Another Ultrasound AND "It's A...

At the end of this past week, we had our follow-up ultrasound at the perinatologist's office. The specific test being done was a fetal echocardiogram and it was amazing! Between the two boys and now this little one, we'd had 8 ultrasounds prior to this one. We always tell our techs (and doctors) about our biology backgrounds because we find that they go into WAY more detail with us that way. And, the biology-nerd in us have always been completely fascinated, but this time was incredible! The baby was clearly SO much bigger than 4 weeks ago and the level of detail you could see in all of the body parts/organs was amazing!

Since the main goal of the ultrasound was the fetal echo, there was A LOT of time spent on intricate details of the heart. We could even see some of the valves moving! At one point, she told us that she just had one more heart part to see--the aorta (you know, a kinda important vessel). She had a hard time getting the angle just right, but then, like magic, it appeared. It was SO obvious and SO cool to see! And, I was beyond thrilled that I could immediately tell that it was arching as it should be! You could see the blood flowing from the heart through the aorta...and then even blood traveling through a vessel branching off the aorta to the neck & head! Incredible!

 

But, she didn't just check out the heart. The ultrasound was incredibly thorough--measuring all kinds of parts and rechecking all the markers for Down syndrome that were checked at the last ultrasound. Thankfully, everything was the same as before--no visible markers! There is even a soft marker for Down syndrome called echogenic intracardiac focus (basically a bright spot on the heart) and the baby didn't even seem to have that! Hallelujah! 

 

Because everything was so thorough, she was able to get some great shots of baby this time!! I love that profile shot (which shows baby snuggling with its anterior placenta). This was the first time baby's head has ever been "above" the placenta (usually everything is hiding behind it, making the ultrasounds more difficult and is the reason I haven't really felt any definite movement yet), so she turned the ultrasound over into 3D. Totally incredible. So, here's a 3D image (sorry, yes, there's a glare--it's a photo taken off the computer screen while pausing the DVD) of Baby #3's face at 19 weeks:

 

Crazy, huh?!

The only "bad news" from the whole ultrasound is that she did indeed confirm that the baby's cord is only 2-vessel (instead of the normal 3). It was really obvious once she got a good angle. So, there will likely be numerous follow-up growth ultrasounds for that. The Dr. wasn't in to go over everything with us at the end (so we are awaiting an "official" report from him), but the tech assured us that everything looks perfect to her except for the two-vessel cord. So, hopefully that's correct and now we'll just wait for the game plan on how the two-vessel cord will be monitored.

Now, would you like a gender reveal?! We had a pretty good idea going in and she thought she saw something earlier on in the ultrasound, but baby was just not keeping its legs at a good angle. So, she gave it one last try at the end and baby finally gave up the goods!!! :) So, without further ado, Baby #3 is......

 

... A BOY!!

It's been a tradition to go out & buy an outfit the day we find out the gender. And, even though we have plenty of boy clothes, I couldn't resist! These dinosaur onesies are SO cute and his big brothers will love them! :)

So, crazy, huh?! THREE BOYS!!!!