19w1d Pretty in ....

blue, yellow or green.... or should I say HANDSOME!!!

IT'S A BOY!!!!

But lets start from the beginning.

Yesterday was my nephew's birthday. My oldest nephew turned 6! and I remember the day he was born. My SIL was in labour for the whole duration of Yom Kippur. It was also the first time I realized that labour can be THAT long. She was in labour for over 26 hours and gave birth right before the fast ended. But yesterday we had tons of food to celebrate his birthday. The funny part that my entire family was there my sis and BIL with kids and my parents with my brother, and of course the conversation shifted to our little one. My parents, my sis & my SIL were all saying that I am having a girl. They could feel it and they knew it. At that point I became very certain that since they are insisting the baby is a girl, the baby would actually be a boy.

I took an early train this morning as I had to leave the office by 12:30 p.m. I was so anxious just thinking about this u/s and the gender determination. My dad called at 11 a.m. and asked why I didn't call him to tell him the sex. So I told him that I am still at the office and the u/s is not until 2:00 p.m. Before leaving I actually went to pee (twice within 10 min) and then at around 1 p.m. finished a 500ml bottle of water (although they said 1L, my bladder is not that big). Of course the subway got stuck a few times (always happens when you are in a rush). When I finally go to the last stop and got up, I could barely walk. I drank too much. I got to the car 20 min late and noticed my BIL in the car as well. DH informed me that they had to stop by one place on the way and drop of my BIL at his house. Uhmm.... I was already pissed at the subway, and at the pain of the full bladder and seeing how we only had less than 20 min to get to the u/s, I was not pleased to say the least. To make the story short, we got there at 2 p.m. exactly (even thought they asked me to come in 10 min earlier).

By that time, I couldn't sit. 10 minutes that I waited for an u/s in the reception seemed like forever, and I was pacing from side to side of the little waiting room. Finally my name was called and DH got up to come with me. The nice u/s tech turned out to also speak Russian. She told DH to stay outside and that she will call him when we are ready for him. I told the tech that I am in a lot of pain and she said that I should go and pee. I asked "How much?" and she said just to pee until I feel better. Oh, that was such a relief!!! We went to one u/s room and the tech said that she is not happy with the machine and she will start it here, but wants me to be on the newer machine in another room, so she was just waiting for another lady to finish in there. As she was taking measurements on the older machine, we were chit chatting about kids and IF and cost of IVF, she was also exclaiming how beautiful our baby is. After about 5-10 min, she said that she wanted to hurry the other tech from the other room, which she did, and we moved to a much newer machine. She proceeded with the u/s and then exclaimed that she could see who the baby is. I asked who and she said it's a BOY. OMG a boy. I was so happy to finally refer to my baby in a proper gender. We actually did refer to the baby as he, just because the word "child" or "baby" in Russian is a masculine word.

Anyways, once she told me she said she better go and get DH right away. When they came back, I told DH that we know who the baby is. DH asked me to tell him, but the tech interrupted and said that she would show him. She quickly found the right point and showed DH - one leg, then the second leg, and then.... something in between. The look on DH's face was priceless. He was beaming with pride. His first baby is a SON, we are having a baby BOY, and handsome baby BOY! I did shed a couple of tears at that point, first time at the u/s. The tech proceeded showing us different images of the baby. Our son (OMG I can't believe I am saying this word) was sucking his thumb, it was so funny. DH asked if this is her moving the probe or the baby is moving and she said that it was the baby too. She stopped to show us the movement and we could see the baby trying to shove his entire fist into his mouth! She showed us his face and his lips. She moved it around so we can see our son sucking his thumb from different angles. Then she showed us his heart with all four chambers. we got a treat - we listened to his h/b for just a bit, as she was charting it on the computer. He changed the angle and we could see his little fit and the soles of his feet. It looked like he was running in there, with feet moving all the time, which also looked like he was trying to climb out :) She showed us the placenta being high and away from the cervix and cervix being nice and long.

DH asked her about measurement and she said that the baby is measuring 17 cm from head to bum :) He asked whether the images one the screen were 1:1. At this point she was concentrating on the baby's hands, and she calculated that the distance from the elbow to his wrist was 5 cm (5cm can you imagine!!! with the whole arm being around 10cm) then they looked at the screen and the image was much smaller than that, so now the u/s machine was actually minimizing the size to fit it on the screen. We've spend about 20 minutes with her showing us our baby. Just before we left she said that the baby's weight was 330 grams and that the baby was actually 1 whole week ahead, measuring at 20w1d. She joked that we are going to have a chubby baby, and I told her that looking at the baby's mama and papa, it is not surprising, LOL. She said everything looked good on the u/s. We were both just ecstatic.

The only downside was that they don't print pictures and you have to order a CD if you want them. So we haven't decided yet whether we want one or not.

When we finished, I again went to the washroom and DH waited for me at the reception area with my things. As soon as I got to my phone, I could see IMs from my sis and txt from my friend in Ohio (her u/s is next Friday). As I was typing "boy" in a reply text, my phone rang and it was actually her calling. I told her quickly that it was a boy and that I'll call her a bit later, as I have to call my family. Of course, DH was already on the phone with his brother. I called my sis, and she answered the phone with "Nuuuu!" I told her it is a boy and she couldn't believe it! They were convinced it was a girl. She asked if she could tell people. I told her that of course she could, I only have to talk to parents first. That was my next call, I called my parents house and both of them answered. So I told them that we got another "pipiska!!!" and that it is definitely a BOY. Again, notwithstanding their conviction earlier, the reacted pretty good to the news. I did tell them that the baby was healthy and moving around and my parents were both happy to hear that.

Since I was in my neighbourhood so early in the afternoon, I decided to take care of myself a little bit. I did my eyebrows (that I haven't done for a while) and of course took out all other hair on my face. I guess the fact that the hair on my face, my nipples and tummy is growing like crazy, was a give away that my body is full of testosterone. So after I was done, I spent pretty much the entire evening on the phone. My clerk called and said that she and the other lawyer were betting on who I am having and that she said a boy and the other lawyer said a girl. Well she won! I am glad I could help LOL. I talked to a few close friends, as well as my cousin. I also finally was able to get through to my SIL, and called my friend from Ohio back to give her all the details.

Overall, I have been an an emotional high since the moment we found out.

DH & I decided to go to our favourite Asian spot for dinner tonight (cause I didn't want to eat what we had), and we had some nice alone time (with me off the phone for most of the time). Then we stopped by the grocery store and bought some frozen yogourt on sale (4 packs) and we tried it all when we got home. Yep, we both have sweet teeth.

This weekend is shaping up like a very hectic one. The cleaning lady is coming in at 9 a.m. so we have to get up at 8 to clean up the house :) Then I have prenatal yoga at 10:30 a.m. and my upkeep Brazilian sugaring at 12:30 p.m. I also need to get some more prenatal vitamins, get my shoes fixed (old but comfy ones), get maternity pants and a pair of jeans hemmed. And then attend my nephew's kids birthday party from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. I don't think I'll have any energy left to go out after that. This Sunday, I am meeting a few friends from ivf(dot)ca who are also pregnant. All with twins (except me). And then to the office.

On another news, I found a Russian book on line which DH liked as a child. I've read in a few places that it is suggested that DH reads or talks to the baby so that the baby knows his voice and recognizes him when he comes out. Well, for now it is me reading the book and DH working on his computer. When I pressed him about this today, he told me that he still has 4 months, so back off for now. My pregnancy brain would be telling me that he doesn't care, but then a few days ago he told me that he had a dream that he put his hand on my tummy and he could feel the baby moving. The thing is DH is not the type of people who (a) has dreams and (b) is a completely non romantic and non emotion showing type of guy. Knowing that he has dreams about my baby warms my heart, as I know that he does care and thinks about our baby. So, I decided to forgive him for now, and drop the subject for a few days/weeks. We will see how that goes.

Anyways, me and my son are going to bed, after I read him a bit more of that book. Good night!