David and I went in yesterday for a routine ultrasound (thanks Kaiser, you rock!) to check on baby growth and development. During this one, I did not get to see the screen, as it was facing the opposite direction, so I got to stare at the ceiling for a bit while measurements and such were being taken. When he was done with all he needed to do, he turned the screen so I could watch what he had been doing.

We got to see a cute little grainy, black and white baby shape having a party in my tummy! He then let us know that he had found a problem with baby’s cord. I was of course concerned, because how could he even tell! But then he changed something about what shows on the screen and we could see red and blue speckles traveling through the cord. I don’t really know how to describe it other than “speckles”, because it really did look like a collection of very small dots. Anyway, somehow they represented blood flowing into and out of baby. He then let us know that baby has a condition called velamentous cord insertion, which he said was more common in IVF babies. He also said that it wasn’t a huge concern, and I would just have to be monitored throughout the rest of my pregnancy via ultrasound to make sure it was still looking okay. Phew!

Of course, when we got back home, I had to google it to see what the deal with it is. It’s basically this: normally, the umbilical cord goes from baby into the placenta. With VCI, it goes from baby, into the membrane, then into the placenta. From the research I did, it seems like it pretty much only presents a problem if/when the membrane ruptures during labor/birth. Now that we know about it, we know that precautions are going to be taken when it is time for baby to be born, and hopefully it won’t be an issue. I also now have on my medical record “abnormal placenta”.