This morning we had the level 2 ultrasound. They basically use a fancier ultrasound machine and a highly trained tech. She seemed to check every square inch of the baby and let us know what we were looking at as we went along. They had a monitor mounted to the ceiling so Jeff and I were able to follow along and see what she was looking at. We saw the cerebellum, the ventricles in the brain, the 2 sides of the brain, the 4 chambers of the heart, the spine, the skull, hands and arms, feet and legs, kidneys, bladder, stomach, placenta, she took femur measurements, spine measurements, skull measurements...it was pretty thorough. The heartbeat was 141 again. The baby was moving around quite a bit but wasn't in the right position to do all of the measurements. She made me leave the room and walk around for a bit to see if we could get the baby to move. Then I went back in and although the baby hadn't moved much I assume she was able to get the measurements she needed. At the beginning we told her we wanted to know the gender so if she caught a glimpse of something, to let us know. At one point as she was moving down the body we could see the baby's heiny and legs. And that was all we saw. I think we both knew what she was going to say before she said it. "It looks like a girl", she said nonchalantly. I think Jeff was secretly a little sad it wasn't a boy. I assured him the next one would be a boy...
We waited a while then a doctor came in to look around some more. I assume she is some kind of diagnostic specialist or something. She was super nice and friendly. She confirmed that it is in fact a girl. After looking around for a while and asking a bunch of questions about my high blood pressure meds, she told us that "structurally" the baby looks great. She said the only issue they can see at this time is some fluid in one of the kidneys. She said this is very common for boys and no big deal for them, but for girls it can indicate a possible structural kidney problem (although she said structurally the kidney looked normal). The fluid pocket is in the ureter and is small right now (only 4 point something mm) and they don't consider it a major problem until it measures 10mm. She said sometimes it can be a sign of Down's Syndrome, but that usually only happens when both kidneys have an issue. She said 90% of these cases are just a little blockage that eventually resolves itself over time. So we have to go back when I'm in week 30 for another level 2. At that point they'll assess the kidney again. If the fluid has gotten bigger or hasn't gone away, the baby will have to see a specialist after she is born. In summary, I think the doctor fully expects that it won't be a big deal, but felt it was in our best interest to have full disclosure of this potential problem. I think Jeff and I are of the opinion that it's not something we will focus on because it's out of our hands. Whatever is going to happen will happen.
For now, we've got decorating to do!
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