The Fetal Medicine Centre - Wellbeing Scan
I just wanted to do a quick update, for all the lovely people who've showed an interest in my midget bump's story. Thank you so much for all your support and good wishes, I've been quite touched.
So, we went for our private scan at The Fetal Medicine Centre last night, just really to get some more answers. The sonographers at St George's are wonderful, but you're always hyper aware of all the other ladies waiting to see them and don't want to take up too much of their time. So for me, really, the point of the private scan was more to be able to talk to someone at length about exactly what was going on, rather than just finding out another bunch of figures about Chip's size.
After a bit of a wait (they were having issues with their systems), we were seen. I explained to the sonographer what we'd been told before and he spent a good half an hour thoroughly measuring Chip, as well as the various different blood flows to her and my uterus. The first bit of good news was that she had moved and her head was firmly down! I couldn't believe it - after all these weeks!
Anyway, the upshot of the scan was that overall she's still tiny - the 7th percentile - and still 'small for gestational age'. However he was able to measure her head better this time than at my last scan, because of its position, and it's measuring much more normally, around the 40th percentile. Only her tiny tummy, legs and weight are holding her back. So she's got a big head, a titchy abdomen and no fat on her, basically.
He said she is a very small baby, but he could see no reason for it really. The blood flow from the umbilical cord was fine, as was the amount of amniotic fluid. She was wriggling about on the scan (she was rubbing her little fists into her eyes, which was very cute, but meant we couldn't get a good picture of her face - sniff) which is also a good sign.
He said she looks perfectly healthy, just small. There was a moment of absurdity when he said 'She might just be small because you are...' and then looked at me (5ft 7) and Oli (6ft 3) and shrugged.
Interestingly, he also said that scans should never be done less than two weeks apart, because the margin for error on the machines is so great that measurements that close together can be unreliable. BUT - she had grown since last week's scan, not by much, but by the same amount as before, meaning she was following the same growth pattern, which is good. It means her growth hasn't slowed any further, by the looks of it at least. He said next week's scan at the hospital will give us a better idea as we'll be able to compare it to the one a fortnight before.
I asked him about the possibility of an early delivery and he said at the moment there's no reason to think that would be necessary, and that they would only do that if her growth started to tail off on the chart, which would show she was deteriorating. So for now, I feel reassured.
It's still upsetting to think she's going to be tiny and vulnerable when she's born, and part of me is still terrified there's something chromosomal going on (he said this was unlikely as we'd had a very low risk result on this from our testing at week 12, but nothing is failsafe). Most likely, for some reason or another, my placenta isn't working as well as it should be, but so long as they keep a close eye on it, they'll be able to intervene if it starts to pack up completely.
Last night I actually slept properly for the first time in over a week - it was such a relief. I'm still nervous about everything and what the future holds, but I'm also feeling more positive, and I'm so pleased her head is the right size for her age. Hopefully the rest of her can catch up after she's born. (Tiny) fingers and toes crossed!
(here's her notes for anyone who's interested in the technical stuff...)
