*SPOILER*

Having just moved house, not got the internet up and running yet at home, and being well, you know, preggers an' all, I've been quite lax about updating.

So, the scan - so much better than the first one. I don't think I realised quite how nervous I was about everything being okay with Giuseppe the bump until I got there, rolled my trousers down and took a big fat glob of gel on the tummy. But it was absolutely brilliant. This time, although bizarrely the printed pictures weren't quite as clear to me, you could see much more during the actual scanning. They come at your bump from every possible angle, and then stop and take measurements of things I didn't even know you needed to measure. And, most breathtakingly, you could see the movement. When she got underneath Giuseppe, you could see two little feet paddling away. The arm was endearingly up close to the head, and the spine was clearly visible.

And all clear - everything within normal range. Although we did notice looking at our printout afterwards that the head circumference was actually a bit below the average, but she said the readings were broadly average so nothing to worry about. And as far as I'm concerned, anything which lessens the difficulty of squeezing a watermelon through the eye of a needle is a good thing ;o)

And timidly we did say that we would like to know the sex if it was possible. So she swivelled that little wand and pointed to the relevant area. "Now here are the external genitalia. I think you're having a little girl. There are no signs of any boy parts there."

Result! I was going to take this with a big ol pinch of salt because I've heard before that unless they see a willy, they can't really be too sure. But I asked her this and she said in a confident voice "I think it was a pretty clear view".

Sadly, we had pretty much decided on a name if it was a boy - now that it's going to be a girl our shortlist of possible names is growing all the time. I'm very excited though. You're not supposed to say it, but, not very secretly, I wanted a girl. They are just less icky than boys.