Week 20 - Visit to the doc

September 14, 2005 · Posted in Pregnancy 

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It’s been a whole month since we have seen our baby and both of us were very excited about this appointment. Also, I’d run some urine and blood tests the last round and wanted to know if all is fine.

When we saw there were 10 patients ahead of me, we decided to go take a nap in the car first before coming to check our turn and bumped into Belinda!

Also bumped into another former colleague who had delivered her baby 3 months ago. Doctors’ offices turn out to be quite a fun meeting place!

FINALLY, it came to our turn and Dr Ng seemed to be in an extra jolly mood today. He smiled broadly at us and asked me how’s everything, I said ok and also that we hope to find out SOMETHING today. He laughed and said, “Let’s see, let’s see...”

We looked through my blood & urine test results and relieved to find out that everything is good though I should increase my intake of water. Along with iron, calcium tablets were prescribed but glad to hear that folic acid is no longer needed. This means only 2 tablets again.

This time around, the scan turned out to be longer and more detailed (see GUIDE to obstetric ultrasounds by Joseph Woo) :
1. First, he measured the length of my belly (called the height of fundus. Fundus is the top of the uterus and this measurement is used to make sure baby’s growth is on target for estimated due date and also if baby is growing at a normal/adequate rate.)
2. Then, he measured the diameter of the crown.
3. Next, he checked out the spine (right pic) to see if it’s developing well with no spaces in between.
4. After that, he looked at the heart and we were amazed when the 4 chambers of the heart (left pic) showed up! Dr Ng reported good development of the heart and we could see it steadily pumping.
5. Lastly, he looked at the length of the thighs.

He also reported that the baby now weighs 328 gm but I forgot the length (bad Mummy!) and also to ask for a print-out of the scan (terrible Mummy!). As everything was ok, he moved on to the least important aspect of the baby - the sex. This is quite tricky because the baby’s thighs has to be slightly open in order for us to tell. Well, the transducer went schwib, schwib, schwib on my moist tummy and then Dr Ng froze a frame for us and we saw this:

Then he smiled and remarked,”Do you see this? That’s a cuckoo bird.” Both of us just had to laugh…imagine the gynae saying this instead of “penis” or “scrotum”. So, it’s a boy!

I’m very happy and excited about this coz my family is all girls but Raph was strongly hoping for a girl (conversely, his family is all boys) he would teach football, bring out for hikes/outdoor stuff, work on Lego/construction toys and also encourage to get updates on current events, basically everything his wife is lame at. He was a bit disappointed he wasn’t going to get a little princess so this determined dad said,

“Ok, we’re definitely going to have a second child.” Ha!

Anyway, we’re keeping this bit of news within the limitations of the scan at 20 weeks. Also, we’d only seen that little dot once and then the baby’s legs closed again so we’ll only be able to confirm this at the next visit. Raph could still be getting his baby girl =)

BABY NOTES: Your baby is now about 10/10 — 10 ounces of weight and 10 inches from head to toe. The weight and size of your baby at week 20 is enough for you to tell when they are awake or asleep based on their movement and activity level. You can probably see a lot of movement in the ultrasound image. Looking at other babies ultrasound images can help you see what you’re looking at when you see your baby’s image.

NOTE: All ultrasound images above are samples taken from Joseph Woo’s Comprehensive Guide to Obstetric Ultrasounds linked above)

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Comments

6 Responses to “Week 20 - Visit to the doc”

  1. Peter & Gladys Liew on September 15th, 2005 12:26 pm

    cool photo ! good luck

  2. KittyCat on September 15th, 2005 1:29 pm

    Thanks - too bad I wasn’t the photographer ;-)

  3. Bart on September 15th, 2005 2:21 pm

    Not mentioned if these are actual scans from your checkup? Anyway, keep the posts coming. Noted that your boy/girl issue in your families are the same as ours, ha ha :o)

  4. KittyCat on September 15th, 2005 3:14 pm

    Ooh, you’re right. Thanks for noticing - I should put a note about this. Now that I think about it, our families are in EXACTLY same boat!

  5. 5xmom ~chanlilian.net~ on September 26th, 2005 11:56 pm

    Pssst…I blog this here.
    http://www.mymomsbest.com/daily/?p=90

  6. KittyCat on October 1st, 2005 8:08 am

    Hi Lilian - thanks for posting our blog there. Hope that people will enjoy reading our records and also spur them to create their own!

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