The anatomy scan was so, so amazing. I almost felt more amazed with this ultrasound in 2D more so than our 3D/4D ultrasounds we've had in the past! The ultrasound tech told us it would be a longer ultrasound than normal, and explained that she starts at the top of baby's head and works her way down to his toes, scanning everything from general anatomy to the very detail of inside each organ. She also asked if we wanted to know the gender. I explained we had already cheated and found out early at a 3D ultrasound, but wanted her to confirm that we are still having the same!
She began measuring my cervix length which was "nice and long" as well as my amniotic fluid around the baby. She measured baby Kelton at 10 ounces and my progress exactly at 19 weeks, 3 days (the exact number of weeks I should be based on my LMP). Originally, the early ultrasounds measured me a few days behind my LMP date. But, because I knew exactly when we conceived, based on tracking my ovulation, I kept with my LMP date this whole time. Turns out I was right on!
We then went through all the pictures of baby Kelton, starting with his head and brain. She showed us his heart, the four chambers of his heart, and even each valve opening and closing, pumping blood through his tiny body. Aaaaamazing! We saw his ribs and spine, which was the coolest thing to see, especially when he moved around. She also showed us his stomach, his bladder, and other organs that were developed and growing. He had all four arms and legs with fingers and toes. We saw cute baby buns, and she waited patiently for him to spread his legs. After a few minutes, he finally let us see and we confirmed that baby Kelton is DEFINITELY a boy!
He moved around quite a bit during the exam, and showed us all how he is already taking after his mommy and daddy by being extremely stubborn! The last part of the exam, she wanted to get a nice profile shot of baby's face. He was not having it! With his hands up by his face the whole time, covering himself and flipping back and forth, the tech tried everything from moving the probe to each possible angle of my belly and even wiggling my belly, shaking the hell out of the little guy! After ten minutes of her trying to get his picture, she had to settle with just an okay profile shot. Looks like this baby does not want us seeing what he looks like until he makes his appearance!
I notice he does the same when I use my fetal doppler at home. I've gotten into the routine of listening for a few minutes right before bed, getting to bond a little bit with my nugget. The last few weeks, every time I find his heartbeat, it lasts for a split second and off he goes, running away from the probe, making me chase him down again to find his heartbeat! I think this little guy likes his privacy and his space... between my doppler use and the ultrasound exam, I got the feeling he just wants to be left alone!
We found that he was in the breech position during the exam, with his head at my belly button and his feet right at my bladder. It was amazing to me to know he was so high up already! I had been feeling some weird sensations around my belly button within the last week. I thought for a second it might have been him, but ruled it out thinking it was too early for him to be so high up. Turns out, he must like that spot! I've also noticed in the last few days before the ultrasound that I had been needing to pee more often than before. His feet bouncing on my bladder probably have a lot to do with that!
After taking what seemed like a million pictures, the tech gave us 4 to take home, all of which weren't even the greatest pictures from the whole exam, but oh well. We got a profile shot (the best she could capture due to his stubbornness!) as well as our gender shot, and two of his face looking straight up (looking like a skull and a little creepy).
The next day we were to follow up with Dr. Juarez so he could go over the ultrasound results with us. I had been reading a lot in the weeks leading up to the ultrasound, and found that it was quite common to find "soft markers" during anatomy scans, which could either indicate problems, a higher chance of chromosomal defects, or simply no worry at all, that these problems fix themselves and baby is born completely healthy. This had me a little anxious, and we did a lot of hoping and praying that baby would come back with no type of marker or abnormality. Luckily, Dr. Juarez confirmed that he saw no type of abnormality through the whole ultrasound! Hearing that we have a healthy, developed and growing-right-on-scheduled baby made me feel so much more at ease. I know I still keep a small spot in my mind to expect the worse... and it feels as each week goes on, it gets smaller and smaller. I can't wait for the moment that I have no fear of what to expect... although I think I may be one of those mom's who just won't stop worrying until I'm holding my little man in my arms!
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| Baby's Profile Pic! |
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| Can't deny that it's definitely a boy! |
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| Face / Skull view - facing up towards us |
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| Another face view that creeps me out! |
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