3rd Sonogram

We had our third sonogram today. We went to the Fetal Care Center at Big Baylor in Dallas to see a periontologist because we were getting a Nuchal Translucency test done. The test is done with a high tech ultrasound and measures the fold in the baby's neck. Sometimes, if the baby cooperates, you can tell the sex of the baby as well.

First, the preliminary tests show that our baby is in the normal and healthy range. Which is great and means that we will probably have a healthy baby (no mental retardation or down syndrome). We will get the rest of the results back next week sometime which we are hoping will confirm the preliminary results.

The ultrasound took about 30 minutes. We got to see so many wonderful pictures of our baby. During the first 20 minutes the baby was just standing on its head bouncing up and down. And, every time the doctor would try and get a measurement it would turn or bounce. It was very difficult for the doctor to get the measurements he needed, but it provided for lots of laughs. We were so surprised at how active our baby was, constantly jumping around and moving its hands and feet. The doctor said that our baby wins the award for the most defiant baby he has ever seen. Of course, our baby is stubborn, after all, both of its parents are. He even called our child a "wild child." The doctor changed to a different ultrasound because our baby was not cooperating. The second ultrasound worked much better and got much better pictures. The doctor got his measurements, and we were able to look down there at the baby. Since it is still early the doctor wouldn't say for sure, but after several looks he thinks that there were no boy parts. He didn't say he saw girl parts for sure, but the nurse and I think we might have.

According to our Chinese birth calendar and all the online gender predictors we are predicted to have a boy. And, because Mark has two brothers and no sisters, we both from the beginning were thinking it was probably a boy. However, for the last few weeks, I have been getting strange feelings that it is a girl. After today, I am about 95% convinced that it is a girl. But, we will have to wait about 3-4 weeks to find out for sure.

Here are some of our baby's pictures:

This is the best picture we have of the baby. It was with the second ultrasound. It is obviously a side-view. The profile of her little face is so cute. I also love how you can see the umbilical cord. You can look closely and see her little rib cage as well. She looks really peaceful in this picture!

The baby is actually jumping around in this picture. You can see her little feet and butt sticking up in the air. Also, there is another great profile of her face. She is about to kick her feet to bounce up on her head again. The dark part of her back is her spinal cord. The very light dot out from her face is actually her hand which is about to go in her mouth.

This picture is kind of hard to see, but it is a pictures of its head and neck. You can see the spinal cord the best on the underside of her back. If you follow the spine you can see the back of the head. If you squint you might be able to make our the ears and the face.