The Infamous NT Scan

So I had my ultrasound yesterday.  The neonatal specialists office was...interesting.  The TV in the lobby was turned up SO LOUD and everyone working there (including the doctor who was working the front desk?) was super casual and super nice.  It was just very different than my usual doctor visits. 

They took my blood and talked me through what they were looking for and all that jazz.  Of course I was asked the magic question in every stage.

"How many pregnancies does this one make?"

"Four."

"And you have three babies at home?"

"No.  I have no babies at home."

Pause.

"Oh.  I'm sorry.  This one is going to work out!"

EVERY TIME.

Finally, it was time for the ultrasound.  Thankfully, no more magic wand ultrasounds.  We're finally external around here.  THANK GOODNESS.  Also, they used the warmed up jelly which was a first.  Nice and toasty warm. 

So, the tech starts the ultrasound and the first words out of her mouth are "Hmm, you've got a decent sized bleed in there."

First (panicked) words out of my mouth were "IS THE BABY STILL ALIVE??!??!"

"Oh, yes!  Just fine!  Sorry about that.  I don't think it's anything to worry about unless you've been spotting or bleeding"

I sort of wanted to kick her.  This woman had JUST been told, by me, that I've had three miscarriages in the last 18 months.  One would think that it would be something obvious that the first words out of her mouth would be something along the lines of "nice healthy baby!" or "everything looks great!"  Nope.  She went with YOU'VE GOT A DECENT SIZED BLEED IN THERE.  Not frightening at all to a woman who hasn't made it past fifteen weeks, right?  Sheesh.  Talk about a heart attack.

After that she started measuring.  Everything was looking fine and then the baby decided it was time to wake up and dance.  It was kind of awesome.  It was rocking out in there.  The tech kept saying "please don't roll over, baby" and baby listened and instead got into an even better position for measurement so we were able to see a whole lot of stuff even better.  She also measured the heartbeat which was right on track at 164bpm and the baby was measuring at exactly 12 weeks and two days, so we're looking good.

In the NT screen they check for the nasal bone (which was present) and then they measure the nucal translucency (eh?) which is the fluid between the baby's spinal cord and neck skin.  The lab has to take a look at that measurement so we don't know if it was good or not but other than that, and the weird bleed which the doctor will check out - everything looks good.  They'll share the results with my regular OB and maybe I'll be able to get an extra ultrasound due to the bleed.  And hopefully I don't start spotting because that would freak me the hell out.

So, here are the latest ultrasound pictures.  One is a facial profile (kind of hard to see but if you squint and shake your head it starts to make sense) and the other is obviously the whole body side shot.

Facial Profile, with a little nose and pouty mouth.

 

Whole body profile.  The line is them measuring from top of the head to the butt to determine size.  You can see the white spots of baby's arm and leg up above the belly.

So there you have it.  Everything but the bleed are normal.  Yahoo.