I went in for my first ultrasound (transvaginal since it's still so early) on Wed., 6/15 at 1:30 pm. I knew I was going to be nervous but had no idea how nervous I'd be. With my first pregnancy Tim was able to attend every single appointment with me (and wanted to) but for this one he was unable to get away from work. Needless to say, I was so worried not having my support system by my side for what I was certain was going to be a bad appointment.
The nurse who took my blood pressure asked if I was anxious because my BP was a little higher than normal. Ha. Am I anxious?! Yes, I told her. Very anxious.
I got undressed and sat there waiting for what seemed like an eternity for my Dr. to come in. Every minute that passed I grew more & more scared. My feet and hands were sweating. I kept trying to calm myself for the sake of the baby but it definitely was hard to do. When my Dr. came in we shook hands and I apologized for the sweaty palms and he was very nice about it; he understood. We talked a little, I told him of my few symptoms (slight nausea & some headaches) and asked him a few questions. I said how nervous I was about the pregnancy given all we've been through and he agreed it was for good reason why I'd be so worried. We talked about the 'mind games' I tend to play, trying not to get too excited but trying not to diminish the happiness of having another baby. I asked when the next appointment would be and he said "let's wait and see what we find on this ultrasound first". That made me nervous but I'm glad he's so honest and agreed that made sense. Why get my hopes up if I was about to find out there wouldn't be a next appointment...
He performed the ultrasound and nervously I looked over at the monitor. It was tiny but there was a baby there, and it's little heart was beating away. We were able to see it and he pushed a button so we could also hear it. At first I thought it was my heart beat because it seemed a lot slower than Sofia's was. He assured me that it starts out slow very early on then gets high then later in pregnancy goes back down a bit. This baby's heart beat was at 103 BPM. He measured the baby to be 5 weeks, 6 days (based on my LMP of 5/2/11 I was at 6 weeks, 2 days). Because baby was so tiny at this early stage it makes it more difficult to measure for accuracy so he said he'd be able to get a better measurement at the 8 week ultrasound.
We talked about how amazing it is to see a heart beating on a baby the size of a lentil. It really is amazing to think that this little baby is growing inside me. I'll never get over how fascinating this is.
It doesn't look like much yet but he printed off a photo for me to take home and show Tim. So here it is, this baby's very first photo:
