Question From Expecting Father

So, Mrs. Incaviglia and I are expecting our first child in the spring.

Nearly two weeks ago, we went for the first ultrasound. The person conducting the ultrasound seemed to say everything looked good. She never called for help, never called for a doctor, never called our midwives immediately or shortly after. Although she did call the baby "uncooperative" and it did take a while for her to find it and when she did, it was hard to see.

We saw the kid moving, my wife feels it moving. We saw the heart beat, and heard it beat twice now. We seem on schedule.

Today, 13 days after the ultrasound, the midwives phoned and said they have booked a second ultrasound for us on Nov. 15. They called the house yesterday, but never left a message, nor did they call our cell phone. Today, they called the cell and left a message. That's when the wife called back to find out about the second appointment.

Should we be worried? Or, are second ultrasounds sometimes needed? The Mrs. is more upset than I am. I said "If it was really pressing or threatening they a) would have left a message at home and called the cell yesterday or b) made the appointment sooner than 15 days from now."

Does a second ultrasound usually indicate something's wrong or are we worrying about nothing?

Some advice and past experiences would be appreciated.

 

I think generally when they say the baby is "uncooperative" it's just in a spot where they can't get a good look or is turned at an angle where they can't see it very well.

I would assume from all that you have written that they probably just didn't get a very good ultrasound and want to try again. Generally they don't schedule them every couple weeks like that.

 

Yeah, I tend to agree with your first paragraph. The woman did say "I couldn't tell you what its gender is even if you wanted to know, because of the way it's laying."

And, the midwives did say "Well, did she call for help? Because they never called us or paged us, and that's usually a good sign when they don't try to get in touch right away."

 

A couple of our kids were "uncooperative" as well, and we needed to reschedule. Echoing (no pun intended) Ace, all the second ultrasound usually means is that the camera couldn't pick up everything that needed to be measured. If there was a problem they needed to check, they would let you know.

 

You could ask, DocTalk, though, for some expertise.

I doubt Mrs. Inky will relax a whole bunch if you say, "The guys at SportsJournalists.com say not to worry, honey."

 

True. But more than anything, I was just seeing if this was common or not.

 

I'm no expert, nor did I stay at a Holiday Inn Express recently, but the fact that they aren't doing this for two weeks would seem to be a positive sign. Generally, if there are pre-natal issues, they won't mess around.

And I have to think back a decade, but I believe my wife had multiple ultrasounds for our kids to check and track the progress throughout the pregnancy.

Hope all goes well for you and your wife, Pete.

 

Captain_Kirk is right. If it was something major, they'd be sending you to the hospital to get that second ultrasound today.

My wife and I had a little scare like that. They sent us right from the gynocologist's office to the hospital, but everything was fine.

 

Pete, you're ok.
The more early on, the more they do.
And also, since your child gave them the big "Cooperate? YEAH RIGHT!" this is probably not more than they want another chance to see things they didn't before.

 

I remember the pre-natal worries. It's all good unless someone OTHER than your wife is panicked, which is exceedingly rare.

 

If it was an emergency, it would not be in two weeks. They would have you in now. That's a key I learned during our pregnancy, which we wanted (and had) to be totally natural and unmedicated. If a doctor is putting pressure on you to use drugs or induce or do a C-Section or whatever goes against what you want, ask them if you can think about it for awhile. If they say yes, it's not something that's necessary right now. If they say no, most likely it's necessary.

 

It's VERY common. I assume it was either the 12ish week ultrasound or the 20ish week ultrasound?

12 weeks is when they're primarily checking two things: the nuchal translucency (NT), which is an area behind the baby's neck. The other thing they're looking at is the nasal bone. Both are markers for abnormalities. OFTEN, very often, the baby won't get in the right position to get a good measurement for one or the other.

The 20 week ultrasound is a full anatomical scan where you learn the sex of the baby, plus they do skull measurements, leg measurements and things like that -- same deal -- sometimes the baby doesn't cooperate, and they have to schedule another one.

If something had been wrong at your scan, a perinatolgist would have been called into the room to look for him or herself. Then you would've been counselled on the problem.

All you should do at this point is be glad the baby wouldn't cooperate -- now you get a "free" chance to look at the baby again!