November 27th, 2013- The Spot

The next day I slept in, kept the boys home with me while Russell went to work and called my doctor's office as soon as they opened.  I explained to them the events of the day before and why it was so important that I be seen that day.  They asked if I could be there at 11:30.  I told them I would.

At the doctor's office, I went into the sonogram room, both boys in tow.  Luke did really well the whole time because he remembered seeing Ben on the screen when we was in Mommy's tummy, and after that got old entertained himself with a pair of gloves the sonogram tech let him have.  (He LOVES gloves.  I don't get it either.)  Ben, being the active 18 month old he was, had to be held by me on the table the whole time.  He tolerated that pretty well, but toward the end got restless and I had to HOLD him with me on the table.

When the sonogram tech put the machine to my belly, she said after about a minute, "Wow.  You're at least 18 to 20 weeks."  My jaw dropped.  She proceeded to take all the necessary pictures and measurements and told me, "You are measuring at 20 weeks, 5 days."  I could hardly believe it.  I was halfway through my pregnancy and had only known about it for sure for 3 days.  I have had 2 kids.  I should know these things.  How could this be?  She asked if I wanted to know the gender, which I quickly answered "No, my husband's not here."  We hadn't found out the gender with either Luke or Ben and I wasn't sure what we wanted to do this time, but I had thought it would not be an issue at this point, not realizing how far along I actually was.

We were almost done, and the sonogram tech had me laying this way and that, jiggling the machine on my belly, trying to get a specific view of the baby.  She said she wasn't able to get a good view of what she wanted, but she noticed a spot at the back of the head that could be a cyst.  She was going to show it to Terry, the nurse practicioner that I see.  I got a little nervous, but thought, ok, no big deal, let's see what Terry says.  After all, she said she couldn't see it really well and possibly she didn't see anything at all, no use worrying over nothing.

One of the sonogram pictures from that day. 

I went into the exam room with the boys.  Terry came in a few minutes later.  She told me that there was a dark spot that was partially seen on the back of the head that could be a cyst, and they'd like to get it checked out further.  She was going to refer me to Maternal Fetal Medicine because they specialize in these sorts of things, and to expect a call from them next week to set up an appointment.  She told me that there may be nothing there at all, they thought they saw something and really it's not there; it may just be a cyst and it will go away on it's own or may be nothing at all except a bump on the head.  What worried me was she didn't give me a 'worst case scenario'.  I don't know if she really didn't know what the 'worst case scenario' was, or just didn't want to worry me (possibly needlessly), but I definitely left with concerns.

Later that day I considered doing what everyone does now- Google it.  However, I really didn't have much information to go on at that point and didn't want to scare myself needlessly, so I refrained.  Maternal Fetal Medicine called the next week and we set up the appointment for December 12th.

Now all we had to do was wait.