Fetal Echocardiogram and 23 Week Appointment

On Tuesday, I headed to the hospital to have my fetal echocardiogram and then to the doctor to have my 23 week appointment. I was not due for an appointment until next week, but we will be at the beach and my doctor did not want me to wait until 26 weeks for an appointment. The echocardiogram was just a precaution since Gabriel was born with congenital heart disease. When one child in the family is born with CHD, the chances of having another child with CHD are much greater. Still, even with the increased risk, the risk is what I would consider small and if I were a gambling person, I would take those odds. We had no reason to believe anything was wrong with our little girl's heart.

I had to wait a while for the echo. I should also note that I am not a science person and I don't know much about biology of anatomy or physiology, but I know all the parts of the heart, what they look like and how they should function. I think it comes from all the doctors explaining everything to me with Gabriel so many times. The images are burned in my head. So, I knew what the sonographer was looking at and what he was doing and when he got to the aortic arch, I knew exactly what that was and let me just say, it was beautiful, a very beautiful sight. Even I could tell there was nothing wrong the heart. The cardiologist confirmed this when I met with her after the echo. She is partner at Hopkins Pediatric Cardiology and therefore she works with Gabriel's cardiologist. She did warn me that (as I already knew) even though the aorta looks perfect now, after the baby is born, when the PDA closes, it could cause a narrowing of the aorta at that spot, which is exactly what happened with Gabriel. Everything else looked perfect though. I was very thankful. They also measured the baby and she is measuring right between 22-23 weeks, so just where she needs to be at this point.

I then had to cool my jets for two hours while I waited for my OB appointment. I grabbed some lunch. It was just a standard OB appointment. Everything looks fine. I gained another 4 pounds. My blood pressure was higher than usual--124/58, but still good enough. My fundal height was right at 23 weeks. I was warned that I cannot boogie board, body surf, surf, para sail, water ski, go tubing behind a power boat while at the beach. However, I can go jet skiing. I go back in 4 weeks and I also have to get my 1 hour glucose test done at that time as well.