Today I am 14+4 weeks pregnant

It is crazy to think that come Christmas

I will be halfway through this pregnancy

Halfway

Yet with over 5 months to go

Pregnancy timings always baffle me

My two due dates have now been moved closer together

I started with an EDD of 13th May

This was moved by our Consultant to 9th May

And then my NHS 12 week scan

Changed it again to 11th May

I am going 10th May as a happy medium

But know that it is rare for a baby to arrive on their given day

Though Tilda did

And I will always treasure that little trinket of specialness about her

She really was a very special baby

This baby is proving to be a bit of a pickle

Not willing to give the doctor or the sonographer

The views they needed

For the nuchal scan

What this meant was that both scans

Were lovely and long

Meaning I got to spend lots of time watchig my sprinkle of stardust

As she wriggled and flipped

Tossed and turned

Crossed her legs

Tried to put her hand in her mouth

And gave a massive yawn

The feeling of getting to know your baby on the screen

Never gets old

The magic is never any less

Here is a brand new human

A brand new piece of me

That, all being well

Will soon be in my arms

And living with us and her siblings

Conception, pregnancy, birth

They are all miracles

And I am always in awe of the glory of them

Growing a baby is amazing

In so many different ways

Private 12 Week Scan

I was not confident that my NHS scan appointment would come in time

I had only seen the midwife at 12 weeks

So we booked an appointment with our wonderful Mr Penman

We had already seen him at 9 weeks

For an early scan to check that baby was where she needed to be

This did not stop me feeling terrified

Absolutely terrified

That there would be no heartbeat

That she would not have grown

That something would be wrong

As we saw her heartbeat flicker on the screen

And heard the pounding rhythm

Loud and clear and regular

The tears began to fall

As they always do

Here was our baby

Our beautiful baby

With all her fingers

And all of her toes

Here is her bladder

Nice and full

Showing that her kidneys are working

Here is her beautiful butterfly brain

An image ingrained on my mind from Matilda’s 12 week scan

Her heart was beating at 154 beats per minute

From crown to rump she measured 70.6mm

7 centimetres yet already perfectly formed

A miracle!

The fat pad

Measured as an indicator for Downs Syndrome

Was 1.6mm

This measurement reduced my risk from 1 in 80

To 1 in 714

My placenta is posterior and high

All the important organs appeared normal

Though of course these will be examined in more detail at the 20 week scan

The anomaly scan

Which Mr Penman prefers to do at 22 weeks

So we will be booking in with him

As we did with Tilda and Bea

The fetal measurements as this 12 week scan suggest a gestation of 13+ weeks

I thought I was 12+5

Mr Penman was also able to tell us that he thinks our baby is a little girl

Though it is only 80% accurate at this stage

He was right with Matilda Mae though

And with beautiful Bea

And this is how he knows!

At 13 weeks the baby does not yet have a penis or a clitoris but they do have this genital tube. In a girl it sits parallel with the spine but in a boy it faces away from the spine as baby boys are in a semi permanent state of erection (Wouldn’t you know!) The reason the obstetrician or sonographer cannot be one hundred percent certain is the boy baby may have lost his erection for the time we look at the genital tube on the scan but this is not thought to be that common.

After the scan we went back to Granny’s house

Where Esther, William and Bea were waiting

We showed them the photographs

And as they realised what they were seeing they cheered

I was so relieved by their reaction

They were so happy to know that a little baby was on the way

A baby in mummy’s tummy

William’s feelings changed when we told them it was a girl

In fact he burst into tears

I think he and Daddy would have quite liked this one to be a blue one

And she still could be

William is clinging on to his 20% chance of a brother

I am clinging on to the fact

That our little sprinkle of stardust

At the end of our first trimester

Looks to be okay

She is a wriggler

Always on the move

A few times she seemed to be looking right at us

I love her so much already

I felt like I could reach out and touch her

I kept saying ‘Hello Baby’ over and over in my mind

I am growing a baby

A beautiful rainbow baby

And I am hoping with all my heart that she will stay

NHS Nuchal Scan at 13 weeks plus 6

This appointment did not start well

It was at Maidstone Hospital

My first time there

And the parking is just unbelievable

There was literally nowhere to park

After an hour of checking every car park on the site

I had to call the clinic and explain why I was so very late

The lady on the phone spoke to parking

Who told me to park illegally and get to my appointment

I was to find anywhere within a car park that was not blocking an already parked car

An entrance or an exit

I searched around the overflow and main car park

But all these illegal places were already taken

I ended up parking in a Keep Clear bay

It was for a lawn mower vehicle I think

As it led on to the grass

And there was no access to anywhere else as there was a wall

I felt awful

But I had no choice

Forty minutes late I arrived at the antenatal clinic

Properly stressed

A nervous driver at the best of times

I was an emotional wreck

The lady on the reception was lovely

And said that I might have to wait

But I would be seen today

In the end the wait for the scan and the bloods

Was not too bad

I was absolutely desperate for the loo

Having drunk a pint of water an hour before my appointment

Now two hours ago!

I could barely walk to the scanning room

But I made it and up on to the bed

Only after a few minutes to be told my bladder was far too full for the scan

And I should quickly go and empty it!

All that discomfort for so long

For nothing!

Once I had been to the loo

The scan began again

And I was able to relax a little and enjoy it

And watch my beautiful baby

Being a pickle again!

Bouncing around on the screen

Testing out every position

Except the one position

That the sonographer needed

I love that she already seems to be strong minded

Rather like our beautiful Bea

Beautiful bonkers Bea!

The scan set up was strange at the hospital

New to me

One person doing the scanning

And another person recording the measurements

So while the two talked to one another

They did not really want to talk to me

Thankfully I had already had a scan

So I was fairly confident that everything was okay

But if this was my first scan for this pregnancy

I think I would have been disappointed with the lack of communication

The lack of explaining to me

What the sonographer was seeing

What the measurements meant for baby and me

As it was I was happy to just stare at my little girl

Trying to convert the scan image

To a picture in my mind of how she might be

My daughter

My baby girl

This scan took place over a week after our private scan

And the measurements linked up with that

A crown to rump length of 80mm

And a nuchal translucency of 2mm

I was happy with the findings

And so seemed the team

I will find out more when I see my community midwife

At 16 weeks

After the scan I had some blood tests taken

And again the results will be discussed

At my 16 week appointment

So that is it for now

Keep on keeping on

Until we see the midwife

And hopefully hear the heartbeat of our baby girl

Keep growing little baby

Keep flexing and moving

And wriggling around

I hope you are a fighter

Ready for this road laid out before us

We all already adore you

We cannot wait to meet you

And, all being well

Bring you home x