Heartbeats, Ultrasounds, and Dr. appointments...Oh My!

So it's been a while since I've updated. This week has been crazily busy. Monday we had to drive from one end of town to the other to take the IL's from the airport to their home after they were delayed on their return trip from NC. Tuesday was our first trimester screening that included the NT Scan. Wednesday was resting up from Monday and Tuesday, especially since I woke to bleeding that morning. Thursday was an unexpected trip to my OB due to said bleeding on Wednesday. While it had stopped for the day, it started up again over night and kept going until Thursday mid-morning. Currently, the bleeding is unexplained and the baby is perfectly fine. I'll continue to be on pelvic rest, rest in general, and no lifting. Of course all of this is going on while I need to complete a project for work. Go ahead...ask how that project's going. I may or may not answer you truthfully but I'm sure you can take a guess!

The first trimester screening went very well. The purpose of the scan was to measure the nuchal thickness, which is the fluid present behind the neck/spinal cord area. A few other measurements were taken all to check for Down's Syndrome and Trisomy 18. Our measurement for the fluid was 1.1. They consider anything less than 3 normal but we have to wait for official word when the blood work is processed. It looks like we're out of the woods for Down's or Trisomy 18, though.

The baby was being stubborn, not wanting to move around. The tech had to press on my belly several times with the transducer to get the baby moving. It took a while but the baby started moving all around. It was kicking its legs, stretching, jumping, and waving its arms. Prior to moving, the baby was just chilling out with its left hand raised by its head. It was very cute and you can see the raised hand in the ultrasound pictures.



In addition to the ultrasound, we've rented a fetal doppler from BabyBeats. With all the bleeding issues we knew it would be comforting to hear the heartbeat ourselves so we can keep an eye on things here at home. Thursday night we were able to get a good read on the heartbeat and have recorded it for friends and family to hear.


Some of the initial sounds were from the doppler wand but the wind-like sounds are from the placenta. The fast thumping/beating sound is the heartbeat and the bubble sounds...well, I have no idea. Either Baby J is moving around or lying in there blowing bubbles.