Thursday, February 24, 2011

It's a . . .

. . . normal-looking cord according to the ultrasound tech and my doctor today.  At least for now, all signs seem to indicate that placenta and cord are doing their jobs.  This is by no means a guarantee that things will continue to look good, but it looks good today and we're thankful for that.  We are still VERY anxious going into this next month.  March is the fifth month of this pregnancy and we'll hopefully be passing the 18 week and 21 week marks when we lost Miles and Jeremiah.  I'm keeping my commitments in March to a bare minimum - there's just no way around the fact that it's going to be a tough month.

Today we also found out that baby is a GIRL!  At 16w0d she is measuring 16w2d.  All body parts are looking good and she was moving around a lot.  In fact, this past week I've been able to feel her move for the first time :)   Q and I are a long way off from daring to talk names, but since we now know it's a girl I figured she needs a better name here than just "the baby".   So for now I'll call her Mei-mei, which means "little sister" in Chinese and is pronounced like the month May.  We are still hoping to keep the news from the kids until we (hopefully!) make it safely through March, but that may prove tricky as I'm starting to look pretty "fat".

I will continue to have detailed ultrasounds weekly to monitor Mei-mei's growth and to look closely at the cord for any sign of trouble.  We were able to get pictures of the cord, but unfortunately they are black and white.  At the clinic the blood flow was shown in color with the vein blue and arteries red.  Here the vein shows as the darker color:

Coiling in a 2.5 cm section of the cord

All the cord pics are being sent to Dr. Collins and we'll see what he thinks about them.  For those who are as obsessive as I am about umbilical cords, more pictures from today can be seen here.  This is quite possibly the only blog out there where you'll be seeing tons of pictures of the cord and not the baby!

14 comments:

Anonymous said...

Yay! Congrats! I'm so glad to hear things are going well. And congrats on your little girl :)

My life said...

YAY! YAY! YAY!!!! I am so happy for all the above and a GIRL <3 <3 <3. I am going to keep praying for uneventful pregnancy and a strong cord!!

Anonymous said...

So happy Mei-mei's cord is looking good! :-D All the best for a safe and uneventful March.

Meim said...

I LOVE good news! I am so jealous that you got to find out the gender! You are only like, 5 days ahead of me but my Doc is making me wait until 18 weeks! UGH! March 18th can't get here soon enough!

Nick and Kristi said...

This is such wonderful news! and Congrats on it being a girl...I know there are still so many hoops to jump through but what positive news:)

Oak said...

Ahhhh thank goodness. I had been wondering when we'd see your post and had my fingers crossed for very good news, which this is. HOping for an uneventful March and some peace of mind this spring.

Krista said...

Oh honey...what WONDERFUL news!! A baby girl....yay! I'm so happy for you!!! So glad to hear everything is looking so good....Yippee!!!!

Alex said...

Fabulous news! I know that had to be a huge relief to know the cord looks great - and a girl! Amazing!!!

Lizzy said...

YAY! SO glad everything looks good and very exciting to have a little girl! Congrats!

heartincharge said...

Congrats! Mei-mei is such a sweet nickname!

Andrea Holley said...

Great, great news! I am so happy for you. I'll keep the prayers coming :)

Suzy said...

Excellent news about the cord :) And I adore Mei-Mei. Love to you and your family xxx

Jana said...

So happy for you. Mei mei's ord looks beautiful. Wish I could see more of her :) Will be thinking of you this month. Hopefully it will breeze by and bring you one month closer to having mei mei in your arms

Jeanne said...

Annie,

That is wonderful that the cord looks good!

Jeanne