Question for my "heart" mamas

[hollytheteacher]

My first is a heart baby. He has Tetralogy of Fallot. He is now 3 and healthy after his open heart operation back in 2007 when he was 3 months old.

Anyway, fast forward to now. I'm pregnant with our second. Because of our first having TOF, we are told we have a 1 in 20 chance of having another cardiac kid. Because of this, we are doing a "fetal echo".

I am just curious if anyone has gone through this and what to expect? I've seen my ds get plenty of heart echos and he just lays there watching a movie while they do the u/s thingy on his heart.

What will it be like for me, being pregnant and all? Anything I should know ahead of time? What kinds of questions I should ask? etc.

[Lindsay1234]

Ill be waiting to hear on this too. I remember our cardiac doc saying the next baby had a 1 in 125 chance meaning its so random it could happen on its own.

I feel like I saw another board somewhere and there was a thread about this. babycenter maybe?

[vbactivist]

Hi there -

I had countless fetal echos when I was pregnant with my heart baby (also tetralogy of fallot). It was diagnosed in utero. It was just like gettng an ultrasound, only longer. Some of them were over an hour, because when the baby is moving around inside you, it takes a while to get a good shot. Good luck!

Wanted to add - the same techs who did my fetal echos also ended up doing all of my daughter's echos after she was born

[LauraLoo]

vbactivist already answered, but there's really nothing extra special about a fetal echo, except that it's a more colorful picture and more 3-D. We did this with dd since ds had a VSD and open heart surgery as a babe.

[Lindsay1234]

Im an idiot, I read your post all wrong!

What the pp said. Regular ultrasound, focusing on the heart. Dd2 moved so much, we went in weekly to bi-weekly from week 24 to delivery. Doc got the great pics of the ToF at 30 weeks but wanted to be completely prepared at delivery so he kept looking for anything else!

Youll prob go to a ped cardiac doc, right? Have them throw on a video or something. So nerve-racking staring at the u/s screen.

[pimms]

Just wanted to send you good luck with your fetal echo. I know how nervous I was for my baby after my first/heart baby (TOF too). And like everyone else said, it was just like a regular ultrasound, although my PC did perform the fetal echos (I have had two healthy kids post heart baby).

[hollytheteacher]

Originally Posted by pimms

Just wanted to send you good luck with your fetal echo. I know how nervous I was for my baby after my first/heart baby (TOF too). And like everyone else said, it was just like a regular ultrasound, although my PC did perform the fetal echos (I have had two healthy kids post heart baby).

\


SOOOO reassuring to hear! thank you! I almost feel like i'll never have a "normal" baby because we lost our first pregnancy at 12.5 weeks and then ds was born with TOF. I don't know what it's like to just have a baby and get to keep it with you and not have it rushed off to the NICU or need life saving surgery!! lol