Busy Day

Yesterday was a busy day, considering that I didn't work.

At 8:45 AM I had my ultrasound. This big one - the fetal study ultrasound. Also, the fun one, where you can see things like the parts of the baby and the gender! Unfortunately, 45 minutes before your appointment you have to drink 24 oz of water so you have a full bladder during the test. I have no idea why this is necessary, but the papers I got state that it is, and that if you don't come with a full bladder they'll make you come back another day. I didn't want that - I already had today off of work for President's Day and I didn't want to miss a day of work because my bladder wasn't sufficiently full. So I dutifully drank all of the water.

Ugh - misery. I spent my time in the waiting room tapping my foot, reassuring myself that I had gotten through this once for P's ultrasound, and also trying not to think about the fact that my muscles were probably tighter back then.

But all was well. They called me back and a student tech did the first parts of my ultrasound. Both she and the regular tech, who came in later to finish the ultrasound, commented, "Wow, your bladder is really full. You really did drink all of that water, didn't you?" Yes, of course I did, I wanted to scream, you told me to! Why would you tell me to do that if I didn't really need to?

But the ultrasound went well. First the kiddo was squirming and fighting, and later she curled into a tiny ball and wouldn't move at all, so it took them a while to get all of the images. I know they can't diagnose anything so I didn't bother to ask if everything looked normal, but they didn't seem concerned about anything.

And we got a clear shot of the gender - it's a girl! When I came home P rushed over and wanted to see my belly (his new obsession, for some reason), and as he did Mike said, "Say hi to Bernadette."

"Hi, Dette!" P said cheerfully.

We'll call her Etta, and I'll call her E here. I think the ultrasound ticked her off, because she was more active than ever before for the rest of the day.

Later I went to physical therapy for my back. The pregnancy has thrown it out of whack. I think the main purpose of PT is to make you feel absolutely silly, because I felt absurd as the PT coached me through the back exercises I have to do now. Luckily I found that I've been doing a lot of everyday things to aggravate my back. This is good, because it means that if I can make the lifestyle changes I need to make - things like carrying bags over both shoulders instead of one, or using pillows for support when I sit - then my back will stop hurting. She also recommended a belly brace, which looks absurd.



But if it helps, I'll get one and use it.

So that was my day. Hopefully today won't be as busy - I'm tired from my day off!