I've been looking forward to today for a long time...ever since Jake and I found out I am pregnant. Today was our first ultrasound. It was at our RE's office in SF, but it was quite the story getting there. Are you ready? Here we go.
So we are on the freeway, about to get onto the Bay Bridge. Of course, there's traffic. There's always traffic (seemingly) on the BB. No biggie, right? As we got past the infamous S-curve, we found out why there was such a hold up. There was a car broken down in the fast lane, and cars behind it were rushing to get out from behind it, causing a "slow-down". So we finally get off the freeway and onto the San Francisco streets. I swear whoever designed the streets of that city thought to themselves "Someday, some lady is going to need to have her first ultrasound at a hospital in the City. So let's criss-cross the streets in weird angles to confuse the heck out of her". We hit every. single. stoplight. in San Francisco. No joke. There were a few times where I said "We're never going to make it".
We got to Kaiser, and needed to find a parking space in their underground parking garage. Anyone who has been to the SF Kaiser knows parking there is a pain in the butt. Jake and I FINALLY found a space on the 5th floor (meaning 5 floors underground). We walk to the elevator(s). There are usually two of them, but of course one was broken. We were the 2nd pair of people to get to the elevator. We literally stood there waiting for the darn thing to get to our parking level for 15 minutes. So of course we have to stop at every single level on the way up, with people waiting to get on at each level. There were a select few who truly believed that if they squeezed hard enough, they would make space in the elevator. So by the time we got to the main lobby level, it was like a comical elevator scene where people are bursting out of the "car". We made our way to the opposite end of the lobby to the set of elevators that take you to the various levels of the hospital. We got to our level and I breathed a sigh of relief. We finally had made it! I walked up to the receptionist's desk (20 minutes late for my appointment thanks to the *wonderful* elevator system) and handed her my card. She looks at the computer and said "I don't see your appointment here". I said "I scheduled it in early August, so I should be in there". So she punches in my card number and says "Oh, yes. I see you here. It says here your appointment was cancelled". OH HELL NO! She looked at me totally waiting for me to accept my fate and walk away. But no. I stood there and said "I didn't cancel that appointment. No one called me to tell me it was cancelled. My husband and I just drove here from Richmond. Someone IS seeing me today". So she called the nurse's station and asked that one come up and speak to me. After about 10 minutes of waiting, she called again. One of the nurses came up, called my name and took Jake and I into a small office where she sat us down. She explained that my RE had decided to perform research today and cancelled all his appointment for today. But, they neglected to call me to tell me this. So she gave us two options.
1. To see another doctor who can fit us in for the ultrasound in a few minutes.
2. Reschedule for tomorrow with my regular doctor.
Jake goes to school Tuesdays and Thursdays. We purposely made this appointment on a Wednesday so Jake could attend. He didn't want to miss seeing our child for the first time. So needless to say, we went with Option 1. So the nurse walked us from the small office to the ultrasound room.
The doctor walked in and the show began. There were a few hiccups (the doctor as a "navigator", sucked at first) but I won't go into the gorey details. But pretty soon, we were face to screen with our little pinto bean. The doctor paused for a minute and said "You see that flicker?" I said "Yes I do". He said "Do you know what that is?" and I said "Yes. It's the heartbeat". I grabbed Jake's hand and looked at him. His face was so priceless. I wish I had caught it on camera. There was this awe-struck innocence about it, like he was seeing the stars for the first time. I couldn't believe what I was seeing. All the sounds in that room seemed to fade away and all that I could see and feel were Jake holding my hand and the little human on the screen. I had brought Kleenex because I was convinced I was going to bawl my eyes out. But as soon as I saw our little one, what were anticipated tears turned into amazement. I couldn't believe it. We're having a baby, and it has a heartbeat. I admit there were times where I thought we'd never get to this place. But here we are. We got two print-outs of the ultrasound. I am measured at 7 weeks 4 days, which gives us an EDD of April 16th, 2011. We're having an April baby!
So, without further ado, here's our little Smithling:
7 weeks, 4 days (he/she is the little "blob" on the lower right of the dark area)
Being measured
