Thursday, March 09, 2006

Drumroll Please.......

What a rotten morning for me to be sick. What a doubly rotten morning for a blizzard.

Regardless...

Renn and I woke up this morning and we both seemed to feel unsure of how we felt or how we were supposed to feel about this big day. My uncertainty quickly gave way to relief that I was not trying to drive in the horizontal blizzard outside, and then that gave way to a tsunami of nausea. I hate mornings. I unapologetically hate mornings.

But Renn is a trooper, so we piled into his truck regardless of both blizzard and nausea and headed to the hospital. We barely made it on time, but we still beat nearly every doctor who works at the hospital there. We had a quick visit with my OB/GYN who was happy to see I had gained a few pounds back, then we were sent to the Ultrasound department.

I got a happy surprise there. One of my parents' good friends from vet-school days was working as a receptionist. (Rosemary) We got a good little visit in and I finally got to have a small-world experience instead of Renn (he runs into people he knows absolutely everywhere). After a while they gave up on waiting for a doctor (traffic/blizzard) so they just let us go ahead and start since a technician was ready. On the bright side they did have a warmer for their containers of ultrasound goop, so I didn't get cold goop shock. On the down side they doused me with so much ultrasound goop that I was certain I was being marinated for a barbecue.

The technician seemed to love her job and kept telling us we had a beautiful baby to ultrasound.... is that the sort of thing she tells everyone? Without skipping a beat or building up any suspense she told us we are having a boy. A definite boy. I think I needed a minute to process that, but I didn't get it. She worked very quickly and I didn't dare blink. The baby was happy to oblige her and take the optimal positions for checking all the vital organs, except for the kidneys. She had to do some semi-violent poking of my tummy to get the baby in position for a kidney check. I wouldn't dare poke my tummy that hard, but it's good to know it didn't seem to hurt (the baby at least, it was plenty uncomfortable for me...)

After a while of still no doctor she started stalling, so we got to do a bit of a search for all the fingers and toes. Then she covered me up with a towel and went to see what was taking so long. I laid there all goopy and had a deep and meaningful conversation with Mr. Renn. I can't remember a word of it - blame it on the pregnant brain. We finally did get a doctor in, and he checked all the pictures the technician had taken and then decided he needed to check a few more things, so the towel came off and more goop went on and I went from being just goopy to being positively slimey. Blood flow/circulation checked out okay. In fact all signs point to us having a perfectly healthy baby (hopefully a medium-sized one... the thought of a 9 lb baby makes me shudder). The doctor then abruptly left, telling us to have a good day. We sat there a little bewildered in the dimly lit room.

"So, we're done?" Nobody had really told us we were finished, or that we could begin the process of de-gooping. We waited a few more minutes to see if any other hurried persons decided to check in on us, and then we started cleaning up.

Cleaning up a swamp of transparent goo from your abdomen in poor lighting with an already soggy towel is much trickier than it sounds. Mr. Renn was a good sport and found both paper towels and a light switch and then we were in business. I hope all the goo will wash out of my clothes, because I missed a bunch. We were both a little dazed. The whole thing just happened so fast!

Mr. Renn took me out to breakfast (because I needed to attempt breakfast again) and then we tried to decide how and when to tell all the people who had said "you'd better call me when you find out......"
My mom called us before we had a chance to decide who had to call her.... and I'm pretty much making Mr. Renn handle the rest. I sent an email out earlier to everyone I could think of who would want to know..... so other than the dreaded task of telling my little sister she will not be getting a niece anytime soon, we are in the green.

And I am exhausted.

4 comments:

--jeff * said...

from my personal experience, i know that sisters are especially awesome, but my experience only deals in little sisters. boys do make good firstborns, which i also know from experience.
congratulations to the growing flinders family [what vegetable size are you up to?], and thank you for exposing another secret of pregnancy. that goo has always seemed weird to me.

next, have a girl.

Anonymous said...

Congratulations Emily! I was so excited to find out what you were having! Everyone is having boys! I know at least 10 people who have had boys this year and know 3 that have had girls. Maybe there is a shortage on boys? It seriously is so fun having a boy! I was a little shocked when I found out we were having a boy, but he has been so much fun! You will be a wonderful mom! I am glad you little guy is a healthy one! Congrats again!:)

hairyshoefairy said...

Hooray for you! You can start really shopping and planning now. Have I mentioned how jealous I am that you know already and I don't?! Congrats! That's so exciting! For my first one in Dec. I was about a breath away from throwing up all the water I drank for the ultrasound. The desk lady told me if I did the ultrasound couldn't be done so I did my best and managed to keep it down long enough for the experience. Not really pleasant, especially when someone is jabbing your tummy. I'm so sad you're still not really feeling well. :( I just wish there was something I could do, but sadly, I know there isn't much. If I lived close to you I'd bring you some happy scrapbooking goodies as a congrats gift.

Em said...

We appear to have graduated from vegetable sizes... now I am just told..."Your baby now weighs about three-quarters of a pound and is approximately 10 1/2 inches long"

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...