20 Week Ultrasound

Well, #minivegan is now 25 weeks gestational age (on Monday, April 28, 2014).  This pregnancy is flying by, and I’m long overdue posting an update.  I’ve been working my ever-growing-larger ass off, working to save up extra $$ for my maternity leave.

We went in for our 20 week ultrasound (US) on day one of our 2014 ski vacation to Snowbird, Utah.  What a perfect way to kick off our trip!  The sonographer and perinatologist that we saw at Evergreen Maternal-Fetal Medicine were wonderful.  Dr. Kline said she had a baby in her 40’s, too!  She was pretty excited for us.

For many couples, the 18-22 week ultrasound (“anatomy scan”) is the procedure that reveals the baby’s gender for the first time.  We definitely wanted to know!

But, we chose to have the Harmony prenatal blood test done prior to our 20 week scan.  Harmony tests for three trisomy abnormalities (trisomy 13, 18, and 21) with >99% accuracy.  It also tests for the presence of a Y chromosome (Y chromosome = boy).

My blood was drawn on March 5th (at 17 weeks + 2 days).  I expected to wait 2 weeks for the results, but thankfully mine came sooner than that.  On Friday, March 14, 2014, I got the phone call while at work.  I was with a very sweet man, with quite severe dementia.  My patient, Tom, was the first person to hear my good news:  that our baby does NOT have trisomy 13, 18, or 21…AND…our baby is a BOY!!!  (The next week, Tom had no recall of this.)

I didn’t call Eric right away.  Instead, I stopped by Target after work, to pick up a little gift for Eric that would reveal the gender to him when I got home.

It’s a BOY!

Sunday, March 16, 2014 – Sportin’ the Purple Pregnancy Pants at Week 19. (Mission Ridge Ski Area)

The ultrasound was performed on Friday, March 21, 2014 (at 19 weeks + 4 days).  Our boy appeared healthy in all ways and weighed about 10 oz.  His growth measurements were between 43% and 62% for his gestational age, and the heart rate was 147 bpm.  The placenta is posterior and without previa.  My cervix is long.  Excellent!

We received a DVD of the scan.  I took this short video clip with my phone, that shows baby’s face:  moving his jaw, yawning, moving his tongue, and even smiling.  You can also see his forearm in front of his face.  Watch it again and look for the heart beating.  Precious!!

I took these images by pausing the DVD and taking screen shots:

Head Profile

Eye Orbits/Top of Head

Face – Showing his tongue

Face – Open mouth

Chin, mouth and nostrils. And a hand waving!

Heart and blood flow

Heartbeat

Legs and umbilical cord (showing cord blood flow)

Legs and penis

Lower leg bones (tibia/fibula)

Forearm bones (radius/ulna) and hand

Foot

Here we are, skiing in Utah!

March 23, 2014 – Alta, Utah

March 24, 2014 – Alta, Utah

My motto this ski season!