Meet our Little Girl

Meet our baby girl!  Quite a difference 8 weeks makes, let me tell you!  Our first ultrasound picture taken at 11 weeks (left) was very clear and she was pretty cooperative...but that was because she wasn't aware of her surroundings so much.  The picture taken yesterday at almost 19 weeks (right) is blurry and not very good because our little girl is feisty and doesn't like being prodded.  Every time the sonographer tried to get a good picture, she'd turn away from the camera.  When we were taking pictures of her spine (yes, she has a spine now!!) she moved from her side to her back and basically mooned us.  When we tried to get pictures of her individual feet, she kicked at the camera.  When we tried to get a good shot of her face, she brought her fists up to cover her eyes, so we just got to see her nose and mouth.  At one point, she was so mad at being prodded that she kicked me where the camera was a second before and I both saw it on the screen and felt it in my belly.  So funny!  This little girl has some spunk!

Since the ultrasound, what I had put off to just being air bubbles has become clearly my little feisty girl kicking me and punching me, perhaps in revenge for the prodding for an hour she took yesterday.  She seems to have inherited my temper already!

Coolest things about the ultrasound:  The detail we were able to see was incredible!  Modern medical technology is amazing!  We saw each individual bone in her body, including the two bones in each arm, and the tiny little toe bones.  We saw her making fists and rubbing her face.  We saw her bladder, stomach, kidneys, brain, and heart (including all four valves functioning).  And as if seeing THAT wasn't enough, they switched to infrared to see the fluid moving through her heart, umbilical cord, and kidneys to make sure they were working properly.  And she's only about 6 inches long right now!  It was amazing.

Jon and I both looked at each other when they were measuring her thigh bones from the bottom and we knew, without a doubt, that it was a girl.  It was very clear.  But we waited until the end and asked them the gender.  The sonographer confirmed our suspicion and told us it's a little girl.  I'm already falling in love with my little girl and her spunky personality.  I look forward to getting to know her better in the coming months and years.