amnio and guess dragon's gender

i woke up at 6am today. i was hungry and a bit nervous about today's amnio test. i got up with mik, cooked eggs and ate cereal while he was getting ready to go for a run. we were 20 min early to the appointment which is unheard of! we are usually late because of the horrible west-east traffic in manhattan. but i think we were both anxious and were able to leave the apt early. 30 min before my test, i had to pee. darnit, i need a full bladder for the test to be efficient! so after that, i downed my 24 ounce water bottle and by the time the technician called my name, i was so close to peeing in my pants! i told her this and she got me on the bed quickly and started the ultrasound. she asked me if it was ok for this student from mexico to observe and i said yes - i would have said yes to anything to get the process started before i wet myself.

she put the gel on and started to look around... told me that my bladder was really full (tell me something i don't know)! first thing she asked is if we wanted to know the gender of the baby. YES!!! we would love to know that today. she looked at the head, measured it and pointed out the brain... the chest... legs... she's like "do you see that?" i saw something but i didn't want to assume. she's like "these are the legs and that is a 3rd leg". WHAAAAAAAAAAAAT?!!! that isn't a leg. it's clearly not as long as the other two. and it's not the umbilical cord either. i know what that is, missy!!! that sort of thing is the reason i am in this situation. :) i looked over at mik and his eyes are watery and red. it was such a great moment for me. i was secretly hoping for a boy but i knew how much he wanted it. it's great to see him sooooo happy and i hope i can remember this moment - although i know there will be lots of these moments in the near future and after the dragon boy is born! after that, she told me i could use the restroom while we waited for dr. kalish. thank goodness!

when dr. kalish arrived, she asked if i found out the sex of the baby. i told her we saw the 3rd leg. she congratulated us. then wasted no time in performing the amnio test. i didn't want to look at the needle(s) so i focused on mik and the monitor. mik is holding my hand. i felt a tiny prick and some pressure. i kept watching our baby. he's (i can now use 'he' instead of dragon or baby!!!) moving around and looked so adorable. within 1-2 minutes, it was done. where was the pain? i guess i expected the worst. mik said there were 3 needles and one was really long and thin but nothing bad. i had some light cramping afterwards but not bad at all. took a cab and was home in a jiffy.

i am laying on the sofa bed - my spot for the next 48 hours. well, i'll probably move to the bedroom at nights. dr. kalish said bed rest for 24 hours but i'm going to be safe and do 48 hours. nothing pressing i need to do tomorrow. i worked from home today - checked email and had a few conf calls - but it was hard to focus. i wanted to yell out our news to the whole world (i.e. facebook) but stopped myself and just let family and close friends know. i started shopping on RL for infant boy newborn essentials. we have a big sale going on so i got carried away a little and bought about a dozen things.

mik and i are over the moon. i never really used that expression until now. the gender is not confirmed yet since ultrasound is not 100%. they will call us on monday with the preliminary results of the test and the baby's gender. but the technician didn't sound like she was iffy about it. i still can't wait until monday to get the results. hope all goes well... today i can't stop thinking back to those 3 legs. i wish we had a picture of it but the technician said the baby is shy today. my shy baby dragon boy. i'm in love... with my two dragons.