Family Pictures

Baby's First 20-week Picture

My first views of Baby were amazing. He was laying head down on his right side, his feet bent up towards his face, one hand in front of him and the other arm constantly moving back and forth between his belly and his mouth and his forehead. Once in a while he'd put his arm up over his head and rest his elbow across his face. His little chin was moving, and he practiced swallowing, and once in a while his whole head would bob. Just as he always is around this time of day (10am), he was wide awake and kicking. The ultrasound technician had barely finished saving the first image and labeling all the parts of Baby's first picture when he kicked his foot into the center of the screen and announced himself.

"Look at that toe," the technician said. "He's got a long second toe. Now that's not from you. Who is that from?" I told her how just a month ago I was subjected to a foot comparison because my mother and my sister and my sister's daughter all have that long second toe. I have my dad's short square boxy feet.

"They say that a long second toe is a sign of intelligence," the technician said.

"That's what my mother always says, but I'm not buying it."

She told me that she had an Indian couple in once, and they said that in their culture the long second toe was a sign of sneakiness.

"That I buy."

She snapped a picture of the toe and labeled it for TT.

Grandma's Second Toe

After that the technician fell into a rhythm, talking the entire time, narrating what she was doing as she looked at the hands and feet, measured the diameter of the skull and the tummy, looked at all his little boy parts and his kidney and his bladder. He really resisted letting us see his little fingers, keeping his hands clenched tightly with only his thumb and index finger extended. But because I had a CVS which can sometimes result in missing digits if it's not done properly, she was determined to see every little bone in his hands and fingers. She even banged on my belly a few times.

"Come on Buddy. Open up and let us see those fingers."

Then just like that he fell asleep. So she abandoned the search for his little pinky and decided that while he was sleeping would be a good time to look at the heart in detail. She spent a lot of time looking at the chambers of the heart and veins and arteries running in and around the heart. She measured blood flow and checked the sizes and shapes of things from all different angles. Heartbeat 136. Total weight 14 ounces. Normal for a second trimester fetus. As he slept he eventually loosened his grip and we were able to count the little digits of all his fingers.


Just before he woke again, the technician got a great shot of his back in which you can even see his left ear and his left shoulder.

Baby's Back As He Sleeps

After we looked at baby, we did a little perusing of the rest of the system...placenta, cervix, etc. It looks like the placenta has placed itself right where the fibroid from my previous surgery was. This is not uncommon, but it means that the c-section will be little riskier than usual. The placenta might have grown into the uterine muscle which could make it difficult to separate it. If bleeding is severe during my c-section, a hysterectomy might be necessary. The perinatologist said that she doesn't want to alarm me, but it's just something I need to be aware of before I go in for my c-section. I also have some large fibroids on my cervix. All in all it looks like Barb is doing this in the nick of time. :) I feel so incredibly lucky to be able to do this. The perinatologist said that these are issues we can deal with pretty easily nowadays. 100 years ago it would have been a very different story. How truly lucky I am. But I do have to go back at 28 weeks for another ultrasound just to keep an eye on things, but we're not anticipating any problems. My little peanut is perfectly healthy and all his parts are growing just as they should.