Girl Power

By kate on September 28th, 2005

It’s a girl! A healthy girl!

Today’s ultrasound had good results, showing one healthy baby that has a 90-95% chance of being female (they don’t like to guarantee this stuff).

The one other interesting thing was that Zippy is smaller than fetuses of 17 weeks usually are. The ultrasound radiologist took that to mean that there was some confusion around the date of conception. I’m sure of the date of my last period, so maybe I ovulated a week late. Or, Zippy could just be small, although the radiologist wouldn’t speculate as to what that might mean, preferring to leave that to our doctor. I didn’t get the sense that it was a problem, though. My due date could be changed to March 12th. We’ll see what the midwife says.

The ultrasound experience could have been better. We got a technician (not the radiologist who just visited briefly at the end) who was brusque and businesslike. She took no time to acquaint us with the procedure or what we were seeing, she just dove in and started taking measurements of the images on the screen. Steve could follow along fine, but I was viewing it at a weird angle and for a long time wasn’t able to make sense of the image. That was frustrating, and even though I was obviously/vocally struggling to understand the perspective, the technician didn’t slow down or give any explanations. Finally, Steve was able to orient me.

We were able to see Zippy all at once, as well as closer up. It was cool. We could see bones, face, hands, feet, etc. We watched her heart beat and her mouth move as she swallowed amniotic fluid (a fun point to imagine she was talking to us instead).

I had imagined her inside a spherical uterus, with all the space that implies, but I’d forgotten about the placenta, which seemed as big as Zippy. She’s actually in pretty tight quarters. I’m surprised I haven’t felt her move yet, being so close to the uterine wall, but I haven’t. We got to watch her move a bit, though. During the course of the ultrasound, she bent and straightened her legs a few times as well as moving her hands, head, and arms.

Many pictures were taken during the ultrasound, but the technician only printed three for us. I assume the rest will go in our file, which will be sent to the midwife. We’ll be sure to get copies of everything at our next appointment. In the meantime, here are a couple glimpses of our daughter (first time I’ve used that word!). You’re looking at the profile (side) of her head and upper torso:

Picture 1 (best) | Picture 2 | Picture 3