Anatomy scan 18 weeks

Yesterday late afternoon was my 18 week appointment and anatomy scan. My husband picked me up and we headed to the OB office together, luckily traffic during rush hour wasn't too bad and we made it through the city making good time. Once called back for our ultrasound my favorite ultrasound tech was there and had me undress from waist down. I still have a transvag ultrasound to measure my cervix along with the abdominal one for the remainder portion of the scan. Almost immediately little Spot appeared on the screen. Reclining back watching the screen I felt like I was watching a movie where our little Spot played the staring role - honestly they should offer you some nice buttery popcorn while you viewed. Perhaps that will be one for the suggestion box? The tech goes well there's the vagina...and I waited for her to say and there's the cervix and cerclage - but she didn't. She was staring at me. Once again, the tech goes, "there's the vagina." Huh? Wait a minute..does that means Spot is a "Girl Spot?" Yup she smiled, you're having a girl!

I turned to my husband and said, we're having a girl! I still couldn't believe that Spot who I thought was a boy all along was actually a girl! My husband has thought girl all along. Not that we even cared what gender it was, but it's so nice to have some more identity to put with our little one. The rest of the appointment breezed by because I think I was still riding on my little high of realizing that I was not longer just carrying our little "Spot", but rather our little Spot- our daughter.

On the cervix and growth front as well, it was pretty good news as well. Spot was measuring in the 30% - so our little girl is on the smaller end of the spectrum. But heck I will take that, she had all of her parts, no abnormalities were seen, and 30% isn't too bad in my opinion. As I've mentioned with a unicornuate uterus, IUGR (growth restriction) is a main concern - so this is something that we will watch every 2-4 wks with growth scans from here on out. On the cervix front, the cerclage itself is intact which is great. My cervix did get shorter once again from the last measurement - that pesky little bugger! But it didn't get a lot shorter, so once again we'll do more of the same. More bedrest, more monitoring, more watching my cerclage.

I am so grateful that we are fortunate enough to have caught this weeks ago when we did. Since even with bedrest and a cerclage in place my cervix is still shortening - I know without doing the two we wouldn't even have our little girl Spot at this 18 week mark. My OB said that he was so glad we were able to get to the point to enjoy a 18 week growth scan and to be able to find out that Spot was a girl. I know each week is a blessing and that we have all our ducks in a row and everything lined up to do the best we can with what we have. Basically the game plan is that my cervix may continue to shorten, but we all have to hope that it shortens at a slow enough rate. Technically with a cerclage in place, you can shorten to very low levels and hope that you have a strong enough stitched that was placed high enough up to hold things in place.

Most days I'm still having some contraction like cramping. My OB is talking with my peri and I should know more today about what the game plan is for that. All in all, I couldn't be happier. We now know Spot is a girl, she isn't measuring too too small, and my cervix is shortening - but it could always be worse. Yes I'm having contractions, but you know what - I'm only contracting because I still have Spot with us! My husband and I joked that the contractions are just girl Spot's way of say, "Hi mom and dad - yup I'm still here...don't forget about me!"

I'll try to update more if I know anything else as the day goes and hope to have some pictures up later as well. Hope everyone is having a good Thursday, it's almost the weekend!