So yesterday was the big appointment with Dr. S, the Maternal/Fetal Specialist – the mega ultra-sound where they took inventory of all the important parts (are there any unimportant parts?) and determined if Bean measured up the way they would expect.  Turns out, everything looked great!

When we got to the appointment, I knew we were in for it.  We arrived just before 3:00 for our appointment, which was scheduled for 3PM.  As I signed my name on the check-in sheet, I noticed that the name above mine had not yet been crossed off, and her appointment time was listed at 2:00pm!  And while I glanced around the waiting room and observed a pregnant woman camped out reading magazines on the loveseat along with her husband sprawled out sleeping and snoring loudly on the bench, I knew that we weren’t getting called back anytime soon.  One of the greatest injustices of this arrangement was the request sent forth in the introductory letter asking me to show up with a full bladder.  Now, for anyone who has not been pregnant, let me just tell you that it is cruel to ask a pregnant woman to show up for an appointment having just downed 24 fluid ounces and then make her wait for endless minutes with said full bladder.  Finally, at about 3:30, I told Marc that I couldn’t hold out…I had to find the restroom.   When the ultra-sound technician finally called us back, I sheepishly informed her that I hadn’t been able to hold up my end of the no pee-pee deal, taking great care to let her know that “with the long wait” I wasn’t able to abstain.  Thankfully, it wasn’t an issue, and she was apologetic about the delay.

Once the u/s tech got me all lubed up — than heavens for the gel warmer I spied on the counter — we were off to the races.  As she ran the probe over my belly, we could see Bean on the screen.  It was amazing!  The last time we saw Bean, we were looking at an embryo about the size of a skittle with a fetal pole and a yolk sac.  Yesterday, we saw a baby that actually looked human!  An arm here…a butt there…eyes, nose, mouth and chin.  **GENDER SPOILER ALERT**  And when she got the probe just right, we got visual confirmation coupled with technician/baby mama/baby daddy dialogue that went something like this:

Tech:  Now you guys have already been told the sex?

BM/BD:  No, we don’t know yet!

Tech:  Well, I don’t know if I’ll be able to tell, but I’ll see if I can find it.  (Searching)  Ah!  Okay…now you should be able to tell me.  What do you think it is?  Think of it like the baby is sitting on a copy machine.

BM/BD:  It’s a boy, isn’t it?

Tech:  Yes!!

BD:  Are you completely certain?

Tech:  Yeah…about 99.9% certain.

BD:  Oh my gosh…we have a Max!!!  (High-fives Baby Mama)

And that’s how it went down.  In a quick second, Bean went from a he/she or him/her to a boy…our little guy.  It’s still so crazy to know for sure that Bean is a he! 

As far as the rest of the findings, the doctor was happy to report that everything looked normal.  All of Bean’s measurements came back in the appropriate range for his gestational age, and he ended up measuring just a tad bigger than how far along I am currently — 19.6 weeks, compared to 18.7 weeks.  And he weighs in at a whopping 10.9 ounces!  I can hardly believe that this little fella who was only about 6 millimeters crown to rump the first time we saw him is now about 7.5 inches just twelve weeks later.  The specialist said that based on the findings yesterday, there isn’t a need to see us again.  So from here on out…it should just be routine visits with Dr. L, the OB/GYN.

It’s funny — I’ve had a few dreams about Bean in the past, which usually involve Marc and I finding out the baby’s gender.  But last night, I had a dream where Bean was here (albeit a little early), and we already knew he was a boy.  No great unveiling of the gender, no big surprise.  The funny part was that we were at my parents’ house, and my mom kept asking us if we had done things like change Bean’s diaper or breastfed the baby.  Each time, our response was something along the lines of, “Oh crap!  No we haven’t!”  Then we would scramble to do what it was that we had forgotten and amazingly enough, every time, it all worked out.  Like we had done it all before.  I woke up this morning feeling good about things — looking forward to the changes to come and thinking “yes, we will probably spaz out about things and forget things and generally not know what in the hell we’re doing, but it will be okay.”  It will all be okay.