Shannon had another doctor’s appointment yesterday. It was a very big day at the Minninger household. She had an ultrasound to check the baby’s progress and to see if we could tell the sex of the baby. We also got the results back from her “quad screen” blood work.
I hadn’t slept very well the night before. I couldn’t stop worrying about the test results and the ultrasound. Up until this point, it was all still new and exciting. Shannon was pregnant, but it was too early to worry about major problems. That all changed when they drew blood last week to test for birth defects. I had done a pretty good job avoiding websites, articles and discussions about issues that can occur during pregnancy.
I remember when Shannon first told me she was going to have a baby. I scoured the internet looking for information about pregnancy. Within 30 minutes I was practically paralyzed with fear. “Does anyone ever have a healthy baby with no complications?” I asked myself. The statistics and facts are too much. 1 in 5 babies this. 1in 200 babies that. 1 out of every 2 babies explode when the father holds them for the first time.
Now fast forward to Thursday morning…
Shannon is on the exam table and her belly is greased up like a baby pig at the county fair. The ultra-stenographer (yet another word I have learned in this journey) is running the ultrasound wand back and forth across my wife’s abdomen. Shannon, Shannon’s Mom, Shannon’s sister Donna, my Mom, my Dad and I are all looking intently at this flickering black and white screen.
The ultra-stenographer is politely pointing out body parts and taking measurements. “This is this…this is that…this would be the whatever” she says. Everyone but me is oohing and aaahing. “Alright, I’ll give you the head, but I don’t make out anything else” I think to myself. “Just say that it looks fine and healthy”
“It’s a boy” she says pointing to a little spot on the screen. (I mean HUGE spot on the screen) “Wait! What!” did she say boy? I’ll be honest, I couldn’t tell anything from that screen, but I didn’t want to be the only one. It’s like those trick paintings they sell at the mall. You know the ones with the picture inside of a picture. I can’t ever see those either.
A few minutes later we met with the doctor. He said that everything was fine. So far there are no indications we are having anything other than a healthy baby boy. He did move the due date up a little to December 4th.
Now all we need to do is come up with a name…
1 comment:
What an amazing experience it was to take part in the ultrasound appointment! We're still getting used to this era of information-overload!
When we were having babies, our appointments consisted of being weighed and having a blood pressure check---and, oh yeah, the urine specimen taken every month. That all being routine and satisfactory, the doctor would pat us on the hand and say, "See you next month.", until the very end when we might go every week until the big day.
Our untrained eyes could not idenitfy all those details the tech was pointing out and measuring but we did see a beating heart and a little foot flit across the screen.
While she collected extensive data, I noticed that I had stopped breathing and was beginning to sense a pre-explosive state overtaking my head. Was she never going to get to the purpose of the scan?...what IS this precious and very busy little being?
Finally, Shannon, interrupted the litany of details involving identification of blurry parts with a question. "Can you tell what it is?" We almost missed the answer when the tech said, "Oh yeah, I figured that out a long time ago."
Did she say, "Boy"? While most of us had no strong preference, we all seemed to be thinking pink. It took a couple of minutes to sink in.
Difinitive news coupled with such great reports about the health of mother and baby almost overwhelmed us with joy. When we were told that the due date was being moved up a week---what we had was a Red Letter Day!
Now, Art and I are looking forward to grandson number FIVE---enough for a basketball team!
Gigi Minninger
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