Fetal Echo + More Ultrasound Photos

Today we went in to have a fetal echo done. Because I was born with a heart valve defect, and in about 1/4 of cases it has a genetic cause (with about 90% of those people passing it on to their children), they wanted to take a look at the baby's heart to see if she had a similar problem. They got a good look at all the valves and everything looked fine. They are normally shaped, they fully open and close, blood flow is typical, and the size/shape of the heart and chambers is normal.

They also did another ultrasound after, so there's 3 more photos below. Since the 3D ultrasounds were normal, the fetal echo was normal, and the blood tests have so far all been normal, this should be our last visit to the perinatologist, so from here on out it should hopefully just be normal ultrasounds.


Maya/Mya at 22-weeks


Mouth open



Foot

We're going to have a girl

Today we had our 18 week ultrasound done. It was quite interesting, as they did a very detailed examination and we got to see a lot. But most importantly, we got to find out the sex, and it's going to be a girl. I'm quite excited, as I was hoping for a girl.

Now we need to start working on the name. In a way that was easy because when we both listed the names we like, we both had the same name as our favorite, so there was really no debate there. However, there is a disagreement on how to spell it: Mya or Maya.

Anyway, here are the Ultrasound photos from today



A baby girl



Legs



Baby foot



Head and hand



Head - 3D Ultrasound



Misc

First 3D Ultrasound

About a month ago, we went in for our first 3D ultrasound. It was actually very interesting. The detail and realism that you see is just absolutely amazing. Unlike a traditional ultrasound, where you sort of have to use your imagination to make out the features of the baby, the 3D ultrasound is really about as close as you can get to an actual photograph. We felt very lucky to be able to experience something most parents don't get the chance to see.

Unfortunately, it was a bit too early for them to make out any of the details they wanted to examine (it was only about the 13th week), so it probably didn't turn out to be the most productive examination. We are going back at the 18th week to have another 3D ultrasound done. Hopefully that will show them what they want to see.

We weren't given digital copies of the photos. They are supposed to put the digital copies from both exams on a DVD for us the next time we go in. They did give us some hard copy printouts. While they do appear to be more detailed than what you see in a typical ultrasound, they don't show nearly the detail we saw on the monitor. Hopefully when we get the digitals they'll be a lot better.








Update:
We got the digital copies of the photos finally. However, we only got 1 photo from this visit and it wasn't a 3d shot.

Second Ultrasound

We had our second ultrasound done on Dec 15th. The baby is a lot bigger this time (2.3 cm). However, due to the position, you can't really see as much detail as you could the last time. While our first ultrasound clearly looked like a baby, this one isn't so distinguished.



However, if you flip the photo upside down, it looks like a hampster. So for now I've jokingly named the baby Pouches.

Quick Introduction + First Ultrasound

First post on this blog. So I'm finally gonna be a dad. It's been a bit of a long road getting here, being that we've been trying for this for over 2 years. I'll post more details about everything in the future. For now I just want to get things started.

Today we had our first ultrasound done. Everything looks good. We're about 7 weeks along (5 weeks from conception). We're looking at a due date of late July, 2010. We got to see a heartbeat on the ultrasound, which was a relief. We've been holding off on telling a lot of people until we got to see that.



Now there are just a million things to learn and choices to make.