It's a Boy!! ...we think...

After endless stress and hassle with the medical staff/facility and scheduling, I was finally able to make an appointment for September 1st for my 20-week ultrasound.  This is the one I've been waiting for... the one they send you to radiology to have done... the one where you hope to find out the gender of the baby.  So we went yesterday and did the whole ultrasound, and they took "pictures" and measured everything on the baby from the length of its bones to the size of its kidneys.  After what seemed like forever and not having a CLUE what we were seeing on the monitor, the ultrasound tech says, "Alright, I'm done."  I asked if she was able to tell if we were having a boy or a girl; she said she wasn't able to tell but would come back after she told the doctor to look at the images and try it again.  So that's what we did.  She said she was about 90% sure it was a boy, due to the fact that the umbilical cord could be in that same area and that's what we may be seeing.  So there's still a slight chance it could be a girl... we're not sure.  Matt had his heart set on having a girl, and I can't say I didn't either.  All along I'd been thinking it was a girl, and was kind of hoping it was too.  The only reason I wanted a girl was that I don't have any experience with boys; heck I'm an only child and a girl.  Girls are all I know.  Everyone keeps telling me that boys are the best (all coming from parents with boys, I know there has to be plenty of girl advocates out there, too!) and that it will be great.  We know it will be great, it's just fear of the unknown for me.  Matt says we better start stockpiling our food now because we're going to get eaten out of house and home.  :)  Boy or girl, we just want to have a healthy baby.

After keeping us in the examination room for what seemed like forever, finally one of the radiology doctors came in and said that it appears that the fluid in the amniotic sac is low and they need to send me to a specialist to have it looked at.  He didn't say how low it was.  He really didn't say much at all, except that I shouldn't get upset or worried about it, they just wanted to look into it further.  So I am now being referred to the Prenatal Assessment Center at Nation Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland.  I was contacted today and have an appointment scheduled for two weeks from today ~ September 16th.  I will get another ultrasound done.  I was told this was a stronger ultrasound machine with better quality images and will be seen by the doctor immediately following the ultrasound to review the results.  As an added bonus, I was told that as long as the baby cooperates, they should be able to definitively confirm the gender.  We are of course concerned about the amniotic fluid being low and how that will affect the baby and what can be done to resolve or improve the situation.  We do feel better knowing that if it was an emergency type of thing, I would be seen much sooner than two weeks from now, and this is more of a precautionary measure.  However, we aren't out of the water yet.  In the meantime, I myself am drowning in water (figuratively of course).  I have read that increasing your water intake can improve the level of fluid in the amniotic sac, so I have increased my consumption greatly, which means many more trips to the bathroom.  But if it helps the issue, I'll do what I have to.  Hopefully we will get good news at the appointment, and we will certainly keep everyone posted on what comes out of that appointment.  Love to all!