Sneak Peak

We got an early sneak peak at little Frueh #2 today and were reassured that all is well in his/her watery home. We had a little bit of a scare earlier this week when I started bleeding unexpectedly, but when we went in to see the midwife, she found our little bean's heartbeat right away. We went in for an ultrasound just to check everything out. They did find what is called a subchorionic hematoma (SCH), which sounds really scary, but really it's just a gathering of blood between the placenta and the wall of the uterus. It should either bleed out by 20 weeks or simply be reabsorbed into my body. The risk to the baby with a SCH is very low (1-3%) and that is only with the largest clots. Thankfully, mine is fairly small so everything should be just fine. As our midwife said, it's just our little boy giving us trouble early on. Of course we have no idea if the baby is a boy or a girl (and we have no intention of finding out), but the midwife said that, in her experience, boys tend to give their mamas the most trouble. We'll just have to wait and see if she's right :-)

This was our first peak at our little bean. The first thing the technician did was zero-in on his/her little heart to set our minds at ease. The fetal heartrate, which is pictured at the bottom was a galloping 171 beats per minute. If the old-wives tale has it right, that could be an indication of a girl. The infamous "they" say that any heartrate over 150 is a sign of a girl. That definitely held true with little Miss Molly. She was over 150 from the very beginning. So, does she have a sister in store? Or a brother with a very fast heartrate? Guess, we'll find out in February.

At 11 weeks, Baby Frueh #2 is almost 2 inches long and about the size of a fig. His/her body and organ systems are already fully formed. The beginnings of fingernails are starting to form on those tiny hands and, as you might be able to tell from this picture, those little toothpick legs are already kicking up a storm! Seeing the baby moving in person was pretty amazing because he/she is still so tiny, but we saw those little legs kicking away for sure.

This is my favorite shot. It's the baby's little tushie with his/her legs splayed out in front of him. A friend of mine said it reminds her of the Peanuts cartoons where one of the characters falls over backwards and all you see are their legs and their rear. I agree! And don't think about making a gender judgement on this shot either. Even to the trained eye of an ultrasound tech, 11 weeks is much too early to make a gender determination. Since we're keeping the gender a surprise, I'm actually kind of glad we had our ultrasound early so there's no temptation to peek and there's no chance of the tech letting it slip.

So, once again, we're praising the Lord tonight for His faithfulness, mercy and blessings. Through this short, but scary ordeal, I've been so thankful for the comfort and peace of mind He's given me. I'm grateful that I can rest assured that our little one is resting in His hands and that He is always working all things together for our good.