Matters of the Heart: Fetal Echocardiogram

A couple weeks ago, I had a fetal echocardiogram.  In my previous pregnancies, back in NY, this was standard care for IVF patients.  Here, now that we're in Ohio, they thought it was an odd request, but obliged.  The ultrasound tech was slightly annoyed when she found out she was scanning due to an over-reactive preggo #dontmess but, the scan was faster than usual, we made nice small talk, and all was well.  

For starters, the scan is very boring.  Yes, I'm always relieved to have the chance to get a peek at the baby-but this is not one of the ultrasounds where you walk away with cutesy pictures.  In fact, the tech even told me I could watch on the screen!  I just told her this was a boring ultrasound, plus, it's all black and white with flickers of red and blue (to show the blood flow) what's to see anyway? She just chuckled...

The scan is scheduled to last between 45-60 minutes.  Mine was about 35 minutes, as the baby was rather cooperative.  And for those that are wondering-i did not budge on my desire to not know the gender.  I told her I didn't want to know, so she was careful where she scanned because it's legs were up over it's head.  Now, people suspect she must have seen it was a boy, or she wouldn't have made that comment-but she told me she makes a habit of not ever checking the gender because it doesn't matter for what she's looking for.  I think she knew based on seeing the legs and feet above the head, not to scan further down.  

I had never been told this before, but I was told that since I was before 27 weeks, I needed to have a full bladder.  The receptionist had mercy on me and let me pee when I arrived because there was no way I could arrive with a full bladder, and then go though an hour scan!  But, the tech was not thrilled with that and claimed that was why the baby was so low down and slumped making it a bit more difficult for her to get the images she needed.  

All in all, there were no concerns going into the exam, I requested it because it was standard in my past pregnancies, and peace of mind is highly valued in this pregnancy!  At the end, the doctor came in and told me everything looked great: all the right holes, no holes where there shouldn't be, everything flowed the right way, and there were no concerns!