19 week (ish) ultrasound -- sans baby "bits"

This morning we received a text from "M" that she was done with her ultrasound so I called and we talked for about 15-20 minutes.  It was about 5 am so I was about half asleep, but was super happy to learn that everything looked good.  Once again, baby was very active and it took over an hour to get all the measurements. At one point they saw our little 10-ounce miracle put its hand in its mouth, and open and close one hand!  I'm picturing one thumb in the mouth and the other four fingers waving around yelling "look at me...look at me! suckers!!!" Heart rate was 149.

All the photos she sent were appropriately cropped or chosen to not include any "baby bits", so again happy to hear that they were able to identify the gender.  She said it was very clear from the ultrasound.  So of course I'm picturing a spread-eagle, thumb in mouth, wiggling fingers and saying "here I am!! hahaha!!"

Sorry, bad baby humor.

Here are some photos...they are photos of the scans so once she has a chance to scan them I'll try to re-post if they are more clear.  Bill said looking at these is "similar to looking at clouds and finding animal shapes"..."hmmm...is that a snake???"

More bad baby humor.

All humor aside, we're so grateful.  These are the first photos of our baby that actually LOOK like a baby.  I see a nose, lips, a formed head and a cute little chin, an arm, and a full belly.  I know we have another month or so until things truly are OK, but this is our precious little baby living and growing in our surrogate!  Created by two sets of DNA that just happened to meet up in the right place, at the right time, under the right circumstances.  This was our 10th attempt and things are looking so, so good. We are just hoping and praying for an uneventful four months so that come around May we can finally meet this miracle that we've been working so hard for over the past few years.  Whilst in the throes of us trying to conceive I could never really see this day very clear, where we would be looking at a BABY, like you see in the pictures below.  It was almost constantly overshadowed by ovulation dates, and fertility drugs, and airplane reservations and beta counts and taking a multitude of vitamins and supplements, and then the preoccupation with the fact that it was just taking so darn long!  But finally it seems the dust is settling, and things should be clearer from here on out (until May anyway, after that all bets are off!).  But if someone would have told me almost three years ago that it would have taken this long I am pretty sure we wouldn't have moved forward.  And now here we are. Yes, we have more wrinkles and lines on our faces.  We have spent a lot of money.  We've argued.  Cried.  At times we've been resentful and angry.  And I am not completely sure what exactly made us continue to move forward, and take the next step after each devastating failure, but I am pretty sure that this little boy or girl had something to do with it.  All the wrinkles and lines, money, arguments, tears, anger and resentment are finally melting away.  And it feels amazing.

Enjoy the photos!

Three days until the Big Baby Gender Reveal!

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