Baby's First Picture
Yay! We finally got to see baby for the first time today. (Well, besides the very first ultrasound at 6 1/2 weeks when baby looked like a bean. that didnt' really count)
I was nervous, but mostly super excited. My trainer had told me to drink lots of water beforehand so that my bladder would be full- that this would make for clearer pictures. She also told me to eat carbohydrates about a half hour before, so that the baby would be active. "this will be the only time I'll tell you to go eat some french fries" she said. Then this morning at my yoga class we were talking about the stress test you get at the end of the pregnancy, and I heard the same thing about carbohydrates, and even some caffeine. Once again, to make sure baby is active and awake.
So, at 11 I make Steve take me through the drive through at McDonalds. We both get a cheeseburger and shared a large fries and Mr. Pibb. Keep in mind that I dont' drink caffeine- haven't for almost five years now. So we eat up, I drink a little soda (seriously not equivalent to even half a can. I didn't feel any caffeine effects), and filled up on carbs. I had a little talk with baby, about how us Post's are photogenic and baby needs to get used to the camera. And then we headed to the dr's.
And my bladder was super full.
When we get to the apointment a half hour later, I was relieved when the nurse said I didn't need to have a full bladder. Whew.
So we're waiting for the Dr. and I can sort of feel baby moving around.
Then the Dr. comes in. We have our video and DVD in place to record the whole ultrasound. (the video records all the movement, the DVD just keeps the pictures)
When the dr. first shows us the baby, its the top of baby's head, so not that exciting. And I'm laying on my back, wanting to pick my head up to get a good look. But i had to lay flat. He's showing us the head, then the tummy, and then the femur bone in the leg- good to know baby has bones! None of this is super obvious baby pics, but it was exciting nonetheless. I did get teary eyed, but didnt' full on cry cause I was trying too hard to see everything.
I was surprised when he turned the 2D black and white ultrasound to the 4D pictures (this type of ultrasound is much more real looking. a nd usually you have to pay at least $99). I didn't realize that he was going to do that- I just figured the only way to see those types of sonograms/ultrasound was to go to the special place. So i was really excited. This way insurance covered it! These pictures are so much easier to see the baby. We saw the baby moving around, and apparently the baby was moving a lot, too much to get a decent picture! Oops. Sounds like baby was bouncing of the uterine walls. Didn't tell the Dr. about my french fries and caffeine kick. ...........
But we saw baby, moving hands and feets, yawning or talking or something. And since it is my child, I'm going to assume it was trying to talk about something random and irrelevant. Probably about how excited it was to finally taste caffeine for the first time.
Sometimes the movements would kinda blur it and the baby would look kinda alien-like. But we did get a good shot of the babies face, that was have since watched at least 6 or 7 times. Steve says baby has my nose. I don't see it as my nose so much, but I do see a resemblance to the Adams family ;)
The Dr. was good at not showing us baby's sex. The nurse told us that 95% of the patients find out the sex! I was surprised. Guess we're really weird. The dr. did tell us at one point that we may want to close our eyes, cause baby may flash- but it was still in 2D mode, so i told him I wouldn't be able to tell anyways.
Unfortch, the Dr. didn't get the best picture (the pictures were taken basically from the moving film), and so far we can't figure out how to turn the video into pictures. So right now I just have a few ultrasound pics, mostly the 2D. I'm sure your'e done with me rambling and just want to see baby, right?
So, with out further ado, here is Baby Post!!!!!
the top of baby's head. and baby's hands are to the right
the femur bone. always good. and we think baby's little booty to the bottom left. awwwww


baby's back- the spinal cord! crazy. kinda creepy. but good to know that baby has its bones!

this is baby's heart beat, which we also heard. 156 beats per minute. i thought that sounded fast, but its right on for baby! (the heart is between the double lines in the middle)
here's the 4D. Now this is one where its kinda disorted. making baby look slighty alien-esque. But, still quite baby like! you can see the eyes', nose, mouth, chin. very cool. and when moving around, baby didn't look so scary- more like a cute baby :)


here are baby's legs. you can see the feet at the top, and the legs going down
this one is kind hard to see at first, but baby's back is to the left side and baby is facing the right. you can see baby's profile and little arms and hands



So my only advice is, if you don't drink caffenine, don't try to drink a little to wake baby up to get good pics. I'm sure the french fries would have been fine......
My next post will be the 5 month pics of me. I'm getting big! Luckily this last weigh in was only 5 pounds more, more on track. MUCH better than 12 pounds!!!!!! Makking my total weight gain about 20 pounds. I think that sounds ok for my half way mark. And the Dr. hasn't said a thing about gaining too much. But today we learned that baby is almost 1 pound. So what the hell is the other 19 pounds I've gained for??? Anyways, hope you all enjoyed the Baby Post pictures :) :)