Last week we had our first - and possibly only - ultrasound.  I had seen ultrasounds on television before, so I had a bit of an idea as to what was in store, but I didn't realize how much we would be able to see on the screen.  The ultrasound machine is pretty remarkable in what it can display using sound waves.  Not only do you get to see a full side-view of the fetus, but with a flick of the wrist, the technician can change the depth of the readings and also show cross sections of any of the areas.  It is with the cross sections that she can take images of the placement and size of the internal organs such as the bladder, kidneys, brain and heart.

We could see the moving fetus on the screen nearby, and he (for the sake of this post "he", as we didn't find out the sex of the baby) was moving his arms back and forth in front of his face.  I think he opened his mouth a few times as well.  The actual image on the screen in "real time" is amazingly clear.  Many of the ultrasound images I've seen before this were difficult to understand visually, but seeing the real thing was pretty cool.  Hard to believe that that whole body is living in my uterus right now - but the ultrasound showed the head being on my right side, and that is where I feel more of a pinching feeling when I crouch down, so that explains that.

It was evident that Miguel and I were hanging on every word of the technician, since this was our first ever ultrasound, and she could have basically told us anything at that point and we would have believed her.  She was pretty happy and said that everything looked normal and healthy, and we could see all the major limbs and organs, so that was a relief.  However, in the fleet of an instance, she did some calcuations and said "Oh, it looks like the baby is only at 18 weeks of development, rather than 20 weeks - which could be due to your dates being off or possibly some developmental problems with the baby."  Well, that was enough to throw both of us into a stupor for the next day an a half, because we knew for certain what our "dates" were - as in the date of the first day of my last period, which was marked plainly in our calendar.  This left only one option - that included the word "wrong" in its explanation.  We immediately took to researching low weight (8 oz) at 20 weeks of development for a fetus, and couldn't really come up with anything tangible.  There were more articles on babies being over the "normal" 10 oz, but not many - if any - about it being under.  It was rather amazing how deeply this thought of something being wrong with the baby was affecting both of us.

Our appointment with our midwife was 3 days later, at which time she quickly told us there was nothing to be concerned about.  The radiologist didn't request a "follow-up", as everything was growing in the correct proportions, and aside from being a bit small, the baby looks really good.  Strong heartbeat, movement, all the organs look to be developoing correctly - so we're better now.   We're now a little more iffy on the official "due date", which will probably move to about the second week of September rather than the first.  Of course, there is about a 5-week window for any birth date, so who really knows anyway.

We celebrated getting to the "half-way" point by going out to Boundary Bay on Friday and having a funfilled weekend.  On Saturday we spent the entire day helping our friends build a giant chicken run for the "meat birds" we've all decided to purchase (about 5 each).  We built a fortress in the woods that will hopefully get the chicks up to 6 or 8 weeks old.  The workday was followed by a gut-stuffing monstrosity of BBQ pork shoulder, salads and birthday cake in celebration of Sean turning 30!

Our yard is also up-to-snuff after an awesome day of sunshine yesterday - and I even got in a sweat-filled mountian bike ride with the dogs in the morning while Miguel played frisbee with Sensei against the boys team from WWU.  I'm still not convinced that I can feel the baby moving yet - but I'm trying really hard.  One of these days he'll give me a big shove, I hope.