I guess we’re just going to have to get used to being a normal, pregnant couple*.  Elizabeth had a checkup with Dr. Clinton on the 19th.  At first, the nurse put us in a room that didn’t even have an ultrasound machine.  She said that Dr. Clinton would check the heartbeat with a Doppler, but a u/s wasn’t typical.  We were a little dissapointed, since the Doppler was old hat to us… although we were anxious to show off our boy’s strong, steady, perfect 150 bpm heart beat and prepared to act surprised when we heard it for the “first” time.

When Dr. Clinton entered, however, she quickly ushered us into a new room with a ultrasound machine.  Her reasoning was that since our last procedure was the CVS test and it carries a tiny (1-1600) chance of miscarriage, she liked to assure people with the ultrasound.  We gladly enjoyed the show, although we neglected to ask for a photo of the occasion.  Besides, the little guy wasn’t really positioned well enough for us to get a great profile shot, but you know how we parents are — we like even that bad photos of the kids.  He was a-squirmin’ around like last time and that was fun, fun to see.  And, yes, we heard the heartbeat.

Next on the agenda, another boring ol’ “everything’s okay” (we hope) appointment in about three weeks.  Also scheduled is a blood test which will determine whether there’s a need for an amniocentesis.  If the blood is okay, Elizabeth won’t need one, thanks to the information gained by the CVS.  After that, a level 2 ultrasound.  This is when they really get shots of the baby from all angles, measure stuff, make sure things look good.

Oh, one more thing I found out.  Dr. Clinton asked if we’d received the final CVS test results and Elizabeth replied that she had.  They were good.  Naturally, I gave Elizabeth a hard time for not filling me.  I swear, once she found out the sex of the baby, she had no worries about the rest of the results.

*The term “we’re pregnant” always used to bother me. I felt the wife should say “I’m pregnant” and the father should say “my wife is pregnant.” “We’re pregnant” just sounded like some sort of modern way of including the poor, left out husband.   For some reason, now that we’re pregnant, it seems totally okay. I hope it doesn’t sound weird.