Half Way Point - Baby Update

It's  been a while since I've last updated! I just wanted to share what's going on with pregnancy and the baby.

We decided to deliver in State College, PA which is about 45 minutes from our house. The primary reason was because the hospital in Altoona wouldn't take patients until mid-October, but the other is because the hospital in State College have delivered babies to same sex couples. It doesn't seem like a big deal because a competent doctor should be sufficient, but it makes all the difference in bedside manner and how they address Lara or me. Mount Nittany Regional Medical Center is a group run for the ob/gyn services. Because we won't know which doctor will be there when we deliver, we are seeing all the doctors at our various visits. Nothing of note so far - nice people, succinct, and thorough. Here is a picture of our first ultrasound from our regular Ob/Gyn:

The baby was 11 weeks and 6 days - check out those feet. This is the same picture we used on our FB announcement of our pregnancy:

We had our main/major ultrasound last week, when we were at 20 weeks and 1 day. The baby is doing fantastic! Heart rate around 138 bpm, and everything about the baby's size is at the 50th percentile =D The ultrasound tech knew right away what the baby's sex is, but we told her to write it on the ultrasound and put it in an envelope. We are sending that envelope to Mel or Nalleli (???) and asking either to bring said envelope to a bakery where they can make a cake either filled with blue or pink, based on what the results are. We'll cut into the cake at the baby shower to reveal the baby's sex. I'm pretty confident it's a girl, but Lara has such high hopes for a boy. Sigh, I think either way we're happy as pie that the baby is doing so well.

Here is the 20 weeks 1 day ultrasound photos. The baby is saying 'HELLO!'

Seeing the baby's little hands, nose (very distinguished Filipino nose from what we can tell ;)), and lips...oh, it made us giddy. S/he is also very active! At the time, s/he had her head against my placenta and kept stretching out her legs...she's got formidable calves! It was so cool to see! I wish we could have a shared a little video of that session, but alas...

A few days later, we had to go to a fetal echocardiogram. This is something recommended for babies conceived via IVF, but our Ob and our RE said they didn't think it was really necessary; however, they are supposed to recommend a fetal echocardiogram to scan for congenital heart disease issues. We get there, and the fetus was having none of it. S/he does not want to be seen on an ultrasound that day; s/he kept putting his/her spine in the way of the transducer. After 10-15 minutes of trying and the doctor bearing down on my belly and moving me around to try and reposition the baby, he decided to reschedule. It was pretty funny; right before he quit trying, he got one good look at the baby's heart, and as he's about to take a shot of it, the baby just turns and puts his/her spine in the way. Ha, stubborn butt! Generally though, he said the heart looked fine (chambers, heartbeat, no issues noted) for what he saw, but we still have to reschedule to get all the view shots he wanted. This is a video Lara captured of our fetal echocardiogram session. In it, you can see the blood moving through the ventricles and out (blue and red flashes) and the heartbeat at the end:

So, we are very in love this this little person we have not yet met. We spend most nights talking to him/her and playing different music or Lara will read a short story; it's crazy to just be so enamored and protective with someone you have never met. I still can't get over that. All is good with us and baby!