First glimpses of Baby!

While the first positive pregnancy test, and all subsequent ones I took to convince myself this was real, didn't make it "real" until that first time we saw the baby.  

5/9/11 Noon

6 Weeks and 1 Day 

(Or 2nd Day of Week 6)

Officially Due 1/1/2012

 These were our first glimpses at the baby...or blob as I loving referred to it as at that point.  If you look where the arrow is pointing, you see the body and the darkest spot is where the heart was beating...at 6 weeks and 1 day!!!!!!!  The bigger blob to the upper right is actually the yolk sac. Yup, that's what it's called, yolk sac.  See!  I am a bird...and I laid an egg!

Even seeing these pictures wasn't nearly as amazing as hearing the heart beat.  For REAL!  That's when it became beyond real to me...this tiny thing, no bigger than a grain.of.rice had a heartbeat!  141 beats per minute!  Wow!!!!

5/26/11 - 9 AM

8 weeks 4 Days

(Or 5th Day of Week 8)

Because of the PCOS, I was considered "high risk" for the first trimester because beyond fertility problems, about 50% of pregnancy for women with PCOS result in miscarriage (what happened to us in the fall of 2010). So, that meant that we got another ultrasound.

It was absolutely amazing to see how much this blob grew from a grain of rice to this gummy-bear looking being!  From this point on, we referred to the baby as "Gummy  Bear." To me it looked like a gummy bear riding an eggplant.  Now that I think if it, it kind of reminds me of Cake Wreck's "Naked-Mohawk-Baby Carrot Jockeys"...except its a naked Gummy-Bear-Baby Eggplant Jockey! 

 The cross hair on the baby that's on dashed line that runs vertically through the middle of the baby indicates the heart...the waves that are along the bottom of the ultrasound is the heartbeat!  Again, SO FREAKING AMAZING!  Today the heartbeat was 170 beats per minute!  I kinda felt like singing a song along the lines of the old Oscar Mayer jingle ("My bologna has a first name, it's oscar") except it'd be more like "My gummy bear has a heart beat, it's 170bpm."  Can you tell I'm a little excited about this kid?
The really good news at this appointment was that despite them still seeing the UFO (read two posts ago), it's not interfering with the baby, the amniotic sac is completely separate from the UFO, so it's nothing to worry about...infact it will probably come out when the baby is born.  My guess at this point is that it's "left overs" from the miscarriage since I never had a D&C.  Anywho, I asked the doc, knowing that at 8 weeks I'm still in the first trimester, and it's too early to really tell if it's going to "stick," but she said she gave me an 80% chance that everything would be fine!  I'll take it!  That's like a reliability coefficiant of .80 which is acceptable! And, I don't have to come back for another 4 weeks!

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
6/24/11 9 AM - So at my last appointment they said I didn't need to come back for 4 weeks, that'd be week 12.  At that appointment there was no ultrasound (boohoo!!!) but the heart beat could be heard with the fetal doppler through my belly!  My next appointment was scheduled for 6 weeks later at 18 weeks which is when they'd do the full anatomy scan.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

7/5/11 - 3:30 PM

14 weeks 2 Days

(Or 3rd Day of Week 14)

Not quite at 18 weeks, eh?  Well, I'll admit, I cheated!  I thought that since I was in Delaware for Dad's birthday, I'd take them to a "surprise" ultrasound at one of those stand alone places that does 3d/4d stuff.  I knew I was too early to do any 3d stuff, but they did regular 2d as well for gender determination.  I also knew I was too early for that. But, the facility Fetal Vision let me come in when I told them the circumstances...I wanted to share part of this pregnancy experience with my parents.  So, I packed up my parents, drove an hour and a half to Langhorne, PA, and told them as we were pulling into the facility that they were going to meet their grandchild.  They were very confused... Anyway, when we got there, the people again reinforced that it's too early to determine gender, but we'd at least get a good look at the baby..which is all I cared about.  Although, I did check with Matt to find out if by chance they could guess what the gender was, if he wanted me to find out.  ABSOLUTELY!  Anyway, we go into the room equipped with the ultrasound machine, the normal technican's monitor, a HUGE projected screen, and a smaller flat screen TV - all showing the ultrasound.  The guys comment was "are you sure you're only 14 weeks." My response, "this is a medically controlled experience, yes, I'm really only 14 weeks." To which he responded that the baby was pretty well developed and asked if I knew what this was...

I asked with a bit of trepidation..."are those the two lines that mean it's a boy?!?"  To which he responded, that he was 99.9% sure it's a boy!

Here's the boy's "jingle bells" and "nub."  Apparently, William Matthew Folsom has no modesty and doesn't mind showing his private parts!

After I got over that news (great news as we were hoping for a boy!), the technician decided that even though we only paid the 2D price, he was going to give us some complimentary 3D/4D looks!  While I can't show 4D here, I have an awesome DVD documenting everything!  Wim was a squirmy baby so we got to see him move a lot!  But these were some of his tricks:

Thumb Sucking...

 Waving...

 and Sleeping...

So...who does he look like?!?  Matt? Jessica? Penny? Byron? Kelly? Toni?  Guess we'll find out soon!

8/1/11 3:45 PM

18 Weeks and 1 Day 

(Or 2nd Day of Week 18)

Today is the full fledged anatomy scan...the one to make sure Wim's really a boy and that all the organs are developing nicely...which they are!  Wim measures exactly 18 weeks and 1 day, I've only gained 7 lbs so far, and all my measurements are right on!  Baby and Mommy are doing great!  So here's what we found out...

Wim is definitively, Wim!  

It's a boy, and he's not shy!

Face

 Face(ing) the other way!

 Curled up asleep!

  He's got both his feet! And I guess all his toes!

 Just a little stretch!

 All that's left at the next appointment is a looksy at his heart and nose/lips...because of the way he was sleeping, they couldn't get a good look.  But there was no reason to think anything is wrong!  Just asleep, stubborn  and not wanting to move.  Who can blame him? I don't like it when someone wakes me up!  That's all for now folks!