It's a Boy!!!

Jared and I had our 16.5 week ultrasound today. My doctor told me they would look to see if they could tell what the gender was today, but babies don't always cooperate. I had pretty high hopes that our baby would cooperate and allow us to find out the gender. I of course have been dying to go out and buy the baby's first outfit....not to mention am ready to begin decorating the baby room.

Well, we got to my appointment at 1:45pm....I am always early in hopes they can squeeze me in the minute I get there. Can you tell I am anxious? My appointment was scheduled for 2pm. After checking in, we were told that the ultrasounds were running a bit behind today so to just take a seat and they would be with us shortly. Finally at 2:45pm they called us back to get started. I was also scheduled for a cervical measurement today and it just so happened the ultrasound tech was someone I hadn't met prior to today. I told her we were super excited to find out the gender and she seemed somewhat surprised. As it turns out, they sorta messed up my appointment and for some reason didn't have me scheduled for the ultrasound today, but because my doctor likes me so well, they went ahead and gave the "go ahead". Well, the regular "on the belly" ultrasound showed the baby being super active but in a crouched position where they couldn't really tell the gender. But once they went in for the cervical measurement (which turned out to be a nice long measurement - which is what we are after), they did an ultrasound that way and were able to determine gender from that.

My ultrasound tech quickly asked if we intended to find out the gender....and I said oh yes, why can you already tell....she seemed very excited and pointed at the screen showing us that our baby was VERY DEFINITELY A BOY!!! The picture I am posting below isn't great and definitely not what we saw on the screen.....but team blue is now in effect! ;-)

It's a BOY!!!
After leaving the ultrasound room we were taken in to a much larger ultrasound room with a huge screen on the wall where they did another belly ultrasound. They then took measurements, etc. and determined that our baby boy was growing as expected and all his measurements were on target. Another lady came in after that who reviews the ultrasounds to just do another quick ultrasound view and go over her findings.

Apparently I have something called "Marginal Placenta Previa". If you have placenta previa, it means your placenta is lying unusually low in your uterus, next to or covering your cervix. The placenta is the pancake-shaped organ normally located near the top of the uterus that supplies your baby with nutrients through the umbilical cord. If the placenta covers the cervix completeley, it is called a complete or total previa. If it is right on the border of the cervix it is called "marginal previa". So having marginal previa is better than full on previa, so that is the good news. Placenta previa is not usually a problem early in pregnancy, but if it persists into later pregnancy it can cause bleeding which may require you to deliver early or lead to further complications. If you have placenta previa when you go to deliver your baby, you will be required to have a c-section. The chances are that the placenta will migrate farther away from my cervix as my pregnancy progresses and will no longer be a problem. Regardless, I was told not to worry too much, but basically I am not allowed to get involved in "extreme sports" at this stage of my pregnancy and I just need to monitor if there happens to be any bleeding or severe cramping.

In all honesty, having a unicornuate uterus (as I do) is much more of a concern than a bit of marginal previa, so I am not too worried, nor is my doctor, so that is great!

A full body view of our baby boy:
Jared and I are super excited to begin decorating, stay tuned for future blogs/photos!