Bumpdate: 12 Weeks

Today, we had our first ultra sound!  You may remember from this post that we didn't get a dating u/s after our 9 week appointment because we got lucky enough to hear the heartbeat on the doppler.

I was feeling very excited and nervous this morning.  I woke up around 5 am and couldn't get back to sleep. I was too excited to see our baby!  Around 8:30 am, I started getting really nervous.  In all 12 weeks of being pregnant, I hadn't seen our baby.  What if something was wrong?  What if the heart had stopped beating?  What if baby had 5 arms?  What if they nuchal translucency measurement was above 3.0 mm?!

Sidebar: For those of you who don't know, this ultra sound is part of the first trimester screening which is not only used to measure baby's progress, but also to check for markers for Downs Syndrome (nuchal translucency - the fluid surrounding the spine at the base of the neck - measuring greater than 3 mm and the absence of a nasal bone) as well as Trisomy 13 and 18.  The ultra sound can indicate these problems, but further blood work, and sometimes a CVS (chorionic villus sampling) or an amniocentesis is required to confirm the genetic abnormality.

Anyway, so, Lou was supposed to meet me at the Botanical Gardens at 9 am so we could drive together.  At 9:15 am I find out that his car won't start and I have to go pick him up.  Que panic.  I hate being late for things.  So, I call the hospital and tell them we're going to be late.  Of course, everyone is driving like an idiot AND only one of the elevators is in service, but eventually, at 10 am, we got there.

Commence filling out paperwork and watching a really terrible children's tv show.

Around 10:15 am we get called back.  I get on the table, Lou sits next to me, and we look up at the monitor.  The tech squeezes some warm jelly (yes, they warm it at the hospital!) onto my belly and touches it with the wand.  BAM!  There's baby!

It was so surreal to see our little sprout up there on the screen rolling and punching and kicking!  The tech was able to get the crown to rump measurement easily; I believe little sprout is measuring 3.5 cm or 12 weeks, 2 days!  Then, she started measuring the nuchal translucency.  She must have measured it 3 or 4 times, and each time it measured about 1 mm.  Perfect!

At one point, the tech had to leave the room to go grab more paper for her printer.  She left the profile of our baby frozen on the screen.  It is so strange to recognize someone you've never met.  I've seen ultra sound photos before, and they're cool, but this was different.  This was MY baby, and I could totally tell.

Overall, the scan lasted about 15 minutes, and that was one of the best quarter hours of my whole life!  I've got a whole slew of pictures that I can't wait to show off, and I can hardly wait for our next ultra sound when I get to see our little sprout again.  We are still awaiting blood work to confirm that everything is OK, but after seeing our little one having a ball in my uterus today, I'm feeling quite confident that everything is just dandy!

Without further ado... our little sprout!