Anyway, so I should be getting back to bed, but I realised I hadn't updated, and wanted to. The thunder is pretty loud so if it wakes someone I'll have to finish this tomorrow.
So, my scan actually ARRIVED!!! So surreal! :) I forgot to drink much beforehand, so when the scan started, the sonographer said that my bladder wasn't very full and the baby wasn't in the best position for measuring. After a few minutes of seeing my tiny one (no glimpses of the nub, even!), she sent me out for 15-20 minutes to drink some more and see if my bladder filled a bit more.
Before the scan, driving to the hospital, I became irrationally nervous because I realised I hadn't felt the baby move for 3 or 4 days. I have marked little footprints on my chart on days where I felt the baby move, and I haven't had more than 2 days without one since starting to feel movements weeks ago. So I started to get nervous, and wished that I had had time to use my Doppler that morning for peace of mind. I was praying about it as I drove, and thought that the upside was that if my baby was alive and well, and had a boy nub, I would be 100% rejoicing that he was alive and well, NOT focusing on the fact that it was another boy! ;) I definitely was longing for a girl nub sighting, you know? I feel bad admitting it, and you know I would absolutely adore having a seventh boy (I mean, HOW blessed?!?!), but with my sort of "hunch" about the baby being a girl (or wishful thinking?!), I have rather latched onto the idea of a sister for my only daughter, and another baby girl to delight in for us ALL, and the fact that all the boys are hoping it's a girl, and Neil has said how nice it would be if this baby is a girl, and HOW I would love to use the phrase, "My girls." *heart swell* :)
But the one thing I really didn't want was to feel disappointment over that sweet little angled nub, if that's what I saw in the end. REALLY didn't. It felt so wrong to have ANY disappointment over a gift - a true gift - from God himself! So I prayed. And I was breathless with excitement and anticipation by the time I went in for my scan!
When she started the scan, the sonographer said that she would have a quick look for herself for a moment, and then if all was well, she would switch my screen on so I could watch. I don't think I drew breath in those few seconds before she said, "Little heart ticking away there!" Aaannnd relax! :) Then I was back with the focus of spotting that nub! So, like I said, I saw no sign of a nub in the first few minutes. When I came back, the baby was still in the same awkward position, but the sonographer said my bladder was a little bit more full so the visibility was better, and she might have to send me out again if the baby didn't change position, but she got on with the scan all the same.
The baby was lying on its back sort of up the side of the sac, with its bottom up at the top, lol! Little arms kept doing slow content movements up over the head and in front of the face. So sweet! The sonographer didn't want the little bottom up high because it made measuring the length of the baby (to date the pregnancy) more difficult. She wiggled the scan probe against my tummy over and over, and you could see the little one being jiggled about, but absolutely calm and laid-back, didn't move at ALL, other than the odd stretch, lol! Very laid-back baby, one of my most laid-back, I think. And possibly stubborn... which *certainly* isn't in the gene pool... :P
My eyes were straining, straaaaiiiining, for any sign of a nub. The first flash-through glimpse I got was of an angled (45 degree, pretty indisputable!) "thing" near the right area. I'm delighted that I didn't get a sinking heart feeling, I just thought, well that's that, then! :) I was really eager to get more views to confirm it, so I watched eagerly. I didn't get another view for a while, as the sonographer was also looking at the huge haematoma which is a big crescent shaped area around the gestational sac. It doesn't seem any smaller at all, but she said not to be too anxious about it, because it's almost all black on the scan now, which is the same as the amniotic fluid, and means it's liquefied. She said that it will do that before it reabsorbs, so I'm hopeful that it will now clear up. I am bleeding quite a lot at the moment, every day. It is all dark brown and more liquid (sorry!), so that concurs with what she found, and I'm hopeful that it means the haematoma is going to be reducing soon, with the bleeding out and the possible reabsorption. Anyway, it's still very large for now, but apparently not bothering the baby! :)
THEN I saw a great profile shot. She said she would print it out for my picture (ONE PICTURE FOR £5!!!!!), and pointed out the little hand near the baby's tummy, and then sort of cross-sectioned through the baby a little bit to show me the other hand up and over the baby's head, and THAT'S when I saw the nub really clearly. Not the 45 degree thing I had seen before (she showed me the umbilical cord going down and then under the baby's legs round the bottom), but a flat white line with no angle - NO ANGLE, people!!!! I almost gasped, but managed not to because I would have looked odd, since I don't think she had any idea, lol! The only thing was that it was slightly awkward being sure of that non-angle, because of the baby's bottom being tilted up the side of the sac - I sort of had to twist my head to see it right - and also, I had Lydia's VERY clear nub etched in my mind's eye, and this one was more grainy as an image, and not as clear or very obvious as Lydia's was. So it made me second-guess now and then as I watched. But every time I saw it, there was no angle! Definitely a flat nub. Forked at the end, and I couldn't remember if that meant anything boyish, but there was no denying it was a girly nub, and I could hardly breathe for excitement and disbelief thinking that I was 13 weeks and 3 days, looking at a girly nub - almost a certainty that this baby was a girl!
But TWO girls in a row?!! After six boys in a row?!! Could it possibly even BE?!!!
So I still do, somehow, have this disbelief thing going on! ;) The sonographer was very kind and gave me THREE pictures! :) She put two behind the first one and said not to show them! There was a moment where the baby put a little hand in front of its (I can't bring myself to say "her" quite yet - have to wait for that gender scan!) face, and I said, "Awww, so sweet!" So she printed me one of that too. :) The images were more grainy and zoomed in than some of my previous scans at my old hospital, and it turned out that NONE of the three pictures gave a very good view of the nub, but here they are anyway. Little monkey stayed with bottom up in the air most of the time, despite me turning onto my left side for a minute, and then back, and then my right side for a minute, etc. And all the jiggling with the probe! ;) There was a slightly flatter position for a moment and the sonographer used that time to measure the length, which was 71.something millimetres, and thus a gestation of 13 weeks and 2 days. I said I was sure I was 13 weeks and 3 days, and she said that was pretty much what the scan showed, but that they will go with a due date based on the scan rather than my dates from now on. Which is January 5th - my great-grandmother's 119th birthday. :) If it IS a girl and she's born on her due date, it would be so sweet to name her Emma (my great-grandmother's name), but I don't think we would, as Neil's sister has two daughters called Ella and Emily, and I can just see my lips tripping over each other at family gatherings and calling for Emmallamily to hold Elimma's hand or something. :P
Anyway, I am sticking to my ovulation based due date of Jan 4th. The previous hospital used to only change the due date if it was outside of 2 days from your original date. I am okay with them *thinking* I'm due on the 5th though, because it gives me an extra day to go past my due date! :)
Here are the pics of my sweet treasure-baby!
Little hand over face!...
The third photo is the position that the baby finally got into (hardly much change, but enough!) to measure the length.
So, the nub in the first photo is hard to see, but I *think* it is that little button-y thing poking out between the buttocks. Not 100% sure though. If it is, it's a girl, pointing down and out like that. :)
The second photo has a pretty good view of the nub, but none of them are as good as Lydia's white stick of a nub - really really visible in those pictures at that link there! :) Anyway, the second photo above shows a little white line near the lowest part of the tummy with a little white "forked" pair of lines at the end of it, and that is definitely the nub. Since the lines are all pointing off towards the legs, I am really hopeful that it means GIRL! :) The third photo doesn't show the end of the nub, but you can see a white line (maybe slight fork further down it) parallel to the spine, pretty much. If it's a girl it should be parallel to the spine. Any angling up means boy, generally. I really did not see the slightest bit of angling on this baby's nub, and because of my experience last time, I am hesitantly very confident that I'm having another GIIIIIRRRRL!!! I can't believe it, but I know (again from experience!) that it will sink in! I can't wait for my next scan to confirm it. It is booked for August 21st, when I will be 20.5 weeks. Cannot WAIT! I want to yell, "AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHH!!!! IT'S A GIIIIIRRRRLLLLL!!!!" again, and plan names and pinkness, and squeal a lot with 100% confidence, etc! But I am honestly so confident from what I saw. I posted the pics at ingender, of course (before even updating Facebook, haha!) and have had no boy guesses. I even had one of the experts respond, saying girl! :) Yay, yay, yaaaay!
I absolutely squealed in the car on the way home, lol! And I stopped off - I just HAD to - at the shopping centre near home, to buy myself a yummy sandwich and Belgian bun, try on some clothes (haven't had the chance to do that for YEARS!), and nip into Tesco, where I found myself *uncontrollably* buying sparkly nail polish and a newborn-sized sleepsuit that I passed and HAD to have, with "Little Sister" in silver lettering on the front! I know I am a crazy woman (this is one of the things you love most about me, right?! :P ), but who cares - it was only £5 and, as I said to Neil afterwards, I will gift it, return it, or stroke it longingly on a daily basis, if this baby does turn out to be a boy, ha! ;)
Neil was not with me for the scan, for the first time EVER at a regular scan, because we had nobody to watch the children, and even if we found someone to watch them, Lydia is absolutely inconsolable at this age with anyone outside of family. Some of our other toddlers have been like that, but where we used to live, they didn't have a policy about children in the scan rooms, so we always took our youngest (sometimes several youngest!) with us. This hospital, as well as being stingy with the photos (though the actual sonographer was very sweet and generous!), have an absolute rule of NO CHILDREN in the scan room, and "only one person to accompany the patient"!!! Tsk. So we are stuck. I really hate for Neil to miss these scans, because although he's not very connected to the babies when I'm pregnant, and thus doesn't mind missing them, that's the very reason I WANT him to be there, because it's a rare opportunity for him to actually CONNECT and maybe feel something towards the baby, or the pregnancy in general. :( There's only one scan left, and I am hoping (planning?!) to be able to find someone to watch the children, including Lydia, who I really hope will not be 100% miserable or difficult for whoever is watching them, so that Neil can be with me to see our little one, and find out for sure what we are having. It was weird getting home and him having to ask what I thought the baby was, and then saying, "Really?!!" when I said I thought it was a girl. I feel sad that we didn't get to see, talk about, and process together at the time. Also I was accosted by boys asking, "Did you see the nub?!!" and "Is it a girl?!! I feel SURE it's a girl!! Is it, is it?!!" as I was still closing the front door, let alone having had a moment to privately tell the baby's own daddy! Sweet that they are so excited and eager, but I felt a bit sad that it wasn't BOTH parents' experience, that's all.
So, I told the boys that it looks very much like another girl, but that we HAVE to wait until the next scan. I wondered if I should say, because their hopes are UP - they've been longing for another sister, and what if I'm wrong and it's a boy?! What damage will I have done by telling them?! But honestly, the nub was so obviously a girly one... I waited until the "expert" at ingender said girl, and then I told them. I don't think Arthur, Matthew or Nathan could have stood waiting even a day, let alone until the next scan! Arthur was ready to grab the pictures and study the angle of the nub himself, lol! He knows all about these things! ;) So I showed them the sleepsuit and they were so excited. :) I told them it COULD still be a boy, and we must wait and see at the next scan to be sure. I really don't think it's a boy though... :)
I am still feeling sick, but I think there's definite "lifting" of the heaviness of the nausea in the last few days. I'm nearly 14 weeks now, and sometimes I have had another 8-10 weeks of morning sickness yet (aaargghh!), but in all my pregnancies that have had nausea beyond 14 weeks, that mark is always a point of the intensity of the nausea becoming way more manageable, even if it goes on for a while. Nearly there!!! :) Lydia's was gone around 15 weeks.
It's REALLY late now so I am going back to bed. If I think of anything I have missed, I will update again! :)