Guess Who? :) and ultrasound stories

I decided it would make the most sense to give myself some much needed rest the morning of the ultrasound. I had to have 4, 8oz glasses of water in by 9 o'clock, but I thought that shouldn't been to difficult as I drink a lot of water (of course I wasn't taking into consideration just how hard holding all that water for 2 hours was going to be). So at around 8:30 I got up and started drinking. I did really well actually. I figured after I got the water and some breakfast in I would take a nice, soothing, long bath to focus my attention on something other than the fact that I needed to pee.

Now upon further contemplation I can see the lack of wisdom in taking a bath and sloshing around in warm water when ones' bladder is full, but at the time it seemed like a great idea. Anyway, needless to say I could hardly stand myself while taking the bath and decided that although it was a definite battle of the will and I would be victorious, I should nonetheless cut the bath short. This description hardly expresses the emense discomfort and selfcontrol I was trying to excercise at the time, as I spoke harshly to myself, prayed to God for help, it was quite the moment!

So I stood up to shower and when I did, I peed. It is mortifying, but I'm sure (NOW) that I'm not the only Mom who has peed, but at the time I was so upset with myself, giving myself a tongue lashing about being a terrible parent with no self control, and if I couldn't even do this right, and we got a terrible ultrasound picture because of my lack of self control, how would I ever be a good parent. As is often the case with me it was quite dramatic.

So i got out of the shower and for penance made myself drink all of the water again, hoping it would have time to fill up my bladder in the next hour before we had our appointment. Upon further reflection, again, I could have figure out that my bladder would probably still be full of water and this step was not so necessary, but in the heat of personal disgust, it made sense to drink it all again.

We arrived at the hospital just on time to sit in admitting, my bladder quickly filling, only to find out we should have gone right to radiology. Arriving in Radiology they have that pull tab process of getting signed in. We pulled tab even though there was noone in line and Chad was muttering, ok it was too loud to be considered muttering, about not needing to stand in line. I was trying to hush him down when another patient came through and took the next number and they called his. Chad then proceeded to flip out saying loudly "wait! we were next, wait!" Iw as mortified, as I believe the next patient was as he quickly said "oh, ok, you go ahead." Ah my overexcitable husband. he wasn't angry, just excited.

Then we had to wait, and wait we did, for 45 minutes. My bladder at this point hurt so much, I put my hands down my pants to pull my pants away from pressuring my stomach (cute picture eh?-right) anyway, I had decided that this was the ultimate test of parenthood and if I couldn't do this, I couldn't really be a good mother at all, so I was determined. Meanwhile Chad is trying to get me to have my picture taken infront of the ultrasound sign, or discuss some article, or what I would like for lunch, I could do nothing but concentrate on not peeing myself and the agony I felt. So instead, Chad makes friends with all the people in the waiting room, finding out when they are due, what their stories are etc.

Finally! they called my name, I went in and laid down on the bed and it is true that it really isn't so painful when you're lying down. Anyway it only took the technician a minute before he informed me I was way too full (I explained what I had done and he shook his head telling me I would have likely still been full enough had I not drunk the second load of water) and he told me to go pee it off. I thought, with fear and trembling, he was going to tell me something crazy like I've heard them tell others about just peeing a bit off, I knew there was no way I could do that.
When I returned, feeling much relieved, actually like a new person in may ways, he proceeded to do his work for 20+ minutes until he called Chad in. Then he showed us the baby's hand and arm, foot and spine and head, also we saw his/her heartbeat beating nice and strong around 160 beats. It was pretty cool, although it felt way too short, I would have liked to have seen more. he then printed us off these two pictures and booked us for another ultrasound June 20th, because he didn't get as good a picture as he wanted of the heart. Pretty neat eh!

Baby Billington 17 weeks, 6 days: June 5th, 2007