get a little backbone

we were only supposed to hear the heartbeat this morning, but brian really wanted an ultrasound and begged the doctor for one. so she rolled in the machine, squirted that cold jelly on my tummy, and baby spot popped up on the screen.


WOW! what a change from four weeks ago when we saw him/her last! eyes and nose were clearly visible to us and the doctor could see its brain (all i could tell was a big head). that curved horizontal line on the left side is its spine, and there were little stripes across its chest that the doctor said were ribs. spot was very wiggly this morning and we saw arms and legs flailing everywhere. apparently he/she was as happy to see mommy and daddy as we were to see him/her!

we did get to hear the heartbeat as well, which the doctor said would get stronger and easier to hear as the baby gets older. it was beating along at 120 bpm which she said was good. normal is 110-140 bpm, she said.

my uterus is up at my belly button, which means spot is growing well. doctors measure "fundal height," the distance to the top of the uterus, as a way of making sure the baby is growing enough. they just poke around on your stomach as if they are feeling for your liver or spleen or something. i had been trying to figure out where it was the last couple of weeks and have been unsure so she showed me. i was quite surprised - it is hard and firm, like a flexed muscle, and then at the top my stomach gets all squooshy again. personally, i knew that baby was growing without her even having to tell me. i only fit into a couple pairs of my pants anymore and my bias-cut, elastic waist skirts.

our next visit is in december, the same day that we have the 20-week ultrasound. next week or so i go in to the lab for the expanded alpha-feto-protein (xafp) test, which tests not only for some chromosomal abnormalities (like down's and trisomy 18) but also for non-hereditary problems like neural tube defects. i will also have a chromosome workup on myself, as there are some minor family histories that could have caused a problem that could be passed on to our baby. highly unlikely, but i figure it's just one more piece of information, and i only have to do it once. it's not like my chromosomes will change from this baby to the next.

we are at: 15 weeks 3 days.