Peeper Update: 34 Weeks 6 Days

Update, 8:15 pm: Photos Added

Peeper was pretty well behaved for her non-stress test this morning, once she decided to wake up and perform. 

She still wasn't quite as "reactive" as they typically like to see (heart rate increasing with her movements) but she was quite active during the last several minutes, and didn't show any significant decelerations this time. So that's all good. 

Because of scheduling issues, and the doctor being out and confusion as to when I'm supposed to start weekly appointments, I didn't actually see an OB or midwife today, but did have an ultrasound with Dr. Not-Peri.

That ultrasound went very well, and he said that she "looks phenomenal."

(Oh, I'll bet he says that to all the fetuses.)

She got a perfect score of 8/8 on her biophysical profile (2/2 each for movement, tone, breathing and amniotic fluid level) and did lots of dancing around for them. 

She was a bit of a trouble-maker (as usual) with all the moving when they were trying to do the Doppler (to check bloodflow) on the little artery in her head and the umbilical cord.

Just as the sonographer got the vessel her sights and started recording, Peeper would either shake her head, "No no no!" or kick the cord around, so she'd have to start over. 

That's pretty much what she does every week, though. 

We've got some more 3D photos, with her hands all up in her face and mouth again, and I'll post those as soon as they are scanned. 

Next week, we'll have an NST on Monday morning, followed by an appointment with a midwife. (That will be a naked visit, at which I'll be screened for Group B Strep.)

Then I'll see Dr. Peri on Wednesday for an ultrasound. 

Lather, rinse, repeat, til Peeper shows up. 

And here's our little girlie:

Peeper Update: 33 Weeks 6 Days

Update 9:00 pm: Photos added

We had a fairly uneventful series of appointments this morning, the upshot of which is that Peeper seems to be doing very well.

She behaved (more or less) for the non-stress test, with few or no variable decelerations. She did take a little nap for the second half of it, but she was probably exhausted from all her activity over the past few days.

(She's been moving around almost non-stop all weekend.)

I actually saw Dr. B (my real OB) today, and she says everything is looking good, with both of us.

She was pleased with my blood sugar levels, and didn't even fuss at me for only checking them once or twice daily. 

In fact, she said that, as good as they've been, she would tell me to drop back to only two tests per day, anyway.

I told her that Dr. Y (whom I saw a couple of weeks ago) had fussed at me, and told me that I "need to be more compliant about testing."

She said, "Well, Dr. Y just finished her residency, so she's kind of a stickler for the 'rules.' Once you've been doing this a while, you know when you can let things slide."

(Oops, I just thought I was tattling on myself, not on the doc!)

The biggest news of the day is that Dr. B is filling out my Aflac paperwork, saying that I need to cut back on my work hours, which will qualify me for short-term disability benefits. Woo hoo!

She said, "We don't write a note for just anybody, but (gesturing at my chart) there's a lot of stuff written here, so this will be fine."

And, I found out that local hospital can handle deliveries as early as thirty-five weeks, so as long as Peeper stays in for another eight days, we're good to go without being shipped off elsewhere. 

The perinatologist (Dr. Not-Peri again) was also pleased with everything he saw, and commented on how much more active Peeper was today than last week. 

If I'd only heard that, I would've thought she was lethargic last week, but last week they talked 

about her doing a lot of moving, too, so she must really be going to town in there. 

She was practice breathing when we first looked at her, so we didn't have to wait around on that, and other than wiggling out of position every time the sonographer tried to measure the bloodflow in this one cranial artery that they always look at, she did great. 

(The sonographer did comment that, "I hope she's better behaved after she's born." So do we!)

They did a full growth scan today (that's every three weeks) and they are now estimating her weight at 4 lbs 4 oz, which is in the 20th percentile. 

Dr. Not-Peri said that they want to see babies this age gain at least 100 grams/week, and she's put on 500 grams in the last three weeks, so he's very happy with that. 

If she continues to grow at this rate, he's estimating that she'll weigh around 6 pounds by forty weeks. 

At first, he seemed a bit concerned about the length (or lack thereof) of her legs, but after asking Shrike how tall she is, he said, "Oh, well that's why." 

Which, of course, we'd already been all through with Dr. Peri.

More appointments next Monday and, of course, another update then.

Peeper Update: 33 Weeks 0 Days

Update 10:00 pm: Photos added!

I had another non-stress test yesterday and an ultrasound today, and Peeper continues to be a little trouble-maker, worrying us for nothing.

Again, she showed variable decelerations of her heart rate on the NST, but then looked just fine on ultrasound.

Given that we saw the decelerations last week as well, followed by a great ultrasound, and since I was already scheduled for an ultrasound today, my OB didn't seem to be too worried yesterday.

(At least, not worried enough to make me get naked or to send me to the perinatologist ahead of schedule.)

I am still having Braxton Hicks contractions off and on, and alot more "on" than "off" when I'm being more active.

It's not like I'm trying to run a marathon or anything; we're talking about things like carrying baskets of laundry back and forth (trying to get Peeper's clothes all washed up and in the new dresser), or walking around Target Sunday night (about 5 contractions in the 30 - 45 minutes we were there).

Or driving to the perinatologist's office this morning (about 5 contractions in the last 20 minutes of the trip).

Basically, they said that when they start up, I should sit down, get some liquids in me and take it easy.

I've also been instruction to avoid any, shall we say, oxytocin-producing activities. Which is quite the bummer.

This morning was our ultrasound, with the perinatologist. (Dr. Peri is out this week, too, for more Jewish holidays, so we saw Dr. Not-Peri again.)

We discussed everything that the OB had said yesterday, and he agreed, all around.

He also confirmed that Peeper's single umbilical artery could be a factor in the variable decelerations, in that a given amount of cord compression could have more of an effect on her than it would if she had two arteries.

Speaking of cord compression - we're blaming that all on her. If you look closely at that photo of her hands from last week, the cord is running right there between them, so we figure she's just playing with it.

That was our personal theory, and Dr. Not-Peri agreed that it actually is likely that she's squeezing it. (He's seen that before.)

Of course, who could blame her. I'm sure she's pretty hard up for entertainment in there, and it's hooked right to her tummy. Hard to resist, I would think.

I'd prefer that she leave it the hell alone while she's being monitored, though!

He also said that "as active as she is," there's lots of opportunity for her to sit on it and squish it as she's moving around.

It was kind of funny, both the sonographer and Dr. Not-Peri commented several times on how active she was during the scan, and we could certainly see her doing a lot of wiggling around in there, but I was feeling almost none of those movements.

I can't imagine what's actually going on when I do feel her rolling around in there like crazy!

They did not do another set of measurements so we don't have an update on her size (we'll do that next week), but they did like everything that they saw, including some practice breathing - although we had to wait almost the whole thirty minutes for her to get around to that.

(To "pass" that test, she has to "breathe" for 30 seconds at least once during a 30 minute observation. Like her Mama, she waited til the last minute to get her work done!)

I guess the only other real news from today's exams is that Peeper has hair!

The sonographer pointed it out to us on one of the 3D views. It doesn't show up like you'd think, because it's floating (think about what your hair does when you go underwater in the swimming pool) so it looks like a fringe around her head.

Or kind of spikey. The sonographer said that it looks like she has the same hair style that I do!

She didn't say if it's a lot of hair or a little, and of course, we won't know anything about color til she comes out, but I have to admit that I was glad to hear that she has some!

La, la, la, I can't hear you!

Woe is Peep!

Peeper Report: 31 Weeks 6 Days

Update 10:00 pm: Photos posted below!

I know it's only been five days since my last report, but I had appointments with both the OB and the perinatologist this morning. 

(My normal Wednesday schedule at the perinatologist will be all wacky for the next few weeks, as my regular guy will be out for the Jewish holidays, so we have to go on different days and see different doctors.)

The main take-away from both appointments is that all's well, and Peeper is looking great, but she did try to make it a bit more exciting for us than usual. 

Yesterday I was having quite a few Braxton-Hicks contractions, around the time that we were working on the border in the nursery. 

After the first few (not painful, not regular, not very close together) I did drink a few glasses of Kool-Aid (sweetened in whichever way you're not going to freak out about), but did not lay down. 

By the time Shrike's dad left, this had been going on for a couple of hours, so I reported it to Shrike, and did lay down for thirty minutes or so. 

Things seemed to settle down, but they didn't go away completely, so after having some lunch (prepared by my lovely, doting, semi-freaking-out wife), I called my OB's office, just for some reassurance. 

One of the doctors called back pretty quickly, and of course he said everything was fine, but to take it easy, and if they intensified to call back. 

I didn't stay in bed, but tried to chill out the rest of the evening. I was still contracting every now and then, especially when I was up and doing things (Like helping to reassemble a changing table. Oops.) but still very random and not painful. 

This morning, I woke up early, and lay in bed trying to go back to sleep while Peeper was dancing around like a crazy-baby. 

I was beginning to thing she'd invited some friends over, there was so much action going on in there!

At my OB appointment, I talked to the doctor (one of the OBs this time, but not one I'd met before) about the contractions, and she basically said, "That's your uterus' way of telling you to go sit down and rest." 

I also (standard at this point in the pregnancy) filled out hospital registration forms and signed the "consent to deliver" form, which basically says it's okay for them to do what's necessary to get Peeper out safely when the time comes, including episiotomy, forceps, vacuum, c-section, etc. 

As the doctor said, "This is giving us permission to get the baby out, by hook or by crook." 

I signed it, of course, but did mention that I'd like to avoid all those things, if at all possible!

I was scheduled to have a non-stress test tomorrow morning, but they asked if I'd like to go ahead and do it since I was there. They were running on schedule (this is not at all a given) so I had plenty of time to get to OldWorkTown for the perinatologist, and decided that made sense. 

A non-stress test basically involves strapping two monitors to my belly - one to measure any contractions (there were none during the test) and the other to measure Peeper's heart rate. They also gave me a little button to click when I felt her move. 

(It was amazing how many other movements we could hear (along with her heartbeat) that I wasn't feeling.)

What they want to see is that when she moves around, her heart rate goes up. 

(Just like any other person, really.)

At first, she was being pretty quiet (resting after her calisthenics from earlier, I'm sure), so they turned me on my side and had me drink some water. 

That woke her up a bit, but she still wasn't as "reactive" as they'd like, and there were actually some decelerations of her heart rate. 

They tech mentioned that one possible cause of that is the cord being compressed for any of a number of reasons. 

(Including, it seems, that the kid is sitting on it, until she moves and she's not any more. Or, perhaps, chewing on it, is it looked like she was doing last week!)

The OB came in and looked at the trace from the monitor, and said that, based on what she was seeing, she needed to actually examine me. 

After asking a few questions, I found out that another possible reason for decelerations is that the baby is "moving down" and that, combined with the contractions I'd been having, was reason enough to check and make sure that I wasn't dilating. 

Needless to say, that got my attention. 

As it turns out, though, I'm not dilating or effacing at all, so whew! 

The doctor wrote up a summary of her findings, and sent me off to the perinatologist, as already scheduled. 

I called Shrike to catch her up, trying not to freak her out too much, ordered up some snacks from home and asked her to meet me at our designated car-leaving place.  

(She'd slept in, since I didn't need her for a "routine" OB appointment. Later, she said, "I thought it was safe to send you over there alone!")

When we got to the perinatologist's office, I gave them the note, so they'd know what was going on. 

The sonographer had lots of questions about what the OB had said, but I really didn't have much more information beyond what she'd written down. 

After waiting forever for the computer to boot up, we got started with the scanning. They did not do the whole measurement thing, since we were just there a few days ago, so we don't have an update on her size, but as I've already said, everything that they did look at was just fine. 

She is head-down today, which at first was preventing them from getting a good look at my cervix, but later the sonographer was able to nudge her little noggin out of the way, and see that everything looks just as it should be down there, with no signs of dilation. 

Peeper was also being much more forthcoming with the cuteness today, and we got some great 3D photos of her face (with no cord in the way - although, she does appear to be wearing it like a boa, but they said it's loose and the blood flow in it is great, so no worries there), her hands and her little ear.

When we saw her ear, I asked for a photo of it. The sonographer said, "We don't get a lot of requests for ears." Shrike then ratted me out for having a bit of an ear thing. Thanks, honey.

Between the 3D and 2D images, we saw her practice breathing, opening her mouth, sticking her tongue out at us, trying to shove her entire hand in her mouth, and sucking her thumb, in addition to lots of other movement. 

The sonographer and the perinatologist (not our regular guy) were both very happy with her movements, and seemed particularly pleased with the breathing and sucking stuff. 

(Both being skills that come in quite handy on the outside, you know.)

I'll have another non-stress test next Monday, and another ultrasound on Tuesday. 

And, of course, you'll hear all about it. 

Wordless Wednesday #69: Peeper in 3D

Monkey Toes!

Monkey Face!
The umbilical cord is right in front of her, blocking the view of her mouth. But how cute is that little elbow?!

Learn more about Wordless Wednesday.

Peeper Picture

Here's a photo from yesterday's ultrasound - 28 weeks, 1 day.

Peeper Report: Perfect Heart Edition

Peeper had an ultrasound, including echocardiogram, today and everything seems to be just fine in there!

The cardiologist checked out her heart in great detail and said that it looks great.

She did talk to us a bit about the kinds of cardiac issues that can develop with any baby at delivery, if the plumbing changes required to make the switch from cord breathing to air breathing don't go smoothly, and said that if there were a tiny defect it might not show up on the ultrasound (her heart is about the size of a penny now) but that's all just CYA stuff.

One funny thing is that the cardiologist is a very young woman, which kind of surprised us.

Later, Shrike said, "That's not what a cardiologist is supposed to look like. They're supposed to look like your dad!"

(I didn't realize that "pediatric cardiologist" meant that the doctor would be a child!)

Dr. Peri was also very pleased with everything that he saw, including Peeper's growth.

I forgot to ask about a current estimated weight, or what gestational age her size equates to (I might give them a call tomorrow to ask about that) but the important thing is that her overall size is at about the 26th percentile.

Her femur length is less than 5th percentile, but he's not worried about that; he's still saying that she's just built like Shrike.

He specifically said that he's reassured by the fact that her abdominal circumference is around 26th percentile, same as her overall measurement.

He said that if that were very low, he "might be worried about a placental problem, rather than just being small like mom, but I'm not."

The previous measurements weren't converted to percentiles, so we couldn't compare that, but he showed us the growth-curve with her measurements plotted on it, and she's growing at the right rate, just on the small side of average.

In other words, her curve is "parallel" to the theoretical growth curve, just a bit lower on the Y-axis.

He said that he expects her to continue to grow at about the same rate and stay around the 25th percentile or so.

(Although, of course, we'll be watching closely to make sure.)

I asked what a 25th percentile full-term baby weighs, and he said that he'd expect "around 6 3/4 - 7 pounds."

Well, hell, that's a quite respectable-sized baby.

Before we left, I scheduled appointments for more ultrasounds at 28 weeks (3 weeks from now), 31 weeks and 33 weeks. After that, he'll want to see me every week until I deliver.

That's going to be a lot of driving, and a lot of schedule adjusting (especially since my OBs office will be seeing me weekly at that point, too!) but we'll do what we have to do to keep an eye on her and make sure that all continues to go well in there.

No 3D photos today, but a couple of pretty good 2Ds (or what would be considered good ones if we hadn't been spoiled by that 3D last month!)

Caption This, Baby!

We saw "Dr. Peri" (the perinatologist) this morning and, as he said when he first walked in the room after seeing the ultrasound images, "Baby looks like a million bucks!"

(As she damn well ought to. If we're getting our money's worth. Or, I should say, if Anonymama and Anonydaddy are getting their money's worth.)

She's still small, measuring 19w6d today (about 8 days behind, versus 6 days behind, three weeks ago) but he said, repeatedly, that he's not concerned about that.

Her brain looked "perfect" and the cerebellum and cisterna magna (the parts that might have looked funky at 17 weeks, but the images weren't very good, and that he said looked okay at 18 weeks) were both looking exactly as they are supposed to.

Whew!

Everything else looked good, too. Of course she still has the single umbilical artery (that won't change) but the cord insertion looks good, and we've seen both kidneys (sometimes the SUA can be associated with a missing kidney), so that's good to know, too.

She wasn't in the right position for the sonographer to get a good image of her heart, and I was starting to get concerned that maybe the position wasn't the issue, and that whatever she was looking for just wasn't there, but she evidently turned around while we were waiting for Dr. Peri and he was able to see what he wanted to see and said her heart looks great.

We'll get a much more detailed study of it in four weeks, when we see the fetal cardiologist for the echocardiogram. We'll also do another full ultrasound with all the other measurements at that time, as well.

The best part of the whole morning?

(Other than the "perfect" brain, and "I'm not concerned about her growth" and "she looks like a million bucks" of course.)

After seeing her heart, Dr. Peri was poking around, looking at some other things, when he evidently saw something he liked, clicked some buttons on his magic machine and, with absolutely no warning, up popped this image:

Oh. My. God. That's a baby!

With skin on it and everything!

He said, "Don't tell anybody I did this. We usually don't do 3D at this point, but that was just too cute."

And, indeed, she is.

If I do say so myself.

And I do.

So, my question for you is - just what is that gesture she's making?

Leave a comment with your caption for the photo, and we'll pick the best one.

Sorry we don't have any fabulous prizes to offer the winner, but isn't the glory enough?

Our Little Contortionist

Ultrasound Photos

What with all the unanswered questions and scary possibilities from Wednesday's ultrasound, I almost forgot that there were also photos!

Profile

Waving at Us

Showing Her Stuff

Wordless Wednesday #60: Peeper Profile

Here are the photos from today's ultrasound.

More info in my next, word-ful, post.

Learn more about Wordless Wednesday.

Peeper Update

I had my first prenatal visit with Dr B this morning, and everything went very well.

At first, they weren't quite sure what to do with me (those were the nurse's exact words), because typically, you have a "confirmation ultrasound" around 6 weeks, then come back for an hour-long appointment with a nurse to get a full history, then start the monthly appointments.

As it turned out, they just did the whole pee / weight / blood pressure thing, then Dr B came in and talked to me really briefly, and said, "We really don't actually need to do anything to you."

I asked, "Can we at least take a listen with the Doppler?"

"Well," she said, "We could, but we might be able to hear anything with it yet. But we could try an ultrasound."

"Yeah, I'll take that!"

So, she rolled in the ultrasound machine and I hopped up on the table and - this was new - I got to keep my pants on!

Well, I did have to unzip them, and pull them down a bit, of course, but she was able to do the ultrasound abdominally, which was kind of milestone, after God only knows how many encounters with the dido-cam.

Her ultrasound machine (and especially the printer) isn't as fancy or high resolution as the one at the fertility clinic, and the photo really doesn't do justice to what we were able to see on the screen, but here it is anyway:

This photo is just kind of a blobby shape that maybe you'll believe has those parts, because they are labeled, but on the screen, what we saw was - get this - a baby.

An honest-to-God, actual, human-shaped (mostly), baby-thing, 4.39 centimeters (1.7 inches) long, with a beating heart (they are conveniently see-through on ultrasound) and two little legs kicking back and forth and very possibly waving an arm at us.

(Shrike said, "S/he's saying, 'Chill out, Mama, I'm fine!'")

This is the first time that we've been able to see actual see Peeper moving in there (other than the beating heart, of course) and that was incredibly cool.

I really wish that there were a way to show what we actually saw, rather than this crappy still photo.

We had been hoping to have video of next week's nuchal translucency scan (we're buying a digital camcorder with our birthday money) but I called to check and they don't allow that - but even with just the stills, I'm expecting much better photos from that, because a> Peeper will be a week older/bigger/more formed and 2> they have the really good machine.

Of course, they'll be posted as soon as we can get them scanned.

In other upcoming-appointment news, I'll go back to the OB on June 2, for the history-taking.

Dr. B said "We'll get a complete family history, and . . . ." so I asked her, "So, do you really need me there for that?

Actually, we'll have to discuss Shrike and Popeye's genetics (I'll bring a print out of his profile - of course, he's been screened for anything important) and my medical history, in terms of things that would affect the pregnancy - my history of kidney disease and hypertension, my gastric bypass, the fact that Anonymama almost certainly had gestational diabetes, although it wasn't diagnosed at the time, etc.

(Anonymama says they should schedule my history appointment for 90 minutes, rather than an hour, since we'll have to discuss three parents instead of two!)

After that, I'll see one of the midwives (I believe) for a check of - well, I'm not sure what all they'll check, but I guess whatever it is that they check each month.

I'm guessing we'll take a listen with the Doppler at that point? Unless I can sweet-talk them into ultrasounds . . . .

I will have appointments with the OB practice (sometimes I'll see Dr. B, sometimes another OB, sometimes a midwife) every four weeks, until I get to 28 weeks. Then I'll go every two weeks until 36 weeks, and then weekly until Peeper is born.

Since (I think) the perinatologist will want to see me every four weeks as well, I'll try to stagger the appointments so that I'm getting some sort of check every couple of weeks, rather than two back-to-back and then nothing for three or four weeks.

That should be often enough keep me relatively calm and reassured. Relatively.

Of course, once I start getting some belly action going on and, later, actually feeling Peeper move, it will be a little easier to believe that there's something going on in there.

I know I'm very lucky that I've felt so good - I'm almost to the end of my first trimester and other than tiredness and ouchy boobs (and that's much better now - if I had bras that fit, they probably wouldn't hurt at all) and that thing about not having had a period since February, I've really experienced almost no pregnancy symptoms at all.

(Ok, I may be a bit more of a cry-baby mush-ball, but that's a tough call, because I always have been.)

I'm certainly not complaining (especially not in front of any woman who's suffered through weeks or months of "morning" sickness) but if it weren't for the ultrasounds (five, so far) I would seriously be wondering if this was real.

Little kicking baby-person on a tv screen, though?

That's pretty fucking real.

S/he's Got Legs . . .

First, and foremost: Everything is fine.

Peeper is great.

In fact, Peeper is an inch-long package of embryonic (soon-to-be-fetal) perfection, with arms and legs and (if the rumors are to believed) a tongue and a nose - and a butthole (like we didn't already have enough of those in the world!)

And here's the proof:

Now that we've established that, I'll explain that we had another ultrasound this morning, because the little shit darling gave us a bit of a scare earlier in the week.

We hadn't mentioned this to anyone, nor had I blogged about it, because we were 99.99999999% sure that everything was fine, so we saw no need in getting people worried for nothing.

Now that we know that for sure that all is well, I'll go back and tell the whole story.

On Tuesday, I'd taken the day off work to engage in some electorally-related activities that were going on in these parts. I'd planned to be out and about by 7 am, but didn't manage to actually drag my ass out of bed til around 8 am, so I decided I'd make phone calls for a while, then head out around lunch-ish.

About 10:30 am, I took a break from my calls, and went to the bathroom, where I discovered that I was spotting, just the tiniest little bit, but certainly enough to freak me out.

(As you might imagine, at nine weeks pregnant, the amount of spotting required to cause freaking out is pretty fucking minimal.)

Now, I knew, intellectually, that spotting in early pregnancy is quite normal, and nothing to be overly concerned about, provided that it's not heavy or bright red or accompanied by significant cramping, but still. Yeah. Pretty freaked out.

I immediately made calls to both my fertility clinic and my regular OB. By the time I was done leaving voicemails for them, Shrike had consulted Dr. Google, and was quizzing me about cramps and color and amount, and telling me exactly what I said above.

By that point, of course, I had already decided that my activities for the day would not involve standing around outside for hours at a time, talking to strangers.

While I waited for nurses to call me back, I went to lie down, because it seemed like the thing to do.

At this point in the story, I would be remiss if I did not describe just how wonderful Shrike was during this whole episode. I keep telling her this, and she keeps telling me that I'm being silly, but I really mean it.

She handled it just perfectly. She was appropriately concerned, yet very reassuring. She told me that everything would be fine (and mostly convinced me) without ever making me feel like I was overreacting.

When I retreated to the bed, Shrike joined me and snugged me, and petted me, and let me freak out and cry for a bit. Then we both fell asleep.

Because that seemed like the thing to do.

The first call back was from the nurse at my regular OB's office who told me what I already knew (see above) and said that everything should be just fine, but to call back if anything changed.

When I'd not yet heard back from Nurse E at the fertility clinic, I called them again, and this time told the receptionist what was going on (the first time, I just asked for Nurse E's voicemail).

Because Nurse E is technically no longer our nurse, since we moved to IVF, she made me talk to another nurse, part of Nurse D's donor team (Nurse D was not in, as she only works Monday, Wednesday, Friday. Must be nice.).

Note: I really like Nurse D too, but "she's not my real nurse." And, it's kind of a pain in the ass that she's only there every other day. When we were in the middle of the IVF process, it made sense to deal with the nurses who specifically work with donor-egg IVF patients but, at this point, Nurse E knows the answers to my questions just as well as they do, so if I have my choice, I'd rather deal directly with her.

Anyway, that nurse told me the same thing, again, but also that, "if it were me, I'd want to come in for another ultrasound in a few days, just for my peace of mind."

Bingo! That's the answer I was looking for!

Let's see, ultrasound three days from now - or three weeks from now? What ever shall I do?

"Well, if you think I should. Can you transfer me to the scheduler right now?"

I was already feeling much better about everything by that point (from what the nurses had said, and the fact that nothing was changing spotting-wise; it wasn't getting heavier or any different), when Nurse E called to reassure me some more.

She agreed that the ultrasound was a dandy idea, and also assured me that something terrifying happens to every pregnant woman at some point along the way (for her, it was a fall down a flight of stairs!) and told me not to hesitate to call back if I needed to.

The spotting continued to be very, very, very light through Tuesday and Wednesday and had pretty much stopped by yesterday.

I was feeling pretty confident about things at that point, but was of course, still pretty nervous by the time the ultrasound rolled around this morning.

Of course, as soon as the dildo-cam was in position (when do I get to switch to abdominal ultrasounds?) we saw Peeper right away, including his/her little heart beating just as it should be - and a hint of some stubby little legs!

S/he is 24.7 mm long (just shy of an inch), which corresponds to 9 weeks 1 day, with a heart rate of 182 beats per minute (which is, evidently, just right).

There was no sign of any bleeding going on inside my uterus, or anything else to cause any concern.

Dr E (like the nurses) said that there are any number of inconsequential things that can cause a little bit of bleeding during pregnancy, and that, while it's very scary at the time, it's usually nothing to worry about.

She did recommend that I "take it easy" with no heavy lifting or strenuous physical activity for a few days, but other than that, everything is just fine.

So, the upshot is that we got a bonus look at Peeper, which I was happy to have, spotting or not.

My next appointment will be on May 8 with Dr B, my regular OB and then I have another appointment on May 14 with the perinatologist, for the nuchal translucency ultrasound.

I'll try to resist coming up with any other excuses for additional ultrasounds between now and then.

Babies Come With Arms!

Peeper Picture

Still not a whole lot to see, but here's the photo from today's ultrasound. I wish I had video to show the heartbeat; that was very cool. Just imagine that blob pulsating rhythmically.

Wordless Wednesday #56: Little Peeper

You can't really tell it from looking at the photo, but that little smudge at the end of the arrow is a baby, with a great looking heartbeat, measuring just the right size for 6 weeks gestation (4 weeks from conception) - in me!!!

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