It’s a BOY!!!

Finally feeling pregnant is so wonderful. It’s all so exciting and new, yet it feels so familiar at the same time. It’s truly magical.

I’ve been feeling him move around here and there over the past few weeks. It started as little flutters around week 15, and now I’m feeling kicks pretty much all day long. Last night, I even saw my belly move for the first time from one of his kicks. 🙂 Again, magical.

Yes, I’ll admit, D and I were a little disappointed when we realized it wasn’t a baby girl. As soon as the ultrasound tech got the right view, I could tell right away. “That’s a penis, isn’t it?” I desperately asked her. “Yep!” she said in return. Dustin and I just looked at each other in complete shock, tears in our eyes. It wasn’t the baby girl we were hoping for, but it’s a beautiful boy. Another boy! And he’s going to be amazing.

And really, ideally I’d like to have one of each, so we’ll just have to try again down the road for a girl. But for now, I have a son coming, and what a great relationship we’re going to have. I can’t wait.

Today I’m wearing my first official piece of maternity clothing. A cute dress handed down to me from my sister-in-law. I think it’s my new favorite dress, maternity or no.

So the day we found out it was a boy was a little bittersweet. We also found out some other news that caused a bit of worry and distress. During the ultrasound, the tech was examining his heart and noticed a bright spot on it. It’s called an echogenic intracardiac focus. It appears as a bright spot on the heart, and it’s thought to be calcium build up on the heart muscle. And all the ultrasound tech told us was that we’d have to come back soon for another ultrasound and genetic testing because this spot was a soft marker of Down’s syndrome… (Enter worry and fear.)

What she failed to mention is that it shows up in 3-5% of normal, healthy pregnancies, and that many go away by the third trimester. Even if they don’t go away, they don’t cause any problems and don’t require any further check-ups after birth. All of which would have been really nice to know. Instead, we walked out of the office in a daze and held each other in the parking lot for a minute, trying to process what’s going on and worrying that something is wrong with our baby.

I had already had the quad screening done (which tests for Down’s and other abnormalities), and it all came back normal. So the more we researched it and looked at our odds, the more our worries faded away. I went back this week for a more in-depth ultrasound, and we met with a genetic counselor. She said that due to my low risk factors determined in the quad screen, combined with our good family health histories, we had a very low chance of having a child born with Down’s or another abnormality. Everything looked great on the ultrasound as well. He’s measuring normal, and though that bright spot is still there, they don’t foresee it causing any problems. I have to go back again in 5 weeks because the little guy wouldn’t turn over so that they could get a good pictures of his spine, but other than that, everything looks great! He weighs around 11 oz. and had the hiccups during the ultrasound! He kept putting his hands in his mouth and playing with his feet. It was so wonderful to watch – I could have laid there for hours. 🙂

We’ve decided on a first name, but we’re still undecided about the middle.

He will be: Cohen.

After our favorite, Leonard Cohen.

The main contenders as of right now are:

Cohen Dominic

Cohen Ray

Cohen Sebastian

Cohen Judah

So we’ll see. 🙂

My heart is just bursting with joy over this pregnancy. Dustin has mentioned several times about how happy I am all the time. I’m having a baby!! Why wouldn’t I be happy!! (But granted, it’s not all the time…oh, prego hormones…) I’m so thankful for this miracle, this opportunity to experience all I’ve wanted to experience. I’m loving every second of it, and I can’t wait to hold that little baby boy. 😀

The first pictures of our little Cohen…