Talk to the Hand, Fetal Edition

Well it looks like the Babe in the Belly is already looking up to big sister, Gracer, as well as apparently being an in-utero blog reader.  Technology is advancing so quickly!  After glancing at last night's post, this is the image that was flashed to us in today's early anatomy ultrasound:

Apparently Little Bit is a comedian.  

Today's ultrasound brought back many memories of our pregnancy with Grace.  It was this same ultrasound that first discovered Grace's heart defect.  From 16 weeks on, we had anatomy ultrasound scans every 4 weeks, fetal echocardiograms every 3 weeks and of course the regular OB appointments every 4 weeks or less.  While we loved seeing Grace so frequently, it was a lot of long quiet appointments full of stressful information - lots of possible defects or problems, most of which never came to be.  While we gratefully have a happy and healthy Gracer right now, we would do anything for her not to have had to go through the surgery, recovery and lifelong checkups that her heart defect requires.  

Needless to say, we were anxious about this appointment.  As the technician moved around the back ribs and spine, we saw our first glimpse of the heart beating.  Our amateur eyes depicted a clear divide between the right and left sides of the heart - something we never saw in the early days with Grace.  The technician and doctor then confirmed that they were seeing four distinct chambers.  We can't begin to express the joy at hearing this news!  We still have to do a fetal echocardiogram, which will look in much more detail at the heart and surrounding vessels, but this is a good start.  

The other big question going into this ultrasound was answered when the technician looked south of the border.    While we don't have answers about all the genetics of babe #2, we did get some information on the 23rd chromosome.  It looks like all those legwarmers will get a second chance in Graceland....the Gracer is getting a little sister!