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Nuchal Transluncency Ultrasound 12 weeks 4 Days

Nearly 3 weeks ago I had my 2nd OB appointment and my Nuchal Translucency ultrasound, but never got around to blogging about it because I was so busy planning Adaline’s birthday party.

On 07/27 I had my 2nd OB appointment. I had an internal exam and PAP smear (Insert sarcastic “Yay” here) and we got to hear the baby’s heartbeat. The doctor actually had a hard time finding the heartbeat. He looked around for awhile and couldn’t hear anything. Then he went lower on my stomach and said that he needed to push my uterus up above my pelvis (*Remember this for later.). Then he found the heartbeat but the baby immediately moved away and he had to try to find it again. Once he did he said that it was good in the 150s.

So, this is a picture of me at my OB appointment at just 12 weeks and 3 days.

Yeah, check out that bump that I’m rocking. And that bump? Apparently not my uterus since the doc had to push it up past my pelvic bone and whathaveyou. What that means, boys and girls, is that the adorable baby bump that I’m rocking is actually my stomach…my big, fat, stomach, that looks like it’s a uterus full of baby. Don’t let it deceive you since my uterus and baby are both hiding discreetly behind my pelvic bone. Dude, why am I so fat?! Well, at least my fat stomach had the presence of mind to disguise itself as a baby bump rather than what it actually is…an oddly shaped muffin top. This way people think I’m a cute little pregnant lady instead of an uber-fatty. Ahem.

Moving on, after getting the news that my baby bump is actually a cellulite bump I took the next logical step and went immediately to the nearest ice cream stand for a chocolate cone. I had it almost entirely demolished before getting back to the car when my hubby took this picture.

When we arrived home and were preparing Adaline for bed she wanted to put on my maternity shirt.

The following day we had my Nuchal Translucency scan. It’s a test that can only be done between 11 and 13 weeks where they measure the back of the baby’s neck to see if it’s thickened which is common in babies with Down Syndrome. They also do a blood test and these two tests together will tell you the risk factor for your baby. We just like to get an extra peek at the baby and 12 weeks is such a great time for an ultrasound because the little ones are moving like crazy even though you can’t feel it and they have tons of space to bounce around it.

I was 12 weeks 4 days at this scan (I was 12w1d at Adaline’s scan) and this baby was completely different from Adaline. Adaline moved like crazy…so much so that it took them the longest time to get her calm enough to measure her neck. She literally bounced off of the walls of my uterus and did flips and everything. This baby was very laid back. The movements were all small wiggles and hand movements, nothing big. It was so interesting to see how different this baby was compared to my daughter. Even though this baby stayed pretty still (s)he was still in the wrong position for the test and we had the opposite problem. The tech had me coughing and smacking my belly to try to get the baby to move into a different position and each time it would just fidget every so slightly as if to say, “Leave me alone! 5 more minutes, mom!”

(Click on photos to enlarge.)

We asked the tech if she could give us and educated guess on gender. She said that if she had to guess she’d say that it’s a…boy! But she also said that it’s much too early to tell (I knew that already) and that she’s been wrong before at this point. At Adaline’s nt ultrasound they “guessed” girl and obviously they were right, but at my nephew’s nt ultrasound they also “guessed” girl and obviously they were wrong…so a nt gender guess is still 50/50. We’ll be able to find out pink or blue in mid-September.

Right after the scan they let me know that the neck looked normal but to remember that the blood test is important and then I went upstairs to have blood drawn. I’ve read online that many women get a finger prick for this test but both times I’ve had blood drawn from my arm. The hospital called a few days later to let me know that all of the test results looked normal and to give me the risk factor, which I don’t remember the exact number, but it was very low.

Here I am after the ultrasound and blood test. You can see my hubby’s reflection in the window taking the picture.

I’m now 15 weeks and officially out of my first trimester. This seems to be going much faster than my last two pregnancies which I assume is probably because Adaline takes up so much of my time the days go by pretty fast.

Here’s my growing baby bump from the first trimester. You can see that it only took me a few weeks to start growing (although again, it’s just fat ;)).
(Click on photos to enlarge.)

And just in case you think I’m one of those weirdos that’s stuffing my shirt…here are the bare belly shots.
(Click on photos to enlarge.)

I have another OB appointment next week and as long as there are no problems my next ultrasound won’t be until mid-September.
Now you’re all caught up on the baby business.

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Posted in About the family, Jonathan, Pregnancy, Ultrasounds

2 Comments

Tags: nuchal translucency, pregnancy, ultrasound

The Night I Got Arrested and Changed My Name to David (not really)

Jul 22

Posted by Jenn Rian

Don’t be alarmed by the story I’m about to tell you. Here on the other side of things the baby and I are just fine, so just sit back and see the humor in the story.

I’ve been absent from the blog this week. Adaline’s birthday is coming up in just two weeks and I’ve been busy making and planning things for her party. Yesterday after spending the day making her party hat and then a balloon wreath, I finally sat down to relax. My mom was there to help out with Adaline while I finish things up. All of the sudden I started cramping. The cramps were down really low, almost in my pelvic area, and there was some pain in my lower back too. This didn’t feel like gas pains, or labor pains, or the kind of cramps I had during my miscarriage…it was really different from any kind of cramp I’d ever had before.

Well, long story short after about 20 minutes of the cramping I started to bleed. It wasn’t a lot of blood. It was very light and only when I wipe…it was a very light red (a pinky orange). I was 11 weeks and 4 days and I knew that if I was losing the baby there isn’t anything that they could do about it. Still I decided since I was cramping and bleeding I should go to the ER and get checked out just in case. I went upstairs to get dressed while my mom called to see if she could find someone to sit with Adaline. While I was upstairs I called Cool Daddy at work and told him what was going on. He said he’d find someone to come in for him and he’d take me to the hospital.

My hubby came straight from work and took me to the hospital while he was still wearing his uniform. We arrived at the ER and got checked in at 8:48pm, at this point I wasn’t cramping anymore and I was feeling fine other than being nervous and worried. We sat for a while before another desk nurse called me back to ask me some details. I was sitting in a wheelchair and hubby was standing next to me. After the nurse finished asking me questions, she looked at my husband and said, “Are you related?” and when he said that he was my husband she started to laugh. She said, “Here’s what I thought was going on. I thought you were taking her to jail and had to bring her to get checked out first. Then I thought, wow, she’s awful nice to be going to jail.” Of course we both started to laugh and I said, “He had to leave work to bring me here and he didn’t change first. Thanks, honey.” So there I was, a pregnant hardened criminal waiting to get checked before heading off to the slammer 😉

They got me into an ER room and into a gown. There was some waiting and waiting and then eventually and ER doctor came in. He said that he’d do an ultrasound to check for a heartbeat, they’d draw some blood to check my HCG levels, and take a urine sample to check for a urinary tract infection. So they gave me a cup and I went to fill it up. Right next to the toilet was an automatic toilet paper dispenser with a mind of its own. I was barely near it when it started dispensing tp onto the floor (and you don’t think I was going to use that do you? *shudder*). Then when I needed to use the paper and I waved my hand all around it nothing would come out, I had to reach my hand in there and yank some out. When I was all finished and walking away it started dispensing tp all over the floor again. Nice.

After all of the toilet paper fun the nurse came in and took my blood sample. Then she rolled in the portable ultrasound machine. And then we waited and waited and waited. Another nurse popped her head in and asked if we were down with the machine yet. I told her they’d never even used it and she said she would wait. A little while later the doctor came back in and said they were taking the ultrasound machine to someone more urgent. Eventually he came back at 10:44pm and we got this ultrasound thing started.

The doctor did an abdominal ultrasound (thank goodness), he showed us the baby and it appeared to have a good, strong heartbeat. He didn’t do the thing where they measure the heartbeat and tell you the number. Either this machine didn’t do that or he didn’t know how. So while we didn’t get a number of how strong the heartbeat was, we could see it and it looked good. The baby wasn’t moving (probably sleeping), although I thought I saw an arm move just a little.

The doctor said he was waiting on my test results and then we could go home. I was to call my ob the next day to let them know what was going on and to come back to the ER if I started soaking pads (I was barely bleeding at this point). Then he gave us a copy of the ultrasound. My husband looked at it and said to me, “Is your name, David?”

There on my ultrasound was the name David So-and-so, who I assume is the guy that got his ultrasound before me and the doc never bothered to change the name. Boy, won’t David be surprised to find out he has a uterus…and he’s pregnant!

After the doc left they seemed to forget about us again for nearly an hour. Hubby finally went to stand outside in the hall where a nurse spotted him and apologized and said that a shift change happened and he has my discharge papers. He apparently didn’t have my test results, but he assumed that everything was fine since they were discharging me. No one told me my HCG level. Oh well. I was too tired to care at that point. We got in the car to go home at 11:44pm.

So near as we can tell everything is fine with mom and baby. I never went to jail and I hear that David is already picking out names and lining up interviews. The End.

Posted in Humor, Pregnancy, Ultrasounds

3 Comments

Tags: humor, pregnancy, ultrasound

Early Ultrasound 7 weeks 2 days

Jun 22

Posted by Jenn Rian

Yesterday on mine and Cool Daddy’s 8th wedding anniversary we had an early ultrasound. We were checking to see how our little one(s) were progressing. Also, since this is a Clomid baby there’s a 10% chance of twins so we wanted to see how many babies! I was 7 weeks 2 days along which means they had to do a transvaginal ultrasound.

The ultrasound tech turned the machine towards us and said that she was seeing a gestational sac and a yolk sac, but because it is still so small she wasn’t able to see the baby yet. She was going to have me come back in two weeks to check again. At this point I wasn’t crying, but I was definitely upset. I knew that not seeing a baby even this early on isn’t a great sign. I had an early transvaginal ultrasound with Adaline at 7 weeks 5 days and we were able to see her and her heartbeat really well.

Then she said that she was going to take a look around at my uterus and ovaries to see what was going on in there. While she was looking around in there she moved and twisted the probe every which way which, I’m not gonna lie, hurt quite a bit. Still I was hoping that while she was looking around in there she’d find the baby. Then she said, “I spoke too soon.” And she turned the screen around. Right away I could see slight movement inside of the sac and I said right away, “Is that the heartbeat flickering?!” She said yes! Yay!

Here’s the first ultrasound of our little one.

And just in case you can’t figure out what you’re looking at, this one spells it out for you.

The tech only saw one sac and one baby but she said that doesn’t necessarily mean there’s only one baby in there. Because the baby is so small and because she had a hard time finding it at all she said that it’s still possible there’s another in there. At this point I’d be pretty surprised if we found out it was twins. Then again she did have a much harder time than the tech that did Adaline’s ultrasound, so maybe there is another one in there that she missed.

For comparison here is Adaline’s ultrasound at 7 weeks 5 days.

The tech also said that the baby is measuring right at 7 weeks 2 days, so it’s not too small, and the heartbeat was 128 which is good for this point in the pregnancy. We’re going back in two weeks for another ultrasound to get a better look. I’m just so thankful that our little one is okay and that we were able to see the heartbeat today instead of having to wait another two weeks which would’ve been excruciating.