All Systems Are Go

First, let me say Jason is currently at a singer/songwriter competition at a venue in Denver tonight. I couldn't go because Moosie has been doing enough babysitting lately and is coming on Monday too. Anyway, J's doing 3 of his original songs and I'm thinking he's got a good chance. My man is talented if you didn't know already. I guess there are 15 competitors tonight and on some other nights coming up. If you win you move on to some finals closer to Thanksgiving. Keep your fingers crossed for him...he would too but it's hard to play the guitar well with crossy fingers. :) Go J!!! Anyhoo, moving on...

Well the ultrasound today was beautiful. Baby Deuce is absolutely perfect and is even "measuring a week ahead". Strange (since I am so sure of my dates) but okay. The baby shows no signs of a cleft lip (the palate inside the mouth is hard to visualize on ultrasound but presumed okay since lip is "intact"). All the organs are there and are the right size and in the right place. The heart was "beautiful" beating at 148 beats per minute (great!). It was the best ultrasound and she was the best sonographer we've had in all our ultrasound experiences through both pregnancies. She was so positive and really explained what we were looking at in detail (like "left ventricle" or "such and such in the brain where the cerebral spinal fluid is"). It was great! I loved seeing our perfect little babe. They estimated baby weighing about 11 oz. I think "average" is 7 right now and a few ounces at this "age" makes a big difference. I also predicted short femurs as J has short legs and E's always measured short on ultrasounds. Deucie's were long: 71st percentile! Hmmmm...maybe taking after me there??? Fun to think about anyway.

Easton and poor Gramoo ended up hanging out for that whole hour in the parking lot! Well, they had some nice grassy spots and a path to walk along with the stroller and they say they had fun. This hospital we went to is very far south from our house--it would've been foolish for Moosie to drive up to our place if we were going that direction. Plus, we could've been tight on time. So that's the option we came up with and apparently it worked well. Easton enjoyed sliding down the hills on a carpet of leaves (he had a pine needle in his diaper later!). He and Gramoo are really enjoying one another these days. And it was fun to show off Deucie's new photos live in person to the big-brother-to-be and the grandma.

Wanna see 'em? Here is a labeled profile shot she did for us:

And a similar unlabeled profile shot with a little hand and arm starting to come up:

Here is a close up of the little perfect fingers (I feel it's obvious which part is finger bones but if you need help click on the picture):


We got a ton of pictures (12, I think!!!) and I won't show you all of them as quite a few are the freaky 3D kind. I'll show you two of those, though. Even though they're kinda weird. Here's the first. It's pretty much straight on the face. Again, click it for my "labels" if you need to.

And, here's more of a profile 3D image. There is a little arm up by the face too. (Again, click for help).


Guess what else?!?! Surprise! We decided to find out the sex of the baby. We'll spill the beans soon but you should take guesses. It'll be real fun (for me). Just leave a comment. I know waaaaaay (okay, like 3) more people read this blog than actually ever comment so you just click the "COMMENTS" word at the end of this post then leave your comment in the text box. Below it'll say "Choose an Identity" and you can choose "Other" and type in a name or "Anonymous" and that's it. Make sure you leave your name in your text comment if you want any credit if you're right :) See, I told you this would be fun.

Anyway, you can't tell the gender (no money shots) in any of the pics I posted so you'll just have to decide if it looks like a boy or a girl in the face and hands. Plus, you can refer to my lovely "This time vs. Last time" comparasion post. We told Easton already (and only him) so you can't cheat and ask him. He doesn't know the difference between a brother or sister anyway. But just for fun, here is the bouncing big brother today, jumping for joy at the news:

(And yay for the new camera catching an action shot so crisply like that!)

Don't be mad that we're not telling our little secret just yet. We were going to make you wait 6 weeks till my next ultrasound could confirm the "diagnosis". Instead we just had both the tech and the doctor each tell us today. 2 people. 4 eyes. I believe it.

Okay, well onto me...the doctor I saw today was someone we hadn't met before, but still a perinatologist. She said, "Has Dr. Porreco told you about your risks this time?" and I kind of looked at her like, "Duh, but make your points anyway." Then she went on to say that people with my history (specificially of HELLP Syndrome) that are going through the "treatments" I am (aspirin, extra folate, monthly ultrasounds, etc) still have a 10-30% chance of getting just plain ol' preeclampsia again. She made it sound worse than the 10-30% sounds, though. Then she said that most women like me only go 2 weeks past where they made it to last time. Eek! I guess 35 weeks is much more preferable to 33, but still... And she stressed to really watch myself for the Pre-E signs, mostly swelling. Well, Jason and I didn't notice the swelling last time since we saw me every day. So, if you happen to see me or a picture of me and I've got a really fat face with an extra large nose then please speak up. If I'm just looking "fuller" then keep it to yourself, Mom :) Just kidding, but remember Jessica's wedding? Sheesh.

Even so, there are no guarantees about how any of this will go. We've known that from the start. I may not even make it to 33 weeks then again I might go all the way to my "scheduled" (in my head only) C-section date. Something else entirely might happen. I certainly learned that working on L&D. Anyway, we're not feeling pessimistic so I don't want anyone else to either. Just continue to pray for Baby Deuce and this pregnancy.

She did mention one other thing. (Blah, blah, blah--I know!) But, she did say that I have some "dark spots" on the placenta. This just means that it's not as richly filled with good bloody things as they would normally like to see. :( However, she said it's not that much of the placenta, it's highly unlikely it'll get worse, my body kind of already knows what to do from carrying Easton (if you say so, lady), and that the current blood flow from placenta to baby is excellent and nothing to worry about at all. She just said that since she'll have to write it in her report she wanted to mention it to us too. Loved that. All in all none of this is terrible news. Just things to think about if you're praying for us. I'm still feeling quite optimistic.

And to end this extra long post on a good note, the tech told the doctor (before the doctor came in) that, "This woman scans beautifully" meaning that I was easy to do an ultrasound on. I have absolutely nothing to do with that but I still felt proud. I'm a dork. And on that note...Dorky Dorkleton signing off...

Don't forget to comment!

All you "Anonymouses" are really baffling me. Who are you people??? :) Thanks for playing but now you won't get any credit if you're right. Bwah ha ha ha ha!