A well documented beginning...

Almost as well documented as Lincoln's beginning (but not quite), our little girl has already had many photographs (or more precisely, sonograms) taken of her. Today was the first appointment I have had where we didn't take a peak to see how she is doing. It was blessedly uneventful, which is always a wonderful thing (I haven't had very many uneventful appointments while pregnant). Dr. B found her heartbeat with the doppler pretty quickly, and listened for about 5-10 seconds. It was a perfectly normal appointment for 14 weeks!

Our next appointment on October 27th, will be the fetal anatomy scan...and really one of the last big hurdles to cross before we can hope to believe that she might truly be 100% healthy. The other hurdle is called the AFP (alpha fetal protein) test, which is just a blood draw for me in about 2 weeks. The AFP is a screening test that looks for neural tube defects like spina bifida (one of the main common birth defects that a CVS cannot test for). The fetal anatomy scan on Oct. 27th is another ultrasound where our doctor spends time looking at the baby's heart, blood flow, lungs, brain, kidneys, stomach, diaphragm, umbilical cord, spine, hands, arms, legs, feet, and facial structure to make sure that everything is developing appropriately and is in the correct place and the correct size for her gestation. We will also be getting assigned an official due date. It should be somewhere between March 25th and April 2nd, but in all honesty it doesn't really matter, because she will come when she comes.

Here she is, in all her embryonic (weeks 3-9) and fetal (weeks 9-40) glory! These are pictures of pictures, which makes them even more fuzzy than a normal ultrasound picture would be. Sorry.


Week 6, you can see the gestational sac (black oval), and inside a little blur that is the baby. Believe it or not, we actually saw her heartbeat that day!


Week 8. You can see how much she has grown. She looks like a little gummy bear with that giant head, and little arm and leg buds. You can even see her tail!


Week 10. She has now graduated to a true fetus, which she will remain until she is born. A little alien like, you can see her even more giant head, as well as little tiny black pinpoints which are her eyes, and the arms and legs again.



11 weeks (CVS test). This picture is a little less than 1 week after the previous one, but instead shows a profile view. You can see her head on the left and her body on the right. Her arms and legs are curled up close to her body in this picture, but we did see her moving them during the CVS procedure.

These pictures were taken over a period of 5 weeks. Isn't it amazing how quickly they grow and change? Almost a month has passed since her last picture. I wonder what she looks like now? :) We will 'see' her pretty face again in one month at the fetal anatomy scan. I am hoping to be feeling her movements by then also!