Saw mom in the office yesterday. Had my OB blood panel drawn and had a sono (of course!). Everything looks good - baby looks HUGE compared to two weeks ago! Mom was instructed to not look for gender - but of course, she did - but lucky for me, she kept it to herself (it's only a guess anyways)! Unfortunately, Matt wasn't able to join me for this particular appointment and as we get further along, we know there is a chance of finding out sex. Since mom doesn't usually sono her patients this early, she wasn't sure if we'd see anything. We had already talked to her about doing another sono on Saturday so that Matt could be there and see how things are progressing! He hadn't be to see her with me since my 6 week check! This was why mom was instructed not to say anything! Although, she later told/showed the perinatologist (explanation on it's way) and he was "very impressed" by my little one's peepee!
Baby looks like an ALIEN! Seriously, imagine a movie-like typical alien head and that's what our baby's head looks like! At one point, we could even see the eyes and mouth! Freaky! We saw little arms (up by the face almost always) and little fingers! Baby was all over the place! Wiggling and wiggling!
Fortunately, my Aunt Tudy was still home visiting and was able to go with me. And I'm glad she was there. We noticed that mom was staring at the machine and not saying very much. We asked her if she saw something, and she said she thought she might - mind you, we're not talking about gender now. She concentrated on the abdomen...checking out the cord. I asked her if she thought she saw a knot in the cord and she said "yea." Only - turned out, Aunt Tudy and I were just looking at a thick part of the cord - not the same thing mom was looking at.
For those of you who aren't familiar with the development of baby in utero, I'll fill you in. Around 8-12 weeks, babys bowels are forming. When doing this, they form some inside of the abdomen, then they come out, turn around, get situated and go back in. If they don't, this is referred to as an oomphalocele. (1st Nursing intervention? Cover with a sterile cloth soaked in sterile normal saline! - putting that good nursing education to use!) From time to time, babies don't develop this normally, producing an oomphalocele and needing surgery immediately after birth - it actually happens more than some might think and is considered "common" and is completely treatable.
So, mom told me about it calmly, explained everything to me, and left the room to call her buddy the perinatologist who got me in an hour later. They checked everything out (so, really I had 3 sonos this weekend) and all is well! If it's anything, it's a small anything, and it's got time to finish it's development before we can consider it a "problem." Dr. Egly was great - even brought in a book telling us that at 8 weeks gestation, 75% of fetuses show this on ultrasound, at 9 weeks almost 100% of fetuses show this and by 11 weeks, only 25%. So there's still plenty of time for things to be totally fine! Whew! Luckily, I remained calm on the outside - to the point where mom was impressed - but inside, I was quietly freaking out!
Mind you, mom normally doesn't sono her patients this early. So, when she noticed this on me, she saw it as "abnormal" (forgetting how early I was) and saw her patient not as a patient, but as her only daughter carrying her first grandchild! So, a slight panic set in and we're glad we got everything checked out! No worrying now! Dr. Egly wants to see me back around week 18-20, if for no other reason than to get me some GREAT 3D/4D shots of our little one!
So, Matt and my Dad saw the sono today - and quite a few times Matt said "oh, there's a penis!, oh there's a penis!" He's convinced it's a boy - which would be great because we have a boy's name picked out - and we continue to argue about a girl's name. However, today, we thought we saw both penis and then labia...and then penis and then labia...so obviously we have no clue! 50-50% shot though!
Overall, a good weekend! Baby's heartbeat is a fast, healthy 164bpm and strong! We'll continue to keep you all posted! But, mind you, if we find out the sex at the next appointment, we won't be sharing it with anyone until we can share it with our entire immediate family first - and good news! Mike comes home to visit only days after that appointment! So, hopefully the wait won't be long! Until next time...
