UltraSOUND

Friday, April 6^th – 7w2d

Happy Friday everyone!  Or…whatever day this post ends up being published, happy that day.  This morning, JPug and I went in for our second prenatal ultrasound.  We arrived before 7:30a and were the first patients in the office…yes!  Dr. K’s office has open hours from 7:30a – 8:30a for labs and ultrasounds which means first come, first served.  First in means first out and we can get on with our day.

Hit the breaks…Sarah, the sonographer, called in sick and Dr. K was on vacation so the nurse asked if we could come back at 8:30a to have the other Dr. K (our Dr. K’s partner) perform our ultrasound.  It was only a minor hiccup in our day so JPug and I headed to breakfast and returned about an hour later.

Dr. K came into the office, introduced himself and got down to business.  Let’s just say that the fastest I’ve ever moved with a gentleman…luckily, it was for good great reason!  He performed a transvaginal ultrasound…big wand in the hooha...and after a few wiggles of the stick, you could see the big black circle, smaller hollow circle and a little white blob.  This time, I remembered to ask what each of the circles is…the big black circle is the gestational sac, the smaller, hollow circle is the yolk sac and the white blob is the baby (I didn’t have to be reminded of that part).  At this point, I'm not exactly sure what each of those sacs is or does...stay tuned...hopefully I'll figure that out soon.

Thanks to the wonders of the internet, here's an idea of what today's ultrasound looked like.  Big black circle (or kidney bean) is the gestational sac.  White ring with hollow center (on the right) is the yolk sac and the white blob to the left of the yolk sac is the baby.

  

I had some trouble seeing the little flash/heartbeat on the machine but JPug seemed to see it without issue…it was probably just the awkward angle of trying to look at the monitor while laying on my back, head tilted to the side.  At one point, Dr. K asked if we wanted to hear the heartbeat and before we got a chance to respond, he clicked a button on the machine and you could hear our little baby’s heart pumping clear as day.  The ultrasound picture reduced in size and a cardiac monitor filled the bottom of the screen…you could see our baby’s heartbeat…constant and strong…it was truly amazing!

This morning I measured at 7w1d which is right on target given the first day of my last cycle.  Technically today is 7w2d but the ultrasound was in the morning so 1 day difference is totally ok.  The baby’s heartbeat was 145…28 beats per minute more than last week’s measurement.  We’re by no means in the clear but today’s appointment was definitely a step (or maybe a giant leap) in the right direction.  Next up is our 8 week ultrasound next Friday…the 13^th.  I’m typically superstitious but I’ve decided to face Friday the 13^th head on…BRING.IT.ON!