Ultrasound Debate

I am 22 weeks and 4 days pregnant. It seems to fly by and I am soaking in every moment of this pregnancy. I day dream of my UC birth everyday! Playing through what will happen. I've always done this through all of my pregnancies and when birth finaly does arrive it's as if I've already gone through it. Somehow, it makes the pain less?

I haven't written in a while, but much has been going through my head and through many discussions between my husband and I. The debate has been about getting an ultrasound. We have had an ultrasound to find out the gender with our four previous babies. I have wanted to wait everytime and have had their gender been a surprise at birth, but have always been talked into by DH and family. Well, this time around I made up my mind that I WOULD wait! Lately, my husband and children have been practically begging me to find out the sex of this baby. "So we can prepare," he says. A friend of mine laughed when I told her what DH said and her response was, "Well....with four children already in the house, you have plenty of baby clothes hanging around, a sling, I know you have boobies....I'm not sure what else you need in the way of things to prepare for!!" This is so true! Part of me wants to know for sure that there is only one baby and have a looksie at the placenta (which I believe is an anterior placenta), but the other part of me says it doesn't matter.

My thoughts have been to go and take a peek, but without finding out boy/girl. My problem is that I KNOW if we go get the U/S, my DH will find out the sex. He says we would not find out if that was my wishes, but then I fear that the U/S tech would screw up and spoil the surprise too. I would be soooo dissappointed if that happened. Sometimes, I feel like I need put out the idea of "waiting for the surprise" out of my head and not go against my DH's wishes to know?

Some have suggested scheduling an appointment while DH was away, but we are always honest with each other and he would definitly be upset about not including him. Plus, I'd feel wrong trying to keep the whole thing a secret. So that's definitly out.

We have talked about seeing my old midwife and let her listen for FHT and palpate to determine one or two and that way avoid getting the u/s; however, since this is my 5th I feel pretty confident of what I feel and use a fetalscope to listen to FHT. The problem is... I very strongly believe that I have an anterior placenta with this pregnancy (due to palpating my tummy and most of all I always feel kicks very low, always on the right, and in the far back (I know sounds strange), but NEVER on the left. This is completely different than my other pregnancies where the kicks were all over the place. The anterior placenta makes it difficult to get a good palpation of one or two babies (Always definitly feel a baby on the right very clearly.) and due to the previous babies my abdomonal thickness (and a tilted uterus?) makes it nearly impossible to hear good FHT until 6m+ (which I'm almost there.) We (my midwife and I) delt with the difficultly of finding steady and good FHT with my prior two pregnancies (homebirths). So, I don't believe going to see her would really help. Plus, Billy wants to know b/g, not just one/two.


FINAL DECISION
Billy and I talked last night and finaly I decided to stop focusing on feeling like something was going to be ruined and just enjoy seeing the bab(ies). We decided to go get a free u/s at the Institute of Medical Ultrasound this Wednesday. They take a very intricate look at the baby and all of its' parts, but they do not offer the sex. Although, I'm sure I'll know by looking ( I do have three boys and they definitly looked different than my dd). I'm hoping that baby will be shy and the surprise will remain, but at least we'll have peace about the possibility of twins. I'd also like to see if I'm right about the anterior placenta, too. My husband and sons are very excited now that I've given in. I feel a bit dissappointed (and I'm sure if we find out the sex Wed. I'll be even more dissappointed for not waiting), but all that truely matters is that this is a healthy pregnancy and baby is growing (and my husband is happy!).

As of now, everyone's guess is.....
Daddy~boy (decided last night)
Mommy~boy
Rylan~girl
Nolan~both (a boy and girl)
Gideon~both (one of each? He also says I'm having sextuplets.LOL)
Layla~ girl
Nana~girl

Would love to know your guess.