December 22, 2013

Daughter.

25.5 weeks
Just days after my last post Dave and I drove into LA for our 20 week structural scan. Basically, an in-depth ultrasound to check all the organs, limbs, and growth of our baby.

It'd been an incredibly emotional day already for lots of reasons, and upon arriving to the ultrasound office, we learned that our insurance wouldn't cover a penny of it since it wasn't 'medically necessary' (even though the nurse at our regular doctor's office told us that it would be).

I think I cried a little in that moment. What were we doing here anyways? Just taking extra precautions? People didn't even have the option to look at their babies until 50 years ago, so why did we feel it was such a necessity? Clearly I was quickly becoming bitter at this $250 cherry on top of the rest of our terrible day. The reasons piled up why it would be fine if we just left and saved our money.

But… we decided to stay.

If we hadn't just spent an hour and a half driving through LA traffic, I'm pretty sure we would have just grabbed our bags and left. I'm so glad now we didn't.

We got into the ultrasound room and were greeted by a wonderfully kind technician. It was comfy room with dim lights and a good view of the screen. The technician even warmed up the ultrasound jelly for me (trust me, this makes a huge difference!) and popped in a blank DVD to record the whole thing for us.

She first checked our baby's heart, quickly finding all 4 chambers and watching it beat heartily for a few moments. Then we located and measured things like the brain, stomach, bladder, kidneys, hands and fingers, feet and toes. Each was incredibly precious for us to see. We'd had several ultrasounds during our regular prenatal checkups, but we hadn't seen everything in such detail before. It was a treat to be with the ultrasound specialist since she was so skilled in locating each body part and explaining to us exactly what she was looking for.

Finally, at the end of the appointment, it was time to take a look at the gender of the baby. We'd been told a few weeks prior that it looked like a boy, though it was a little too early to be completely sure. Still, though, we felt confident that we were going to have a son come Spring.

The technician found the 'area' and, after looking intently for a moment, finally said, "Well, you guys have been calling it a 'him' this whole time, but I'm looking at a girl."

My eyes welled up with tears and Dave and I exchanged huge grins. We were in shock. For no good reason at all, we'd thought from the beginning that we were having a boy.

I don't remember much after that point. I think we just took a few extra minutes to thoroughly check and make sure it was actually a girl.

Within a couple minutes, we wrapped up the appointment and Dave and I were left in the room to gather our things and regain our composure. I burst into sobs as soon as the technician left.

A girl.

A daughter.

MY daughter.

OUR daughter.

I couldn't believe it. After all that we'd gone through that day, this was the best news we could have gotten-- that our baby was perfectly healthy and that she was a SHE.

We truly never cared one way or the other what gender we had, but finding out for sure that our baby was a girl was incredible. It's an enormous piece of who she is that we learned about that day.

Sweet girl, mommy and daddy can't wait to meet you. We love you already so much.

2 comments:

  1. Judy, what a beautiful post. I definitely teared up. What wonderful parents you guys are (I always hated when people told me we weren't parents yet while we were pregnant)!

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  2. I am in tears just reading this. Weren't we just in my car in May talking about when you would finally become pregnant? And I know without a doubt in my soul, a piece of my childs soul will be in yours. I love you and I love my Goddaughter so, so much. I cannot wait for her arrival.

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