wow. that's just craaazy!!

That's pretty much all Brian and I said during my ultrasound today. No other words came to mind.

I had my nuchal translucency (NT) scan -- an ultrasound they do in the first trimester to screen for genetic abnormalities. They tell you to drink 24 oz of water an hour before the scan cause a full bladder helps them to see the baby better. But knowing me and my teeny tiny bladder, I stuck to drinking not even 12 oz. By the time I got to the ultrasound lab, I realized that was still too much. My fear of having too full a bladder was coming true and there was no way I was gonna make it through the scan like this. I was too uncomfortable! Luckily, I had lunch with my friend Rae earlier that week who had just had her NT, and she said she emptied her bladder a little and it was okay. So, off to the restroom I went (twice) to give me some relief. Note to self: next time, only drink half a bottle of water.

The lady calls us back to the room. Brian sits in the chair and I lie on the bed. There's a monitor on the wall to the left of us where we can see my insides. The very nice ultrasound tech puts the cold jelly stuff on my belly...and there's the baby!! No longer is it a little kidney bean. It now actually looks like a baby. It has a head, eyes, nose, mouth, ears, arms and legs; you can even see the fingers and toes! CRAZY.

But wait, it gets better. The baby is moving. A lot! The tech pushes down on my belly trying to get a good angle of the baby's neck (they measure the fluid at the back of the neck). The baby doesn't want to cooperate so she pushes harder trying to get a good picture. Ouch, lady. That hurts. After about 5 minutes of her poking me so hard I swear I'll have a bruise, I decide to say something and she lightens up a bit. Ah, much better. Now I can enjoy the experience.

The baby stretches, rolls over, even hurls its entire body up for a second! With every move, the ultrasound tech gets excited and points out exactly what's up on the screen. She even calls the baby "pumpkin" at one point. :)

We see the heartbeat fluttering and the baby even opens and closes its mouth a bit. This is so weird! It's only about 2 inches long, but all the physical features are there. At one point, the baby moves and we can see the top of its head.

"There's the baby's brain," the tech says.

No joke!! We could actually see the right and left side of the baby's brain. It's BRAIN. What a trip.

Here's some pics of our still alien-looking child:









After the NT, I had a bunch of blood drawn and then a regular appt with my doctor. She put the contraption on my belly so we could hear the baby's heartbeat. Wooosh, woosh, wooosh. Apparently, the heartbeat is at a healthy 161 bpm.

Oh, and I found out that my official due date is now Sept. 12, 2009.

First trimester down! On to the second phase...