Anomaly Scan

The 20-week anomaly scan went well today--Baby Bettie was very active and moved around a lot! It was difficult for the technician to get good still pictures, but she took her time and managed to get all of the measurements done. Everything looked good--it was really cool to see the 4 chambers of the heart beating away!

At the start of the scan, we told the tech that we didn't want to know the sex, so she was careful to keep the screen turned away from us most of the time. When she did the femur length measurements, though, she pointed out the baby's crossed legs to us--the baby was being 'shy' as she put it, and it would've been tricky to find out the sex anyway! Richard & I were both glad that the baby cooperated with our wishes and didn't reveal anything.

The baby was measuring right on track for dates, with its femur length and abdominal cavity just slightly below average and its head circumference slightly above average. No surprise there, as big heads run in the family--my mom and I both always have trouble finding hats that fit ;) We didn't get a very good view of the baby's face, but these 2D scans never do give much of an impression of the baby's features. You can see the eye sockets, and apparently the nose and lips looked normal, as they check for cleft lip/palate in the scan. The 3 pictures above are essentially all the same shot--the top & bottom ones are duplicates, and the one in the middle was taken 4 seconds before. It's a profile shot of baby's head and torso, with the spine as a white line along its back. So much bigger than the 12-week scan--it grew from 2.5 inches to 6.5 in (crown-rump length--it's actually 10 inches long now, counting the legs)!

We're relieved that everything looked good, glad that the baby's sex is still a secret for now, and excited that the next time we see baby, it'll be face-to-face!