Sonogram, 7 weeks

Gummi bear baby with a halo. Actually, yolk sac is the loop at the top, with the baby just underneath.

I was back for another ultrasound, just a week after the first!

That's pretty unusual. See, the first time I went in, my doctor guessed I was four weeks along. They drew blood, told me to come back in 48 hours for another blood draw, and at that point my hormone levels (HCG in particular) were supposed to double. That's a sign of a healthy early pregnancy.

When the results came in, though, my levels hadn't doubled. In fact, they had only risen about 30 percent. The numbers themselves were VERY GOOD; in fact, one doctor said progesterone and HCG levels were so high, they could be considered twins level. Still, the fact that they hadn't doubled was concerning. I felt like the clinical staff, without saying so directly, was trying to prepare me for a high chance of miscarriage.

I'll stop and say that Google is not your friend in early pregnancy. Not even a little bit. DO NOT GOOGLE. Very reputable websites with solid medical science say that if your levels don't double within 48 hours, the pregnancy is not viable and miscarriage is certain. I pretty much wanted to lock myself in a room until the end of my first trimester.

So they asked me to come back a week later (the earliest they could fit me into the schedule) to check on the baby. I came in, uncharacteristically calm in the face of that kind of situation. It had been a huge exercise in faith and trust in God.

I can't tell you how relieved I was to see the baby -- looking more and more like a baby -- bouncing around on the ultrasound screen. Turns out, the doctor had incorrectly dated my pregnancy, and I was actually six weeks along at the time of my first visit. Around six weeks, the hormone levels start to even out and plateau in many cases, so that's why the numbers didn't double. Crisis averted.

And that's how at seven weeks, I got a cute picture of a babe who looks like a Gummi bear.