This morning I went in for my big 12 week ultrasound, where they check for signs of Down Syndrome and several other chromosomal abnormalities. It’s a 2 part test, involving both bloodwork and an ultrasound; the bloodwork results won’t be back for another week or so.

The good news: Blur passed the u/s part of the test with “flying colors!” Everything about this baby is measuring picture perfect, if on the large end of normal. Today I’m exactly 12 weeks pregnant, but Blur measures 12w2d — in the range of normal, but at the high end of that range.

The no news: Blur is more modest than his/her older brother was. With Noah, the artist formerly known as Smudge, it was so obvious that this was a boy baby that untrained observers like Jill and I could tell easily.

The u/s tech had no idea whether Blur was a boy or a girl. She could see the umbilical cord clearly between Blur’s legs, but nothing of what might be behind it.

On the other hand, the u/s tech has only been in this particular job for 2 weeks, and had never before used this u/s machine.

The doctor, who used the phrase “flying colors” with regard to the physical characteristics suggestive of chromosomal abnormality, on the other hand, said she thought this baby was a girl.

Neither her tone nor her language were super-confident, and she didn’t elaborate on why she thought so.

So we are not yet sure that this is a girl, but we’re thinking “probably.”

The next big u/s is in 8 weeks, unless something goes wrong or we get scary results from the bloodwork today.

That’s the 3-D anatomy scan, where we really hope that Blur is more cooperative.