At close to 30 weeks now, I’m into my final trimester! At my week 27 appointment, Chua Bee Bee measured 1.1kg and is growing well. But the scans at my gynae’s clinic were getting a tad boring cos he can only scan Chua Bee Bee’s head since she’s getting so big. So all I was seeing at every scan was a round shape on the screen. Like a typical first-time parent willing to spend on unnecessary things, I decided to look around for somewhere to do a 4D scan!

Where to do a 4D scan in Singapore

I checked out Raffles Hospital and Thomson Medical Centre, but both places require a doctor’s referral and cost around $390. Too troublesome for me to go back to my gynae for a referral and the available appointment slots are ages away. By then, Chua Bee Bee would be too big to ‘qualify’ for the scan! I googled and found Radlink Diagnostics which didn’t need a doctor’s referral and cost $364 nett. Still expensive, but I really wanted to see what she is up to inside my tummy!

Oh, a word about itchiness

I went for my dermatologist appointment at KK Hospital in the morning to check out my super itchy legs. I was getting paranoid because three weeks ago I started itching crazily without a rash on my soles and palms. The itch was so bad, I was even woken up by the itch. Too much google landed me on the ICP Care website (previously known as ‘Itchymoms.com’) which provides detailed info on Intraheptic Cholestasis of Pregnancy, a rare liver condition specific to pregnancy which interferes with the flow of bile. Left untreated, your baby could be at risk if not delivered by 37 weeks. I had to insist that my gynea give me a blood test to rule out the condition. I can’t believe that he laughed in my face like it was nothing and told me to stay off the internet! He also didn’t know what cholestasis is and kept asking if I’m referring to fatty liver. I’m not. I swear I’m not going back to him if we decide to have a second baby. The liver function tests came back normal (and he didn’t test my bile acids!) but I was still itching like mad. Turned out that the itching is eczema-related. After the KKH appointment, I went to Orchard to eat Yong Tau Foo at Lucky Plaza before going for a random hair cut (too much time to kill and I was missing my bangs!) before going to Radlink at Paragon for Chua Bee Bee’s scan at 4pm.

Love my haircut. And love the sun!

Err at Hilton Hotel’s toilet. Can’t really see the bump cos of the slim cutting of the dress ($17 from Qoo10), but my tummy is now quite big!

The 4D scan at Radlink Diagnostics

4pm finally arrived! I met Jason at Paragon and off to see Chua Bee Bee we went! Radlink Diagnostics is located at Paragon Medical Centre. Just go through Paragon’s main entrance, walk till the end and take the lift at Lobby E. It’s on the 8th floor.

The sonographer emphasised that the success of the scan depended on Chua Bee Bee’s position. To capture a 3D image, there can’t be any blockage on top of the her face, meaning the coast must be clear. She can’t be too close to the top or sides of the womb and can’t be facing inwards. This was the first image we saw:

Apa la, Chua Bee Bee! Both her feet were extended over and above her head, directly on top of her face, and her hand was right in front of her mouth! Couldn’t really see anything clear but we could make out her chubby cheeks, part of her nose and a bit of her lips. She’s so cute even like this!

In the next minute, she moved her hands and we could see her chubby cheeks clearly! Her hand is now just below her chin. My first thought was Chua Bee Bee your nose need to be so big or not LOLOLOL! Mummy still love you ok your have 福气 nose is the cutest! The thing/shadow you see by the left side of her face is her foot.. either she’s too tall or she has incredibly flexible joints. The sonographer said that at this time, the baby’s joints are not fully developed yet, so they’re able to do crazy yoga poses in their water balloons (amniotic sac).

We had no luck for almost half and hour. It took A LOT of coaxing, walking, emptying the bladder, talking and turning to get her to change positions. Even so, we weren’t so lucky. 4pm is her nap time! We switched to 2D view and captured this:

Chua Bee Bee yawning and pouting! This is seriously the sweetest video I’ve ever seen of my baby girl! Because her feet were blocking her face, we couldn’t see the yawning in 3D view, but we were able to see it in 2D. We also saw her sucking the back of her hand and sticking out her tongue but that video wasn’t recorded.

The sonographer had me lie on my right side in the hope of getting Chua Bee Bee to move her feet and hand out of the way, but she wouldn’t budge! In the rare occasion that she did, yeah la, she turned too. But she turned to face my placenta so there was no way we could see her face. I tried walking around in the room to try and wake her up, and finally we managed to get some shots:

This pic looks like she’s smiling with her mouth open but it’s actually her so close to the roof of my womb that her lips are pressed flat against it, so we can’t see any shape or structure. But I think her chin looks quite sharp!

This is one of the clearer pictures :) Both her hands are framing her face and she’s still sound asleep. I’m so in loveeeeee……

And this! You can see her lips so clearly here.. I think they look full and sexy and so shiny! Her feet are still by the left side of her face…..

There are lots more other pictures and videos (all given to us in a cd) but these are really the best ones. The whole session lasted about an hour. Your baby needs to be between 26-28 weeks in order to do the scan. Chua Bee Bee was 29 weeks 3 days so I guess a little ‘overage’ doesn’t matter. Other places might have different requirements. We left Radlink $364 poorer but incredibly happy! We could now put a face to all the jelly dances and flying kicks. Can’t wait to see you, our baby girl!

Next:
Pregnancy: Mount Alvernia Hospital – Maternity Tour & Estimate Bill Size 2016
Pregnancy: Bellybuds! Playing music for your baby in the womb
FY2016 Budget: Is the government giving us an extra $3K into the Child Development Account?
Pregnancy: Why I’m choosing GAIA Natural Baby Organic Skincare for #ChuaBeeBee
The third trimester: Tips for changing your gynae at Week 35
Pregnancy: When you wrist hurts like nobody’s business (De Quervain’s Tenosynovitis)
How to bake your own chunky chocolate lactation cookies
Pregnancy: Week 39 – Low amniotic fluid and an eviction notice!

Previous posts:
Pregnancy: The big reveal!
Pregnancy: The first trimester scans… I saw an empty womb on my first scan
Pregnancy: The second trimester – harmony test and gender reveal!
Pregnancy: The second trimester – 20-week anomaly scan + gestational diabetes scare

The post Pregnancy: The third trimester 4D scan – I saw Chua Bee Bee’s cute little face! appeared first on Budgetpantry | Singapore Mummy Blog on Food, Recipe & Baby.

***WARNING***

*****GRAPHIC IMAGE*****

**************READY?**************

*************************************

Yes, there’s hair, bones and fat! If you google ovarian cysts, you will find some which even have teeth. The type of cysts that I had – dermoid cysts – are usually benign and originate from leftover cells at birth. My doctor did a keyhole surgery to remove them. He made three incisions: one on the right, one on the left and one in my belly button. The scars are nothing – all are less than 1cm long.

And so. I went for my first appointment alone. Jason asked if he should come but I told him that’s ok because I thought that it was just to confirm my pregnancy. I was supposed to be 5 weeks that day and according to Google, we should have been able to see at least a gestational sac then. My gynae did a vaginal scan as I was so early, but my womb was empty.

He told me he was seeing thickening of the uterine walls which signals very early pregnancy, but also said there was clearly no gestational sac – yet.

The next step was to take a blood test to check HCG levels. “If the HCG levels are below a certain number,” he said, “We won’t see anything in the womb yet.” My gynae promised to call two days later to tell me the results. In the two days, Google was my best friend (bad choice). I started looking up “ectopic pregnancy”, because that’s when the baby is growing somewhere else other than in your womb. I also looked up “low HCG levels” (don’t do it) which later led to be googling “falling HCG levels”, which turned out to be a REALLY BAD decision. My gynae called me two days later right after his consultation hours. My levels were at 763 – still very early. There’s hope! He told me not to worry and see him again after a week. I opted to see him after 10 days instead to give Chua Bee Bee more time to grow. Doctor put me on progesterone every morning.

The second scan (Week 5)
By now I would have technically been in week 6-7. With fear and anticipation (and prayers on repeated mode), Jason and I went to the clinic for our follow-up scan. My gynae placed his scanner on my tummy, waved it around and two seconds later.. his face lit up. “Beautiful!” he said. A gestational sac had formed! I had REALLY ovulated late, and I was about week 5. “Let’s try to hear the heartbeat,” he said. A WHAT? You can’t even see the embryo on the abdominal scan! We did a trans-vaginal scan and here’s we saw:

A yolk sac and a floating embryo by the other side, followed by what the doctor described as the “national anthem”. Can you imagine that our tiny 1mm embryo had a heartbeat? I was mind-blown. And we could hear the “pom, pom, pom” loud and clear. He said the heartbeat for embryos is relatively slower at this stage, but two weeks later, it will be doubly fast, around 170+. My progesterone dosage is now increased to twice a day, morning and night.

The third scan (Week 7)
I was constantly asking Jason, “Chua Bee Bee you grow ma?” He assured me every time, and how right he was – the little bub had grown from 1mm to 16.4mm in two weeks! The heartbeat had more than doubled to around 170. By now, we could see a defined shape even with an abdominal scan:

I was so relieved that my pregnancy wasn’t ectopic, that a sac had formed, that we were lucky enough to see and hear the baby’s heartbeat!

The fourth scan (Week 10)
Our little baby bub is continuing to grow by leaps and bounds! From 1.64cm to 3.4cm in two weeks. And to think a month ago, it was barely 0.1cm. Chua Bee Bee appeared to be covering his or her ears in this scan:

What a cutie pie! Chua Bee Bee measured about 10 weeks 1 day, which is right on track. I was scheduled to take a test to assess my risk for pre-eclampsia next week. We also decided to take the Harmony Test to assess our baby’s risk of Down Syndrome plus know the gender. To know why I chose to take the Harmony Test instead of the more popular OSCAR, please read my next post.

And this was what (my face) looked like around that time. I was 2 months pregnant (October 2015) and can’t really tell.

I love this series with little Cara. She looks like an angel in these pics but we actually call her Xiao Lian. She also recently starred in a home made video singing the self-created song ‘wo bu shi siao char bor!’ Tsk tsk 年纪小小 already in denial.

See this damn funny she with Jason lololol.

The fifth scan (Week 12 detailed scan)
For this scan, we reported to Thomson Medical Centre’s Fetal Assessment Unit. I did two types of scans here: measurements of my baby and to assess my risk of pre-eclampsia. For the pre-eclampsia screening, the nurse first took my blood pressure – a number of timed-readings over 5-10 minutes, on both arms. After that, I waited to scan for blood flow to the baby along with its measurements (baby grew again from 3.4 cm to 5.84 cm), then followed by a blood test. For the baby scan, this was the first time I could see my baby up close and for such a long time! At the doctor’s clinic, the scans were over in less than five minutes, but here, I had the luxury of looking at Chua Bee Bee zoomed in for 20 minutes. Wow! Looking more and more like a baby instead of some… shape on the ultrasound :)

Two of the many measurements taken were that of the nasal bone length and nuchal translucency (a collection of fluid under the skin at the back of the baby’s neck). A short nasal bone length and thick neck fluid COULD signal Down Syndrome. I didn’t want to ask the sonographer a lot of questions because I knew they had some kind of constraints, but she said my baby was “very active”, measurements appeared normal and that my doctor will let me know more.

My bump at 3 months! Sorry I don’t have those pretty side bump photos until after 24 weeks cos I was getting really self conscious with the amount of weight I was putting on!

And so the waiting continued… I REALLY pray for a safe and healthy pregnancy!

Next:
Pregnancy: The second trimester – harmony test and gender reveal!
Pregnancy: The second trimester – 20-week anomaly scan + gestational diabetes scare
Pregnancy: The third trimester 4D scan – I saw Chua Bee Bee’s cute little face!
Pregnancy: Mount Alvernia Hospital – Maternity Tour & Estimate Bill Size 2016
Pregnancy: Bellybuds! Playing music for your baby in the womb
FY2016 Budget: Is the government giving us an extra $3K into the Child Development Account?
Pregnancy: Why I’m choosing GAIA Natural Baby Organic Skincare for #ChuaBeeBee
The third trimester: Tips for changing your gynae at Week 35
Pregnancy: When you wrist hurts like nobody’s business (De Quervain’s Tenosynovitis)
How to bake your own chunky chocolate lactation cookies
Pregnancy: Week 39 – Low amniotic fluid and an eviction notice!

Previous post:
Pregnancy: The big reveal!

The post Pregnancy: The first trimester scans… I saw an empty womb on my first scan appeared first on Budgetpantry | Singapore Mummy Blog on Food, Recipe & Baby.