The Anatomy Ultrasound

Yesterday was a long day of appointments. I had my regularly scheduled doctor’s appointment and then right after that was my anatomy ultrasound next door at the Maternal-Fetal Medicine Dept. The dr’s apt went pretty well. I told her that I was planning to have a natural childbirth and asked what her thoughts were and what her policies were. She said that she thinks it’s great and strongly recommended I take classes to get through it (already on top of that). She said that she doesn’t know what her practice’s c-section rate is but knows that it is well under the national average (which is good because it’s over 30% nationally now!). She said that they don’t do routine episiotomies and are not quick to the knife at all. The one thing that she said that I didn’t really like is that they do require an IV. She said that it could be a hep-locked IV (meaning that it’s just a line placed in my arm or hand and not connected to anything) but I really don’t think that is very conducive to staying relaxed and focused on my birth to have a needle sticking in my arm… I’m not sure if it’s something that I’m going to really try to fight or if I will just agree to it. The jury’s still out but I still have some time to think about it.

 

After the dr’s apt it was time for the anatomy scan. It was a lot of fun to see her on the screen wriggling around but she was just as uncooperative as she could be. She was nestled right down into my pelvis, head down, facing my spine. She is actually in the absolutely most perfect position for giving birth, but we’re only half way there… They had to poke and prod a LOT to get the pictures that they needed. They actually had to bring in two different doctors to get the last image they needed of her brain. They dug the ultrasound wand so hard into my lower abdomen I thought I was going to bruise! I guess they really didn’t want to have to have me come back in a few weeks to get that one shot. Anyways, we got some cute pictures of her hands and feet and had fun watching her wiggle all over the place (I guess she really liked the rootbeer I drank!). They said that she looks great (anatomically speaking) and we have nothing to worry about so far. J