20 Week Ultrasound

I had my 6th ultrasound yesterday -this was however the first routine one in the public clinic. Often it is the only one normally pregnant people have. Usually women arrive with their partner and sometimes a whole troop of family and friends trailing behind. They actually have started implementing new rules to curb the audience, and will only allow the patient in to the room for the medical part of the exam, and then one family member to come in to view the pictures afterwards. I arrived on my lonesome. The receptionist awkwardly asked me if I was waiting for anyone else to come. No, I said, I'm on my own today. Later when the technician asked if I had anyone with me, and if I was having this baby on my own. LOL! No, but my husband is working out of town all week, and the poor guy has sat through 30+ ultrasounds of my ovaries and has shared in the 5 previous peeks at this baby, so it wasn't a big deal for him to miss this one. She probably thinks he's a deadbeat dad!

The tech began by entering my data into the system because they had no record of me having an obstetrical ultrasound yet. She began by asking the date of my last menstrual period. Ah, the age old question. Good thing I'd looked up the date that was 14 days before my egg retrieval and memorized this date. "March 26th" I announced. She then asked if I had regular 28 day cycle and if they'd given me an estimated due date. "Well it's an IVF baby so we are sure about our dates, and this baby is due Dec 31st, I'm 20 weeks + 4 days today".

She started to explain the whole ultrasound procedure, which I kind of chuckled about because I've had so many. I started to feel a bit nervous that they'd find something terribly wrong with the baby. I guess you never shake that worry when you've been through an ordeal to get where you are.

The tech can't tell you much, but I  was done in about 30 minutes, and she didn't spend time re-measuring or dwelling on any areas so I'll take that as a good sign. As always, baby Silver is a real mover and had to be chased to get the measurements. I saw all 4 limbs, hands and feet that had the full compliment of fingers and toes, 4 chambers of the heart, the brain, and all the facial features. It looks like the baby is getting DH's nose : ) LOL. We are not finding out the gender, so that bit will be a surprise, but I had fun guessing what I was looking at when they scanned the baby's abdomen for all of the organs.

The baby measured 20 weeks 3 days, was 10.5 " long, and weighed approximately 12 oz (right on track). They gave me a few printed pictures for $15.

1. Side profile  2. Foot and leg  3. Front view of face with hand under chin