Daily Note: April 7, 2009

It's a girl!!!!

I didn't really tell the whole saga that was our ultra sound yesterday in my blog post, but now that we have a happy ending, I think it adds to the story. Basically, when I made my ultrasound appointment, I was lectured that I couldn't be even a minute late or the technician would cancel the whole thing - they said she is very strict about arrival times and sticking to schedule. So we arrived at exactly 7:15am on the dot. Only to find the doors locked and the lights out. To make a long story short, we were made to wait over an hour for our appointment. This semi-crazy seeming woman finally came out and said she was our tech, but that it was her first day and she'd just flown in the day before. Apparently, they were having problems logging her into the computer. We finally got cranky enough to leave our phone number and finished waiting in the Starbucks downstairs. Eventually, at 8:30 or so, they called us. The lady was clearly unfamiliar with the computer system and couldn't get any of the images to save, so she decided to print everything instead. This caused her to run out of paper midway through my already harried ultrasound, so I sat around with cold gel on my stomach while she frantically tried to find more paper and load the stupid printer. On top of that, I wasn't a big fan of her personality, the whole thing got cut short because of the late start, and then I felt like she tried not at all to see the gender. Basically, I left kind of pissed in addition to disappointed.

BUT. Today, the nurse called and said that the doctor was having a hard time reading some of the images taken yesterday and that they needed me to get another scan. I'm not really sure if this is true (it wouldn't surprise me given how frantic the tech was), or if they had to say that in order for my insurance to cover the re-do. Either way, I told them I was available all week and to let me know when something opened up. She said she'd get back to me. Then she called me right back and said they could fit me in at 3:00 today. Jeff was available so we jumped at the time slot. At 2:30, I started by taking a tip from Betsey and eating an entire package of Mambas (and drinking half an Aranciata for extra measure).

And today was soooo much nicer. First, the appointment today was at the fancy office where we'd had our 12 week scan and they have giant plasmas and high res equipment. Second, my technician was the nicest lady ever. When I told her about not getting to see the gender yesterday, she said, "Well, we'll have none of that today!" We got the bonus of seeing the baby kick and squirm all over again, this time in high definition. We even got to watch as it extended it's arm, made a thumbs up and then stuck her thumb in her mouth. When she'd taken all the necessary pictures, she then scanned all over trying to see the gender of the baby. Bernice wasn't cooperating at first, and I said, "If you really can't see the gender, it'll be okay." And her reply was, "Oh, we'll find it. We're not leaving until we do!" I almost hugged her. Instead I turned on my side at her request, giving Jeff a prime view of the top half of my butt hanging out of my rolled down pants. She tried a tricky angle with me on my side and then froze the screen. She said she'd been pretty sure before hand, but that this view was definitive - it was a girl.

I'm so tired and ready for bed, but I do need to mention that my parents had planned to come to Seattle for dinner last night. The timing was such that we had hoped to have news to share with them, so it was a little anti-climactic to not have the gender to report. But my parents were troopers and splurged on dinner at Wild Ginger anyways, which was fantastic. Also, my Dad brought his coworker's magic eight ball. He said it had never failed. So we asked the ball whether we were going to have a girl. I believe the answer was "It is certain". Then we asked if this baby was going to be a boy and it replied no.

I have endless respect for those with the patience to wait 9 months for the gender, but for me, today was SO worth it. Jeff and I both feel like we got a burst of enthusiasm and excitement for the process. We're going to have a daughter! And we really need to pick a name soon because I'm not a huge fan of Bernice.