A journey in pictures

So far we have had three doctors appointments where we've been able to "see" Baby S on an ultrasound.  The first was on March 11, when I was 6 weeks along.  Baby S was merely a wee little thing.  (The itty bitty circle is Baby S)

Then a few weeks ago, on April 13th, we had our first "real" appointment with the OB and had another ultrasound.  Baby S was clearly getting bigger and more human-like at 11 weeks...

And then yesterday we had our third appointment, just shy of the 13 week mark (that would be today!)  Yesterdays appoitnment was with a maternal fetal specialist to do some testing to detect the probability of Baby S having any neural tube defects (i.e. Downs syndrome, trisomy-18, etc.)  The testing is non-invasive and is covered by our insurance so we figured we'd go ahead and have the tests.  All day Sunday I couldn't help but think about the tests and wonder why we were doing them.  If I was told that Baby S was probably going to have a birth defect, would anything change?  I wouldn't terminate the pregnancy and I would now have this worry for the next 6 months.  But on the flip side, I would be able to prepare.

Luckily, the ultrasound part of the test came back normal - baby S has a "thin neck" which is a good sign and the fluid behind the neck was in the "normal" range.  We won't get the final results back until the doctor runs my blood work and combines that information with my age and the ultrasound information.  But the doctor said the chances are low that anything is wrong.  PHEW!  We'll return when I'm 19 weeks for the second part of the test - they check for spina bifida at that point.  But, we'll also be able to find out the sex of the baby then!  So only 6 weeks to go until we know if I can start shopping for pink or blue!

Here are the pics from yesterdays ultrasound...baby S is getting bigger and the ultrasound machine was a much higher quality than the previous two.  OH, we also heard baby S's heartbeat for the first time - which made me start crying!  Such a strong little one - beating at 160 bpm.

Baby S is waving at us here!  He/she was quite the wiggle worm  yesterday!

Our sweet little one!