22 Week Ultrasound and Doulas

This is week 22. My belly is getting bigger and this morning we went in for an "anatomical" ultrasound. It is where they look at all the major organs of the baby to make sure everything is in order. Once again, we got to see our baby girl. You can almost make out her facial features in some of the images! Everything looked great according to the Dr. and technician. The technician once again remarked that the heart sounds were very strong and beating at 158 beats per minute. That always makes us feel good when they say that!

Otherwise, things are going well. I can feel the baby moving around more and if I press in the area of my abdomen, I can feel her roll or move against my hand. Pretty neat. I've started checking out prenatal yoga classes around town and found two different ones that I like. It is a great way to meditate, relax, and become more flexible in preparation for the birth. The teacher of my yoga class tonight is also a doula which is something I'm just learning about. A doula is usually a non-medically trained person who acts as a labor coach during birth. They are usually women and supposedly they help you get through the labor process both emotionally and physically. I kind of like that idea since my experience with childbirth was as a med student. And I can guarantee you that medical people do not think about the emotional or spiritual side of things during a delivery. It is all about the medical process and procedure of having a baby and not much beyond that. They say that women who have other women present during labor usually do better. Anyway, I am toying with the idea of a doula but not quite sure about it. I think if you click personality-wise with someone it could work out well.

Karyotype

This is a photo of the chromosomes from the amniocentesis test. You can click on the image to make it bigger. There are 46 chromosomes in each cell of the human body. One is inherited from the mother, and the other, from the father. It's what gives us our genetic diversity! Note the dark bands in each chromosome, these are DNA tightly compressed. Different organisms have different numbers of chromosomes. Primates have 48, the hare has 46, and the potato has 48 as well!

With the karyotype ( A photomicrograph of chromosomes arranged according to a standard classification), the lab figures out which chromosomes are which and lines them up. In Down's Syndrome, you would see three number 21 chromosomes and in Trimsomy 18, you would see 3 number 18 chromosomes. Luckily, none of this existed in our baby, thank goodness! The neat thing to look for is how many chromosomes under X and Y. The baby has two X chromosomes and that is how they know it is a girl!

The results are in!

Well, the results are in! Thank goodness the results from the amniocentesis came back normal. So genetically, the baby is fine and we found out it is a girl! I think Chris and I would be happy with either a boy or girl as long as he/she is healthy. But it sure is nice to know the sex at this time! It cuts down our name choosing by at least 50%!

At this point I am 19 weeks along and my belly is definitely expanding! It is quite obvious to me, but many people have commented that they don't notice a thing. Do I normally look this fat??? Amazingly enough, I can already feel the baby move and this happened some time over Christmas. It feels like a muscle twitch or gas, but not quite, so I think it is the baby rolling around.

Anyway, Chris and I want to thank all our family and friends for their well-wishes. It is nice to have so much support from everyone.