BeeBee's 2nd Scan

Yesterday afternoon, Jeff and I got to see our baby for the second time. Luckily I wasn't as nervous as I was before the first scan, in fact, I was hardly nervous at all. This scan is considered to be the "20-week scan" and is known as the anomaly scan that looks for any abnormalities in the baby; although I am only 18 weeks, it can be done any time between 18 and 20 weeks.

I breathed a huge sigh of relief when I saw BeeBee's heart beating. The sonographer explained everything she was looking for and at during the scan. She started by measuring BeeBee's head and showing us that the spinal cord is developing correctly. She moved down to the face and said that there is no sign of a cleft lip. Looking at BeeBee's beating heart, she showed us the four chambers and even the properly opening and closing valves. Just below the heart the diaphragm is just visible. The small black circle was BeeBee's stomach filled with amniotic fluid (yum). She pointed out the three bones of each arm and the three bones of each leg. She was even able to show us the three veins in the umbilical cord... it's simply amazing what can be seen with the ultrasound machine. The sonographer was happy with everything she saw and said that as far as she could tell, we have a healthy baby.

BeeBee had his/her hands tucked up by his/her face the entire scan and we had a great view of his/her whole body... until it was time to take the picture. Naughty BeeBee then flipped onto his/her side to lay on Mommy's back and to face us, so we couldn't get a cute profile picture. So what you see in the picture is an outline of BeeBee's scull and a slight outline of his/her body. The picture doesn't matter too much; at least we know that BeeBee is developing healthily.

We still don't know whether we'll be buying pink or blue, but we will know this time next week. Next Wednesday, I have an appointment at a clinic to do a "sexing scan", since the sonographer couldn't possibly tell us yesterday (not allowed on the NHS). We will also get pictures of the scan, so hopefully BeeBee will cooperate this time, so we can get a cute profile picture.