Journal
Sign guestbook
Arthur's Mummy's Diary
Matthew's Belly Gallery
Nathan's Belly Gallery
Benjamin's Belly Gallery
My Fertility Friend Chart
2007-07-02 - 10.35pm��previous entry��next entry
8 weeks pregnant - first scan today!!
Hooray, I�m 8 weeks pregnant today!!! :)
I have news! But it starts out slightly weirdly. This morning was my appt at the EPU at my local hospital. Neil had the morning off work for the appt, and I got a lie-in this morning (how wonderful!) because he was home, and because I had some crazy insomnia last night and couldn�t fall asleep till nearly FOUR am. Ugh. I know that can happen in pregnancy, but I sooo hope that was a one-off! I really do not need my sleep interrupted more than it already is at the moment!
Anyway, so when I groggily made my way downstairs this morning, Neil said he needed to talk to me. He said he was just ironing his work clothes when he suddenly felt really strongly that we should not be going to the appointment. He felt I should cancel it and we should spend some time praying instead, for our bean and our boys, and everything that currently needs prayer! He wondered if it was even something that God had put on his heart, and he never experiences this normally. We talked and weighed things up. I REALLY wanted to go to my appointment, and felt no such conviction over going. But I did not want to go against my husband, especially if he felt that God had spoken to him about it. I even got nervous that if we DID go, something might happen to us, like a car accident on the way or something, like maybe that was why we weren�t meant to go! Anyway, we decided to pray about it together. We wondered if maybe somebody else desperately needed that appointment today, and that�s why we should cancel. After all, in the time I have waited for it to come round, my spotting has cleared up and not come back, and I feel sick so I am feeling quite confident about the pregnancy. I did so want to go all the same, to have the confirmation of a healthy pregnancy and some final reassurance from someone who really knows what they are talking about. I also hoped to have a chance to see my tiny bean!
Matthew was napping and we explained to Arthur that we were going to pray to God and ask him what we should do, etc, and Arthur just sat quiet (ish!) with us while we prayed aloud together. We asked God to show us what we should do. Then we waited. Often, God will speak to me when I wait on him like this. After a little while, a sentence popped into my head from nowhere, almost a spoken sentence, but maybe it was just my own thoughts, I don�t know. It did surprise me a little, because it said, �That baby boy is going to be fine.� It didn�t FEEL like my own thoughts, and I got the instant �Oh, of course!� feeling of total peace and reassurance that I always get when I hear God�s voice over something I�m asking him. I now feel like we are definitely having a boy! But I will also have a sense of �wait and see� until the scan proves it! The surprising thing is how happy I feel. Maybe it�s because, if it�s true, God told me himself. Or at least, that�s what I feel happened. And if he did, then it just makes it a huge blessing, and more so that he revealed it to me so early in my pregnancy. I am already tempted to call the baby �him� and have done so by mistake a couple of times! But I will not totally rely on it. I will think of myself as expecting another boy until proven otherwise! I�m so thankful to God, because I was anxious about the increasing �oooh, what if it�s a GIRL?!� thoughts I would be sure to get as the weeks went by and the scan approached. I couldn�t seem to do anything about it, and I knew it would result in disappointment at the scan if the baby was not a girl. If this baby IS a girl, then I guess I will feel slightly daft for convincing myself that God spoke to me and told me it was a boy! But I will still be glad of it, because it will make the girl news such a wonderful and unexpected surprise. And in the meantime I can relax and plan for my third sweet little boy! So it�s ideal, all round, and I�m so relieved and grateful.
I have had a couple more girl dreams lately, but it is still too early for them to have any meaning anyway.
So, I told Neil about what I �felt� and he smiled :) I didn�t feel any reason not to attend my appointment though. I felt like I had not finished listening to God, and Arthur was getting fed up of our prayer time, so I went upstairs and spent a little while longer praying and waiting on God. In the end, I did not feel I should NOT go, but that the boys and Neil should stay at home. I think the thought had crossed my mind when the appt was first made, but the idea made me nervous, going on my own. This time I felt at peace about it, and like it was the right thing to do. I also felt that I should phone the unit and ask them if somebody else in great need could use my appointment if I cancelled it at such late notice (this was an hour before it). I did phone, and told the receptionist that my spotting was gone and I felt more confident, and that I didn�t want to use the appointment when someone more desperate for it might be able to go and get reassurance this morning. She was so nice and told me that it didn�t work like that, and that the appointment was made for me, my doctor�s letter had an �urgent� stamp on it, and I had every right to go anyway and follow up on my spotting. I felt much better about it, and Neil did too. So � the end of a long story! � I went, and the boys all stayed home.
It was the right thing to do, because there was a TINY waiting area all crammed with nervous looking couples. They were running late and I waited 30 minutes. It would NOT have been appropriate to have our little ones with us there this morning. I am so glad to have prayed and ended up making that decision.
So, the lady who originally called me and made my appt was talking rubbish! I did get the impression she didn�t actually know what went on at the appointments. She told me that a doctor would examine me, and then based on that, they MIGHT scan me, or they might not. I asked her at that point whether the scan would be trans-vaginal or abdominal. She faltered and seemed embarrassed about the question (!!), and then answered that she was pretty sure the scan would be abdominal.
So I turned up, filled in a form, and sat in the waiting area which was plastered with A4 notice sheets in BOLD writing, stating that trans-vaginal scans are recommended by this unit for ALL early pregnancy scans. They are perfectly safe during pregnancy and please empty your bladder upon arrival! Exactly as I remembered from the scan with Matthew. Tsk. Silly lady. But yay for me! I went for a wee, a LOVELY sonographer called me in, and I had a trans-vaginal ultrasound scan. She did the normal thing trying to reassure me about the procedure as I was taking my clothes off, but I just said that I had had them with my other pregnancies and I knew the drill :) I have no qualms about those scans now.
I waited, suddenly rather nervous, while she faced the screen towards her and started the scan, and she looked at it in silence for a moment. Then she said, �I can see one lovely baby in there with a good strong heartbeat!� Yay! She turned the screen to face me and showed me my tiny bean. She pointed out the heartbeat which was pulsating away beautifully � so large in such a teeny tiny little body! The scan was so clear and the baby looked exactly like this in grainy ultrasound form! That photo is an embryo at Carnegie Stage 17, which begins at 42DPO (where I am today!). I was right about the embryology sites being way out for the crown-to-rump measurements. Stage 17 states that the CRL is 10-14mm (somewhere in there, depending on the site), but Beanlet measured exactly 8 weeks and 1 day (a day ahead!) at 17.5mm! My dates by my last period (not accurate!) say I am 8 weeks and 3 days. I ALWAYS go by my ovulation date and completely ignore what the doctors say about my last menstrual period. MY dates say I�m exactly 8 weeks today, and I�ll stick to that for now, even though Beanlet is measuring 8 weeks and one day. At this stage of pregnancy, measurements for dating are extremely accurate.
Oh, that reminds me! Thank you Jenn for your response to my question about why my American friends at my due dates forum are all having early scans! I didn�t realise THAT was the dating scan, at 6/7 weeks! Of course. We have a dating scan in the UK too, at 12 weeks. Nothing before that. Some places combine it with the nuchal scan, which my local hospital does. Actually, reading up on it, earlier in the first trimester is probably more accurate for dating than at 12-13 weeks. I read up on it a bit and found that measurements for dating purposes become less accurate from 12 weeks on. So that makes perfect sense, thank you!! And now I am extra pleased to have had this scan today because I�ll trust the dating of it better than the normal 12-13 week scan. Mind you, I never bother with what anyone says about my exact gestation by ultrasound/doctor�s wheel thingy/LMP, etc. I know when I ovulate and I stick fast to that. It usually happens to give me a day or a few days more at the end of my pregnancy, since I always go past my due date, before they will start harassing me to be induced! :)
So yay! I was just beeeeaming for the rest of the appointment. I came back out into the waiting area and had to REALLY try to force my face into neutral because I felt a bit� wrong, or something, smiling like the luckiest woman on the earth in front of the various nervous couples still waiting for their scans, and I had no idea of their situations, so� But I was so overjoyed! It was so wonderful to see my THIRD child, really see him (um, him/her!)!! Yay!
The sonographer also checked my ovaries to see if they are healthy. They are! :) She couldn't see my left one very easily and I found it painful so she stopped looking.
I am soooooo constipated, as I always seem to be at this stage of my pregnancies! *sigh* The sonographer actually apologetically told me it was getting in the way, and asked me to press on a certain spot on my abdomen so she could see what she wanted to see!!! Urgh!
I have a corpus luteal cyst on my right ovary. It�s not huge, but it�s a �good size� according to the sonographer. It measures about 3cm across. I had one on my left ovary with Arthur that was big, but I can�t remember (nor do I seem to have documented it, tsk!) what it measured. When we had the 7 week scan with Matthew, I asked if I had a corpus luteal cyst and the sonographer said no, and that she couldn�t tell at all from which side I had ovulated. I like when I have a corpus luteal cyst because I get to know which of my ovaries my babies come from! :) Silly trivia, but I love it all the same! I am strongly dominant on my left ovary � I ovulate from it more than 90% of the time. This is a normal thing (most women are dominant for one ovary or the other), and I can tell because I nearly always have ovulation pain specific to the side I�m ovulating from. I can count on one my finger (well, if I knew the exact number I would!) the number of times that I have ovulated from my right ovary, seriously! I just NEVER do. Every month � ow, left-sided pain. I have noticed at least 2 incidences of right-sided ovulation pain since having Arthur though, and since I have only had about 8-10 cycles (can�t be bothered to count exactly how many!) from Arthur�s pregnancy to this one, at least 2 right-sided ovulations show a significant change for me. Anyway, I have right-sided corpus luteal cyst! I ovulated from my right ovary! With the boys, I felt left-sided pain (and had the left corpus luteal cyst with Arthur) so I know they came from my lefty :) I can�t actually remember if I noted ovulation pain to a particular side this cycle. I know I had some pain. I will have to check my FF notes now, otherwise it will drive me bonkers!....
Okay, have just spent like an HOUR on the FF boards. *sigh* That was not meant to happen! I meant to just check my chart notes! And Matthew woke and nursed, so now it�s reeeeally late. I must hurry up and finish this entry, so I can go to bed. I�m SO tired out.
I did find this in my chart notes from ovulation day:
"I have had crampiness today enough to call it ovulation pain. Yesterday I had some twingy pains over my pubic bone on the RIGHT hand side, and I wondered if it had to do with building up for ovulation on that side maybe. But I don't think I can call it "ovulation pain" as I know it. Today's crampiness was a few hours in duration, and generalised over my lower abdomen (all above the pubic bone, not as far out as my hips), and tender enough so that I couldn't bear it if Matthew knelt on it trying to climb over me. I immediately thought of ovulation as the cause when he did it."
So there we go! I DID have signs that it might be right-sided. :)
I pleaded for a scan picture and the lady said that they are not allowed to give them out � something to do with legal issues or something! I said how my husband was at home watching the little ones and was there any way that I could have a picture of the baby to take home to show him (hehe! I was feeling determined!), and she gave me one but told me to put it in my bag NOW and not show anybody :) So here is the picture of my little Beanlet-boo!
It�s tiny and, well, grey! But basically all the greyness is my uterus, and the black area is the gestational sac. The grey blobiness inside is Beanlet! During the scan I saw Beanlet much more magnified and from all sorts of angles. It�s hard to see which bits are which from my tiny grey picture, but it�s easier if you have the picture on its side. I made another version of it to try and show things more clearly. I labelled it, but I�m rubbish at labelling! Excuse the wobbly white writing! ;) Beanlet�s head is huge and bent right over his/her body, just like the picture link above shows. The yolk sac is there, looking tiny against Beanlet! And the stalk which attaches the yolk sac. And Beanlet now has a working umbilical cord, which is visible at the bottom. You can also juuuust about mak out Beanlet�s tiny arm and leg buds!!! They�re like little dots at the four �corners� of the trunk of the body. Such sweet little paddles! Here�s the labelled version, enlarged and on its side. I hope you can see things better from this one:
I showed Arthur whenI got home (and Neil of course, who was thrilled!), and he said, �Awww!� :) This afternoon I was absent-mindedly scratching my tummy (my stretch marks are just beginning to itch a little, right in the middle low down, for some reason), and Arthur saw me and asked casually, �How�s your baby growing, Mummy?� He told Nana on the phone today, �The new baby is here! And there was a machine!!!� (which was the ultrasound machine that I was trying to explain as the thing that took the special picture of the tiny baby in Mummy�s tummy!) So sweet!
I wanted to write this in a more waffly way (you know me!) but I haven�t got time or energy now � I have noticed that I felt slightly less horrible yesterday. I figured it was down to it being weekend and getting extra rest, or something. Or just a flukey day. Today I have had peaks of nausea as awful as always, but they are very short-lived and I can get rid of them by eating, instantly. And I am constantly queasy as normal, but it just doesn�t seem quite so awful today in general. I am even here updating my diary without too much bother this evening! I noticed that I ate my meals more easily today, and I have twice found myself taking 3 big gulps of water in a row without realising that I�d done it! But surely morning sickness won�t start to go this early? I still haven�t really reached the height of my peak from the other two pregnancies � 9-10 weeks was particularly awful, I seem to remember, and it just built up to that from about 7 weeks. It would be really weird to me if I started to feel even a bit better consistently. If I hadn�t just had a healthy scan, I would be really worried!
Because I�m 8 weeks today (yay again! I�m so excited!), I have started listening with my Doppler for the heartbeat! One of my friends on my due dates group is also 8 weeks exactly today, and she found the heartbeat on her home Doppler today! So I know it�s possible. And I do hear the heartbeats early with my little ones. Nothing tonight though, just some great placenta sounds which I feel strangely proud of! ;) I will check again tomorrow. I just saw Beanlet�s heart beating away so I don�t feel desperate for the reassurance or anything. I am just so eager to hear it! I will listen in every day now till I do find it, which should be within the next week! How amazing! :)
Okay, feeling sick suddenly and it�s late, so I must post this and go to bed. I�ll be back asap!
Recent entries.....
Babies 7 and 8! :) - 2016-01-10
Babies 6 and 7! - 2013-02-17
Baby #5 !! - 2010-04-03
Nearly 3 months postpartum! - 2009-10-05
6 weeks old already! - 2009-08-25