First Trimester Screening Ultrasound

We had our first trimester screening ultrasound yesterday. This is the ultrasound that uses a higher resolution ultrasound machine and a tech that has had special training to detect specific chromosomal abnormalities. They measure the fluid on the neck of the baby. If there is an increased amount of fluid, the risk of having a baby with a chromosomal abnormality goes up. They also draw my blood. Once they have both of these results, they come up with a magical number on my risk (one out of something chance) of having a baby with a chromosomal abnormality.

I had such mixed emotions about doing the screening. Initially, I didn't even ask the nurse at my OB's office to schedule the appointment. I knew if the result came back that we are at a higher risk, I wouldn't want to do a CVS or amnio because of the risks associated with them. I knew I wouldn't be able to terminate the pregnancy either. So then, why do the screening? But Dom really wanted to do it. Well, at least he did in the beginning. Last week, he started feeling more like me. So now I really wasn't sure as to why we were doing the screening!

But we did. And the good news is that our baby did not have an increased amount of fluid on his/her! The space on the neck that they measure was .19 cm on our baby and they aren't concerned unless it is above .35 cm. The radiologist came in and told us that "we have a perfectly normal first trimester baby." It felt pretty good to hear that! We won't have the results as our risk of having a baby with chromosomal abnormality until the results of my blood work is available. We should have that by the end of the week, but I'm not worried since the fluid was measuring so normal and we have a pretty clean family history!

Our other good news is that the baby is actually looking more like a human! He/she kept bringing it's hands up to it's face. We could see all of the fingers. There was even one time that you could tell that the baby has it's knees bent and ankles crossed and it looked like he/she was just lounging in the bottom of my uterus. I'm sad the tech didn't take a picture of that because it was so cute! We also watched him/her open it's mouth and swallow. He/she kept jumping off the bottom of uterus, which was annoying the tech! She was having a hard time getting the pictures she needed because it was so active.

So now for the stats...I was 12 weeks and 3 days yesterday, but the baby was measuring 13 weeks 0 days! He/she is now 4 days ahead of schedule! The heart rate was 163, which is pretty close to what we had been getting at home on our doppler for the last few days.

So here are the pictures:

The head with the arm and hand resting on the forehead area.


The profile and you can still see the hand on the forehead.


A close-up of the face/neck/head and the white-ish area on the left is the brain.


The entire body and another good profile shot.


A lot like the last one with the hands up by the face.


Pretty cute, huh!?!?!

More good news at 11 weeks!

We had our monthly OB appointment yesterday. It was pretty uneventful! But that's a good thing, and I will never complain about that.

The appointment started off with the nurse using the doppler so we could hear the heartbeat. She asked me if I was excited to hear the heartbeat through a doppler for the first time, and I kind of felt bad that I had to tell her that we bought our own doppler so we've been listening to the heartbeat for the last week! But good thing I knew what to expect, because I had to tell her that what she was calling the baby's heartbeat, was not the baby's heartbeat! She was picking up my heartbeat, but the monitor was saying 156 beats per minute so I guess that threw her off. I told her that isn't want we've been hearing and that usually the heart rate is between 170 and 180. She fished around for a few more minutes before she finally found what we have been hearing at home. And of course, that heart rate was 174. Much better!

Dom was running late so he missed that part of the appointment. The doctor was with me when Dom got there and when he realized that Dom missed hearing the heartbeat on the doppler, he tried to find it himself for Dom to hear. He gave up after two minutes (the baby is still so small that it takes a while to find it) and pulled in the portable ultrasound machine! The quality isn't as good because it was a portable machine and a doctor was running it, not a tech! We didn't measurements during the ultrasound (I don't even think you can measure on the portable machines). The point was only to get a quick glimpse of what the baby was doing. The first picture is my favorite because you can see the arms and the legs. The third picture is Dom's favorite since you can see all of the facial features. This one freaks me out because it looks like an alien, or skelator as the doctor called it. The best part of the ultrasound was to see the difference in the movement. Last time, you could see little twitches in the arms, legs, and head. This time, the the entire body was flying around in the sac. It looked like it was jumping. You could also tell that the arms and legs had grown a lot. They were moving like real arms and legs, not just flapping like last time. There was one time that it looked like the baby was waving at us! It was amazing!




Dr. Adams was gone yesterday so I had to see a different doctor. I'm sure Dr. Adams would have given an hour lesson about what it happening in my body and I would have left feeling full of knowledge. This doctor told me to wash my hands regularly, wear my seat belt, and keep taking my vitamins! I'm not sure it takes a medical degree to give that kind of advice! I will have Dr. Adams back at my next appointment.

We have made our news public! We told all of our friends last night and I will tell the folks at my work next week. Our friends were very excited! We are having quite the baby boom now! This time next year, we will have three babies to take trick-or-treating! It is so nice to have friends that are going through the same things you are. And because they are further along than me, I am learning so much from them. By the end of the night, the pregnant girls were at one table sharing baby stories and the non-pregnant girls were at a different table, drunk and crazy! It was funny!