Is it a bird? Is it a badger?

[j4]

I reckon it's more predator than alien. That may not be the most flattering photo. But the detail visible in the scan was really amazing (that one doesn't really do it justice) -- we could see all four chambers of the actual beating heart actually beating, every bone in the spine, tiny feet with even more tiny toes kicking, tiny hands reaching out in their first miraculous attempts to punch mum from the inside... :-}

Fortunately, it's also apparently just the right size, in the right place, & with all the right bits functioning as expected. And moving about all over the place. And if you do want to know: it's a girl!

I promise that not all my posts this month will be about babies, honestly. I am still thinking other thinks. But it is quite new and exciting having a small person living inside me.

Comments

[emperor]

Ooh, I new it'd be a girl!

that's a flagrant lie, but maybe no-one will notice

[jinty]

Oooh, cool! Have fun thinking of names with the wave-form newly collapsed...

[juliet]

I was wondering, so am pleased you shared :) (I am fundamentally nosy :) ). Cool!

The heart beat with all four chambers is *awesome*, isn't it? That was I think my favourite bit of A's scan. My other favourite bit was, for some reason, seeing the arm bones. I think because I could actually recognise them before they were pointed out :) The radiographer kept pointing out the face which I found far less interesting, oops. (I mean, you get to see their face when they're born. You won't get to see their BONES AND INTERNAL ORGANS then!) (Also, I assume my heart looks rather like that but bigger, which is rather cool.)

Glad that all is well :)

[jinty]

Actually the foetal heart works differently to the adult heart, so the flow of blood is definitely different - whether the structure is visibly different I'm not sure off-hand. In the foetus, the blood doesn't need to go through the lungs as it's already oxygenated by the mother, so although the baby *has* a four-chambered heart I think the blood only *flows* through two of them in utero. Then when the baby's born, things need to change in the heart - physically! - super-fast in time for the first breath. Pretty awesome! I'll see if I can find a link. Here's one that looks good...

[aldabra]

Wow. I don't think I knew that.

[k425.livejournal.com]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patent_ductus_arteriosus is useful.

[k425.livejournal.com]

I think it's the first breath that actually initiates the physical change, but it's a long time since I studied neonatal heart problems!

[jinty]

The link above says that cutting the cord precipitates various changes in pressure. I must admit that when I wrote the comment I didn't know as much as I did after I read the link properly - I had this vague idea of valves slamming shut on birth, somehow!

[juliet]

I read that and thought "that implies that cutting the cord is *required*, which is not the case (as per various forms of natural third stage including lotus birth). But I guess that if you *do* cut the cord, that precipitates the pressure change; and otherwise when the cord stops pulsing by itself that'll do it.

Thank you for the link!

[j4.livejournal.com]

Crikey, that's incredible! Thanks for the link.

I am starting to wish I'd actually listened in biology classes at school. :-}

[jinty]

Ah but you will learn all sorts of cool things that they never covered in biology anyway - I liked finding out that the umbilical cord contains something called "Wharton's Jelly" which sounds very much like a Victorian brand to me!

[shermarama]

There's a problem that some scuba divers can suffer from, where the shunt hole didn't grow over; it doesn't necessarily cause a problem in adults depending on the size of the remaining hole, but once you start messing around with breathing at several times normal atmospheric pressure, it can cause decompression sickness. I know a couple of divers who have had to have surgery to have the hole patched...

[taimatsu]

Awesome brilliant wonderful fabulous! Hurray! Baby!

[ghoti.livejournal.com]

Incidentally, I'm going to be hanging around Oxford a lot in the next three years or so, and apparently the park we found is near your house (http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~kjwatson/October10.html), so if you'd like to meet up, that would be nice. Also, I can offer more practical babysitting/washing up help if that wouldn't make you feel self-conscious.

Hurray for spines and toes and everything working!

[j4.livejournal.com]

That would be great! Both the meeting up and the practical help - that's really kind of you.

Can't work out from the photos which park that is (there are a couple quite near us) but gosh, didn't realise Judith was that age already! She looks lovely. :)

[ghoti.livejournal.com]

The directions I got included 'go past Janet and Owen's house(don't knock, they're at work)and turn left' (or it may have been right, I forget), which was no help at all as I didn't know where you lived! He did give me more sensible directions as well.

Judith is giant and very active. She is nearly two.

[k425.livejournal.com]

Excitement!

[sebastienne.livejournal.com]

OMG!

Level zero human!

[aardvark179.livejournal.com]

Fantastic!

[geekette8.livejournal.com]

Aw, that's wonderful :-) I really thought it would be a boy, mostly because I have a boy and everyone is just the same as me, aren't they? :-)

[lnr]

*squee* *hug*

[vinaigrettegirl.livejournal.com]

How lovely that everything is functioning as it should !!!

Very very squee indeed... :-D

[vinaigrettegirl.livejournal.com]

I meant to say I love the big cheesy grin... In the scan, woman! Hope to see you for lunch eftsoons and can grin-comparison at that time.

[ceb.livejournal.com]

Science is magic! Biology especially.