Nothing Like Those Milestone Ultrasounds!
This post was moved here from another location. It was originally published April 6, 2006.
There's nothing that gets your attention quite like a 12 week ultrasound. It is the first time one gets to see what looks distinctly like a small human being. Also, many of the initial risks are assessed and either realised or surpassed. Not only that, but the baby (and of course in our case, babies!) move - a lot! Before I carry on too much, here's an 8 and a half minute movie I made by condensing the 25 minutes of video that I shot during the ultrasound. It may take a few moments to download (good luck if you're on dialup) so you might want to take the opportunity to go make a cup of coffee/tea/whatever. Unfortunately the sound isn't great (the camera was pointed away from the sonographer), so you might need to turn up the volume and listen when it is fairly quiet around you. (My voice booms over the top due to its proximity to the mic.)
Needless to say, I wasn't expecting to see so much movement and the detail is of course a vast improvement from the last ultrasound - the equipment is better, and the babies are more developed so there is more to see. This ultrasound looks and measures many key indicators of development as well as measures (in combination with blood work) the likelihood of one of the babies having a Downe's syndrome - so we were nervous as you can imagine.
It was really most amazing to see & hear all of that information on the screen and speakers - all organs developing as they should, size and proportions was great as was their heartbeats (you might have heard/seen on the video). Not only that, but in our age bracket, the risk of Downe's is 1 in 400 - nothing to laugh at - and on the better end 1 in 1500. Our testing came back at 1 in 6000!!! So we were very relieved and excited.
If you have keen ears, you might have heard the sonographer explaining how if the 'genital tube' between the legs points down, it means a vagina will form, and if it points up, there will be a penis. Well... in case you didn't hear, it looks like both might be girls! There is still a likelihood that that assessment might be wrong, but it is likely to be right - at least 60% accurate. So that is another thing to get used to - I might be outnumbered!
Keri is still sick and exhausted (her body is busy growing not only two babies, but two separate placentas which will provide all the sustenance for the babies' development). She took a day off work yesterday (Wednesday) which seemed to help a great deal - I think I'll be pushing for this to be come a regular event.
I think the video in many respects speaks for itself, with the exception that this whole experience seems to just become more and more incredible and meaningful for us as it goes - as if the creation of completely new human beings from scratch wasn't incredibly meaningful enough!
The next milestone will be the 18 week ultrasound in six weeks. That ultrasound will measure many new bits and pieces that will have formed (we'll know the genders for sure, and of course, there's always new things that can go wrong :-7). But I'm already excited about the prospect of seeing them again!
Look forward to your comments,
lots of love,
mark
There's nothing that gets your attention quite like a 12 week ultrasound. It is the first time one gets to see what looks distinctly like a small human being. Also, many of the initial risks are assessed and either realised or surpassed. Not only that, but the baby (and of course in our case, babies!) move - a lot! Before I carry on too much, here's an 8 and a half minute movie I made by condensing the 25 minutes of video that I shot during the ultrasound. It may take a few moments to download (good luck if you're on dialup) so you might want to take the opportunity to go make a cup of coffee/tea/whatever. Unfortunately the sound isn't great (the camera was pointed away from the sonographer), so you might need to turn up the volume and listen when it is fairly quiet around you. (My voice booms over the top due to its proximity to the mic.)
Needless to say, I wasn't expecting to see so much movement and the detail is of course a vast improvement from the last ultrasound - the equipment is better, and the babies are more developed so there is more to see. This ultrasound looks and measures many key indicators of development as well as measures (in combination with blood work) the likelihood of one of the babies having a Downe's syndrome - so we were nervous as you can imagine.
It was really most amazing to see & hear all of that information on the screen and speakers - all organs developing as they should, size and proportions was great as was their heartbeats (you might have heard/seen on the video). Not only that, but in our age bracket, the risk of Downe's is 1 in 400 - nothing to laugh at - and on the better end 1 in 1500. Our testing came back at 1 in 6000!!! So we were very relieved and excited.
If you have keen ears, you might have heard the sonographer explaining how if the 'genital tube' between the legs points down, it means a vagina will form, and if it points up, there will be a penis. Well... in case you didn't hear, it looks like both might be girls! There is still a likelihood that that assessment might be wrong, but it is likely to be right - at least 60% accurate. So that is another thing to get used to - I might be outnumbered!
Keri is still sick and exhausted (her body is busy growing not only two babies, but two separate placentas which will provide all the sustenance for the babies' development). She took a day off work yesterday (Wednesday) which seemed to help a great deal - I think I'll be pushing for this to be come a regular event.
I think the video in many respects speaks for itself, with the exception that this whole experience seems to just become more and more incredible and meaningful for us as it goes - as if the creation of completely new human beings from scratch wasn't incredibly meaningful enough!
The next milestone will be the 18 week ultrasound in six weeks. That ultrasound will measure many new bits and pieces that will have formed (we'll know the genders for sure, and of course, there's always new things that can go wrong :-7). But I'm already excited about the prospect of seeing them again!
Look forward to your comments,
lots of love,
mark
posted by Mark Elliott at 5:19:00 PM
1 Comments:
Congratulations!!! Hope you enjoy every moment of the journey. Have a beautiful day :) Cheers
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