It's a what?

So on Friday, we made the trek to Raleigh for our very first ultrasound. Prior to the ultrasound, we had an appointment for genetic counseling. During that, the lady wrote down all our immediate family members and everything that is wrong with them. Mine only took 5 minutes. Allen's took 5 years. He has a lot of siblings and his family has A LOT of health problems. So we discussed the health issues and focused mainly on the heart issues. In the end, the lady said Allen could get a chromosome test done which would help determine if maybe there was a chromosome missing or something like that. When she started talking about scientific stuff, I started counting the ceiling tiles. Anyway, either way, the end result would be me having to get an amniocentesis. If you know about those, you know they use a really long needle to stick in your belly to pull out some of the amniotic fluid. First of all, that long needle seems pretty scary. Second, and most important, there is a 1 in 300 chance having an amniocentesis done can kill the baby. So Allen and I had already discussed having this and decided that we would not do this under any circumstance.

Because of the detailed ultrasound were getting, we were told we could probably find out then if there were any major heart problems, like if a chamber was missing or if it wasn't beating right so we decided to just rely on that and cross our fingers the baby is okay. Honestly, if I found out something was wrong, I'd spend the next 5 months worrying about it, which isn't good for the baby. And really, what can we do about it if something is wrong? So, we're leaving it in God's hands.

The ultrasound came next and it was an interesting experience. They put this gel stuff on your belly and move this wand all around it and you can see the baby. It was moving all around and bouncing all over the place. I had drank a cup of very strong coffee with lots of caffeine to ensure the baby moved a lot so we could tell what it was. It worked!! The heart was beating perfectly and everything was there that was supposed to be. The ultrasound tech measured all his body parts and said he looked perfectly normal. What an amazing experience, to actually see our little baby moving around, dancing and waving and sucking his/her thumb. It was very emotional and it was hard not to cry but I managed to be strong and not shed a tear.

The ultrasound took forever it seemed like and once they got the technical stuff out of the way, they asked if we wanted to know what it was. Of course we did!!! So she went scoping out "down there" and what do you know, found the private area of a little boy. Yep, it's a little boy. Allen and I were truly shocked!

Originally, we had said it was a boy but later, we started to get this weird instinctual feeling it was a girl. We felt pretty strongly about it too. So to see our little boy's weenie pop up on that screen was a shock! A good shock but a shock!

Though we truly didn't care what we were having, we were happy about our little boy. He was beautiful, even if I didn't really get to fully see all his features. I know he will be perfect.

Corbin Nicholas Clark. That's the name we had decided on for our little boy years ago and amazingly, when we found out we were having a little boy, it's the name we still want to use. So little Corbin will be born in just 5 more months! Time is flying by so fast!

In 5 more weeks, we'll have to go back to Raleigh for another ultrasound. I'll be 23 weeks then so they want to check his heart out again just to be sure. I can't wait to see my little baby bouncing around again! It was the best feeling in the whole world. I feel so blessed right now and I am so thankful that God has given us this precious gift!