Announcing... Junior at 12 weeks!
Or so we thought. At the scan today, we were surprised to hear that they think I'm actually 12 weeks 4 days already. Accordingly, they have adjusted my due date to 4 Dec.
Everything is normal; there is a very low risk of Down's (which was the main point of the scan). Junior is measuring just over 6cm.
The sonographers were kind and informative. They spent nearly 45 minutes with us (mostly because it took a while to get the baby into the right position to measure the back of the neck) and let us listen to the heartbeat. It was amazing to watch it jump around, roll around, stretch and contract (mainly contract). Hard to believe there's a small person moving inside me. It does look human, or at least, humanish. We could see a face, 2 hemispheres of the brain, 2 arms, 2 legs, torso, heart, bladder, and stomach.
I also have a fibroid, which is currently measuring larger than the baby, probably why the baby wasn't stretching very much. They're not worried yet, and it is well-placed at the top of my uterus, but they'll keep monitoring its growth.
Speaking of hearts, I was invited to participate in a cardiac study of pregnant women: they are comparing a heart condition called left ventricular non-compaction (LVNC) in black and white women. It seems that black women develop this condition during pregnancy more often than white women, so they are trying to see why there is such a big difference, as well as looking for ways to treat it. I thought it would be interesting to know more about my own heart, so I went for an ECG and ECHO before the scan. Everything was normal and I got to listen to my own heartbeat while watching it throb on the screen - eerie, but cool. I'll go for another ECG and ECHO when I have my 21-week scan at the beginning of August.
So happy that everything is going well..and I'm looking forward to the 2nd trimester. It's beginning to feel a bit more real everyday.
