Week 17...the BIG Ultrasound

I found the GREATEST blog to follow during this pregnancy. It's written by a women with (recently) two girls, and her writing style is very humorous and easy to read. She also puts everything in to plain wording for people like me who really know nothing about any of thi business. Apparently she didn't either her first time around, and so she made it her mission to start a blog for all others like us who would appreciate understanding some of this confusing stuff! She is super organized (shocking that I love that, right?), and even has a registry cheat sheet that I copied 100%. Yep, high school algebra cheating style. SO thannkful I found this blog! There are posts every week about different things, and I thought this week's post was particularly helpful and exciting! A few people (i.e. my parents who had children before all of this modern technology) have asked what all the doctors look for during the "big" ultrasound. Nope, it's not just finding out the sex of the baby, even though that's the exciting part! Here's what Lucie's List had to say:

What are they looking for?

Well, a LOT. Here is a short list:

-- measurements of the head, length, and long bones to ensure that baby is growing appropriately
-- a survey of all major organs: the four chambers of the heart, both kidneys, the bladder, brain, stomach, spine, and most importantly, the you-know-what! (or NOT). Be sure to tell your sonographer up front if you don't want to know the sex!! (and be advised that EVERYTHING looks like a penis, so don't jump to conclusions)
-- the umbilical cord (you should have a three vessel cord: two arteries and a vein)
-- the location of the placenta
-- the fetal heart rate
-- amniotic fluid levels

The sonographer will also take freeze frames of each of the relevant shots to keep in your baby's file for future reference. They may also give you a CD of the pictures so you can post ultra scary looking 3-D ultrasound pics to Facebook and really creep out all your non-baby friends. MU-hu-hahahaha.

The most common abnormal finding is the location of the placenta. If the embryo implants low in the uterus, the placenta may fully or partially cover the opening of the cervix. This is called placenta previa and occurs in 1-3% of pregnancies. A partial previa will usually resolve on its own by 28 weeks while a complete previa will require a C-section around 36 weeks (yay modern medicine -- if this were 200 years ago, you would probably croak).

How helpful is all of that? I'm pretty sure my doctor told me all of this just four days ago in her office, but if you'd asked me what she said, I couldn't repeat any of this if you paid me. I'm really thankful for this little blog! Unfortunately, our "big" ultrasound isn't scheduled for another two weeks. It will be here soon though!