It's a...baby!
We had the 20 week ultrasound today (a week late, but both we and the OB were on vacation last week) and were successful in our desire to avoid unintentional viewing of any tell-tale parts. No gender news for you!
Highlights:
- Getting to see it again, at all. It seemed huge compared to nine weeks!
- Hands, fingers, feet and toes, all flexing and waving! This time it actually looked like a baby!
- At one point s/he literally waved his/her hand at us!
- The bone structure -- the spinal cord in particular was startlingly beautiful, and we could see tibia and fibula and radius and ulna and cranium and ribs...like a little cathedral hidden inside.
- Our OB was able to rule out Trisomy 18, a condition which is so fatal that babies don't survive in the outside world. We couldn't afford the blood test (which was not covered by our insurance, sigh) so it was a relief to have another method to rule it out. She also did not see any indicators of Down's Syndrome, although the absence of visual cues does not rule it out completely.
So far there are no indications to the contrary that this baby is healthy, growing appropriately, and will be fully formed and ready to meet the world when the time comes!