5/22/2012 – 7 week ultrasound

Well we just go to meet our baby for the first time.  He/she is about 1 cm long and their heartbeat is about 145 bpm (watching it beat on the monitor was pretty surreal).  It is measuring perfectly for the age and apparently my uterus looks “perfect” in terms of its development.  In the picture, you can see the baby (the ultrasound tech was kind enough to label it), and below is the yolk sack.  All the light colored stuff around the edge of the uterus is happy pre-placenta stuff.  They can tell just from the ultrasound that my uterus is reacting well to the hormones and is ready to make this baby thing happen.  The doctor declared that we now have a very slim chance of miscarriage (like a few percent, down from 20-25%).

This appointment consisted of the ultrasound and measurements.  Next we met with one of the nurses for a while and she went over an extensive history and gave us a bunch of info on birth, classes, and even a nice book to read.  Then the doctor, Caroline Kline, came in.  She is just as awesome as I remember, and I was immediately SOOOO glad we chose our OB so well and even MORE glad that she agreed to take us on as a private patient.  Apparently most patients in the clinic are just consults and few get full-time care.  They treat their “private patients” extra specially and unlike most practices, unless my doctor is out of town or doing something they can’t get out of, they will be at my birth.  Dr. Kline answered all of our questions and talked about how good everything is going said we will be getting ultrasounds every month until later (and then they will be more frequent).  Then we did an exam and they took half a pint of blood (seriously like 13 vials), and I was done. 

My next ultrasound is at 12 weeks and I will be doing the usual stuff plus they do some of the genetic screening (not the invasive ones) at this point to identify downs and other issues.  Following that is 16 weeks when we can find out the gender of the baby. 

It is really exciting to see the baby and see that all of the morning sickness and fatigue has been for a good cause!  I am already flooding with maternal love for this little growing baby.