It's a boy!!!

Hi everyone,

Today was our third ultrasound and as you can see, it's a boy! We're so excited. It was a great visit, we saw so much of his anatomy. The skeletal system was visible, down to jaws and fingers. They also were able to show his blood circulating from the umbilical cord to the heart (in color), that was really neat. All his organs seemed to look fine, meaning there were two when there was supposed to be and they were on the right side of his body. She said I should be able to feel him kick soon, that sometimes if the placenta is on top the mother doesn't feel it because its acts as a cushion, however his is on the bottom so it should be any time now. I also read it takes longer for first time moms to recognize a kick, because they don't know what to expect. He moves a lot, I should feel that soon.

Below are some pictures from today. The quality is pretty poor, and I don't know about you but whenever I saw someone else's ultrasound pictures, I could never figure out what I was looking at. I can make everything out on these pictures because on the monitor at the appointment, it is ten times larger and clearer. But here it goes... remember, you can click on a photo to enlarge it if its too small to see.

This first one is of his arm, his head is on the right. The technician said it was important to see his hand was open, for some reason that rules out several problems.


Another view of his arm.


Here is a typical profile view. his head is on the right, facing up. The white lines are his bones, you can see his jaws, spinal cord, and face bones well.


Lastly, she said there's no doubt about it - he's definitely a boy.


Will post an updated belly shot next week, when I will be 18 weeks along. By the way, according to his measurements today they came up with a due date 9 days earlier than mine, though again there is error in those measurements so my doctor wants to stick with the date of June 18th. Its funny that every ultrasound has given me a week earlier of a date though!

Talk to you soon,
Andrea