They were ready for me when I arrived 10 minutes early - just three staff members sitting around on chairs looking bored, lol! Never seen the waiting room so empty! They showed me right in - I didn't even need to sit down first!
I told the sonographer (since it was a different one) that I was back to determine whether there was one baby or two babies in there. She read the report on my bleeding. I have had a few days with no real spotting to speak of, but just this afternoon started some brown spotting again.
Anyway she was great. She kept the screen turned towards me the whole time. She started the scan and the black gestational sac came into view. For all the world, I was SURE I saw two babies, and at that same moment, she said, "Oh! It DOES look like two babies!" My heart did not skip a beat. I did not freak out or catch my breath. I was totally at peace, and prepared. God had me held fast :) Then as she zoomed in and got a better view, she said, "Oh. Only one after all." I was relieved because the "two" babies I had seen at the start looked like one strange-shaped symmetrical baby, which had me convinced that there were two babies joined together, for the few seconds it lasted. She checked all around and was sure that it was only one normal baby. She said that she had been confused for a moment because the baby was doing a "handstand", hahaha, my 8-week embryo does not have fully formed hands yet, so the fact that it was doing a handstand makes me laugh so much! Last time, my SIX-week embryo was wiggling almost too much for her to take an accurate measurement of length, lol! I feel SURE we're having another sweet little ball of energy like Matthew! ;)
So the baby measured 8w4d, a few days ahead from last time (and my dates) but she put on the report "consistent with dates" and kept my dates of 8w1d. Sausage is 16mm long from head to bottom - so little but growing so fast! The yolk sac looked so small next to the little one this time, and it's just the same size as it was last time, although the baby was only just a bit bigger than the yolk sac last time!
Here's a picture of my tiny precious:
It's not the best picture because I took a photo of it rather than scanning it in, as it was quicker! :) But it's clear enough. Sausage is standing on his/her head, which is by far the biggest part right now, and sort of folded forwards. The yolk sac is the white circle on the right, behind Sausage's little bottom! :) Sausage has arms, and legs like little paddles, and a tail even! But I didn't get to see much detail of those during the scan. I did see the sweet little heart beating.
As for the brown spotting, the sonographer found several patches of "bleeding" in my womb. I asked if any of them would mean I might experience red bleeding again, and she said it was possible. She showed me all of them, and noted that some were dark grey areas on the screen (black is fluid, on an ultrasound - hence the very black gestational sac, as it's full of fluid for my little one to swim in!). She said dark grey was probably old blood and thus I would notice brown bleeding from that. But one of them was more black than grey, and she suspected that might show up as red bleeding. If it sits around in there for 24 hours without me particularly bleeding it out, it will become old blood and won't show up as red bleeding. But she noted that I have more "bleeding" in there than I even did at my last scan, so I can expect to be bleeding and spotting for a while from now. Ugh! I am tired of bleeding this pregnancy! But very very very glad and grateful that my little one is okay! :) You can see two of the patches on the scan picture - one is sort of triangular shaped next to the gestational sac on the right, and the other is way on the left, almost out of shot, going up to the top of the picture.
She said she is not concerned about the patches of bleeding, and that so long as I'm not bleeding like a period, cramping, etc. then I shouldn't worry. They have seen the heartbeat and that is a great sign. I seem to be prone to bleeds for some reason, so that makes me a tiny bit nervous that I'll "randomly" have a bigger bleed at some point, which COULD threaten the pregnancy? I will try not to think about that sort of thing though.
I'm so glad I got a picture of my tiny one! :) After the boys were in bed, I phoned my parents as they were anxious to hear about it. And then I phoned Heather (my doula). She is SO excited, and we had a good long talk about it now that we know what's what with the scan. She said that she is so excited that I'm having all these babies! :) She wishes SHE had not stopped at two but had had six babies as well, and she thinks it's the right thing to do to trust God and just HAVE BABIES! ;) I could not possibly have ended up with a better doula. Seriously. I just love her soooo! :)
She told me that I should expect to have to see a consultant this pregnancy again, for elevated risk (should be in inverted commas), the same as last time. #1: I am now a grand-multigravida (= woman who has birthed 5 or more babies) - I feel like I need a gold star or some special badge to go with that title, haha! ;) Anyway, thus the alleged increased risk of haemmorhage with the 3rd stage of labour, blah blah blah (NOT supported by studies or real life!!). #2: My ever-existing Group B Strep status. But she said I should not stress about those things, because nothing has changed. I had the same factors last pregnancy, and chose to birth at home, and DID, with no problems. And the time before, I was GBS+ but chose to birth at home, with no problems. So two babies born at home to a GBS+ mother with no problems actually goes in my favour, and puts each subsequent baby at LESS risk for GBS infection due to having siblings born without issues, apparently.
I am also now elderly, haha! Having turned 35 since my last baby was born, I am now officially of "advanced maternal age". Heather told me they should not give me any trouble about that whatsoever - it's more once I've turned 40 that they might start waving that flag, and if they DO, she said she will find me a consultant to see who will not bother me about it! :D
Oh it was so sweet when I came home with the scan picture! The boys were so disappointed last time when I did not bring a picture home, and I told them I would be sure to ask for one this time. They jumped up when I came in and asked if I had had my scan, and when I said yes, they asked, "Is there a picture?!!" So I showed them. They were sooooo excited! Obviously I had to explain what was what in the picture. Arthur understood about the head part and so on, but Matthew just stood holding in in silence, as though he did not get it at all. In the end, he sighed contentedly and said, "Our little baby..." in SUCH a fond tone of voice, and then ran off happily to play! HEART that boy! :)
So now I wait until the end of the first trimester (how is it only a few weeks away?!!) which I will be very excited about! My nausea has been pretty bad this week - hopefully (oh hopefully!) it's just being aggravated by this weird "head cold" lurgy I've got, although I'm not streaming with cold and am feeling better, energy-wise, today, which is good. Tonight I am feeling really sick and Neil is boiling me an egg, which - PROTEIN!! Hopefully it will make me feel better. It's not overwhelming but I would still like to feel better than I do, if something can fix that before I go to bed!
I should get my appointments in the post soon, for my first midwife appointment (the booking in one that takes AAAAGES, lol!) and the 12 week scan! I'll update when I do! I am really looking forward to the next scan. Right now (literally as I type this), primitive germ cells are arriving at the zone for Sausage's genitals to be built from! Nothing more to speak of yet, but by that scan there will be a little something to spot, pointing either up or down, lol! ;) I am looking forward to that! And oh, just the WHOLE pregnancy now! Thank you Lord for one healthy baby. I would have loved two babies, even two poorly babies, but I'm so grateful for fewer complications and a healthy start so far. Yay, I'm so thankful to be pregnant! :D
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