Viability Ultrasound Appointment - Yentil the Lentil

Yesterday, April 1st, I had my viability ultrasound at 8:50am.  I arrived at 8:40, like they instructed, having drank about 20 ounces of water (also as they had instructed.)  I was ready to SCREAM!!!!  If you think that it's just the actual baby pressing on the bladder that makes pregnant women have to pee so often, you'd be wrong.  Apparently it's a hormone thing, coupled with the fact that you have increased blood flow to practically every part of your body that makes your bladder turn into Niagara Falls every 40-60 minutes.

By the time they called my name I was wiggling in my chair, trying to keep from getting up and doing the Potty Polka (as my mom so amusingly calls it) right there in the waiting room.  Corky and I went back with the Ultrasound Lady, Julia, into this room with a curtain in front of the door and a bed.  The lights were dimmed and there was a huge ultrasound machine with a big screen placed next to the bed, and another screen mounted up high on the wall where the occupier of the bed could see it.  

Julia instructed me to lay down on the bed.  As I got myself situated, she asked me a few questions such as, "Is this your first pregnancy? Are you having much nausea?"  She told me to pull my shirt and sweatshirt up, tucked a towel into my sweatpants to protect the fabric, warned me "warm gel" before squirting clear ultrasound jelly onto my lower abdomen.  (By the way, no matter how many times techs tell me the gel will be warm, I always expect it to be cold.  It never ceases to surprise me.  It really is warm!)

The first touch of the ultrasound wand always tickles me.  I'm not a very ticklish person, but for some reason this gets me.  After a second or two I get used to it and stop tensing my muscles up.  

The blurry, blobby, gray and black image popped up onto the screen on the wall.  I saw the familiar curved shape of the inside of my body.  Creepy, really!  The sound waves flowed into my body, creating the illusion of light through water on the screen.  You know when you go to the bottom of a pool or the ocean and look up with your goggles at the surface?  You know how you can see the light filtering down?  That's what the ultrasound looks like.  The light gray "beams" move and dance all over the screen, like light.  But it's really sound.  Weird right?

Anyway, at first I couldn't see the fetus.  I was terrified that it had disappeared somehow.  Just vanished, like Amelia Earhart's plane.  But then Julia moved the wand and I saw it.  It looked like a little black hole.  When she zoomed in on it, I saw a little gray blob in the middle.  
"There it is!" said Julia, moving her  mouse over the area.  The screen on the wall showed exactly what her screen did, so I could see her mouse moving.  "This is the gestational sac," Julia said, circling her mouse around the black hole.  She then regretfully informed me, "But I can't see much else.  We're going to have to do the internal ultrasound."  

To be honest with you guys, it's really not that bad.  I had one done in the ER on 3/26.  It's not painful, it's not very scary, and it's not that awkward.  They don't have to peer in anywhere, thank goodness.  And it seems like this is just another day at the office, so I try not to think too much about it.  I'm sure she's seen worse (or so I keep telling myself. LOL!)  The very best part was that I finally got to go pee!  I was very excited about that. :)

"Cold gel," warned Julia this time.  She wasn't wrong.  Then the screen  came to life again.  "Here's the gestational sac," Julia said, moving her mouse around the same black hole type object I had seen on the first one.  "The baby is right here.." she indicated a small grayish blob aforementioned.  "And this..." Julia then zoomed in and circled her mouse around a small bubble that appeared to be attached to the baby, "is the yolk sac.  It's what's feeding baby."  

"Yolk?" I said.  "Like a bird?"

"Yeah, kind of," Julia said.  "It's where the nutrients come from."

"Oh.." I said, looking.  "Interesting."

Julia zoomed in on the little thing.  She held the wand very still.

"What's moving?" I asked, nodding toward the screen.

"That's the heartbeat."

I could not believe it.  I could not believe my eyes!  There it was!  Beating away!  Like a little teeny fluttering bug!  I wanted to say something like, wow that's amazing!  I'm so glad it's alive.  How precious!  A new life!

Instead what came out was, "...Creepy!"  

Julia started laughing.  "Looks normal to me.  122 beats per minute.  Looks like a healthy little fetus."  She clicked around, typed a bunch of letters all over the place on the screen, drawing lines across the little creature floating around in my body.  "About 6 weeks, 3 days," Julia said.  Corky looked at his phone.  "February 12th," he said.  "What did we do that day?"

"I can tell you!" Julia said, laughing.  She finished up the ultrasound, printed off a few pictures, and handed me a tissue box to.. ah.. clean up with.  "Get dressed and head back out to the lobby, okay?  You can check in for your appointment with the doctor."

So.  The fetus is 6 weeks 3 days old (6 weeks 4 days today) and is as big as a lentil.  I told my Naturopath that today and she remembered a Dr. Seuss Spoof called Yentil the Lentil (instead of Yurtle the Turtle).  So now we affectionately refer to it as Yentil the Lentil.

About 20 minutes later I was being weighed and measured by a nurse.  The good news is that I told her I didn't want to know my weight and she was fine with that.  The bad news is that I saw it later.  And it scared the living SHIT out of me!!! But she weighed me with all my clothes on (not my shoes) and I had drank loads of water that morning, so I decided that it was wrong anyway and went on with my day (a victory on its own!)

Dr. B saw me.  Normally I will see Dr. W but since this was a viability ultrasound, they wanted to get me in ASAP, which I appreciated greatly.  She told me that everything looked fine.  I asked about the pain and the bleeding.  She said it's nothing to worry about, the fetus looks good and has a strong heartbeat.  

Then came the million dollar question.  Can I work out?

She said.... YES!!!!!  I can teach Zumba, I just can't jump or work out too hard.  GLORY BE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

She sent me for lab work, a urine sample, and set me up with the check-in lady to get my appointments scheduled.  

I am still too scared to trust that this could possibly be happening for real.  I don't dare get invested in this thing.  Calling it Yentil the Lentil is one thing.  Calling it "a baby" is something else.  Corky keeps calling it "she."  I don't like that for 2 reasons.  1) I don't know if it's a he or a she and 2) that makes it too real.  If, heaven forbid, anything should happen to this fetus, I don't want to fall completely apart.

So.. now what?  I have an appointment with Dr W, my actual doctor, on April 21st.  In the meantime, I'm allowed to teach Zumba carefully.  But I'm actually going to post more about that at a later time.

I'm ALSO going to be posting, for sure, about pregnancy + anorexia.  Even if something should happen to Yentil the Lentil, I'll still write about it.  This past week and 2 days had been legit crazy.  Things are changing that I thought never could.  This deserves to be written about, regardless of the fate of this fetus.  Don't you worry - I will let you all in!  My head is a crazy, crazy place to be right now.

have a fantastic WEDENSDAY!!!!! :)