20 Week Sonogram

Babies Anatomy Appointment

I figured it was time I shared my pregnancy journey. In between not having enough time and actually having the energy or feeling up to it has been tough so please bare with me.

On December 6th, we went for our 20 week anatomy sonogram. We were approximately 5 months and 2 weeks. My blood pressure was great and so far I’ve gained 20 pounds. I’m surrounded by pregnant women who shared with me how long this appointment was so we came prepared. This appointment is to ensure the baby is developing properly. They look for the following fetal parts:

• Face
• Brain (ventricles, choroid plexus, mid-brain, posterior fossa, cerebellum, cisterna magna, measurements of anterior and posterior horns of lateral ventricles)
• Skull (shape, integrity, BPD and HC measurements)
• Neck (nuchal fold thickness)
• Spine
• Heart (rate, rhythm, 4-chamber views, outflow tract)
• Thorax (shape, lungs, diaphragm)
• Abdomen (stomach, kidneys, liver, bladder, wall, umbilicus, cord, abdominal circumference AC)
• Limbs (femur, tibia, fibula, humerus, radius, ulna, hands, feet femur length FL)
• Genitals (gender, abnormality)
• Cervix (length and opening)
• Amniotic fluid
• Placenta position and anomalies
• Cervix

What I wasn’t prepared for was all the discomfort! There was a lot of poking and digging since Baby Macon decided he wanted to play and not give us what we needed for the appointment. We got got everything but the heart so we have to go back in two weeks for them to get that. Hopefully the baby will cooperate then. The doctor came in and said everything else looks perfect. By the time we finished I was super sore! Brandon had to help me off the table, rub a few things to get them working again and help me take a few steps to shake things out a bit. Overall, the appointment was about an hour and a half. On top of that our Sonographer wasn’t the nicest. I don’t ever necessarily expect doctors to be nice, but the ones I see or have seen thus far have at least been considerate. Won’t be seeing her again!

In the second trimester, I’m not sleeping well and have been pretty uncomfortable just in general. My feet hurt since I can’t find any comfy shoes. I’m having a lot of pelvic/ligamant pain from the baby growing and from the shifting of my organs and all that fun stuff. My hips hurt pretty much while I’m laying down, standing or sitting son none of those are too much fun these days. I can’t fly so I figured that was out. Lol! I plan to try going to the pool since I’ve heard its done wonders for pregnant women in general. I will say Yoga helps and I enjoy doing it since I haven’t been able to workout like I use to. I also walk as much as I possibly can every day. Especially since the baby starts kicking whenever I sit down. I have to rock when I’m sitting at my desk at work or on the bed at home. I’m up in the middle of the night stretching and walking when Baby Macon decides to wake up and kick me often right when I hit the sheets and find my comfy place or and around 2-3am. While I’m not a fan of the kicking, I think it’s kind of sweet to rock our little one to sleep before we ever even meet.

Now, onto the exciting stuff! It was beautiful seeing more of our baby. Our first sonogram looked like a grain of rice so this made things more real. We even saw the little nose. Oh yeah, Baby Macon looked pretty comfortable in there…hands behind the head and legs up. I wondered what they were propped up on? The heartbeat was 156 bpm and the baby is in a breach position which is normal at this point as he still has plenty of room to roll around.
I will share a little more of our pregnancy journey soon! Here are some pics from our appointment below. Check the two second video at the end. Enjoy!