October 21, 2013 - a date to remember

October 9, 2009 was the worst day of my and Russell's lives so far.  Hands down, THE.  WORST.  It was the worst news we had ever received...that our precious baby had spina bifida, a birth defect I had heard of but really knew nothing about.  It was a Friday afternoon.  We were in an ultrasound room of a maternal-fetal medicine office, summoned there after my second trimester blood screening came back with a neural tube defect indicator.  The ultrasound confirmed it.

Fast forward 4 years to October 21, 2013 - one of the best of days of my and Russell's lives so far.  Hands down, one of THE.  BEST.  It was some of the best news we had ever received...that our precious baby did NOT have spina bifida, a birth defect I had heard of a million times and knew way too much about.  It was a Monday morning.  We were in the den of our house, preparing for the day's work and waiting for a phone call.  The blood test confirmed it.

Ok, fast forward a little more to yesterday, November 13, 2013.  We went for another high-level ultrasound at the same maternal-fetal office in the SAME DREADFUL ULTRASOUND ROOM.  Just to be sure that the blood test didn't lie, my belly was gooped up 3 times with gel to take all the measurements and pictures that they possibly could come up with.  I heard that DREADFUL CLICKING NOISE of the ultrasound keyboard when the ultrasound tech took measurements and pictures.  I smelled that DREADFUL SMELL of the ultrasound gel.  It was all too familiar.  And if it wasn't bad enough, we had to wait almost an hour to get back there.  And the one doctor on call was the one DREADFUL DOCTOR I specifically requested never to see again after seeing him once with Emma.  I guess they don't pay much attention to those types of requests four years later.

And what a different outcome yesterday...not dreadful at all.  Wonderful, in fact.  Brain ventricles, heart ventricles, heartbeat, kidneys, spine, hands, arms, feet, legs, etc. all look just fine.  And I hope to never set foot inside that DREADFUL office again.

Oh, one other outstanding thing about yesterday is that Russell and I found out the sex of the baby!  But no one else will find out until November 22.  We have our reasons.  The two of you who read this blog will have to wait like everyone else.

Last thing (and I will post this several times): I am changing the title of this blog to One Young, Two Youngs, Three Youngs, Four.  It doesn't seem appropriate to keep the Life With Sweet Baby Young title anymore because I will have two sweet babies.  I will continue to focus on Emma but certainly won't exclude our new blessing.  In my head, the title is reminiscent of an old rhyme or a song or something I once knew, but I can't remember exactly what it was.  Any ideas? The url for the blog will change to http://oneyoungtwoyoungs.blogspot.com.  Write it down.