The Ultrasound

During my first two pregnancies, I viewed the ultrasound primarily as a way of finding out the baby’s gender. Sure, we also got to see the fuzzy little person growing inside. Plus we got to make sure he/she was growing and developing on schedule. But, that was all routine stuff, right? Just tell me if it’s a boy or girl! Then I had a cousin who during her second pregnancy last year got news she wasn’t anticipating during her “routine” ultrasound. She learned that her baby had multiple birth defects. Suddenly the simple scan was anything but routine.

That ultrasound led to a variety of tests and further scans. The baby was diagnosed with different birth defects, including a congenital heart defect. She was born a few months later at Riley Children’s Hospital, a few hours away from home. She came out fighting and made it through some surgeries, but a few short weeks into her life, she took her last breath. Before she ever got to go home. Before her mom got to spend hours holding her, rocking her, nursing her to sleep, smelling her little baby skin.

So as the date of my ultrasound for baby #3 approached, I began to feel uncertain. Would this just be routine? Would everything look okay? Would our lives be forever changed by what we saw on that computer screen? Of course we still hoped to discover the baby’s gender, but more importantly, we hoped to discover a completely healthy baby. And thankfully that’s what we saw.

As for the gender, well, that’s still up for debate. Though we could see all organs and limbs in fine working order, the baby decided to be a bit stubborn and protective. The tech looked for quite a while to see if we would be adding another little girl or boy to the family. Her search ended with not 100% certainty, but a more-than-likely response: it’s a girl.