Tutus, Hairbows, and Tights, OH MY!

We had our anatomy ultrasound on April 22. I had been attending a conference here in town and felt pretty bad about missing the afternoon session, but hey, when they want to look at your baby, they want to look at your baby! Plus, we (read I) was so crazy excited that I couldn't wait until the next appointment three weeks out. Since I was right downtown, my Mom came by and picked me up from the conference. We jumped on the HOV lane and headed south to meet Joe for our appointment with Dr. Ellis. Dr. Nisbet, our OB refers all of her clients to Dr. Ellis for the anatomy ultrasounds, he is a specialist in fetal development and fetal abnormalities. I knew we were in good hands, but there is something concerning about seeing such a specialized doctor. So, I did what any red blooded American would do...I Googled him. Thanks to Google, I found out all about him and even discovered he was a Baylor Grad. Sic 'Em!

Our appointment was at 3:00, but we had to wait for a very long time to be called back. Any of you who know me (even slightly) know that patience is NOT my strong suit. When Mom and Joe started getting impatient, I knew we'd been waiting for a long time! They finally called us back about 4:20. The room was really neat, complete with a flat screen tv on the wall so we could all see what Cocoa Puff was doing during the scan. As soon as the nurse put the doppler on me, I saw legs and a tush flash on the screen...we knew right away that CP was a girl. No question! Then, the little stinker rolled into a ball and was perfectly happy staying that way. The nurse squished around trying to get her to move, no luck. I had to stretch all the way forward and try to get her to move, no luck. They gave me chocolate, I did jumping jacks, stretches, and all kinds of crazy twists and turns to get her to move. No luck. We did realize pretty quickly that we have one stubborn girl on our hands. Let's go ahead now and have a moment of silence for Joe for all that he will endure with two stubborn women in his house.
Finally, baby girl moved and allowed the nurse to get the measurements she needed of the spine, the legs, the head, etc...We were in there for well over an hour while Dr. Ellis reviewed the scans in his office. He came in and met with us and was WONDERFUL! He spent quite awhile showing us multiple indicators that we have a healthy girl that measured in right on target at 20 weeks. Dr. E even pointed out bones in the fingers that were developing that indicate Downsyndrome is very unlikely. He was very encouraging and told us it was nice to end his day on a positive note as he had delivered a lot of bad news to parents earlier that afternoon. Needless to say, we were thrilled to know we are having a girl and that everything looked good!
I was especially thankful that we got to see the baby's gender BEFORE she had her bout of stubborness. It made the scan much more fun getting to call CP, "she."