The Very Long Story of what happened on Aug. 25th

I do realize that the way I wrote the last post, it sounds like we just found out we were having a baby. No. We just found out that our baby is a girl. We have known since the end of July that we were expecting. We had an experience in August that has caused me to be more cautious in telling people this time then I normally am. Also, on top of this experience, we have still NEVER heard the baby's heart beat during a doctor's appointment. I wanted to make sure the baby was healthy before I shared publically. Here are some excerpts from the email I sent to my Mom telling her of the experience we had with the new baby on August 25:
"I had planned on taking Jaclyn to the airport, then going to my appointment where I would hear the heartbeat and have a quick sonogram. Then I would go to building next to my Dr.s office and pick up Carter's completed medical form, make a clothing donation, get gas in the car, and then return some DVDs to the video store, all while Denise (my neighbor) watched my kids. Jaclyn's plane got changed so she didn't need to be at the airport until after my appointment. So she came with me, but not wanting to be in the room with me while they did a ton of internal stuff, she waited in the waiting room. I went through all of the paperwork, laughing with the nurse practicioner about this being my 4th baby and maybe I should get a prize or frequent visitor's points. I then told her how blessed I was to have this be my 4th pregnancy and to have 3 healthy children from the last 3 pregnancies. She agreed that it is a miracle that I have had no problems in any of the past pregnancies. She asked how I was feeling and I said, "tired and sick, but I'm not as sick as I was with the other kids, I guess my body is just getting used to being pregnant. I'm quesy but I don't throw up too much. I'm mostly just tired all of the time." The doctor then came in and said, happily, "let's get a look at your baby!" She did a sonogram and her first question was, "are you sure about your dates?" I couldn't see the screen, so I didn't know what she was seeing. I told her that I was sure about the dates and told her that I had a dream that the baby was much further along than we thought. She said, "Well, I'm definately NOT seeing that." She then turned the screen so I could see it. all you could see was a small black dot, about 2 inches long with nothing in it. Then you saw off to the side one of my tubes that was cloudy. She explained that black area could be a yolk sac (the placenta and amniotic fluid) but that there should be a baby in it, she said also, that from the cloudiness, it was hard to tell, but that it looked like there could be a developing fetus in my tube. She then said, "I am not a radiologist, so I can't be positive what this all is, but I don't see anything here that looks like a normal pregnancy. I want you to go to the hospital today to get a better sonogram and have a radiologist diagnose what it is going on. They won't tell you anything, so you will leave the hospital not knowing, we want to tell you ourselves, but I won't let you sleep on this, we'll make sure you know tonight. We'll either talk to you on the phone or call you back into the office."
She called the hospital and made a rough appointment for 4pm, but told me that I was an add on, so everyone would get pushed ahead of me when problems came up, so not to count on getting in right at 4. It was now 3pm, I started crying as I called Denise to ask her if she could stay with the children for the rest of the day, she started to cry, being so worried for me and as we got off the phone she said, "I'll pray for you." I was then crying as I got into the waiting room and Jaclyn didn't know what to do.
She drove to the airport, we said good bye and I tried not to get upset as I drove to Reston Hospital. I called Vivian and told her what was happening and she said she would meet me there. I really wanted to get a blessing before we went in, but there wasn't time to get anyone there. (We didn't know I was going to wait at the hospital until 5:15 before they could even see me.) As I drove in the car alone I prayed that everything would be okay. I asked Him specifically for a miracle. I knew what He could do wasn't necessarily what He would do. I then told Him how much I wanted Dave to be with me. With Dave out of the country, I didn't have a way to contact him, I have to wait for him to call me, so I didn't think he would know what was going on until late that night. I got to the hospital, Vivian gave me a hug and it was just nice to have support. Miracle 1: At 4:30, Vivian's phone rang and it was Dave. He had called the house and Denise just told him that I was at the hospital and that his mom was with me. So he called her phone and I was able to tell him what was going on and he said that he didn't care how much it cost in roaming charges, that I needed to call him as soon as I knew what was going on. Why was this a miracle? Because I needed to talk to him. I needed to tell him what was going on. AND he never calls before 8pm when he's in Canada... NEVER. Now he knew to leave his cell phone on, which he doesn't do because of roaming charges when he's out of the country. I was extremely grateful for his call. I said a silent prayer thanking Heavenly Father for sending that impression to Dave that he needed to call home so that I could hear his voice before going in. Finally, the technician called me in and wouldn't let Vivian come with me. The technician was a nice, wonderful lady who handled the situation perfectly for me. She wanted to know if Vivian was my mom, and I said, "no. My mom is in Switzerland and my husband is in Montreal, so I called the next best thing, she's my mother-in-law" The technician said, "It's nice that she cares about you, not all mother-in-laws are like that. I told her that my in-laws are really amazing and I have been extremely blessed. She then asked about my kids. She wanted to know who was watching them and I told her it was my kind neighbor. She kept me talking through the whole first part of the exam and it was always about my blessings. She finished the first part of the exam and said to me, "it sounds like no matter what happens here today, you are a truly blessed person. You have tons of friends, family, and neighbors who love you." She told me that she saw the yolk sac, but also couldn't see anything inside of it. We moved to a different room with a different machine so she could do an internal ultrasound. They have a long skinny stick they can put inside to see what's going on better, but it's still a black and white image, like a regular u/s. She moved it around a bit and still could only see a yolk sac, but no image of a baby inside. She moved the probe in further (highly uncomfortable, had me put my feet down on the table and push off so my bum was in the air. As I'm sitting there uncomfortably, and doing gymnastics on the table, she said, "I need you to turn and look at the screen..." I turned and she said, "This is your baby." There it was. I said, "is it okay?" She said, "it appears to be." I started to cry, again. She had to move the probe in all kinds of horrible positions to be able to see it and could only get a heart beat when she was directly facing it. There was no way the doctor would have been able to do that with the equipment she had. I'm still a little sore from the whole ordeal but it was worth the pain. I even got to see it's little heart beating. She sent me out to the waiting room and said to wait because they would contact the doctor and have her talk to me on the phone there at the hospital. They called her, she got on the phone with me and said, "This a prime example of why if we aren't sure about something, we send you to the experts. We'll see you in 4 weeks at your next appointment. Congratulations."
Vivian started crying, I called Dave, he didn't cry but sounded like he might start. In the car on the way home I prayed again, thanking Heavenly Father for my miracles and blessings. All the way home I sang the song, Count Your Many Blessings... The whole day was emotionally exhausting and a huge testimony builder for me! I am truly thankful for the blessings I have and how the thoughts of those blessings help me through rough times. I am grateful that Heavenly Father watches out for little old me and knows what I need to learn and knows that I will be grateful for learning the lesson without having to actually learn the hard way."

So, you see, I didn't want to rush out and tell the world that I am pregnant, just in case. I have told many, many people, especially those that see me on a regular basis (I'm fairly obvious already, on Sunday I was told, "You look REALLY pregnant today." It's true, I do) but I needed to have this 20 week diagnostic ultrasound before I publically announced. We are excited and looking forward to our new daughter.