Finally - the Ultrasound!!!

Yesterday Jochen and I went for my ultrasound to help determine Ernie's risk of Down Syndrome. Ernie was however most uncooperative, he was facing the ultrasound and I think he was sleeping at the time because he really wasn't moving very much at all. The lady doing the ultrasound tried poking him to get him to move but he just wasn't interested in moving. It was extremely uncomfortable for me as I had to have a full bladder but Ernie didn't even seem to notice that he was getting poked.

Most of the time Ernie had one arm in the air near his face and was comfortably kicking back, laying in the bottom of the amniotic sac. Finally Marion (the ultrasound lady) decided to try an internal ultrasound and although we got some great images on the video it didn't help her see the bit of Ernie that she needed to measure. We did find out that he is 7.5cm long from crown to rump and that his heart beat was 155bpm. We could see arms and legs and a distinctly baby like head and general shape. When we saw his face straight on it looked incredibly evil in a very funny kind of way. Jochen and I also thought we saw something suspiciously boy like in between his legs but apparently it 'is too early to tell.' Because Marion wasn't able to obtain the measurement she arranged for me to go again this morning at 10.00am hoping that Ernie would had moved and we could finally get the measurement. It was really our last chance because once the baby reaches a certain size the measurement is not longer able to be used to help determine risk. But to celebrate seeing Ernie looking so well and me finally feeling great, Jochen took me to Babyco at Fountain Gate to start looking at baby stuff - but more on that later.

So this morning off I headed to Warragul Hospital again, uncomfortable bladder and running late after accidentally sleeping in. This time it was a male ultrasound person and luckily for us Ernie had completely changed position and although he was still kicking back at the bottom of the sac (making it a little challenging), he was now side on and his head was where his feet had been yesterday. He must have been doing somersaults at some point. Today his heart beat was 145bpm, the ultrasound guy told me that it is very normal that they change a fair bit from day to day and even hour to hour. We were also able to finally get the measurement of the nuchal fold translucency that we were after - 1.8, apparently well within normal range(3 is abnormally high) but combined with many other factors, including blood test will give us our risk. We will have to wait until we see the OB in late May before we get the actual result.

Today was probably even more special than yesterday and it was really unfortunate that Jochen wasn't there with me to see Ernie awake and active. Ernie was waving his arms, kicking his legs and was even trying to put one hand in his mouth at one point. I am also sure that he was suffering from hiccups for a little while. So - our little Ernie is growing up and is really starting to look and act like a little baby now. Seeing him like that on the ultrasound really bought a smile to my face, tears to my eyes and lots of love in my heart for our growing child. I can only imagine the blubbering mess I will become when I hold him for the first time.