The Halfway Mark

Tomorrow, I will be officially be to the halfway mark of my pregnancy! It's gone by faster than I thought it would, but May 9 feels like it will never be here. I have been looking forward to this week for months since I knew that Week 20 would be the week that they would do "the big sonogram" where they confirm gender. Lee and I got to see out little dumpling on Monday and it was so much fun. She was moving around a lot. They measured the size of her head and chest and looked at her heart, stomach, kidneys, and brain. She's all the right size so that's good news. She's 0.77 pounds which is about 12 ounces. Here she is...

In the top picture, you can really see her spine, which is the white horizontal line. Her head is on the left side. The bottom picture is a picture of her butt. That's what they tell me at least. Because really, it could be her brain and I'd just have to trust them. They were looking for a stem on the apple, but the absence of one leads them to think with 95% confidence that it's a girl. Being an engineer, I don't like to leave the door open that there's a 5% chance I could paint the room the wrong color. We're going to have a 3D sonogram in nine weeks and at that point they'll look for the bell clanger again. If there's no hot dog in the bun, then Ellie it is. However, if a third leg is present, all bets are off. These are all sophisticated terms we will use in lieu of the word "penis" when our child gets here.

This sonogram calmed many of my fears. Most of these fears come from watching way too many Discovery Health programs. Due to my preoccupation with shows on midgets and transgendered people, I was afraid that I was going to have a transgendered midget. In 20 years, I did not want to be the subject of a special where they interview my daughter who is 2'6" has a beard and calls herself Larry. She's totally getting sold to the circus if that happens. You know what else I watch too much of? Oprah. The other day they had this story about this girl who was 9 months pregnant and this other woman was pretending to be pregnant by wearing maternity clothes and a faux belly so she could steal the pregnant girl's baby. So you're thinking I'm afraid that someone is going to steal my baby right? No. Before I was showing or felt the baby kick, I was afraid that I was the crazy one who was not really pregnant and I was going to have to steal a baby to cover my trail of lies. I've never stolen anything before so why would I start with a baby? I have no clue, but I've come to the conclusion I need to stop watching TV all together.