Ultrasound - 20 weeks

We went in for the 20-week ultrasound this morning. It was very exciting to get to see Beta moving around--kicking, rubbing his face, etc. Little bones in the legs and arms with little toes on the feet. Little hand caught in a "wave" in one of the pictures they gave us.

The sonographer was very friendly and helpful in explaining what we were seeing. (Very useful for me, who tends to see blobs of grey in ultrasound pictures.) Though, as I expected, there were times when the blobs of grey were a whole lot more identifiable, once we'd seen them move and identified the perspective. There was still plenty of time when I was still completely lost as to what we were observing, especially as she was looking at internal organs and the spine. ("There's the artery from the heart." Ummm....ok, if you say so, it looks like a black spot to me. "There's the kidneys." I'm seeing gray striations in a gray blob; maybe that's a tree trunk in black and white?)

No apparent problems were identified. The measurements taken would suggest a due date just one day off from the due date we've been using--so nothing significantly different than expected. I'm still impressed that they think they can determine a due date that closely based on measurements. After all, babies are not all the same size when they are born, so they all have to grow at slightly different rates before birth. All the doctors have to work off of are averages. So really, all we know is that the size is average for a particular due date.

Using the ultrasound, she measured Beta's heart rate at around 153 bpm.

That's the only ultrasound we are planning to have, assuming no problems or complications arise. So the next time we see little Beta we'll get to hold him! (or her!)