Today was the one from last planned four weekly growth scan, and in my new positive spirit I was hopeful about the outcome of today, but of course was a little apprehensive.  As I mentioned before Jacksons dad was unable to come to the scan due to work so I took my parents to show them Jackson on the ultrasound, and it was just as nice as I expected it to be.

I could tell from the beginning that the sonographer was going to be very thorough and she talked us through everything she was doing. She started measuring him head circumference and showed us his little face. It looked almost as clear as a 3D scan, seeing his eyes closed with his chubby cheeks – unfortunately she didn’t take a photo of this so the scan photos I got weren’t anything like as clear as this.

She then moved on and measured his kidneys and femur length. She had to ask me to roll onto my side to try to get him to move a little bit so she could measure his abdominal circumference but it did the trick and she managed to get the measurement. She again checked that he was a boy – definitely! No one could mistake that! She went on and measured fluid levels and they were all normal. She showed us his feet and told us he had lots of hair (I am going to take her word for that, I couldn’t make that out but she pointed out what showed this) she then went on to say something that has been worrying me since I read the scan report, but that she glossed over at the time, that my placenta was mature. She said at the time that it was normal, but mentioned it in the scan notes. From a little bit of internet research it doesn’t seem to be abnormal, but not ideal. I shall make sure I keep an extra close eye on his movements from now on (not that I wasn’t already) and will ask my midwife at my next appointment to clarify how serious I should be taking this.

After my scan I saw my maternal medicine consultant who told me everything was looking good and going in the right direction, I asked about when decisions would be made about induction and she told me that I could book it in now, but that it would be better to wait until the 38 week scan and make decisions then. If things aren’t going right then I could have him within 5 minutes! Hopefully it won’t come to that!

I saw a different thyroid consultant and she told me that she was very pleased with how things had been controlled so far, and that everything was still looking good with me off medication, but she also told me something that no one else had. She reiterated that the over active thyroid was likely to return about three months after birth, then said that if it did it was likely that the levels of medications needed to control it would prevent me breastfeeding, so it is possible, and even probable that I won’t be able to breastfeed for more than 3months. Something I really wanted to do. She has given me some blood test forms to use in the next few months and referred me to a non-maternal endocrinology consultant in 4 months to keep an eye on my levels so we can hopefully catch it early.

All in all it was a positive day, I’m quite gutted we didn’t get better pictures, especially after seeing how clear it was earlier in the scan, and I am ridiculously worried about my placenta, about not realising he is in trouble until it’s too late or him not growing as he should in the next 4 weeks. So fingers crossed it is just a normal amount of placental ageing and that it doesn’t affect him.