We Celebrated Reason #...

1!

There's one "perfectly shaped" (as the ultrasound tech described it) gestational sac, and about half a second after she got the wand in place, we heard one of the best phrases ever: "There's a flicker!"

She started by doing an abdominal ultrasound. She pointed out the sac at that point, but she said my uterus was retroverted, so it was hard to see anything very well. From that angle, the sac looked like a weird, non-round shape to me.

And since we've heard "abnormally shaped gestational sac, this doesn't look viable" at the first ultrasound for several of the past pregnancies, the weird shape made me nervous. She switched pretty quickly to the transvaginal approach, and I couldn't bring myself to look - I just stared at the ceiling until she mentioned the flicker, at which point I popped up like a jack-in-the-box. (There was a screen mounted on the wall in front of me.)

The embryo measured 6w0d, which is exactly what today is. She said they want the heartbeat to be at least 100 bpm at this point, and it was 102 bpm. I would have rather it be a little higher, but I know it speeds up each week for the next several weeks, so we'll just wait and see what Thursday's appointment brings.

We're relieved to be over this hurdle. And I'm grateful that we get to experience seeing a flicker again. But at the same time, we're still being very, very cautious. One day at a time, though each day seems to feel like a week right now...

Anyway, thank you for encouraging me to get the ultrasound early and cheering us on. It's a great way to start a weekend.