12 Weeks Tomorrow & Midwife Follow Up

Well, yesterday was such a bummer. I left the office crying because the Midwife could not find the heartbeat with the doppler. Apparently that is common, and until 16 or so weeks it would be hard to always find it.

Fortunately we have a home doppler and with some patience and luck we think we were able to find the heartbeat. I really think the midwife was rushing and that the position I was laying in made it difficult to find. Another thing that bothered me is that one minute she was saying I could probably be farther along, and the next she thought I could be not as far along. It was confusing, but I am sure of my last period so... really there should be no surprises as to how far along I am. My mom said that it could be just how I'm built that my uterus just has no where else to hide in my pelvic area.

Fortunately I don't have to wait forever for my ultrasound. Well to me it seems like forever, but logically it is only four days away. I should be able to see the heartbeat and see how my lil jelly bean is growing. The midwife said that we could possibly find out the sex of the baby then, but I am hesitant about that.... however this website shines some light on that.

9 week old embryo - 11 weeks Pregnant
( Embryo size = 1.75 inch, 45 mm ) 1. Anus 2. Labio scrotal folds 3. Legs 4. Genital tuber 7. Urethral groove 8. Urogenital folds At the ninth week, there are not yet any notable differences. The boy is on the left and the girl on the right. You find the same structures on both fetus. Boy Girl

That early as you can see everything looks about the same, however the website claims that the sex can be determined by "the angle of the dangle"...

Angle of the dangle On ultrasound, if your baby is cooperating and is positioned in a favorable way, fetal sex can be determined during a scan when the fetus is about 12 weeks (about 14 weeks after LMP). The determination is made by studying the angle between the genital 'bump' and the direction of the lower portion of the spine. The following images are not typical and intermediate forms do exist, establishing gender can sometimes be difficult.

12 week old fetus - (Fetus size = 3 inch, 75 mm) - 14 weeks pregnant Male gender With the male fetus, the genital tubercle usually creates an angle of greater than 30° with the lower part of the spine. Female gender In the female fetuses, the genital tubercle protrudes in the same direction as the lower portion of the spine with an angle of less than 30° relative to the backbone.

so... we will have to see about that. After the ultrasound, and we have a confirmed healthy little fetus, I will be going out and purchasing the Intelligender home test kit. This will be done purely for ha-has of course. But if the ultrasound tech can give us an educated guess by the baby's dangle (lol) then it would be even more interesting to see if the test lines up with their guess.

We are finding out the sex of the baby for sure. I can't wait until I know whether to call it Emmalina or Lucas. I have had two dreams about having a little boy now, and Josh has had one dream about a little girl. We will know for sure at our 20 week anatomy scan. I hope I can squirm my way into getting that done at 18 weeks instead. ;)

As of now a lot of my symptoms have subsided. I do feel nauseated on occasion, like now, when I'm starving, but it is no where near what it used to be. I get a lot of random cravings, and it's not always for the same foods like it was earlier in this trimester. Right now I could go for Chinese/Japanese.

My face is hideous. I am embarrassed to go out in public. It sucks that I can't use my acne medicine anymore. But I just remembered this morning what wonders tea tree oil used to do for my face, so you can bet I am going to get on that and buy some today.

Other than that I need some new clothes. I don't like most maternity clothing I've come across so I will be trying out some diy maternity pants. I have to go out and find some cheap pants that I like that fit me below the waist and then doctor them up with some stretchy fabric, there is a whole website about it here.

That's about it for now, I really need to study for my last final!
My next update will probably include 12 week bump pics that my sister will be taking.