I always thought it should be a exciting scan, something to look forward to. I definitely think the wait between my NT scan and this one felt like the longest wait ever between appointments. I was looking forward to it, for the most part.
I didn't care if the baby didn't cooperate when it came to the gender check. In fact, I wasn't expecting it to. The little thing likes to move around and the stop as soon as I try to feel with my hand, so I expected it to keep its legs tightly closed when the time came for us to check out the goods. I had a gender-neutral theme for its bedding picked out and any gender-neutral clothes could easily be used for next baby. The only reason why I wanted to know the gender was because I wanted to know if my hunch that it was a boy was correct.
What I was really concerned about was the baby's development and its current habitat. I have felt very business like at most of my baby doctor appointments so far. When I was getting weekly ultrasounds I only cared about two things: had the baby grown and was there a heartbeat? As long as the answer to both was a confident "Yes" I went on my merry way until the next appointment. I didn't have an appointment where I felt relaxed or felt the need to discuss aches, pains, and fears with the doctor until I was about 16 weeks. It was the best appointment I had with our OB so far and I finally saw why people raved about her.
I started getting really anxious about our appointment on Sunday. Hubby kept telling me that the NT scan and blood work from the tri-screening came back normal, so why would there be reason to think that anything would be wrong?
Umm, because those tests don't tell us if our baby has half a heart or that my amniotic fluid level is low, among other things.
This is what I wish people really knew about the 20 week scan: that it isn't just for checking gender -- they look for so much more than a penis or a vagina. But then those people probably still have their rose colored glasses on. I lost mine forever back in February.
I liked the tech that did our ultrasound this time. The one who performed the NT scan seemed to get frustrated a little too quickly when our baby wouldn't keep still. Luckily the baby was pretty chill this time and allowed the tech to check all the necessary stuff out.
Hubby and I got to watch everything the tech did. I couldn't really tell what she was looking at most of the time, even though she told us what she was looking at. I had no idea what numbers were normal for measurements, which meant I could focus on looking at the baby and not the information being inputted at the side of the screen.
She spent a long time looking at its heart. A really long time. I felt like I counted and re-counted the chambers of the heart a hundred times. They were all there so what was with all the time being spent looking at it? Was it beating funky?
When she was finished she gave us a bunch of pictures and went to get the doctor. I told Hubby I didn't like that the tech spent a long time looking at the heart. He said the heart is a pretty important organ and they probably spend a lot of time looking at it normally.
The doctor came in and did his own scan of the baby. He talked us through what he was looking at. He said the heart looked good. All four chambers were there (I breathed a sigh of relief).
Then he came to the brain. He pointed out a black spot and said it was a choroid plexus cyst and it could be a marker for downs syndrome, but the only way to rule out any chromosome abnormalities was to have an amniocentesis.
He went on to say that since I was under 35 and my NT scan and bloodwork came back normal, the risks outweigh the benefits for me to have amnio. He said the cysts are actually pretty common and there is a good chance that the cyst will go away on it's own by the time I reach 26 weeks. He told me to come back in another six weeks to check on it.
I don't really think that Hubby and I really knew what to think. I set up our next appointment and walked out of the doctor's office in a slight daze.
I decided to call my parents to tell them the news as soon as we got out of the office. My mom was concerned that I would have to have an amnio, but was excited that everything else was fine. Hubby called his parents a little while later. I wish that his mom had been a little more enthusiastic. When he told her about the cyst she was left speechless. It was like we told her the baby definitely had downs syndrome. His dad took the news in stride though, and actually called the cyst the baby's "smart knot." I liked that and it made me feel better.
So we will wait our six weeks and go on planning ahead for our baby's arrival as if absolutely nothing is wrong. I don't think I could handle the wait if I didn't have things like the registry to focus on.
Oh yeah, and I was right! We're having a boy :)
I didn't care if the baby didn't cooperate when it came to the gender check. In fact, I wasn't expecting it to. The little thing likes to move around and the stop as soon as I try to feel with my hand, so I expected it to keep its legs tightly closed when the time came for us to check out the goods. I had a gender-neutral theme for its bedding picked out and any gender-neutral clothes could easily be used for next baby. The only reason why I wanted to know the gender was because I wanted to know if my hunch that it was a boy was correct.
What I was really concerned about was the baby's development and its current habitat. I have felt very business like at most of my baby doctor appointments so far. When I was getting weekly ultrasounds I only cared about two things: had the baby grown and was there a heartbeat? As long as the answer to both was a confident "Yes" I went on my merry way until the next appointment. I didn't have an appointment where I felt relaxed or felt the need to discuss aches, pains, and fears with the doctor until I was about 16 weeks. It was the best appointment I had with our OB so far and I finally saw why people raved about her.
I started getting really anxious about our appointment on Sunday. Hubby kept telling me that the NT scan and blood work from the tri-screening came back normal, so why would there be reason to think that anything would be wrong?
Umm, because those tests don't tell us if our baby has half a heart or that my amniotic fluid level is low, among other things.
This is what I wish people really knew about the 20 week scan: that it isn't just for checking gender -- they look for so much more than a penis or a vagina. But then those people probably still have their rose colored glasses on. I lost mine forever back in February.
I liked the tech that did our ultrasound this time. The one who performed the NT scan seemed to get frustrated a little too quickly when our baby wouldn't keep still. Luckily the baby was pretty chill this time and allowed the tech to check all the necessary stuff out.
Hubby and I got to watch everything the tech did. I couldn't really tell what she was looking at most of the time, even though she told us what she was looking at. I had no idea what numbers were normal for measurements, which meant I could focus on looking at the baby and not the information being inputted at the side of the screen.
She spent a long time looking at its heart. A really long time. I felt like I counted and re-counted the chambers of the heart a hundred times. They were all there so what was with all the time being spent looking at it? Was it beating funky?
When she was finished she gave us a bunch of pictures and went to get the doctor. I told Hubby I didn't like that the tech spent a long time looking at the heart. He said the heart is a pretty important organ and they probably spend a lot of time looking at it normally.
The doctor came in and did his own scan of the baby. He talked us through what he was looking at. He said the heart looked good. All four chambers were there (I breathed a sigh of relief).
Then he came to the brain. He pointed out a black spot and said it was a choroid plexus cyst and it could be a marker for downs syndrome, but the only way to rule out any chromosome abnormalities was to have an amniocentesis.
He went on to say that since I was under 35 and my NT scan and bloodwork came back normal, the risks outweigh the benefits for me to have amnio. He said the cysts are actually pretty common and there is a good chance that the cyst will go away on it's own by the time I reach 26 weeks. He told me to come back in another six weeks to check on it.
I don't really think that Hubby and I really knew what to think. I set up our next appointment and walked out of the doctor's office in a slight daze.
I decided to call my parents to tell them the news as soon as we got out of the office. My mom was concerned that I would have to have an amnio, but was excited that everything else was fine. Hubby called his parents a little while later. I wish that his mom had been a little more enthusiastic. When he told her about the cyst she was left speechless. It was like we told her the baby definitely had downs syndrome. His dad took the news in stride though, and actually called the cyst the baby's "smart knot." I liked that and it made me feel better.
So we will wait our six weeks and go on planning ahead for our baby's arrival as if absolutely nothing is wrong. I don't think I could handle the wait if I didn't have things like the registry to focus on.
Oh yeah, and I was right! We're having a boy :)
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