Snips and Snails and Puppy Dog Tails

Our "big" scan yesterday was blissfully uneventful. What a wonderful Christmas present!

As previously predicted, it does, in fact appear to be a boy. Once we get our scanner (joint Christmas present for/from me and Kevin) and get it hooked up, I'll scan in the pictures. (Not pictures of his family jewels, we didn't ask for any of them, just pictures of his face, hands, legs, etc.) The 3D ones are neato, even if Spidey does look quite alien-like.

Everything went well. All the organs are accounted for, measuring correctly, and in the appropriate place. We saw the 3rd joint on the pinky finger, saw the hands opening and closing, and saw a gorgeous 4 chamber heart. All fantastic signs that Spidey probably does not have Down.Syndrome. So we'll keep our fingers crossed.

Yesterday I was 18w1d and Spidey's measurements averaged out to 18w0d. All of the measurements (femur, humerus, head circumference, etc.) were between 17w6d and 18w1d. I think that partially it's because Spidey is cooperating and growing on track, but I also think that the tech who did the initial scan was great at her job. She took a lot of time to look at everything -- again and again and again -- and provided an endless running commentary explaining what she was looking at, and what she was looking for. We really appreciated that!

The biggest shock of the day was that the Perinatologist recommended that we don't do the AFP quad screen. We were totally set and prepared to get it done, but he basically talked us out of it. He spent a long time explaining exactly what it tests for, and then reviewed all of the results we have thus far (extensive anatomical scan, NT scan, NT bloodwork, etc.) and said that we wouldn't be testing for anything else we haven't already tested for. I have NEVER EVER been the one who was offered the "easy" road. I have never been the one who was told she didn't need extensive, exhaustive, invasive testing. We completely trust this Doctor, so we decided to take his advice. I was giddy at the prospect of avoiding an agonizing wait for yet more test results -- especially for a test that often gives false positive. So that too was a great early Christmas present.

As of today, I will start wearing maternity clothes full time. Thank goodness because squeezing my big self into my old clothes was getting pretty . . . um . . . comical. I also promised to get excited and attempt to be optimistic about this pregnancy. I truly will do my best. Luckily I feel him move every day, dozens of times a day, so that's reassuring. We told Megan that she is going to be a big sister and she was excited. She initially refused to accept that it was going to be a little brother, insisting that she would only like a sister. Eventually she came around and decided that having a brother would be okay -- only if we agreed to name him Scuttle. (For those of you who have the fortune to be blissfully unaware of the excruciating details of Disney movies, Scuttle is a seagull played by Buddy.Hackett in The.Little.Mermaid.) We avoided the discussion and decided to tackle that one later.

Christmas Day has been good so far. It's only 8:26am but we've already been up for over 2 hours, opened all the presents, and eaten breakfast. At the moment, Megan is running around in a Barbie wedding dress, wearing frog rain boots, and sporting 2 small baby dolls shoved down the front of her dress. I simply couldn't be more proud. :-) Best of all is that she's desperately lobbying for us to let her go outside so that she can dig in the yard for worms. She's trying to negotiate by asking for "just 2 worms" but we're not budging. She seriously is a trip, when she's not in the throes of a temper tantrum, screaming her head off acting like a raving lunatic, she is one of the funniest people I've ever known. If I can get the camera out of Kevin's grip, I'll upload a picture of her in the wedding/frog getup for you guys to enjoy.


Here they are:




















I've been praying for all of my blogland friends to get what their hearts desire. Especially to my friend who is in the 2ww after secret IVF #2, I hope you get amazing news very soon. Thank you also to all of the Braces Bunch gals who have sent cards. I love them! I have all of yours done, addressed, and labeled, but buried them under wrapping paper until I discovered them around midnight last night. Yikes! So they will go out tomorrow.

I hope you have a wonderful holiday season.