7 week scan - beaklike face

[Scanquestion8]

Hi everyone,

I had a scan today (due to pain) but don’t have a photo to share unfortunately. Thankfully the sonographer said the length and sac size were normal and the heart rate was good too.

I noticed throughout my baby has a pointed face. It looks like a bird with a long beak! I would have thought it cute if it was anyone else’s but of course I’m now Googling birth defects of the head, skull and cleft lip/palate and part of me wishes I didn’t have the scan.

I know it’s still so early and they look like all sorts of different things at this stage but did anyone else have a scan around 7 weeks where they looked a little unexpected? I’ve had a Google and found some just a little later (around 8 weeks) with round heads that make them look far more baby-like. I imagine their appearance changes quickly between these weeks too. Ideally if anyone also had a baby bird or seahorse etc at this stage it’d be great to hear from you for reassurance!

Thank you.

At 7 weeks baby's face is barely developed. There's not even a nasal bone yet! It's far too early for worries like this 🌸

Definitely too early to worry about this!

Way to early to tell! They look like jelly beans with a heart beat

My first was just like a jelly baby with a heart beat and tiny limb buds around this gestation (slightly earlier at six weeks) so expected something similar ish. But I do appreciate how much they change even over a few days at this early stage.

Thank you all!

Do you not think the sonographer may have mentioned that your baby has a beak?

I asked if it’s normal for the protruding beak-like shape of the head at this gestation and she said they look at the crown-rump length, heart beat and the gestational sac size at this stage so didn’t really comment, even to say if it’s common or not which I hoped she would.

You're 2 weeks post period, it doesn't look like anything yet!!

At one of my first scans they showed a view of them staring straight at the camera. It looked like the villain, the green lantern from Spider man, foe the next 6 weeks that is all I could see whenever I tried to think of baby, despite lots of other scan pics where they looked 'normalish'. Don't worry.

Ultrasound can look totally weird, I found it helpful to understand basically how it works, the image you see is as if someone made a perfect 3D model of your baby with all their internal organs, skeleton etc and then sliced it into thin slivers. What you see is one slice. So basically if it hasn't been perfectly centered in their head, you could be seeing part of a cheek without seeing the rest of the head if that makes sense.

If they get certain angles you will just see a disembodied arm for example. But the arm is really attached to the baby of course. It's just that the "slice" you're looking at only includes arm and not any of their body, legs, head etc.

My children always look like shrimps at this age - hence the nickname Shrimpy. It is pure luck what the ultrasound picks up at this age, this is why it only matters at the 12 week scan.

My first scan at 7 weeks looked like a worm. She looks like a baby now though. I wouldn’t worry it’s incredibly early and they are barely formed.

I worried the while way through my pregnancy with my first DD had something wrong with her jaw because of the scan photos, she was absolutely fine! Honestly if there was something wrong the sonographer would say, please don't fixate on it like I did!

I'm amazed you could see anything even remotely resembling a face - at 7 weeks my baby just looked like a misshapen potato. I'm 38 weeks now and we've been calling it Spud ever since then, even though it has long since looked like a baby...

As others have said the facial features and nasal bone etc haven't even developed at 7 weeks, it's still an embryo, it isn't classed as a fetus until a few weeks later.
Pregnancy is stressful enough as it is, don't add in issues that aren't even there

This made me laugh!

Op it's barely a blob. Chill. It's going to be a very very long pregnancy for you otherwise

Even if we park the fact that it’s a 7 week scan so essentially a blueberry sized or something ridiculously tiny, you do realise it’s an ultrasound scan not a photo?

Tell me about it. My last one felt about three years long! 😂