The Day Our Lives Changed

April 15, 2009 - I wrote this so that I would never forget.

We woke to an incredibly sun-shiny day and hoped that the beautiful weather would foreshadow good things for our big anatomy scan today. At 8:00am, we boarded the Yahoo and headed to Timmies to grab a decaf coffee and a tea biscuit for the road. Battling bumper to bumper traffic led us to take a slight detour and head North a little earlier than we normally would have. We had loads of time, so it was okay.
We arrived in Toronto at 9:00 and headed to the hospital where we had a 9:15 appointment to pre-register for our impending birth. Paperwork filled out and information given, we then headed to a little café where K2 could grab a coffee and a western sandwich before heading up for our appointment at 10:00.
At 9:55, we entered the doctor's office and were promptly taken into the ultrasound room with a sonographer who did our last ultrasound. She's a fairly quiet sonographer, so I knew we wouldn't have much conversation during the hour she was working on me. She goobed me up with the doppler gel and began to scan my abdomen quite fervently. I could only see a corner of the monitor, but K2 had full view. Afterward, he told me he had no idea what he was looking at most of the time. About ten minutes into the scan, I felt brave enough to ask her if everything looked okay. She assured me that everything looked great and that Baby B (our girl) was being evasive. I could see the four chambers of each of their hearts, I could see blood flow through the liver and the heart and I could make out the length of the femur on both babies as she was doing it. I could also see the hemispheres of each brain, which was very cool.
After about 45 minutes, she turned the screen toward me and began to show me a better view of some of the anatomy she had been scanning. It was incredible to see the hearts beating so well and to see their little hands, legs and feet. Absolutely incredible.
She then asked if we were ready to know the genders (we had asked to know when we first entered the room). We both nodded and she said, "This baby is a boy and this one is a girl". Instinctively, I shot my arms up over my head in a "yahoo" type of rah rah (I don't know why) and I said, "NO WAY!"
It turns out that Baby B (whom we had been calling "Pea" all this time) is actually our GIRL and Baby A (whom we had been calling "Chick" all this time) is actually our BOY! She said that they label the babies according to who is closest to the cervix. Our boy is head down with his feet up near my left breast and our girl is head down with her feet up near my right breast. Our boy would be born first if they stayed in this position (which is unlikely, I assume).*
Our girl is measuring right on target and our boy is measuring about a week ahead! He's a big boy for his age (thank you M&Ms, Mike & Ikes, and all that Easter goodness that was so yummy).**
The sonographer then did an internal ultrasound to check my cervix. She said that it looked good and we were then sent out to the waiting room to wait for our doctor's appointment.
Needless to say, we were all smiles in the waiting room. None of this is lost on us. Not one single moment. We looked around at all the other expectant parents (some of whom were visibly upset at having to wait an hour to be seen) and thought about how lucky we were. We didn't even notice the hour go by, as we were too busy smiling and talking about our boy and our girl. Incredible.
Finally, the doctor called my name and we followed him into the examination room. He said that there was a minor concern about my cervix in that it had a dimple. I don't know what this means and I have no idea why we didn't think to ASK him what this meant, but he said that he was likely being paranoid, but would rather be safe than sorry and said that he wants a recheck of it in two weeks. To ease my mind, he added that my cervix was still nice and long, so that made me feel better. I tend to fixate on the negative, but I am trying my hardest to focus on the fact that he wants to monitor it closely instead of thinking it might turn into something horrible. He assured me that I did not have to alter my life in any way (yet) and even when I told him that I stand all day at my job, he said it was fine. He took my blood pressure (I have no idea what it was), weighed me (20 pounds gained), and then I was given my next appointment date.
We went out for lunch and called our parents to break the good news. It was fun calling them and hearing their squeals of delight. I still can't believe it.
Wow. A girl and a boy. Finally a family, for sure.

* Our little Pea flipped once during the pregnancy, but by delivery time he was back to being head down and he was born first.
** He's still HUGE for his age!