Technology is amazing. When my husband and I went in for the CVS procedure (chorionic villus sampling), we were greeted by a new ultrasound technician who put a bunch of goo on my belly, turned off the lights, and directed our attention to a large TV screen on the wall. As she moved a wand around on my abdomen, we saw this huge baby image punching, kicking, and spinning. I thought, “I can’t believe it’s that big already. I see hands and feet! This is crazy. That’s our kid up there.”
We bombarded our tech with questions:
“How big is it?”
“About 2.5 inches.”
“Can it hear us yet?”
“No, brain development isn’t ready for that yet.”
“Can you see if it’s a boy or a girl?”
“Actually, at this stage, the genitals are forming and it has both, but it’s too small to tell.”
After showing us a few more angles and pointing out body parts, she said, “Let’s see if we can get a 3D image…” Check this out!
Seriously, amazing. She printed out a bunch of pictures for us and then we waited for the big kahuna doctor to come in to perform the CVS. When he finally showed up, he reminded me of a very confident and relaxed Mr. Huxtable. I liked this guy. He had the ultrasound tech resume her post so they knew where to put in a super tiny catheter, which Dr. Huxtable said will be too tiny to feel. I relaxed immediately.
(I had been so stressed about this procedure. My sister said “it was tolerable” when she had it done a few months before but I figured that my sister was just trying to reassure me and it would definitely hurt.)
The speculum wasn’t terribly comfortable, but I am used to that delightful feeling from my annual exams. Dr. Huxtable informed me that he would swab the area with iodine before inserting the catheter, which would be a little scratchy but no big deal. We focused on the image on the screen and he told me that my uterus is tilted forward and showed me the area where he would take the sample. I felt a little shifting of the speculum, a little cramp, and then he was over by the counter checking the sample to see if it’s okay.
“Everything cool?”
“Yep, you’re all done.”
Whew. He took out the little wall-stretcher and pointed out that the iodine is kind of reddish brown and not to freak out if I see something of that color later. “Only call us if you notice lots of clear fluid or tons of blood. A little spotting is okay.”
Then he told my husband that I can’t do any housework for at least a month and winked at me. “Make sure you rest for the next five days. No lifting, yoga, jumping, or whatever else you guys do during sex.”
He said we’ll find out the results in the next ten to fourteen days, but I was already feeling pretty good about this whole thing. (I mean, no housework for a month!)
Prior to my exam day, I substitute taught some additional classes this week on top of my own since I knew I had some downtime coming. Thought I’d get in some extra squats (no hard labor for me in six months, thank you very much), and burn off some extra calories before my lounging began.
But speaking of technology, I think my heart rate monitor, which I use to make sure I’m not over-working myself during cardio, was picking up both my heart beat and the baby’s! I was kind of fascinated by it registering 227 beats per minute during my warm up. It’s possible there was some other explanation (bad battery?), but that had never happened before. Guess I’ll have to go back to checking my wrist and counting the beats next week.
