First Ultrasound

**Actually written on March 21, 2014**

My first ultrasound was scheduled for March 21, 2014.  I was a NERVOUS WRECK.  My pulse was racing pretty much all the way to the doctor’s office until I was done with the ultrasound.  We were the only ones in the waiting room when we got there so I was hopeful we wouldn’t have to wait long and we didn’t!  A sweet young girl came back and got us and told us she’d be doing our ultrasound.  I went back in the room and she asked me how far along I was and I told her I was supposedly 7 weeks and 5 days.  She told me she would attempt the ultrasound from the top of my stomach and see what we could see/hear and she would do it vaginally if she had to. 

When I was laying on the table I informed her of our last pregnancy that ended.  I told her to please not keep me waiting and to tell me as soon as she saw anything.  She agreed.  She put the wand on my belly and it felt like 3 seconds and she said “I see a heart beat!”.  I said “really?!?!?!” and she said yes.  I immediately started crying.  She had to stop the ultrasound to hand me some tissues. 

She told me to give her a few minutes to take the measurements and everything she needed to do and then we’d try to hear the heartbeat.  She told us we were actually right at 8 weeks, so a couple of days further along than we thought.  She told me the due date would be October 31st.  Halloween.  How incredibly perfect the timing!  Clearly Justin and I aim for holiday babies :)

We finally got to hear the heart beat and I could barely hold it together.  I was so happy and immediately thanked God for answered prayers.  The heart rate was 155 beats per minute and she said that was great for 8 weeks.  She gave us several pictures and pointed us to my OB doctor.  I gave my urine sample and got the “congrats you’re pregnant-here’s what to do” interview from his nurse.  Then we went back into his office.  I didn’t realize he’d want to do a full yearly exam, so I sent Justin back to the waiting room because let’s face it….that’s just awkward!

Dr. H came in and he was so happy for us that not only was the baby in the uterus this time (the last pregnancy was ectopic and it was in the fallopian tube), but that we’d heard a good strong heartbeat.  He was impressed by the rate and said that 155 was really good.  He said “I never say never, but most of the time you’re in the clear after we hear a heartbeat”.  I know all about the “never say never” part because I know plenty of people that have lost babies after hearing a heart beat.  It’s why we are choosing to not say anything publicly about this pregnancy until after the next appointment at 12 weeks. 

This next part may be TMI, so sorry!  Probably the funniest part about the exam was when he was examining the lady lumps.  Remember in my 5-7 week post where I said that they were hurting so much worse than they were with my pregnancy with Carter?  Well I neglected to mention that they’ve grown a cup size already.  Seriously.  My doc did the exam and asked me “have you had breast augmentation?” I laughed and said “nope, they’re just huge and hard as rocks with this pregnancy!”  He laughed.  We decided it was perfectly fine to wait 4 weeks until my next appointment which would make me 12 weeks.  So we’re scheduled to see him again on April 18th at 8:45am.  If all goes well at that appointment, THEN we’ll announce the pregnancy on social media and the blog. 

After my meeting with Dr. H, I headed to the lab to give a crap ton of blood and then we were finally done.  I was so happy it was a good day.  We went back to my in-laws house to pick up Carter and then immediately took him over to my mom’s house (she didn’t know yet) and put him in his shirt we bought for him.  Here’s the thing about Carter’s shirt….

He had 2 big brother shirts.  The first one we got with the ectopic pregnancy.  It was Christmas time and I put him in the shirt and took him to visit my sister and her family in Tuscaloosa and was going to surprise them with him wearing the shirt.  They were surprised for sure and then we decided to take pictures of Carter in front of the tree.  I was going to use this picture to put in a frame and give it to the grandparents as a gift for Christmas.  Would have been a perfect Christmas surprise.  Unfortunately, that pregnancy didn’t make it that far, but I still showed our family and very close friends the picture.  That picture is below:

 

So when we got pregnant with this baby in February, I knew that I really didn’t want to use the same shirt.  Mainly because if we did, I didn’t know if the family and friends that saw the original picture would have thought that we were just trying to get some use out of the shirt or if we were trying to announce again.  Chances are, most people would have been afraid to say something because it was a sensitive subject so this is why I wanted to get a new shirt.  I ordered one from Etsy that even had the date on it so that there was no confusion.  That shirt is below:

**Note:  You’ll notice it says November instead of October.  Well, that’s because based on my last period, the due date was supposed to be November 2nd.  But after the ultrasound, it appeared we were further along than we thought and the date changed to October.  I don’t care.  I am NOT buying another shirt!**

Turns out I was right because when we did finally tell Justin’s parents, I didn’t have the new shirt yet, so we put Carter in the old shirt and took him over to their house.  Neither of them said anything for a good 30 minutes.  Finally, Gordon had enough and broke his silence and asked if the shirt was new.  Justin said “my God it took y’all forever to notice that!!”.  Debbie and Gordon both admitted that they noticed it almost immediately, but was afraid to say anything.  Just like I thought.  We finally told Gordon that it was an old shirt, but a new message.  They caught on to it and were very excited. 

So anyways, back to what I was saying before that tangent….we took Carter to my mom’s house and she took a while to figure it out but she finally did and gave me a hug and immediately started telling Justin that she was relying on him for it to be a girl!  My mom wants a girl so bad she can’t stand it.  The last girl she had was my niece Lydia and that was 6 years ago.  So she is VERY ready for a girl.

We are still in the process of telling our friends and family.  It’s a slow process, but we’re making our rounds.  I’m not really in a rush since I don’t intend to put anything out there on social media.  With Carter, I was so nervous that someone would see it on social media before I had a chance to tell them and I’m not worried about that this time.