Baby Photos!

Today was our "big" ultrasound! We got to see the baby in 3D and the doctor took all the measurements of the baby. They said everything looks great and the baby is growing just as it should. The baby is measuring a little bigger than 19 weeks (which is how far along I'm supposed to be), so the nurse said my due date could be as early as December 30th. However, the doctor said that early ultrasounds (which predicted my due date as January 9th) are more accurate, so they are keeping my due date at January 9th, but I guess we'll just be prepared for Baby to come earlier if he/she chooses! Both Tom and I were born early (Tom 2 weeks and me 1 week), so maybe its in the genes. Although, I think my birth was the first and last thing I was early to.

The baby was being difficult during the ultrasound and wouldn't move much at all. Also, the hand was in front of the face for most of the ultrasound, so we couldn't see too much, but we got a couple peeks at him/her. I told the ultrasound tech that I bet this was the cutest baby she had seen on ultrasound all day and she agreed :) It was very cool to see the baby in 3D--Tom was really impressed with the technology!


We go back in 4 weeks to meet with the certified nurse-midwife. After much thought and research, we have decided to switch over from an OB to a certified nurse-midwife. The practice we go to offers both OB's and nurse-midwives, so we won't be switching offices or providers or anything. Nurse-midwives are medically trained and can/will deliver the baby, unless we for some reason need a C-section. Then, the nurse-midwife will stand by, but an OB would have to perform the actual surgery. We decided to go with a nurse-midwife because of their belief in letting the labor/delivery process progress on its own as opposed to jumping to medical interventions such as induction, breaking water, using forceps, etc. Don't worry, though, family, I still plan on taking full advantage of the medical miracle we call an epidural, so I will not be an unbearable person during labor. We also like that certified nurse-midwives spend more time with you during your prenatal appointments and during the labor itself. There are also only 4 of them in the practice, so the chances of us already having met the one who delivers our baby is greater than if we went with an OB (of which there are like 8 in the practice.)

And now for the question everyone wants to know...boy or girl? Well, we did decide to find out. We decided that if the baby was willing to show us on ultrasound, then we would find out. The whole pregnancy was kind of surreal for both of us up until now, and we thought that finding out the gender would help make it more real for us. It certainly did, and we are very excited with the results! However, our parents don't want to know the gender (as of now), so we are planning on keeping the gender secret from just about everyone. That way, we won't have to worry about remembering who knows and who doesn't and our parents and families can enjoy the element of surprise while Tom and I can enjoy feeling like we've gotten to know our baby before he/she is born. Its been fun hearing people's guesses so far and knowing who is right and who is wrong :) We'll have to set up a pool for gender, weight and birthdate. Whoever wins can babysit for a week while Tom and I go on vacation.