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2008-12-29 - 10:53 p.m.��previous entry��next entry
Had my nuchal scan today!
Except it didn't end up being a "nuchal" scan, as I declined the testing. I discovered that they will only do the double test (nuchal fold measurement AND blood test) or nothing, so I said, "Well, I decline then." :) And that was that! It made for a very quick scan, but it was lovely to focus on just the baby without spending over half the time with the sonographer zooming in super grainily close and trying to get fiddly measurements for ages. There was none of that, which was very nice, I have to say! :)
Soooo, Babydot is healthy, so far! Yay! Measuring 62.9mm from crown to rump (Babycentre said 7.4cm by 13 weeks so that's not awfully accurate now, is it?! Oh well!), which makes Babydot a day behind my dates. That's the second scan in a row with that finding so my due date is changed to July 8th, and I am now 12 weeks and 5 days pregnant (a day behind, boo! BUT, a day extra to go overdue before they start talking induction - yay!) instead of 12 weeks and 6 days. My change of "week" day is Wednesday now instead of Tuesday. I quite liked Tuesday as my day to change weeks! Oh well! :)
We saw the little heart beating, the stomach FULL (lots of amniotic fluid being swallowed there then!), two sweet little relaxed hands, Babydot's sweet little brain lobes, and the legs and feet. Babydot seems to be an ever so RELAXED baby. Neil commented on it first and I watched and agreed. It was so lovely to watch my little sweetie in there! There was very little movement, but any that we did see consisted of gentle relaxed movements of the fingers and hands, and that kind of thing. The sonographer said it was just a very basic anatomy scan, and for dating. She showed us the brain, and the stomach and spine, and the hands (both seen). Then she flipped the view looking up from underneath Babydot to show us the feet (they are supposed to make sure both are visible at this scan). One of Babydot's legs was stretched out, and the other sort of casually half-bent - that little one was really chilling out in there, haha!
Right between the wide open thighs was a good-sized sticky-outie piece that was whiter than the legs even! ;) Neil said, "That's a BOY!" and started to laugh. It looked pretty indisputable, I have never seen such a clear shot at a nuchal scan (and I've had 3 nuchal scans on boys already, hehe!). The sonographer didn't even contradict us (for once! They always say, "Oh but it's too early to tell" or something like that). She stayed quiet but her face looked very UN-neutral! At the end when I was getting up off the bed, Neil was saying again how he can't believe the baby seemed to be such an obvious boy, and THEN she said, "You never know, it might be the umbilical cord...." but her tone was very oh-I'd-better-say-something-even-though-it's-dang-obvious-it's-a-boy! ;)
So then we came home (Nathan was a wonder boy at the scan, by the way! He sat STILL on Neil's lap and didn't make a peep, either in the waiting room or the scan room. Sweet love!), and Neil went to work for the afternoon. This evening I went online and just googled about gender pictures at 12 weeks, to see if both boys and girls look the same or similar at that stage. I ended up finding a ton of stuff (that has taken me almost 2 hours to look through!) about the "nub theory" - the angle of the little genital nub that's present in fetuses from 11-14 weeks. Gender can be pretty accurately predicted going by the angle of the dangle (as I've also heard it said!).
Haha, look at me obsessing over what gender Babydot is after last entry saying how I was NOT going to even look because it would drive me crazy and I'd much rather wait till the big scan at 22 weeks, hehehe! Ahh, me ;)
Anyway! :)
So I looked through galleries for baby girl (later confirmed) nubs at that gestation, and baby boy nubs (also later confirmed). I had no CLUE what a nub was or what it looked like on a 2D scan at that point, but as I waded through the zillions of pics, I started to become more aware of what I was seeing. The "nub" is visible in a typical profile full-body shot of the baby, like the pictures I always get at the nuchal scans. I looked on the other boys' scan pics, and only Matthew had a nub visible (and his looked girly, haha!). Arthur and Nathan didn't seem to have one visible (which happens sometimes).
Anyway, the more I looked, the more I realised that I reckon I CAN see a nub on Babydot's new scan pic (which I'll post in a sec). Wait, this could be getting confusing - I will post a link to a GREAT website that explains what I'm talking about with example 2D ultrasound pics, in just a half-page so it's easy to look at quickly:
http://baby2see.com/gender/external_genitals.html
Okay so scroll down to the "angle of the dangle" box with the four ultrasound pictures (two boy, two girl, at 12 weeks). See the "nub" sticking more upwards than on a line with the spine in the boy pics? And the girl ones show the nub sticking down, in line with the spine? Well, here's my Babydot today! :)
See I thought the little nub-looking thing was part of the leg bone originally, but there are so many pics I've now seen that make me think that's actually the nub, and it's sticking STRAIGHT UP! Which can only mean BOY :)
I feel almost 100% sure that Babydot is a boy. I know it's early and I WILL wait to confirm of sorts, at the next scan, but I feel so sure with what I've seen and found out today. Also, it sits well for me because it simply confirms what I felt God was saying to me allll that time ago when Nathan was just 3 weeks old and I was praying about the next baby, holding my sweet boy in my arms. I was praying, "Lord, if in your wisdom it pleases you to bless me with a baby girl next time, then please do! But if, in your perfect wisdom, it does not, I thank you and joyfully accept another baby boy!" and I literally did not get far into that sentence before I felt stopped in my tracks and heard/felt an almost audible voice that said, "The next baby is Benjamin." There. Matter-of-fact! So, I paused to take that one in, and then said, "Okay Lord! So, baby number FIVE..." hehe :) Seriously though, since that moment I have KNOWN that the next baby would be Benjamin, and I've mentioned it at my diaries a bit. I have become a bit second-guessy about it since I've been pregnant, which I'm a little frustrated about (I did the same with Nathan when I KNOW God told me that my baby BOY would be fine at 8 weeks when I was spotting! I still wondered after a few weeks if he might be girl anyway. *sigh*). I should trust God, and I DO, but I start to second-guess whether I really heard his voice. Anyway, so that will be exciting, to confirm what I feel God told me long before Babydot was even conceived.
I posted at the place where all the ladies know the nub thing, and so far have had 3 guesses for boy and 1 for girl (because that lady didn't think it could be the nub, she thought it was too big and the angle too high for 12 weeks). I don't know... it looks pretty nub-like to me.
Anyway, we shall see! After my scan I booked my BIG SCAN appointment (yay!) which is February 18th at 2.30pm! I can't wait (already!). It's earlier than I thought it would be - I had figured the last week of Feb or the first week of March, so I'm pleased it's earlier. I will "only" be 20 weeks exactly, which is pretty early for my hospital. It's supposed to be 21-22 weeks, but maybe they were busy that week? Anyway, yay! I'm excited! It's 3 days before my birthday so if all is well then it will be a wonderful birthday present! :)
When I told my mum it looked like Babydot is a boy (on the phone), she said, "Oh NO! I mean, oh yes, good!" *sigh* Why is it BAD news that I'm expecting my fourth boy (probably) with no daughters under my belt yet?!?! I for one am DELIGHTED! I had a fraction of a second (literally) of emotional "sag" when the boy bits looked so boy-bits-ish, because I was surprised - I didn't expect to see anything genderish at this scan! And also something in me wondered if it might be a girl, naively, haha! ;) But it was a flash, and then gone, and I can't wait to meet Benjamin, which is what his name will be once we confirm he's a boy. I probably shouldn't start calling Babydot "he", but I can't seem to help it! I will choose NOT to, till the next scan. It is still possible that we'll be surprised (VERY surprised, lol!) and it will be a girl, but it looks ever so unlikely to me, and I'm happy happy with that! :) I feel like I've been waiting to meet Benjamin for far longer than a normal pregnancy, because it's been 10 months since I knew he was coming already! :)
Okay that is all, I must post briefly elsewhere and then go to bed. I've felt really tired today, and should have earlier nights! Thanks for the well-wishes for today's scan! :)
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