Wow, what an amazing and eventful (stressful) 5 days! Ultrasound on Wednesday afternoon was for the most part really, really great. We found out that we are having a little GIRL! I’m very excited, and of course a little terrified, so much to teach her! We also saw every working organ and moving part, including little hands and fingers. Everything looked really good, except her nose. Sounds strange, I know, but the technician could not see a prominent nose bone, and apparently this is not good. We waited a while for the perinatologist, Dr. Scott to come in and take a look. The baby was VERY active the entire time; I don’t think that she likes it when I’m on my back. So since she was kicking up a storm I had Bob see if he could maybe feel all the crazy movement and he DID! I figured it would be a lot longer before he would be able to feel her from the outside. So that was really very cool, I’m glad that he got to feel her kick. When Dr. Scott came in she went over all the different parts from head to toe with us and showed us once again with great explanation all of the organs that she was looking at, the spine, her legs, feet, etc. but then she went to the concerning part, the lack of a nasal bone. She said that this is something they have just recently started screening for because very often it is an indicator of potential Downs Syndrome since Downs babies often do not have well-formed noses. The finding increased our likelihood of Downs or other genetic issues from 1 in 4000 to 2%. Since I was already concerned about this even before the Dr.’s finding and had been considering amniocentesis from the beginning so that we would know for CERTAIN if there was any genetic issue, the Dr asked if we wanted to do it and I immediately agreed. This was quite a bit scary…think about it, the Dr sticks a needle into your stomach and through the placenta where your BABY is hanging out and removes some of the amniotic fluid. It is freaky to think about at best and very weird to experience. In the end, it wasn’t that bad, although I didn’t look at either the ultrasound screen or the needle or anything…I was staring straight up at the spotlight and tiles right above me, squeezing Bob’s hand very hard.

This morning, we got an amazing call from Dr. Scott to tell us that the initial testing all showed completely NEGATIVE for extra chromosomes! The final tests are still to come, hopefully by the end of the week but the chances of them being different is highly unlikely. To say that this news was a relief is a huge understatement! I feel like I can finally breathe and stop thinking about “what if”…. After I got off the phone Bob and I hugged very tightly for a very long time.

We had another monthly OB/GYN appointment this morning which was uneventful except for the 1 hour + wait that we had to endure before even seeing him. I have only gained about 12 pounds so far and my Dr. said that he wished all of his patients did as well as me. I’m pretty happy about it myself, not that I am actually TRYING to maintain my weight, I’m just not that hungry and I eat when I feel like it nd mostly eat fruits and vegetables…so it’s working for me and apparently for baby. I feel great and she is doing wonderful. They said she weighed in at about 11 ounces and looked about right for the due date. I think they said her femur is 33 mm, nearly an inch!

Thanksgiving was very nice; we went to Ruth’s Chris and had a very good meal Thursday night after a long day of doing a lot of nothing. I made a turkey breast and mashed potatoes along with some whipped cream for the Costco pumpkin pie on Friday. We actually got up at 4:30 in the morning on Black Friday and headed out to shop for Black Friday. The first time I had ever done that and we got some good deals, but holy cow the lines were ridiculous!!! People are NUTS! We missed out on the $246 32” HD LCD television as well arrived just as the doors were opening at Target and they were all gone by the time we got into the store. We still got good deals, I’m pretty happy with our take. We also got our very first big Christmas tree and filed our LLC paperwork with the corporation commission downtown on Friday. We had a FULL DAY! We were up at 4:30 am and didn’t go to bed until after 11…crazy!! On Saturday morning we hung out in the garage and worked on the Baby Armoire we got off Craigslist to reinforce it so it isn’t a “baby death trap”! It looks great now and just needs the doors put back on and the false back nailed back on. Hopefully Bob will get to that this week so we can scratch it off the to do list! We decorated the tree Saturday night and it looks really nice! Jen came over to have some pie and pick up her Christmas decorations. Her new boyfriend came over and we finally got to meet him and chat briefly. I think we are doing picture Christmas cards this year with prego me and Bob and the kitties in front of our cool tree

Overall, the weekend was just amazing, we got a ton accomplished but most importantly we got to spend a ton of time together, which I know that I absolutely loved. I can’t wait to be back home with my amazing husband, but I think the time apart has made me really appreciate how lucky I am in so many ways.

Ok, time for bed, not overly exhausted this Monday night since I got to sleep until 7:30 this morning and Bob actually wanted to go to bed at a decent hour last night! (Oh, and my Vikings are 10-1…I think things are DEFINITELY looking UP!!)