Trans dads to our rainbow: Anomaly scan

Anomaly Scan at 21 weeks.

An anomaly scan is done between 18-21 weeks, it is where the babies physical development will be looked at in more detail. the sonographier will examine the baby's bones, heart, brain, kidneys, face and spinal cord. This is to rule out any conditions. They look for 11 rare conditions for example cleft lip, heart defects or open spinal bifida, but not everything can be picked up on the scan. If anything is found then further scans maybe needed, with specialist or treatment will be planned for when the baby is born. in rare cases they may not be any treatment or surgery as many conditions are unknown so there is nothing that can be done.

We had our scan at 21 weeks and 1 day. Ben laid down and the sonographer first had a look to get a good view of the baby. She spoke to us through the whole scan, what she was looking for and what parts of the baby she was examine in detail. As usual our little rainbow was being shy and difficult. The baby was laying low down with their head tucked against the placenta. Rainbows hands where up against their face and was not moving. The sonographer had to tilt the bed up and give Ben's belly a little shake to encourage our baby to move. Eventually she was able to get a clear view of the babies face, spinal cord and organs. Our rainbow was perfect, was developing very well and their is no signs of any conditions or delay in growth. They were measuring at the right gestational. We got some lovely photos of their foot, hand and face. The sonographier confirm the sex which was what we were previously told at a private scan.

After our scan we had an appointment with Mel and Austin our specialist. everything seemed really well, Lorraine the mental health midwives come in to just check in with Ben too. We were given more blood clot injections and told to continue bed rest with 4 hours upright or out in the wheelchair. That he was now allowed a bath but with just warm water and no products in or he was not to wash in the bath only a shower. Ben was also given pessary to treat thrush. One concern was that they did find sugar (glucose) in his urine therefore he had to go in the following day for a glucose test for Gestational Diabetes.

We were booked for another scan and appointment at 28 weeks where we would then discuss having a caesarean section further and hopefully get a date or rough timing to have our baby.

Gestational Diabetes

Gestational Diabetes is high blood sugar that develops during pregnancy due to the body not being able to produce enough insulin, which is a hormone that controls sugar levels. Normally it occur at the end of the second trimester although it can develop at any stage. Most of the time it goes away after giving birth, but can increase the risk of later developing types 2 diabetes. There are risk factors like high BMI, previously having large babies, family history of diabetes, while it can also just develop. It can be managed with diet and exercise, then regulated with medication if needed. In most cases it does not cause immediate risk to ones self or the baby, there can be complications if it is not treated and regulated within pregnancy. These complications include having larger babies, developing pre-eclampsia, which is very dangerous in pregnancy. As well as pre term labour or rare cases stillborn.

The next day he went in for the test. He had to fast the night before, meaning no food or water from midnight. They started with a blood test before getting him to drink a sugar drink within 10 minutes. He then had to wait two hours for them to repeat the blood test. This is to see how his body handles sugar, how much insulin he produced and just generally how he processed sugar as energy. This was worrying if Ben had diabetes. He had risk factors of BMI above 30 due to not losing weight from the previous pregnancy with Nico, as well as being put on bed rest meaning he was not able to exercise. We do eat healthy and all the thing they say like high protein, fruit and veg. no fatty, oily foods, plenty of high fibre with low carb diet. Only he would have to cut down on bread and fresh juice which has high sugar. Thankfully his test came back negative, tho they booked him in for another at 28 weeks to retest which he would of had anyways. That the sugar in his urine could of been just something he had that morning, e.g. passion fruit and mango ice smoothie from Costa, or the fact he had thrush and a urine injection. at least for now he did not have Gestational Diabetes.

We could just relax and know the baby was fine. that our rainbow baby was growing and developing perfectly. Ben was healthy and the stitch was doing its job. Now to just rest and get through the weeks.

photos of our scan and bump growing.