Friday the 13th

8 Weeks, 2 Days

Today is Friday, April 13^th…eek!  JPug and I went in for our 3^rd ultrasound this morning and I resisted the urge to come in a different day to avoid Friday the 13^th altogether.  Although the appointment date was the slightest bit unnerving, I had no signs that something might be wrong and figured I might as well face my “fears” head on.

We arrived to open office hours just before 7:30a and were first in to see the ultrasound technician, Sarah.  It didn’t take her any time to find our little baby…she took some measurements, thoroughly answered each of our questions and measured Puglet’s heartbeat.  It’s crazy to see the changes in our little white blob from our first ultrasound at 6+ weeks to today’s ultrasound at 8+ weeks.  Now, you can clearly see which end will eventually become the head, which end will be the butt and the slightest buds where arms and legs are beginning to form.  At one point Sarah joked that the baby resembles a gummy bear at this stage of development and proceeded to stick her hands up by her shoulders and wiggle around to simulate the tiny arms…haha!  Something new this week, this was the first time we could clearly see the umbilical cord on the screen.  We’ve been taking video of each of our appointments with our FlipCam…hopefully I can snap a picture from each ultrasound to show Puglet’s progression.

In my last few posts, I mentioned the gestational sac and yolk sac and I finally had a few minutes to research both.  Per Wikipedia (the most reliable source on the internet…wink wink), the gestational sac is “the only available intrauterine structure that can be used to determine if an intrauterine pregnancy exists, until the embryo is identified”.  During our ultrasound, Sarah explained that the yolk sac is where Puglet gets his/her nutrients until the placenta takes over around 10 weeks.  During today’s appointment, Puglet measured 1.7 centimeters/the equivalent of 8W, 1D development-wise (right on track) and his/her heartbeat was 164.

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Judy, Dr. K’s nurse, called in the afternoon to review the ultrasound findings; I wasn’t at my desk so she left a message.  I’m very glad to report that she said everything looked good and to keep doing whatever I have been because we’re on a great path.  Man, it’s like we might really have a real baby before the end of the year!