20 Week Ultrasound

On Thursday, we had our 20-week ultrasound.  Let's allow the pictures to tell the tale:

This is Deuce's face.  The large circle in the middle is the skull and the two dark circles below it are the eye sockets.

Deuce's feet!

My favorite: the spine.  Amazing to see all those vertebrae that have been created.

And last but not least, a picture for those wanting to participate in the gender-guessing game.  Below is a picture of the Deuce's belly and then legs, ankles (which are crossed) and feet.  Now if you look between the legs, you will just see a black space.  What does that mean?!?!  Girl?  Hiding male genitals?  Or... we have no idea what we're looking at so who knows!?!?!?

So, yeah, we actually showed the discipline to follow through on our desire to not find out the gender.  Neither of us is happy about it.  It was especially weird when the ultrasound tech told us she knew what it was because, well, we didn't and that's weird.  She also never wrote down the gender, and she told us she does 25 ultrasounds a day, so at this point no one knows because she doesn't care forgot.

Side note, 25 ultrasounds a day?  Every day?  How does she maintain her focus and professionalism?  It has to get incredibly mundane.  I find it hard to believe that there hasn't been at least one time where an excited, first-time pregnant couple came in, nervous and hopeful, telling the ultrasound tech they didn't want to know the gender.  Having not listened to a word the couple said, she then quickly ran the monitor across the belly, deadpanned "head, arms, hands, ding-dong, feet, see you later" and walked out of the room.

On the hand, that whole "this is the miracle of life" thing probably keeps it pretty exciting.

The Deuce pregnancy has been an entirely different emotional experience from the Matthew pregnancy.  We just don't really think about it much, primarily because we are so focused on Matthew, but also because to some extent it feels like we've "been here before".  In some ways, it's nice--the decreased anxiety is fantastic--but in other ways, there is a hint of guilt.  Deuce is every bit as important to us as Matthew is, and sometimes it feels like we don't recognize that.  The ultrasound was a wonderful experience because it was every bit as meaningful as it was with Matthew.  There was our beautiful child--a child that, like with Matthew, has been blessed with perfect health and development thus far.  We could not be more thankful for our gifts from God.