21 Weeks and Ultrasound!

On Friday, May 13th, Todd and I arrived at the midwife's office first thing in the morning for our 20 week anatomy scan. Our ultrasound technician was really nice, and was really great about explaining all of the measurements she was taking and the little body parts and organs we were looking at. It is really amazing what you can see on the ultrasound--all four chambers of the heart, the kidneys, the individual vertebrae, and the baby wiggling all around. Of course the tech started from the top of the head and worked her way down, saving the gender reveal for the end. The baby was being a little stubborn (our child, imagine that!) and kept putting hands by the face and crossing legs to make measurements a little tricky.

Given how few girls there are on our family trees, we have all just been assuming that this baby will be a boy. So, imagine our surprise and disbelief and excitement when the tech told us that this little bean is a GIRL!!!!!! My eyes immediately filled with tears, and both Todd and I kept asking the tech to check again, just to make sure. And sure enough, from every angle, it's a girl!!! Wow. So unbelievable and wonderful--we're going to have a daughter! Nathan's going to have a little sister! Amazing!

All of her measurements were right where they should be, and the ultrasound results were declared "unremarkable," which is probably the only time that you ever want to hear that your child is unremarkable. Her heartbeat was 143bpm and going strong. Todd and I were beaming all day! Now I'm more excited than ever to start nesting and preparing for this new little one.

I apologize for the terrible pictures--I was photographing the ultrasound prints, which are on really shiny paper.

Our daughter's profile

Girl!!!!

Demonstrating her ladylike tendencies--in this photo we are looking down on the tops of her legs, which are crossed at the ankles.

Sweet little baby feet!

My growing belly at 21 weeks. It's starting to look like there's a baby in there!