Week 13 Ultrasound

E and I had our 13 week screening ultrasound today; the one that screens for chromosomal abnormalities like Down Syndrome . The murloc was in rare form, confounding the technician's feeble attempts to measure its Nuchal translucency thickness, by spinning, twisting, punching, and generally rocking out. (E swears she saw it throw the horns.)

The happy end result is that between the ultrasound and her previous bloodwork, Eliz has the effective risk level of a healthy 20 year old: the murloc has less than a 1/10,000 chance of having Trisomy 18 or Down Syndrome. That, and the murloc has a normal looking brain, with two hemispheres and a corpus callosum, a complete spine, rib cage, nasal bones, a working stomach, kidneys, and bladder. The murloc was happily swallowing amniotic fluid, fluid which it had just finished peeing into, probably.

All in all, it was a good day.

Update: Pictures!

From Week 13

Murloc On Board

Photo evidence of the elusive Murloc in its natural environment

This being week 8 of our little endeavor, it had come time to do a little meet and greet with our obstetrician.  So, today, E and I headed down to our friendly HMO for our first appointment.

Then, exciting things happened.  Meanwhile, I waited in the lobby.

Eventually our Ob/Gyn, heretofore named "Dr. C.", brought me into the examination room, and proceeded to sonogram E and Murloc. At this point, Murloc is about the size of a large raspberry.  (Mmm, raspberries.)  Its heart is beating at a fit-for-a-hummingbird pace of 150 beats per minute. And if Murloc is raspberry size, its heart is no larger than one of said raspberry's aggregated drupelets.  Suffice it to say: extremely hard to see.  But sure enough, there it was! A rapidly flashing set of heart-shaped pixels, in a vaguely heart-appropriate lo

cation!  E tells me I broke out in a huge grin when I saw it.

Now, it gets even more interesting when you blow up that picture, as our Murloc's Murloc-nature becomes even more evident.  The large, pupil-less eyes, the protruding tongue, the webbed hands; I think this one's going to be a swimmer!