First Perinatal Appointment

Tuesday was our first appointment with the Perinatal (High risk) Specialist. I must admit that I was nervous for this appointment. But it turns out there was no reason to be worried at all! Everything went great!

We were referred by my regular OB to go see the specialist for a level 2 ultrasound. We visited with the genetic counselor first. I thought that this visit was going to be kinda scary because they were going to inform us of anything and everything that could go wrong with a pregnancy and all the risks for abnormalities. I must admit that the conselor was very nice and informative, and let us know that we are at a very low risk for there to be any genetic/chromosomal abnormalities in our baby.

Once we had our conseling session, we got to the good stuff! Looking at our little baby!!! We met the Specialist Dr. G., who I really liked. I felt that he really cared about my case and asked me as many questions as I did him. He brought up some points that we hadn't thought about, which I really appreciated! He said that he had diagnosed a couple of CDH babies (which is the birth defect that I had), but that I was the first adult survivor that he had ever seen/met. Pretty crazy!! He said that I was meant to do something great in life because I was so lucky to be alive!! haha

We started our ultrasound, and we immediately saw the baby!! He showed us the brain with both the lobes. We saw the heart with the different ventricals, too. It was so exciting to see the baby this time looking like a "real" baby. The last time we saw the baby it teeny tiny and looked like a bean/jalapeno. So needless to say, it was super exciting and made it seem so much more real! We got to see the little arms and legs, and we could see the hands move up to the face and open and close. It looked like the baby was waving at us! It was really an experience. Kolby was so cute watching the screen and smiling!

Here's the profile with a little hand

Then came the time for the Dr. to ask us if we would like to know the sex of the baby...Let me give some background on this subject...

Kolby has been the one from day one and I was with him too at first that we didn't want to know what the baby is. As time has gone on, I have kinda wanted to know, but Kolby still wanted it to be a suprise. So to support him, I said if he didn't want to know, I didn't want to know either. Well, on the way to the appointment, I told Kolby that they were going to ask us if we wanted to know what the baby is. He tells me that he kinda wants to know but then again he doesn't. I told him "I don't care, I'm supporting whichever decision you want". So then he tells me "How about if we can see what it is on our own without them telling us, when they ask us if we want to know, we will tell them no, and we will just know on our own." I said that was fine, and the subject was left at that.

Fast forward and we are in the ultrasound, and the Dr. is showing us the legs, and Kolby is about an inch from the screen trying to "see for himself" what the baby is. I'm laying on the table and I don't see anything that resembles boy private parts in that region, so in my head I'm thinking it's gotta be a girl. Next, the Dr. asks us if we would like to know the sex of the baby. It was like someone else was in Kolby's body, when the Dr. asked us, Kolby spun around and practically yelled "YESSS!!! We want to know!" Then Kolby looked at me, and I just shook my head and laughed, and said "apparently we want to know". So we gave our final votes on the gender and Kolby stuck with his boy vote, and since I had seen nothing that resembled a penis, I voted girl. Then the Dr. showed us and said "there it is!" Kolby and I both just looked at the screen in silence. Neither of us could tell what we were looking at. The Dr. said "Do you see it?" Uhh, nooo... and he said......

"There's the penis!!!!"

So there you have it! We are supposed to be having a little boy! But the best news of the day is that he appears to be completely healthy and on track for growth. He weighed 6 oz., and we could see his little heart still beating away nice and strong! And all of his organs appeared to be where they were supposed to be. Praise God!!!

We go back in three weeks to look at the little guy again...and confirm that he's a boy!!!

Definitely looking forward to this long weekend with the family and some relaxing!