Another Glimpse Inside

I am 22 weeks and 0 days today.  We had our third ultrasound this evening. The ultrasound technician was kind enough to use warm jelly on my belly - Dr Winkelman later confided that was a sign that the technician must like me otherwise the cold jelly can be a little startling! The technician found the baby right away.  She said it’s positioned with its head towards the right side of my belly button and its feet by my lower left side near my pelvis. (I had an idea that’s where the feet are because I feel the most kicks and bumps in that spot.) She also joked that this one probably likes to kick my bladder - uh, yeah!

 

Though she could tell immediately where the baby was and what position it was in, it didn't stay in that position very long...

We saw a lot of the different body parts. When she found a foot, Shawn immediately said that he saw 30 toes! While it did look like an awful lot of bones in that little foot, we’re pretty confident that it was just the fuzzy image on the screen that made it look like that.

Right Foot

The fact that the baby was moving around a LOT made it hard to get clear images. The technician had a little trouble getting good pictures in order to take the necessary measurements, too. Nevertheless, once she captured the views she needed, she was pleased with the measurements and development of the baby’s head, humorous, belly, femur, and the amniotic fluid. With all the measurements and proportions that the technician collected, she said the baby is about 1 pound, 1 ounce and predicts that it will be close to the 47th percentile at birth. She verified that my cervix is closed (well, that's good!) and the blood flow in the umbilical cord was looking good. We saw all 4 chambers of the heart, the diaphragm, both kidneys, the stomach, parts of the umbilical cord, and the spine (which was probably the most clear of all). She also got a picture of one leg fully extended

Left Leg
(from foot to femur)

and another of both little feet together. (I have a similar picture from Shawn’s ultrasound. Back home, it was fun to show him the ultrasound picture of his feet and the baby’s side by side.)



 

Baby's Both Feet

Shawn's Left Foot and Right Toes

She tried really hard to get a profile picture, but this little one had other things in mind.

Head (forehead at the left of the screen, eyes looking directly at the screen),
Left Fist (small circle towards the top, by cheek), &
Chest / Belly (heart is the dark shadow at the center of the picture, stomach is the little dark circle towards the right side)



I seeeeeeee you!

At this point in the pregnancy, we had the option of finding out the baby's sex, but we are waiting to find out in April.  (Based on a variety of entertaining theories, a lot of people are guessing that it's a girl, but as Shawn says, "We'll have to wait and see!")  The ultrasound technician was relieved that we weren't finding out since she was having a hard time seeing things anyway!

Towards the end of the appointment, after rolling around and squirming so much for the previous hour, the little one curled up in an ultimate fetal position, chest down and made it very difficult to see much else! It was almost as if it was saying, “Stop messing with me already! I am DONE!” Since the little one was moving around so much throughout the appointment, the ultrasound technician had a hard time hearing a consistent heartbeat. Then, with chest down, it was still not a good reading. She sent me into a different room to have the nurses try to catch the heartbeat on the Doppler instead, but even after two different ladies attempted, still no luck. Finally, Dr. Winkelman came in to try it himself. None of the heartbeat readings were very clear and the ones they were able hear weren’t very consistent. The rates kept changing and even dropping pretty low occasionally (i.e. from 147 bpm to 78 bpm within a few beats of each other). This could mean that the baby has an arrhythmia. Apparently, this irregular heartbeat is usually a benign condition and most babies grow out of it while in utero; but, the amount of time for the heart to develop out of the irregularity could vary from days to months. So, doctors prefer to keep a close eye on it to make sure it clears on its own, otherwise they can prescribe medicine or further treatments once the baby is born.
 
Dr. Winkelman recommended that I visit a perinatologist / maternal fetal specialist for a comprehensive (or Level II) ultrasound. We saw that the baby is definitely active and, from the Level I ultrasound, the development of all major organ systems looked great, so we’re really not overly concerned that there’s a problem, but the Level II ultrasound is more detailed. Most importantly, they will be able to confirm the heart development. It is completely possible that the Level II ultrasound will verify that there is no reason for concern at all. Better safe than sorry though. It’s probable that we’ll get a few extra ultrasounds along the way just to make sure that everything is continuing to develop the way it should.  (I'm okay with that!)

I made an appointment to see the specialist on Monday, December 10th, less than a week away. The sooner the better, even if only for our peace of mind! Then, my next fetal wellness appointment is Friday, December 21st. Hopefully, that will be the end of the arrhythmia worry!