20 week ultrasound

We had our 20 week ultrasound yesterday. It was the most amazing experience I've ever had. We originally was going to be Matt, my Mom & me. Then Kiara wanted to go, not a problem. Yesterday morning Kiara called to see if Jake could go. I thought that was getting to be a crowd so I called to make sure they would let us all go, and they said it was fine. Then my Mom called to see if Cameron could come. I said he could, but I didn't know if he could be in the room. Well, I was in the waiting room and here comes Matt with my Mom, then in walked Cameron, and behind him was Dylan (My Mom's boyfriends 14 year old grandson). Mom had to pick Cameron and Dylan up at the mall on the way so they all came. When they called my name the whole waiting room cleared out, but it made it special.

I drank a bottle of iced tea on the way to the office to make sure the baby was awake and moving so we could see it. It definitely worked!! The baby was moving everywhere. It was so cool to see how much the baby moves compared to how little I feel. We saw the baby snuggling into my back (see pic above) and then flipping around and crossing it's ankles. We saw the baby yawn, put it's hand in front of it's face, and we could see the tongue move when it swallowed. The baby measured 10 inches long and 13 oz. Yes, we already have a big baby :) Absolutely amazing.

Things that come from the mouth of Jake:

Little Jake sat in the front row by Matt and his first response to seeing the baby on the monitor was "Look it's trying to climb out". He didn't belive us when we said the baby was going to stay put for a while and repeated that the baby was climbing out quite a few times. A while later we were all concentrated on the monitor watching the baby and Jake says, "We're penis lookers, huh Mom?" On the way to the ultrasound Kiara had told him that they were going to be looking for a penis to tell if it was a boy, but it was pretty funny the way it came out.

After the ultrasound, Matt and I had our Childbirth Choices class at the birthing center. This is a class just to give you information about the birthing center, the services offered, and the options they have for delivery at the birthing center or at the hospital. We also got a tour of the birthing center. It was really cool too! The midwife who led the session is the mid-wife who will be leading our centering classes each month and I really liked her. She discussed the mid-wife philosophy that pregnancy is not an illness and should not be treated as such. That a woman's body is built to birth babies and that they use the least amount of intervention as possible. We then watched a video of a midwife in Mexico deliver her own baby in her bathtub. It was kinda cool, but got a little creepy in the end. Her husband was in the tub with her when she delivered, and then her two older kids jumped in after the baby was born. I'm hoping to try a water birth, but no one else will be swimming in that tub with me. On the tour we saw the 3 rooms in the birthing center. The southwest room is the largest and most coveted room. All rooms have queen size beds so Mom, Dad & baby can all cuddle together from the very beginning, they also have doors leading to their own patios. The southwest room has a jacuzzi tub in the corner of the room and a private bathroom with a smaller tub that is also big enough to deliver in. The other two rooms have a joined bathroom with a birthing tub as well. The birthing center has an average of 40 births a month, half at the center and half at the hospital. With those odds I'm pretty confident the southwest room will be open for us.