Ultra Sound #2

Warning: Very long, ranting post ahead!

The post is now amended to have the picture attached. I think this is clearer than the last one. If you're still having trouble seeing the baby in this one, let me know.

Aside from having the world's worst ultra sound tech, everything went well. As you know, I've been concerned about my lack of weight gain and the fact that I'm 18 weeks pregnant and still not obviously pregnant to the casual observer. I thought maybe there was something wrong and that the baby wasn't developing on schedule.

Well, by my calculations I was 18 weeks and 2 days pregnant yesterday. According to the ultra sound the baby is measuring 18 weeks, 1 day. You can't get much better than that! Everything seems to be as it should be. We were even able to see the baby's tongue wiggling around inside the mouth. That was amazing.

The tech however was not so amazing. My appointment was at 3:30. I had consumed insane amounts of water in preparation for the test, and was starting to be very uncomfortable. The tech didn't come get me until 3:40 and then when we got into the exam room, she didn't have all the files she needed, so she wasted more time by going to get those.

They usually do the exam in two parts, one with just me in the room and they call Nick in for the second. I had four ultra sounds with Darcy and one so far with this pregnancy. At each of those appointments I have been able to look at the screen right from the start and see the baby. Yesterday the tech turned the screen away from me. The only time I've heard of this happening is when there's something wrong with the baby. I was already going into the exam with the mindset that something could be wrong, so this freaked me out! She also didn't say a word to me through this whole process which seemed scary too.

After the first part they let you go to the bathroom. At every other ultra sound this is when they've called Nick in to join us. Before sending me to the bathroom she asked me if I had anyone there with me and I told her I did. When I came back, there was no Nick. I asked her what the deal was and she said that she was just getting started and he would be called in later. I had already been there for half an hour and that's usually how long the whole thing takes.

All in all, we were there for an hour. She finally called Nick in at 4:15, pretty much after he'd given up hope of ever getting to see anything. Once Nick was in the room she got all animated and told us how healthy the baby was, how active, blah blah blah. At 4:25 (I had told the babysitter I would pick Darcy up by 4:30 and was a half hour drive away) she finished up but told us to wait around while she checked to see if she had everything she needed. Another 5 minutes go by and she returns to tell us everything is fine.

The one day the babysitter has ever asked us to pick up Darcy early and I get stuck with the ultra sound technician who doesn't know what she's doing! Needless to say I was very late getting Darcy, but there was another Mom getting there at the same time so I didn't feel quite so badly about it. Of course I got every red light between downtown and the babysitter's house, and got stuck behind both a city bus and a school bus at different times on the drive out there too, which had made me even later. I wasn't at all stressed by the time I got there...

It was an incredibly frustrating day, but really in the end it was worth it all because we found out the baby is healthy and growing well.