Finding Out Who Is In There…

Yesterday (16+5), we had our gender scan. The countdown had been absolutely immense! Both of us were tired of calling baby “Chip” or “they” as people often said “are you having more than one?!”

Out of the guesses people had made, it was a vast majority of girl guesses. Most of the “Old Wives Tales” told me “girl” as well, but I really do think a load of those are total rubbish. I mean, if you sleep on your left, it’s a girl? I’ve slept on my left all my life… Anyhow. I posted on ingender.com as they are the gender guessing experts, and everyone said girl. Amy has been pretty much convinced this baby is a girl since day one but I’ve been swaying back and forth between boy and girl. I have always had a bit of a girlie preference and I guess I was just very much aware of the 50/50 chance no matter what the guesses, wives tales and theories say.

Anyhow, so the day rolled around and we headed to Apeekaboo Imaging, which isn’t too far away from us. When we arrived, we were greeted by their lovely reception staff was told there would be a slight delay as babies were being “little pickles” today! We sat and chatted with the ladies about baby names, what gender we were hoping for, and she reassured us that we would 100% be finding out the sex of our baby today. They don’t rest until they get a good, clear view.

Before long, our time rolled around and we headed into the ultrasound room. One of the reasons we chose this clinic is because we had heard they give a very personal service, but also because their sonographer is a qualified midwife and medical professional, so can answer any medical questions too. That’s always a nice reassurance just in case something isn’t quite right.

Anyhow, we needn’t have worried. Everything was perfect with our little one. We saw their heart, lungs, spine, brain, arms, legs, fingers and toes. We got to watch the blood flow through the placenta and the umbilical cord and even got to watch baby swallowing amniotic fluid, which was just incredible. It was amazing to see someone so very small doing something that you imagine only full-grown humans do! We laughed, as I was laying with one hand behind my head and as soon as we saw Chip, we realised that they were laying in exactly the same position as I was!

16+5 The only thing that wasn’t quite right was that baby absolutely would not give up the goods! Chip was clearly asleep snuggled up to the placenta, so wasn’t giving anything away at all! I had to do some dancing around, rolling to either side and back again and coughing, but no bueno. Baby would NOT cooperate. So, just like our twelve week scan, we were sent off for a cold drink and some star jumps! The lady after me was taken in and I drank a can of diet coke, had a little dance and did a couple of starjumps, whilst willing baby to MOVE so that we could see who was in there.

Thankfully, when we went back in, baby had turned to a completely different position and seemed to be a bit more awake now as was moving around like crazy. And then… the moment we had been waiting for…

“You’re having a little girl!“

She then took us through the various anatomical parts of our little girl, making sure that we knew that her assessment was spot on. It was amazing to know so clearly that our baby is indeed a little girl and be reassured that “just not seeing a penis is not enough to say girl”. We saw girl bits! I had heard stories of sonographers saying “girl” just because they couldn’t see boy bits, which is just not enough when you’re me. So, actually being shown labia and having everything explained allowed us to be really secure in what we were being told.

We also got to have a “3d sneak peek” which was included in the scan price. Seeing our little one in 3D was decidedly strange, but amazing all of the same. I would have liked to have seen more of her face, but the little diva appeared to want to keep that covered at any cost! Definitely something we look forward to doing when she is a little bigger so we can see what our little lady actually looks like!

What I didn’t expect was my reaction. I knew I wanted a girl. What I didn’t realise was that being told our baby was a girl would lead to hysterical tears! I cried all the way out of the room, all the way down in the lift and most of the way to the bus stop. Amy had to tell the ladies on reception for us as I couldn’t say words! The receptionist downstairs in the building thought there was something wrong! But they were, of course, one hundred percent happy tears!

We phoned family and friends and let the Twitter and Facebook world know, me welling up every single time I thought about the fact that we were having a girl! We then headed off to the nearest shopping centre to buy our first dedicated “girl” things, now that we knew we were having a daughter! She does already have a name, which has been picked out basically since we started trying, but that’s top secret for now.

thingsandstuff When we got home, we put together all of the things that we have bought so far (some was bought for the baby that we lost) and wow… our little lady sure has a collection of things! It will be nice to not have to stick to neutral, although I’m sure we will be buying plenty of neutral stuff too as some of it is so pretty!

As an aside, I wanted to say thankyou to the team at Apeekaboo Imaging (http://www.apeekabooimaging.co.uk/), who were absolutely wonderful. After our experience at Baby Bond, I was worried that all private ultrasound clinics were like conveyor belts for mamas, but this place could not have been any different. Wonderful staff and so much care taken over every single person. I also loved that one of the ladies on the reception told us that they never refer to babies as “it” – always as “little people”, which I thought was lovely. I hate “it” when describing babies. We will definitely be returning for a 3D scan later in pregnancy. It was such a special experience.

So, that’s the next chapter in our adventure. We now know that our little Chip is a little Princess and couldn’t be happier! We can’t wait for what the coming months hold, and with only twenty-three weeks or so until we meet her, things are starting to get VERY real VERY quickly! I can’t wait for the next steps!