Ultrasounds

Tim and I have been lucky enough to be able to see our little Peanut 6 times.  While I always get a little nervous going into the ultrasounds, we have always left relieved.  While not everything about our journey has been easy, each ultrasound has shown our baby's heart beating strong and we are so thankful that she is healthy.  After our first two ultrasounds, I decided to start an album that included the pictures, dates, and milestones of each ultrasound.

We weren't scheduled to have an ultrasound until I was 7 weeks along to check for a heartbeat, but when I started bleeding at 5 and a half weeks, my doctor had us come in early.  I feared we were losing our baby, and I was so scared.  Our doctor explained to us that we may not be able to see the embryo, let alone a heart beat.  Luckily, our little Peanut showed up on the screen right away, and soon after our doctor showed us a tiny heart, beating away.  Words can't describe the emotions that followed.

Ultrasound 1
July 19, 2013
5 weeks 5 days
Heart rate: 90 bpm

Little tiny Peanut!

 

Her heart beat is shown at the bottom

 

Our next ultrasound was scheduled for 10 days out in order to check for proper growth and heart rate.  This time we got to not only see her heartbeat on the screen, we also go to hear it!  It was also easy to see that our Peanut had grown, and little tiny arms and legs were visible.  Her growth and her heartbeat were measuring right on track!

Ultrasound 2
July 29, 2013
7 weeks 1 day
Heart rate: 141 bpm

Tiny arms and legs!

 

The circle next to the baby is the yolk sac

 

Heartbeat

 

Since everything was on track, we were transferred from OHSU to Salem Clinic.  At my first appointment with our OB he did a quick scan to see the baby.  We saw her heartbeat (although he didn't measure it) and everything looked great.

Ultrasound 3
August 8, 2013
8 weeks 4 days

Growing baby 

Our next ultrasound was scheduled in order to get a good look at everything (ovaries, uterus, the baby...).  This time baby was moving around!  It was so fun to see how much she had grown, especially her arms and legs, and to see her moving was amazing.

Ultrasound 4
August 22, 2013
10 weeks 4 days
Heart rate: 170 bpm

Cute little face!

At our 12 week appointment, we had another unscheduled ultrasound.  When the nurse checked for a heartbeat with the doppler, she was unable to find it.  The doctor that was in the office that day was able to squeeze in a quick ultrasound between two of her patients, and we found that our baby was doing wonderfully, and once again, felt so incredibly relieved.  The doctor called our baby a "spaz" (a good thing, she said) because she was so wiggly!  She would wiggle and move her arms and legs, then take a break and suck on her thumb.  It was so fun to see!

Ultrasound 5
September 3, 2013
12 weeks 2 days

Upside down baby sucking her thumb

After having so many ultrasounds in our first trimester, it was so hard waiting 7 weeks for our next one.  I was counting down the days, then the hours.  At our mid-pregnancy ultrasound, what was most important to us was to see that our baby was healthy and developing normally, but we were also very excited to find out if we were having a boy or a girl.  The ultrasound was long (almost an hour) and not very comfortable.  We got to see baby's heart beating right away, and of course, she was wiggling around.  The ultrasound tech then took all the measurements of things other than baby.  This took over a half an hour.  Lots of measurements and a wiggly baby made for lots of poking and prodding on my belly.  She then started taking measurements of our baby and finally asked us if we wanted to find out the gender.  When we told her we did, she said she had a pretty good idea but wanted to get a good picture.  After a couple minutes, she got one.  Our baby finally had a name!  Other than Peanut, of course.

Ultrasound 6
October 22, 2013
19 weeks 2 days
Heart rate: 157 bpm

The shape to the left of her face is the umbilical

cord.  To the left of the umbilical cord is a hand.

 

Sweet face and the umbilical cord

 

Moving her hand to her face so she could

suck her thumb

 

Lady parts!

 

Her left foot

 

Her right foot

We don't have any more ultrasounds scheduled, and while I love seeing Olivia, I am hoping that things go smoothly and we won't need another.  Now I have her kicks to let me know that she is getting bigger and stronger every day.  100 days to go!!!

~Kaylee