More reassurance

Our nuchal translucency exam was this morning, and things are looking good. We won't know anything for sure for about a week (not that any of the results from these things are "for sure") because they need to wait for the blood test results from the lab, but just based on the ultrasound measurements, things look normal.

This was by far the longest ultrasound we've had, and little Barack put on quite a show for us. ("Barack" is our temp name for the in-utero baby... there is a story, but it's not really worth going into. And no, there's zero chance that we'll actually name the baby Barack.) The first several measurements were easy to do, and we got to watch Barack kick its legs around a little and wave its hands. We even got a cool close-up of its foot. For the last few measurements, the baby absolutely refused to cooperate (though the tech did, eventually, manage to get them done). The ultrasound picture was almost where it needed to be when suddenly Barack flipped completely away in the wrong direction. I swear I saw it stick its tongue out at us over its shoulder as it turned away. The tech kept stopping to randomly prod my abdomen with the wand in an attempt to get the baby to move, and after the first few times, Barack honestly just seemed pissed off. I didn't think that you could recognize annoyance over ultrasound, but there it was. I believe that I had my first protective mother instinct right then, too, as I had to keep myself from turning to the tech and saying, "Dude! Leave him alone already!" For the rest of the time, the baby kept its hands protectively around its face, I believe in a fetus's attempt to stick its thumbs in its ears, wiggle its fingers, and say "Nah nah nah nah! Can't catch me!"

We have a friend who found out the sex of the baby at their NT scan, so we asked the tech if he could tell. My heart skipped a beat when he replied, "Yes, it's a boy" but he rather quickly followed it up with, "... or a girl. It's usually one or the other" and then told us it was too early to tell. So, we'll have to wait for the normal Level 2 ultrasound at 19 weeks. I don't think that I particularly want one gender over the other, but I have been having a strong feeling that it's a girl.