Everything is fine!

You wonderful people made me totally cry last night (and today) – in a good way. I can’t believe how lucky I am to have your support. Thank you thank you thank you.

And you were right, for the moment at least: all good on the uterine/fetal front. I was gonna say “all quiet”, but it wasn’t quiet at all, THANK GOD.

My mama not only came with me, she also helped me avoid underground parking by arranging for us to park in a nearby friend’s driveway. 🙂

We had our appointment with a cardiologist in the children’s clinic. He was slender and soft-spoken with salt-and-pepper whiskers and a name that’s apparently Romanian. He was more personable than almost all the ultrasound technicians I’ve dealt with. Plus, we got to have the scan in a room that was full of wall decals: jungle/savannah animals, fairies and butterflies, Spiderman, Cars, Little Mermaid, bugs and flowers, fish, princesses… you name it. It was awesome – except for the pang you get imagining small children in this room, having to have their hearts looked at.

It always puts a big smile on my face to see a tiny person on the screen, wiggling around. I’d say this was a bigger smile than usual, after all that apprehension, because this baby was definitely wiggling. In fact, it was making punchy motions with its hands that reminded me of the way E dances when we put on his favourite song (“Let’s Get it Started”) in the car.

The scan took a long time – most of an hour. With this machine, the doctor could zoom way in on the heart. He would press a button and turn on the rainbow colours that show the flow of blood: blue and green going away from the heart, and red and yellow going towards it. (I think – it could be the opposite.) Part of the reason it took so long, the doctor explained, was that one of the blood vessels he was looking for is only a quarter of a millimetre thick at this point. Sheesh, no wonder.

He had me worried for a few minutes, when he gave a big sigh and looked kind of grim – and then asked me, “How far along were you at the end of your last pregnancy?” But I guess he was just concentrating and trying to get the info straight.

I was glad that he was able to tell me, right on the spot, that everything looks fine so far. When I started to get a crick in my neck from looking at the screen sideways, it was good to be able to look over at my mom’s smiling face. (She had a much better view than I did.) It made me smile again when the doctor commented, “Very mobile.”

Of course, Sebastian was also very mobile. He also looked good at 12 weeks, and even at 20. But today, I am just gonna be glad that we’re good so far. My imagined scenario was way off the mark, so for that, I do feel a lot better. And now I know for sure that I can feel this baby move, because there were at least three flutters I felt, and then saw the corresponding gyrations on the screen.

We will have another ECG at 32 weeks. And we have the anatomy scan three weeks from now. And I have a midwife appointment on Thursday. We’re so fortunate to have such good care.

Here’s a song my mom thought of while we were staring at that screen – one Bruce Cockburn wrote after seeing his own child via ultrasound.

 

 

And now it’s time for bed. Last night was not the best sleep, but I think tonight will be better.

Before I go, I just want to say again: Merci mille fois. So much love to all of you.

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