NT Scan Sono Pics !!!!

For the record: I am CONVINCED this little one is a girl. I saw no evidence otherwise during the sono yesterday!

The wonderful pics from yesterday:

That's "Judy's" profile, with her hands up by her face...going in for some cute thumb-sucking action. So sweet!

How she spent MOST of the sonogram:

Laying on her belly instead of her back. She was NOT a fan of the sono. She was kicking and thrashing about. She'd snuggle down on all fours, belly-down, and then whip her head to the side so that all we could see was the back of her head. She was NOT having the sono. Not one bit.

....but let me back up though, because yesterday was quite the emotional day.

Scan appt. time was 10:45. I got there at 10:30. I filled out the consent for the test, and that's when it started to hit: this wave of nerves, and fear, and panic, out of nowhere. Don't get me wrong---I get nervous before sonos. I just do. But, yesterday, I flat out lost my shit right there in the waiting room. I just lost it. I started crying, and I couldn't stop. There were no tissues anywhere. I went to the bathroom outside the office waiting room, out in the hall. I get in there, get in a stall, and just start bawling. Some lady came in, and she was so nice to me. I came out of my stall, and she just gave me the biggest hug..... {She's a mom, her dtr's 30yo, and she was there for a study relating to a blood clot in her leg...} Anyway....she got me to stop bawling. I returned to the waiting room with that sniffly, shiver with the exhale type of existence. Niiiiice.

I will never, ever, ever go to a sono alone again. Granted, it all turned out okay, and my reaction was very disproportionate to the situation.....but I don't care. I was freaking out, and unable to reign it in, and I had nobody there for distraction.

The sono lady, Brandi, was so sweet to me. She collected me from the waiting room, and I was just so upset and barely able to speak on my way to the sono room. I'm telling you---I was a mess. A completely unwarranted mess. Well, maybe not completely unwarranted... but, certainly, I've had no sonos during THIS pregnancy that would suggest my baby is anything less than perfect. It's just somehow a combination of being hormonal, normal pregnancy anxiety about so much of this development being out of our control, trying so hard for this pregnancy and all that we've gone through to get this far, and having a history of being THAT girl who goes in for a sono and gets devastating news. You put all of that together in my mind, and my thoughts were like a freaking tornado spinning out of control, resulting in the bawling pile of pregnant that I was. I miss the naive, happy-go-lucky mentality I had when I was pregnant with Gage. When nothing had gone wrong in my pregnancy, and I had no idea how the other side felt....

And then....I was laying on the sono table and with the first swipe of the scanner, there was my baby on the big screen.... All fabulous and big and waving and kicking....

In the end, the child was not cooperative for the scan. She needed to by lying on her back, looking straight up, for the perfect profile picture. She wasn't having any of that. ....or......she knew exactly what her Momma needed: a 40 minute movie of watching her flip and flop and give attitude.  Maybe she wasn't so much uncooperative, as she was just achieving a different goal. In the end, the sono tech was able to get 2 "acceptable" NT scan images for measurement. Ours are well within the range of normal, so unless the blood work shows anything waaaay off, then we are probably just fine!

How was the rest of my appointment: fine. I'm FINALLY coming off progesterone! Yaaaay! At 13 weeks, I'm FINALLY done with it!

So, we've got 4 more weeks until we go back. Since this pregnancy began, that is the longest I will have gone without seeing the baby, or hearing the heartbeat. I am sooooo looking forward to feeling the baby move, because it will just quiet those fears when they sneak in.

Grow, baby, grow! And kick me!
Right now, you are 7cm crown to rump, and you look like you have looooong legs and arms. Grow, grow, grow! {...except for a penis. don't grow one of those.}
:)

So...the heart rate over time...
6w0d = 92 bpm
8w0d = 180 bpm
8w6d = 170 bpm
12w0d = 148 bpm
13w03 = 155 bpm