Pink or Blue - Who are You?!?

Yesterday was "BABY DAY" as Jonathan and I kept excitedly calling it all day.  We had my 20-week appointment (20 weeks?! We're halfway there?!?) in the morning, then went to Babies-R-Us and BuyBuyBaby to check out some baby gear.  After that, we had lunch at our favorite Japanese place nearby (Baby LOVED Japanese - Lord knows I've had enough of it this pregnancy!!), then we went to the hospital where I'll be delivering to have our Level II Ultrasound/Gender scan.

Everything went well in the morning at the 20-week check-up.  We heard our little one's heartbeat, the doctor took some measurements, my urine sample was clean, my weight gain put me back on target (I was concerned that I was gaining too quickly after my 16-week appointment, so I've been really watching myself closely - the doctor wasn't concerned at 16 weeks, but said if my weight gain kept up that trend, she would be concerned - I did not keep the trend and the doc I saw yesterday said nothing about it), my blood pressure was good (110/67) and best of all, I DIDN'T HAVE TO HAVE BLOOD DRAWN!!!  I've had so much blood drawn for this baby, it was a nice treat to NOT have my veins poked! :)

We've picked a stroller, a car seat, and a pack 'n play recently.  We also picked a swing/bouncer combo yesterday (almost - still deciding on pattern).  We're going to register soon.  We also picked our furniture a while ago, and now that marching band is winding down (National Championships are TOMORROW!!), we will have the time to start getting the guest room cleared out and ready to become a nursery!

We went to our afternoon appointment full of excitement.  I commented to Jonathan in the car on the way there that this was the first time I was going for a pregnancy test of any type with complete joy and excitement.  We've had plenty of ultrasounds, but there was always a fear that something would be wrong... our first scan we wanted to see a yolk sack and such to confirm it was a viable pregnancy... next we wanted to see a heartbeat... then I had the weird ovarian pain and we were worried about ovarian torsion, or the second embryo being ectopic... then heartbeat had to be strong enough to hear... then we were released to the OB and we wanted them to declare that everything looked "normal"... then we had the NT scan and wanted to make sure the nuchal measurements were on track... yesterday I really just wanted to see our little one and I was so excited to get to do so.  Of course, something could have been wrong, but I was able to put my joy ahead of my fears.  It almost felt like we were having a normal pregnancy - no crazy injections and surgery and doctors and such involved - just a normal, pregnant couple going to see their baby.  It was a nice feeling.

We had to wait for a while before we got to go back for the ultrasound.  The tech was really sweet and asked if we wanted to know gender, so she would know whether to skip over that part or not.  Now, when you are pregnant, as many of you know, everyone, and I mean EVERYONE, has an opinion about whether or not you should find out the gender.  Some people believe that you should absolutely know so you can plan the nursery well and get everything ready to go.  Some people think that you should wait until birth because it is one of life's great surprises.  Well, the fact that we got pregnant at all was our great surprise this summer, and we had made the decision that we wanted to know.  We had a number of people giving us their opinions and Jonathan and I really had to put all of that aside and decide what we wanted down in our hearts... and in our hearts, we wanted to know who was in there.

Baby showed the goods very clearly and was very cooperative... we were very proud.  The tech asked us for our guess and we told her that we both felt strongly that it was a boy... and....

WE WERE RIGHT!

Baby BOY Fencik will be joining us in March (or April, if he decides to take his time!).  Jonathan and I were both so excited.  I was practically bouncing off the table.  She took more measurements and then we waited for the doctor to come in to do a few more and to talk to us.  We had some time together to discuss the knowledge that we are having a SON.  Words couldn't do that time justice, but suffice it to say that there was a lot of joy and some tears in that room yesterday afternoon.

The doctor came in and looked at the heart some more and asked us some questions about the IVF and IUI treatments.  We mentioned that we were coming in for a fetal echo in three weeks and he said that the heart looked good and strong, so we shouldn't stay up worrying about it.  He did mention that there is a bright spot on the heart, an echogenic intracardiac focus.  It's not a heart defect, or something that really even affects the heart at all, but can be considered a "soft" marker for Downs.  Now, based on our blood testing (the sequential screening) that we had done, as well as the NT scan, our risk factor was about 1/10000 (0.0001%).  This echogenic intracardiac focus changes that to about a 1/6000 chance (0.00016%) of our baby having Downs.  Apparently most of the time when they see this, it's not a big deal and a perfectly healthy baby is born, but because there has been some correlation between the echogenic intracardiac focus and Downs, they need to alert us to this fact.

Does this change anything at all?  Not even a little bit.  After all of our struggles, we know that God has blessed us beyond measure with the son that we are supposed to have.  If it turns out that he has some genetic abnormalities when he is born, then we will cross that bridge when we get there.  Of course, prayers for our little man are always appreciated, but this is not something that we are really concerned with much at all.

The doctor also "wanded" me (thought I was past that type of ultrasound) to check my cervix.  Apparently with all the IUIs and IVF within a relatively short period of time, there is some risk to how my cervix would hold up through pregnancy.  Fortunately, everything looked great.  I was really impressed though - here's this doctor who doesn't know me from anyone, who decided to go through the extra effort to double check something my own OB had never mentioned to me.  I was the last appointment of the day and he could have easily just overlooked it and clocked out.  If that is any indication of the level of care at the hospital, then I am really happy that I'll be delivering there.

Okay, this post has been VERY long.  I have more thoughts and feelings about the knowledge that we are having a son, but I will save those for another day.  Today we are heading down to Virginia for Jonathan's cousin's wedding, and then driving back up immediately following the reception since I have to be at school at 8 AM tomorrow for marching band!  I also just discovered that the anniversary gift that I want to get Jonathan is on sale this morning, so I need to run out before we leave to go pick it up!  I can't believe we'll be celebrating four years of marriage in just under two weeks!  Best four years of my life, no doubt! :)