Well while not stunning photography, I do have a post.... first the good stuff...
Well, things didn't go as well as planned yesterday at the 20 week ultrasound. Everything was moving along nicely, but at the end, the noticed an abnormality in the right lower leg. From there, Jenny and nugget underwent a full battery of additional tests including an amnio. I almost deleted the card.
Both of us being above 40 and flying solo (no fertility treatments or therapy of any kind), we were very high risk going into this. Earlier screenings were all excellent, so we weren't expecting ANYTHING negative at all.
Yesterday was a hard day because this was very unexpected and the reaction at the hospital was so severe. In short, the lower right leg below the knee is not developing at the same rate as the rest of the body. That''s what we knew yesterday.
Today we got a much better and more positive picture. It looks like Nugget's leg bumped up against something that's called a band. It's a stretch of fiber in the womb. In doing so, it may have damaged blood vessels in the leg that lead to a slower development. That being said, the odds of it being a chromesonal or genetic issue are pretty much zero. Secondly the difference at this point is only 5mm which is small, but still significant. In the ultrasound, the right foot is flexed up too much. There will no doubt be some surgery and therapy involved, but considering what it may have been it's not nearly as bad as it seemed or felt yesterday. Also, the right lower leg is still in the 11th percentile for growth. So that's a good thing as well in that it may not be as severe as they were thinking yesterday.
Otherwise, the baby seems very healthy. And after that surprise yesterday, we decided no more surprises and found out today that Nugget's a girl!