Grandma Carol and Great Grandma Pat arrived at our house around 7:15 on the morning of Wednesday, July 14 and we soon piled into my car for the 45 minute drive to Texas Children's Maternal Fetal Specialist in The Woodlands. We arrived a little before our 8:30 appointment, but were quickly called back to the ultrasound room by Technician Marcia M. {I'm giving her last initial because she said that both technicians are named Marcia and we may have either one of them at our future appointments.} Marcia M. got to work right away, squirting the cool tummy goo before moving the wand around to find our little Baby Patterson. I had had a pain near my right leg for about two days that Michael and I had decided was a pulled muscle. Marcia quickly found our Baby hiding in the area where I had been having pain. She was soon focused on her job, which was to take our baby's measurements and all sorts of data. The main reason I was called in at 16 weeks is because my Sjogren's Syndrome can cause heartblock in a fetus, so Marcia was soon snapping image after image of our Baby's heart. It was so fascinating to see the four chambers of our little one's heart working right there in front of us! Grandma Carol, Great Grandma Pat, Daddy Michael and Mommy Laura were busy watching the images of our baby move across the monitor and we were quickly asking "what's that?" many times. Marcia told us she was busy looking at the forest and didn't always see the trees as she worked, so she didn't know what we saw. She asked us if we were interested in finding out what we were having and she soon took a picture and moved the label to the image. We were all excited and speechless as Marcia continued to snap pictures of our baby. Marcia soon finished chasing our baby all over and went to get Dr. S.
Dr. S entered our room very soon after Marcia's departure and she quickly introduced herself and began to explain things. She talked about Sjorgren's and the heartblock that can occur in fetuses. She told us that this occurs in about 2% of pregnancies in women with Sjorgren's and went on to explain all sorts of scenarios that could happen and what we could do to help the baby. Grandma Carol, my mom, finally piped up and asked how our baby's heart was. Dr. S looked shocked for a moment and then said our baby's heart was completely fine! She proceeded to apologize. She thought that she had said that first off before telling us the worst-case scenarios, but I think we had thrown her off with the number of people in the room and all of the introductions and how each were connected to Baby Patterson. We soon moved on to what was going to happen next. I will be going to visit Dr. S every other week for an ultrasound to check on Baby's heart until we reach week 26. Research has shown that heartblock affects the fetus as early as 16 weeks, (which is why she had me come in now), and doesn't do anything after week 26. We were given a CD of 18 images, both the traditional 3D ultrasound as well as the new 4D and we will continue to add images at each appointment, so I guess we will have plenty of pictures of our baby before he or she is even born! :)
Oh, I suppose you were thinking that you would find out what we are having, huh? Guess you'll have to check the next post! :) Don't worry! It will be up in a little while and it will include PICTURES!
P.S. Baby Patterson weighs 7 ounces at this time!
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