13 Weeks / 12w3d Ultrasound / NT Scan

Well, the big news from this week is we started telling people :) It was time for two reasons: 1) our ultrasound/NT scan on Tuesday went well, so we felt comfortable letting family in on the secret, and 2) I could no longer suck in my belly comfortably at work, so I started telling people there. It's both exciting/a relief to be able to tell people now, and still nerve-wracking, since I'm not out of first trimester yet and I'm still so anxious about losing this little one too. So the doppler has gotten quite the workout this week, but at least as of this morning, I was able to get assurance that things are ok in the form of a nice, strong heartbeat :)

So we had our first ultrasound since I was 8 weeks along on Tuesday at 12w3d. New baby looked good, measured a couple of days ahead, and was kicking and flipping all over the place. The heartbeat had dropped down from the 171bpm measured at my last appointment 3 weeks ago and is now 147bpm, which is fine since it's still over 120bpm. Josie went with Ryan and me to this appointment since we didn't think we'd have time for Ryan to drop her off at daycare and then get to the doctor's in time, although we ended up waiting almost an hour anyway, so poor Josie was a bit of a mess by time the ultrasound started. It was still nice to have them both there, though (until Ryan had to take off with her), and we had a nice family moment watching new baby kick around with Josie sitting on Ryan's lap and Josie and I holding hands (ignoring the fact that we were doing that to try to prevent her from melting down).

The NT scan is to check for increased risk for Down syndrome and Trisomy 13/18, determined by the thickness of the nuchal fold (area behind the neck), presence of the nasal bone, and bloodwork. So we knew before we left that day that two of the three looked good, since the baby has a nasal bone and the nuchal fold only measured 1.6mm (anything under 2.5mm is good). We got the bloodwork back a few days later so I'm officially lowered to a risk of 1 in >10,000, which is great.

For symptoms this week, I'm thinking the possible movement I felt last week wasn't a fluke, since I've felt fluttering a few more times since then. The nausea is still hanging around, and is actually worse now, since I've had to wear my Sea-bands all day several times. I also, sadly, came to the conclusion that naps are no longer allowed for me. Sleep is still a joke, as I wake up each morning utterly unrested from a night of crazy dreams and waking up repeatedly from 3am on, and I'm not even able to get my one sleep-in day on the weekends since I'm always awake and unable to get back to sleep by 7am anyway. So I had been looking forward to napping during Josie's naps on the weekends, except the last two times I did that, it took me over an hour to fall asleep at night, and then about an hour later, I would wake up and then basically be awake more than asleep the remainder of the night. So... no more naps :(

Here is the comparison picture for this week. And, as I did with Josie, I'll make public the private posts I've been writing for new baby, so several older posts will be suddenly appearing shortly :)