Tips for a great ultrasound...

James and I are 20 weeks along on Sunday, which means our ultrasound is just around the corner. (Well, let's hope!) I found a few tips we'll be trying to have a good ultrasound experience:

1. The amount of amniotic fluid you have plays a big part in getting good images of the baby. The more the better. We suggest for the week of your appointment to drink lots of water to help boost the amount of amniotic fluid. (Our ultrasound technician asked us to go in with a full bladder for the appointment - I guess now we know why.)

2. Dress's are cute but not great for ultrasounds as we need your belly out for it. They have blankets to cover you, but you would probably be more comfortable in pants, shorts or skirt.

3. 20 Minutes prior to your scan a trick we use is to drink some juice or soda or eat a little piece of chocolate (if your Dr. allows of course). It will sometimes help in keeping baby more alert for their ultrasound. (We did this with both Jack and the new baby and our ultrasounds have always had an active baby. It's fun.)

So we are up to the ultimate decision: Do we find out what we are having, or try our hand on being patient and waiting until the baby comes?

These are the types of debates I go through a few times a day. These are some of the things I have come up with:

Reasons to find out the baby's sex:

* Prepare yourself so you don't have any disappointment at birth.
* Buy sex specific clothes and items
* Decorate the nursery and pick out cute baby bedding
* Bonding with a specific baby, not just an it
* Why not? What's the harm?

Reasons to wait:

* Like the surprise
* Help make the last few weeks of pregnancy bearable, not knowing (Personally I think this could backfire and make it harder,and I would induce myself more readily just so I could finally know!) I also heard from a friend that she decided to wait to find out for her second baby to hopefully give her that extra "umph" when she was in labor because she was trying to go through it naturally.
* The excitement of hearing the phrase "It's a girl!" "It's a boy!"
* To annoy myself and family members, but show James that I CAN wait
* Maybe you already have boy and girl things so it doesn't matter money-wise if you find out?
* It's a lot cheaper to wait than have to re-do the nursery and return all your gender-specific baby items?

Some people try to make it a sort of game. I thought I'd share these ideas:

* Find out the sex, but have the technician write it on a piece of paper and seal it. My sister-in-law did this as a Christmas present for her and her husband. I thought it was a really cute idea. Our ultrasound will be so close to valentines day that I was half-tempted to do this and use it as my valentines day gift. :)
* Find out the sex of the baby but don't tell anyone else. I personally think this is worse than just not finding out at all. haha. But I know a few friends who chose to do it this way to keep their family and friends in dispense...

James doesn't believe me, but I am still deciding on whether or not I want to find out the gender or not. Sometimes I know it would drive me crazy not to know, and then other times I feel like being stubborn and waiting. And I have time to decide and ponder it through still, so that is what I'll continue to do until I am finally faced with going to the ultrasound and having to decide then!