Why Is Mr Peanut In The Spot Where My Baby Should Be....

On Oct 12, 1989 I had my second ob visit and sonogram. As always it began with taking the little cup into the bathroom and trying to pee into the cup instead of all over myself. Let me just say I was new to doing this and seemed to have an issue with how to do it. This is the point in which I must tell you that I was a very girly girl, so the idea of urinating on my hand while I held the cup was not very pleasant. But somehow I managed to do it almost every time, and each time I would be just as grossed out as the time before. So nope I must say I never got used to peeing all over my hand while I held that stupid cup.

Once that was done, and I had washed my hands for like 15 minutes, I was placed into an exam room. I hated waiting for Dr Siegel to come into the room, it always seemed to take forever. (ok so I'm not the most patient person in the world.) On this visit the wait was worse because I knew that I was going to be having a sonogram done after the exam and I couldn't wait to see my baby on the screen. (I had just about read "What to expect when your expecting" from cover to cover by the time that 2ND appointment came around. Plus I had bought several other pregnancy books as well, all read and memorized.) So, I was very patiently, okay not so patiently, waiting for Dr Siegel to come in and examine me, so that I could have the sonogram done.

The nurse comes in and asks me a million questions which I am sure I answered with an attitude that only a 17 year old can have. I was told that the doctor would be in shortly. Shortly...I asked? But I have an appointment at 2:30 and it is almost 2:50 why am I waiting on him? (See I told you that I had a bit of an attitude that day!!) The nurse told me that Dr Siegel had had some emergencies that morning and was running late, and that he would be in shortly. (Then I am sure she went in and labeled my file with PITA, Pain In The Ass, with bright red letters!!!) After what seemed like hours and hours, but was really only about 5 minutes Dr Siegel came walking in.

He began asking me a bunch of questions. By now I am getting so frustrated and I KNOW my attitude was off the charts. I didn't care about cramps (didn't have any), I didn't care about any spotting (didn't have that), and I certainly didn't care to know that I had gained almost 3 pounds in 4 weeks. What I did care about was moving this along so that I could finally see my baby. Of course we had to do the whole measurement thing first. (oh would you look at that you are becoming a whale, Casandra. Oh how nice of you to point that out to me Dr Siegel, I knew there was a reason I liked you...NOT!!!) Then he felt around on my belly for God only knows what. (ok so I hadn't completely memorized the books, but I did read them.) He asked me a few more questions, that I am sure I answered with the disgust that only a very impatient 17 year old can have. Gave me a glass of water and told me to drink at least one but would like me to drink several. What on God's green earth for...I asked? His response was you need a full blatter for your sonogram. Oh ok I can do that, anything to see my baby.

Next...

He told me to go into the next room push my pants below my belly and he would be in shortly. Shortly? What the heck? I had appointments scheduled for this, where was he going now? Why couldn't he just follow me into the next room. Geesh, I just want to see my baby and all this office wants to do is try to kill me with the waiting game. So of course I go into the next room and wait again not so patiently. I must have stepped out of the room with my pants unbutton and unzipped a hundred times and asked if I had been forgotten. I was always told no that Dr Siegel would be in shortly. I would grunt Oh My God I hate waiting...my parents are not paying him so that I can wait around for him. (Told you that I probably had PITA written in my chart, it was probably in bold, highlighted, circled, underlined, and maybe even in italics.)

Finally...

Dr Siegel walks into the sono room and tells me to lay down. The moment I lay down I look up at the ceiling and see a cartoon that has been blown up into an 8x10. It was a picture of a pregnant girl and inside the belly of the girl was the shape of the placental sack but instead of there being a baby in that sack it said...I forgot my pill! I couldn't help but laugh, and for whatever reason I have always remembered that cartoon. Anyway, about now Dr Siegel tells me that he is going to squirt some gel on my belly. Well he could have warned me that it was going to be cold, that he had specifically shipped it in from the South Pole for my sonogramming pleasure. (I bet the nurse did put it in the fridge right after putting PITA on my chart.) Once the shock and delirium of near hypothermia was over he placed a wand on my stomach. By now he was explaining everything that he was seeing and doing. He rolls the wand across my belly to what appears to be Mr Peanut in a bag. He boldly looks at me and says...That is your baby. What the...???!!!??? That can't possibly be my baby, it looks like Mr Peanut. This doctor is a quack!! I am telling my mom as soon as I get home to find me a doctor that knows what he is doing, because this one doesn't even know my baby from Mr Peanut.

I told Dr Siegel to quit kidding with me, and show me what my baby really looks like. I remember him laughing and asking if I had read any of the book he gave me. I told him yes I had that I had memorized it, or so I thought anyway. He simply stated well then maybe it is time to look at the pictures in the book as well. He pointed to what appeared to be a very tiny butterfly sitting on Mr Peanut, you see that he asked. I told him of course I can see it I'm not blind. (Gotta love the attitude of a 17 year old.) That is your baby's heart beat, at your next visit we should be able to hear it. My heart sung...I was going to get to hear my baby's heart beat, I couldn't wait. I loved my baby already even if it did look exactly like Mr Peanut.

Dr Siegel got very quiet while he did all of Mr Peanut's... uhmm I mean my baby's... measurements and told me that the baby was measuring at 8 weeks along. So his original guess of a date was way off, he had me at 9 weeks then. But also I know now that was based on the info I gave him about my last day of my last period and about the first day of my missed period. So I can admit this now, but I was embarrassed by it then... I was happy because I thought I had missed out on a huge part of my pregnancy. Dr Siegel pulled out his handy dandy pregnancy calendar (a little wheel that he spun this way and that) and told me that my due date was May 4th. I was elated...even though I was going to be giving birth to what appeared to be Mr Peanut I had a date to write on the calendar of when I could expect his/her arrival. Oh Happy Day!!!

Dr Siegel then told me that I had something called placenta previa, and that it could actually be a serious issue. That if I started having cramps, started bleeding, or anything felt out of the norm to please all his office right away. That I needed to be careful about lifting and pushing things, and try to make sure I gave myself down time. I agreed to call if something came up, but honestly thought I was invincible and so was my baby. Needless, to say I did not pay too much attention to that, and thank God it never caused me too much trouble. Dr Siegel handed me 3 sonogram pictures and told me to make another appointment again in 4 weeks.

I couldn't wait to get home to show Tina, my mom, my sister, my boss (well honestly anyone who would let me) the pictures of my Mr Peanut. I remember asking Tina if she thought that meant it was going to be a boy? You know because it looked so much like Mr Peanut. All she said was...Who knows...maybe.

Well I didn't care if it was a boy or a girl. I loved and wanted my baby, so it's sex did not matter. If God had come out of the sky and I told me I could chose the sex of my baby I would have asked for a girl. A little princess to call my daughter, in my mind she would have blue eyes, blonde curly hair, fair skin and would be a spitting image of her mommy. But I knew God wasn't going to ask for my choice of sex, and I also knew that genetically speaking my Mr Peanut was going to have brown hair, brown eyes, olive skin, and probably be a spitting imagine of its father. I had all the recessive genes and the father had all the dominate genes. So I could only hope that it was healthy and had the required body parts because chances were very slim that my Mr Peanut would look like me at all. (oh how God can prove one wrong!!!)