Today we went for our 18 week ultrasound with my mom's ultrasound tech friend. She has been so sweet, and has let us come just about every 4 weeks to see the baby. She always gives us SO many pictures, and really takes time to show us all of his parts (external and internal) to make sure everything looks good. I can't tell you what a relief it was in the first trimester to be able to see the baby so often. The first trimester is stressful for any mother, especially a first time mother, but to be able to see the baby so often really reassured us that everything was progressing as it should.
SO, anyway, we got there and I hopped up on the table, excited to see what the baby looked like. She put the goo on by belly, and found him right away with no problem. His head is just to the right of my belly button, which means that right now he is breech. She said this is completely normal, and that he will probably change positions several times before January. She also said that my placenta is on top, which means it may be harder for me to feel the baby kick. This completely made sense to me, as I have felt the baby kick or move before, but not as frequently as my friends around the same week as me have. Most of my friends that are in the 18th week are feeling the baby move frequently now. I have felt a little "nudge" that I was sure was the baby (and not something else) a few times, but not on an hourly basis or anything like that. She said as the baby grows his kicks will get stronger and I'll be able to feel them all the time. That's definitely something I'm looking forward too! The baby was being very modest when we tried to look between his little legs to "confirm his manhood", as my friend Megan so cleverly quipped the other day. Anyway, the ultrasound tech (whom I shall now refer to as Jennifer, since that is her name) said we would look at other things while we wait for him to relax his little legs. She checked his brain, heart and stomach and said everything looked good, and was measuring right on target. She said he was about 5 1/2 inches long from head to bottom, which is perfect! Finally we came back to his legs...he still wouldn't open them! She wiggled her little probe across my belly, and tried to get him to uncross his legs, and finally it worked. Its DEFINITELY a BOY!!! She is 100% sure. She has a special heat sensor on the machine to detect the umbilical cord and she said it was definitely "boy parts". Colt and I are so ecstatic! Towards the end, we tried to get a good profile shot of his face, but we were unsuccessful. He looks like a demon because you can't see the eyeballs/eyelids on a standard 3D ultrasound. We got to see him open and close his mouth and stick his tongue out at us. Jennifer said he must like to stick his hands in his mouth because he kept trying to do that throughout the ultrasound. We started talking about how we probably woke up him because he's so lazy, and he began to shake his fist at us! Obviously these are all coincidences, but I like to think he has a big personality already! :) All in all, it was a great ultrasound today! Its always nice to be able to see the progress of our baby.
My next OB appointment is in two weeks. That will be my DOCTORS appointment, but I will be getting my 20 week ultrasound at the office when I'm there. This is not Jennifer, but my OB office's ultrasound tech. They will measure all of his parts and make sure he's doing well, but I'm confident after today's appointment with Jennifer. I asked about the frequency of the ultrasounds that I'm getting and my doctor's office said its completely fine to have so many ultrasounds because there are some women who have had troubled pregnancies that have to get ultrasounds every week, and it does no damage to the baby. Anyway, thanks for reading, and I will post pictures below! :)
No comments:
Post a Comment