Textbook Pregnancy....Well, Almost

Everything about my pregnancy has been textbook- except the almost month long spotting. The first week I wasn't worried- in fact, that would have been pretty textbook itself. When the spotting continued, Rico and I had to accept the fact that we could be losing the baby. Again, we are realists. We know the odds. We know that these things happen- even when you DO make every effort to prepare your body to get pregnant. We felt trapped, not knowing if I was pregnant or if I had miscarried. So, we did 2 things

1- Called the midwives (who set us up with an early 7 week ultrasound)

2- Decided we better name this lil' thing a nickname that was a "fighter's" name. We went through lots of names lying in bed one night. Then, Rico said it. "What about Ruffio? As in "Ruf-fi-oooooo!"
Ruffio is from the movie Hook (one of our FAVORITE childhood movies- we still watch it if it comes on tv.)  I laughed so hard I cried. I couldn't get myself back together again. Perfect. Ruffio it was. That became our secret code. If I was having a bad day, Rico would send me quotes from the movie. Every time I had a pregnancy symptom, we would crow like roosters (this makes sense to you if you are awesome and have seen Hook.) It has been a perfect name so far....you know, minus it being super masculine and not gender neutral in any way. At all. I mean, come on, look at him:

We went to the ultrasound appointment. We checked in and chatted about our day, feeling like we were playing grown ups again. The lady at the check in stopped me as we were giving her our information:
Front desk lady: "Are you guys parents?"
Me: "Well...we HOPE so. That's what we are here for." (Patting my tummy)
Lady, checking my chart: "Oh gosh, I hadn't even looked at WHY you were here. I just thought that you two seemed like you would be such fun parents! Well goodness, I hope your appointment goes well".
She was clearly flustered at this point, I think she thought that she had done something wrong- but that was EXACTLY what we needed at that moment.

So, we were called back and we got all prepared for the sonogram with a far more stoic ultrasound tech. Up came some images, and then she just casually said, "Well, the heartbeat is beating at ...."
I interrupted her- "Wait, so it's in the right place AND it has a heartbeat?!" I'm not sure that she realized that we were working WAAAAY back at that level. We both smiled....again, a lot of smiling and staring, staring and smiling. Our baby had made us gawking idiots for a second time. She showed us some things, and measured little Ruffio. I knew what I was seeing, so I kept checking to make sure Rico knew what HE was seeing.
At one point, I went all FACS teacher on her. "Wait, stop, is that its yolk sac?"  (It was- but gosh, I was a little bossy about it!)
She told us that Ruffio was measuring at 7 weeks and 4 days (EXACTLY what we had thought, literally to the day- clearly we had another rule follower on our hands- just like mom and dad.)
She printed our first baby pictures, and we started heading home- still smiling like idiots.

As we went down the hall, the lady from the front desk popped out and asked how it went (as if she couldn't tell from the smiles and complete fascination with the pictures in our hands.) I jumped up and down and said, "We're going to be parents!" She gave me a hug and said, "Oh, I am so happy! I got all the girls back here together and we all prayed for you two- that you would get good news!"

Oh. My. Gosh. 

So. Sweet. 

I melted. IN the hallway of the ultrasound office. 

People are awesome. Little babies with tiny tails in grainy pictures are awesome. Rico is awesome. This is awesome.