be here for the delivery. With her being a ten-hour drive or an hour and a half plane ride away, it is going to be really difficult to coordinate her arrival in Atlanta with Little E's arrival into the world. Unfortunately for me, it is all completely out of my control, so I guess all I can do is wonder about it and pray that it all works out.
Also, New This Week:
My friend Jane was in town from Indiana for the weekend, so I had a very busy weekend and Little E had two nights out with the girls. I went out for dinner and drinks at The Grape with Jane and nine other fabulous ladies on Friday night, although I didn't eat or drink anything other than water because it was way past dinner time for me. On Saturday, I attended a baby shower for my friend Stephanie, who is due in December. After the shower, Brad met Jane, Sarah, Laura, and I at Atkins Park for dinner. Brad and I tried to hang out at Atkins for a while after dinner because several other friends were there by then, but the bar was way to smoke-filled and crowded, so we headed home. It was so fun to have a weekend out with friends, but I definitely can't keep up with the non-pregnant folks these days!
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| Dinner at The Grape |
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| Atkins Park |
I think this birth plan thing is really interesting. Back in the day, we had no plan at all.
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