Anatomy Ultrasound

Today’s anatomy ultrasound was a little bit anticlimactic, given that we got the Baby Girl Gaultney news last week, but it was still such a treat for Brad and I to get to peek at the little lady together! We kept our cards close to the vest and didn’t tell the technician that we already knew the baby’s sex. We weren’t dishonest about it, but we didn’t volunteer the info. I figure my doctor and the ultrasound tech must have a little bit of fun getting to have a part in the “surprise,” so why take the wind out of their sails?

Still, I can never hear, “The baby looks great!” enough, so it was so much fun. They saw all of the good things they wanted to see – four chambers of the heart, three vessels in the umbilical cord, a high posterior placenta (the ideal placement), two halves of the brain… all of that good stuff. I will try to post the ultrasound video later (we got a DVD at no cost, hooray!).

Brad had to leave right after the ultrasound, so the doctor-patient part of my visit, I did solo. I used the opportunity to have a little heart to heart with Dr. Norwood. First of all, I love love love my doctor. From everything I can tell, and I’m a pretty good judge of character, he is a good man. And he likes me a lot. He says I’m his favorite patient (I’m sure he tells a lot of his patients that, but still), we have wonderful conversations, we both love art, we both live in East Dallas, we’re both July babies… I know all of this sounds silly, but I genuinely like him as a person.

But I really needed to clear the air. When I hit the 40-week mark with Ford, I started to feel a lot of pressure from Dr. Norwood to induce, even though the baby and I were healthy and everything was going fine. And you may remember, he felt quite sure that I would need a C-section anyway (praise God, I didn’t). He didn’t deliver Ford because he wasn’t on call, but the day after Ford was born, Dr. Norwood told me he would have been “sharpening the knives” pretty early on. Just altogether very discouraging and frustrating to hear. I had “interviewed” Dr. N when I was 8 weeks pregnant with Ford to make sure we were on the same page about birth – avoiding C-section unless really necessary, and not inducing until 42 weeks… and even then, not just shooting me up with Pitocin…

Since this is the halfway point of my pregnancy, I am starting to think more about what the birth of baby numero dos will be like. And I can’t stand the idea of ending this pregnancy the way the last one did – with fear, frustration, discouragement and sadness. Even though my birth experience the first time around was wonderful, the week before was tough. Toward the end of my appointment today, I shared my concerns with Dr. Norwood. To paraphrase a line from National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation, he couldn’t have been more surprised if he woke up with his head stapled to the carpet. He said we must have had a serious misunderstanding because he never would want to make a mother feel pressured to induce unless there were a good medical reason. I reminded him that he scheduled my induction date, and I just happened to go into labor the day before I was to be induced. He apologized and said we must have just gotten our wires crossed, and that usually it’s the other way around… Around 38 weeks, women come in with a gun to his head demanding that he induce them, and he has to tell them “no.” I said, “Good, because I really trust my body and I don’t want to put myself at a greater risk of having a C-section,” and he said, “Yes, I think that’s about the sixth time you’ve said that… I think I understand.” Haha.

So I feel better about things. I’m still not sure what happened last time, but I am more confident that Dr. N and I are on the same page. And if I need to, I do feel like I could switch to his partner, Dr. McCants, who delivered Ford and was extremely patient with me. After today, though, I don’t think it will come to that.

Ultrasound video and pictures soon!