20 Week Ultrasound

Friday was our 20 week ultrasound, which also marked the halfway point in our pregnancy!!! The most exciting part of this ultrasound for many expectant parents is finding out the gender of their baby. However, Nate and I decided pretty early on that we wanted to wait until Baby O's birthday to find out the sex. Although we consider ourselves "planners," our desire for one of life's greatest surprises on what will be the happiest day of our lives far outweighed the urge to know ahead of time. I think our parents were happy with this "retro" decision. They all loved finding out the old fashioned way, and are excited we are doing the same. Not to say we aren't all dying of curiosity...

As I explained in an earlier post, I do refer to the baby as "he" on our blog, but only to avoid calling him "it." But really, we have no idea if "he" is a boy or a girl. Nate is leaning toward a boy, and these days, I am thinking more and more that it's a girl. These guesses are not based on any type of hope or expectation, just our gut feelings. We would be perfectly happy with either one. 

The ultrasound lasted about a half an hour, and similar to the last scan, it was because Baby O was on the move the entire time. This was not surprising, because I feel him moving around almost constantly now. Our tech wondered aloud whether this was a sign of things to come. We wonder the same thing every day! Once she was finally able to get the measurements she needed, we were thrilled to hear that all of the major organs looked normal, and the baby's growth and heart rate were right on target. Baby O is now a whopping 11 ounces. She also zoomed in on the heart so we could see all four chambers pumping, and I mentioned that it looked almost like a giant, creepy blinking eye. She replied that many parents have actually asked that exact question before she had a chance to tell them it was the heart. 

After the diagnostic part of the ultrasound wrapped up, she switched over to the 4D view which allowed us to really see what Baby O's face looked like for the very first time. But of course, it took some convincing. For the first 30 seconds that the tech focused on his face, Baby O was busy talking to my bladder, and couldn't be bothered to turn around: 

Finally, Baby O decided to look at us for a split second, just long enough to get one good picture. He opted for a dramatic, over the shoulder glance:

We are so incredibly happy to know that Baby O is doing well. Our love for him and our excitement to meet him multiplies every day. Only 20 more weeks to go!