So we had a visit to the OB yesterday to get another ultrasound. The big potential news was to know the gender of the baby. Since I was working from home we walked over to the OB together at about 1:30 after Jeremy and I wolfed down a pair of Rachels. A Rachel is a sandwich with corned beef, cole slaw, Russian dressing, and swiss cheese. I believe some heat is applied to make a Rachel. Once at the office I was drenched in sweat from the short walk and had only drank a tiny Orangina earlier in the day. So I rifled around the pharmacy looking for the coldest water I could find and brought two ice cold ones back to Sarah who was waiting patiently in the waiting room. The word patient comes from the latin (patientus) meaning “someone willing to wait in a doctor’s office for an hour and a half before being let into the office for a 5 minute ultrasound”. I was being an impatient because I had scheduled a call for 3PM figuring that a doctor’s visit at 1:30 would easily be over in time. But after an hour of waiting the clock was close to 2:30 so I started to try to create alternative ways to have the important business call. The solution that I created was to acquire a pen and paper from around the office and do the call on the cell phone. Who needs a computer to have a phone call, right? So I went back to the pharmacy with the cold water because patients are not to be trusted with pens in a doctor’s office. That is why they lock the pens to the counter in the front with metal chains.

The pharmacy didn’t sell pens, only pen cartridges and unsharpened pencils. But I managed to sweet talk the pharmacist into loaning me a Bic pen for a short period of time. I then returned to the waiting area where the patients, most of whom were holding twins and triplets inside of their bellies and none of whom was my wife. So I had a pen but was going to miss the grand sex determination act. I started to walk into the area where all of the loud thumping (fetal heart monitors) was coming from but I was blocked by an administrative woman who takes blood pressure of women waiting in the waiting line to determine who has become sufficiently frustrated by the long wait to be allowed in to see the doctor. I told her I needed to see Sarah, who was probably happily visualizing our unborn child. She told me I couldn’t just rifle into offices opening doors on pregnant women, which I fully supported.

After a minute or two of waiting long enough to raise my blood pressure, I think she can take blood pressure readings through a wireless system, I was walked into a closed room. Sarah was already being ultrasounded and the doctor and a young Asian female resident who was very interested in how the computer for the ultrasound worked was intently watching the both of them. The doctor told me we had won a door prize which I was excited to hear since I don’t normally win door prizes. The door prize was a black Bic pen.

The doctor measured things like the radius of the head and different areas. He asked if we wanted to know the gender and then let us know that SHE is going to be a NORMAL GIRL baby.

The whole appointment was only five minutes so we hurried back to the apartment and I took my notes on my trusty computer.

A girl! It is very exciting. I have lots of thoughts on this.