Our second appointment!

Neil and I went to our second appointment and got to see the baby for about 20 minutes on the sonographer's screen! It was so wonderful to have that much time "together" and to see how much he/she has changed in only 4 weeks. The baby is now 5.3 cm (1.8 cm at 8 weeks) and the heart rate was 145 beats/minute. The baby was incredibly active and they kept having to chase it around to get a good look! We typically wouldn't have had a sonogram at 12 weeks but we were asked if we wanted to help one of the doctor's in the group who is trying to get certified to measure the nuchal translucency. She needed to measure 10 fetus' around 12 weeks and we were her 10th one.

To read more about the nuchal translucency here is a website I found along with a little excerpt:
http://www.baby2see.com/medical/nuchal_12weekscan.html

"The nuchal translucency (also spelled nucal translucency) is a collection of fluid beneath the fetal skin in the region of the fetal neck and this is present and seem in all fetuses in early pregnancy. The fluid collection is however increased in many fetuses with Down's syndrome and many other chromosomal abnormalities. It is called a 'translucency' because on ultrasound this appears as a black space beneath the fetal skin. It is this black space that you will see measured during the ultrasound scan."

We got a few more pictures and I'll post them once I get them scanned. I went back for my doctor's appointment in the afternoon with Dr. Gallagher and she said everything looked great! The best news was when she told me to schedule my next appointment 5 weeks from now so we can do another sono to find out the gender! I'll be 17 weeks and I was expecting to have to wait till 20 weeks so we are super excited! My next appointment is July 22nd so keep posted to find out if we will have a baby sister or baby brother for Claire. Today Claire told me she wanted a baby cat and that one was in my tummy. She also likes to pat her tummy and tell us she has a baby too - it's so cute! Praise God for a healthy report!