Over the weekend, Avery and I participated in some pretty cool research! Not only was I able to see her cute little face (pics at the end of the post), but we were also able to see how her brain is working.
On Friday, I spent an hour watching our baby girl fidget around in my belly. It was truly amazing - our little baby was sucking her thumb and just making sucking motions in general (pro-breastfeeder? let's hope!), turning her head, and moving her itty bitty arms all around. And I got a 3D picture of her face (& she looks like my sister)!
This ultrasound is going to be used as part of a fetal anatomy study - looking at the fetal eye and mouth development in conjuction with the other part of the study - an MRI.
Sunday evening was my MRI. I was asked a bunch of questions prior to it (like word association, etc.) and had to give saliva samples throughout the test so that they could monitor my cortisol levels to test for stress/anxiety. Then I had the MRI.
You have to lie really really still in those things - like, you can't move. It was ok for me - they played some relaxing music that reminded me of yoga class, so I just practiced meditating. Baby girl, however, did not care for the experience whatsoever.
As soon as I entered the tube, she started freaking out (punching and kicking and flipping) then got hiccups.
Oops, not the best study subject I guess.
They performed the MRI for about 45 minutes - watching baby's brain activity and taking pictures. The pictures are super cool - you can see everything!!
Oh, and we got $120 for participating, so there's that. And a cute baby blanket...the people working on this study are seriously amazing!
I will receive the MRI pictures in the mail, so I will share when I get them. But here are the 3D pictures of Avery's face!!
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