BC #7 – originally posted 12/23/03
Last Friday was one of the most emotional, fantastic days I’ve ever had. I didn’t think I would make it until TJ came to pick me up at 4:00. She was having her first ultrasound at 4:30 and I couldn’t wait to see our child.
At about 3pm, I started feeling very anxious. My heart was beating fast and I couldn’t concentrate on anything – which wasn’t good since I was in a meeting developing a software program that has far reaching business implications. What had initially begun as giddy excitement, turned into all out panic. By 3:30 finding out the sex of our child was the furthest thing from my mind. All I could think about were the things that could go wrong.
TJ, and my mom, constantly say that everything will be fine – they just know it. It’s that wonderful intuition that I’ve never seemed to be able to hone. I’m a worrier by nature, so I was in full swing that afternoon. I kept thinking about all of the risk factors that we had to take into consideration, including TJ’s age, and wanted to prepare myself for the worst.
The doctor had TJ do a triple screen panel the week before so we could get more accurate risk numbers to help us to decide if she would have an amniocentesis. Dr. B. wanted us to have as much information as possible at the time she had the ultrasound so that if the risks were high, she would have the amniocentesis right then.
TJ was certain that the blood tests would come back just fine – everything else up to this point seemed to indicate that her pregnancy was as normal as could be. She’s always been very confident in her intuition – and I trust it, as well – but she got a bit of a scare when we were led to the room and she was asked to sign a consent form for the amnio. All of the instruments were laid out and ready. The nurse told her that she could wait until the doctor came in to sign the form and then she left us alone. We looked at each other for a few long seconds and I asked TJ if she was worried. She was.
The ultrasound technician came in the room and we got started. He looked through TJ’s medical record and then asked her to lie down on the table. As he adjusted the settings on the machine, he asked if he could ask us some questions. We knew immediately what they would be and smiled at each other. He wanted to know how we went about the insemination process. Just like most people, he wanted to know if we used a turkey baster. We told him no, but close – same concept, different instrument. Answering his questions broke the ice and made TJ and I feel more comfortable. We, in turn, asked him his opinion on circumcision. Yet another vote for clipping…
From the first second that we saw the baby, we were just mesmerized. It was just unbelievable. We watched him moving his head and kicking his legs. We got several shots of his penis. It seemed he wanted to make sure we knew that we had better prepare for a boy. All in all, we saw just about every millimeter of his body and organs. I fell in love immediately. He seemed to be pissed off that we kept poking at him and pushing him around. In fact, the first picture we got, he was mooning us. Typical for our family – he’ll be just fine.
Following the measuring of every part of his body, Dr. B. came in and told us the great news about TJ’s blood tests. She had the body of a woman in her early 20’s. Of course, I’ve been telling her that for years. Everything on the ultrasound and in the blood work looked great and TJ decided that there was no need for the amnio.
So, now we prepare for our healthy son to join us outside the womb. He got a puppy yesterday. Mommy will train her for young Master Fuller. Little Dascha is already helping to train us for mommyhood by keeping us up most of the night crying, eating, pooping, and moving around constantly. We wouldn’t have it any other way.