Busy Little Beaver

So last night was one of those nights where I didn't sleep very well. Apparently the baby doesn't sleep at night so I'm not allowed to either. haha. My cell phone rang shortly after nine am which was totally annoying because I had just fallen back asleep. I ignored it out of spite then laid there for about five minutes wondering who it was. Even more totally annoyed, I grabbed my phone and called my voicemail. It went something like this:

"Hey, Samantha. This is Michelle from Dr. Beaver's office." I'm thinking, 'this has got to be good and why is his name still Dr. Beaver?'. "I was calling to see if you could come in earlier for your appointment today because Dr. Beaver got called into surgery." 'How many times can they say his name in the span of several seconds?' "Give me a call back as soon as you can."

Now I'm up. Wouldn't want to miss out on a chance to see Dr. Beaver in action, now would I? So I call them back and tell them I can be there in about an hour then proceed to rush getting ready. I get there about an hour and fifteen minutes later (which is pretty good considering the dog took her sweet time going to the bathroom before I left). I walked up to the desk, gave her my name and in response she says, "He already left." The busy little Beaver left before I could get there. For the next couple of seconds I debate in my head if I want to leave and go back to bed even though I am totally awake at this point or...."Is there anyone else who can see me?" So she checks and my midwife can "squeeze" me in. Interesting choice of words.

I wait around for a little while, getting some good book reading in before I do the standard weigh in (I gained two pounds, not bad) and pee in a cup (which I feel like a pro at now). Then they send me to the room to wait for my midwife. When she comes in she asks me the usual questions, tells me everything looks good and has me lay down for the Doppler so she can measure the heart beat. Well apparently my child is an acrobat. The little one was moving around and twisting and everything else so much she couldn't even get a blip of a heart beat on the Doppler. So she sent me to the ultrasound room. TOTALLY awesome. My baby just got me an extra ultrasound peek. SO sweet. Way to go, kid. You rock already.

The usual technician is on maternity leave so one of the assistants got to do it. She was so fantastic. She let me stay in there so long just watching the baby do flips all over my belly, kick, twist, squirm and even wave. Then she printed like ten pictures which was the greatest thing ever because the first time I got two. We were in there so long that my midwife got nervous that something was wrong so she came in, too. It was so cool to see her get excited about the show that the baby was putting on. Then we all watched some more and saw the heart beat (which looked totally fine) but the baby still wouldn't let us measure it because apparently constant flips and twirls in mommy's stomach is way more fun than chilling out for a minute. And it's not my fault. The baby makes me eat candy.

The assistant technician (or assistant to the technician for The Office fans out there) tried to see if it was a boy or a girl but couldn't tell. Thank God because if she could tell then I totally would have had her tell me which is not fun because Hunter wasn't there. So we will have to wait two more weeks for that one. It's OK though because today was the best visit ever.

Here are six of the ultrasound pictures along with my lovely descriptions.

Position #1: looking right at ya

This is what I lovingly call the Skeletor picture. The baby is on its side starring right at us. You can see the eye sockets, cheek bones and mouth. It totally looks like a skeleton which they tell me is normal. You can also see the spine running along the top of the back. The arms and legs are flailing around somewhere.

Position #2: facing away and twisting around

Just a back view of the baby. You can see the back of the head and the back. Also, it looks like the baby is resting its head on a pillow in my uterus. What the heck is that thing?

Position #3: Your guess is as good as mine

I did have them tell me what everything was before I left but there are so many pictures. I think this is a back view with an arm on the side.

Position #4: The bottom

Check out that glorious butt. We still couldn't see what the sex is yet but you can see a foot on either side of the body and just for fun, a kidney.

Position #5: Side view

This is almost what Hunter looks like when he's in his hammock in the man room. Is that weird? The head is somewhere to the left, the baby is laying on its back with its feet propped up and crossed over. This baby appears to be totally chillin' but actually it was a brief pause in the acrobats we witnessed.

Position #6: Bird's eye view

This is the top of the head where you can see the brain because everything is still very translucent which is not creepy at all. At least less creepy than Skeletor.









And that concludes the 16 week slide show. In two weeks I get the sex determining ultrasound and two weeks after that I have another regular visit. But not with Dr. Beaver. Apparently he's too busy for me. This time I get Dr. Barefoot. At least that's better than Beaver.