Moving On

Farm vacation pictures to come, but I wanted to update Baby happenings (The above belly picture was taken on vacation near a river M loved splashing and throwing rocks into!). The day before our little getaway, I was scheduled for my ultrasound. Mom came with me and brought M along since I thought he'd get a kick out of seeing Baby. And he did. For about six minutes. Then he popped off of Mom's lap and waved bye-bye to the baby and the ultrasound tech and started towards the door. Oh well. He was concerned, at first, about the jelly on my belly, but when I told him that it felt like glue (which he likes), he called it "ooey gooey" and was fine with it. Anytime you ask him about seeing the baby, he'll inevitably tell you about the ooey-gooey. Mom took him across the street to a local library and I stayed for my actual appointment.

In short, Baby is not huge, but not tiny, either. S/he is in the 67th percentile for a 31.5 week in utero baby and weighing in at over four pounds. My amniotic fluid is average and everything else is fine, so we just make big babies and I just get big bellies when I'm pregnant. I'm definitely more swollen this pregnancy than with M, when I just swelled my last week. I'm sure the too-many-to-count 90+ degree days have a lot to do with that, which is why I will never plan on being pregnant in the summer again. January sounds nice, even February.

Anyway, these last eight weeks, Baby is supposed to gain about a half a pound per week, which puts us over eight pounds...which is awful close to M's 9 lb 1.4 oz birth weight. We'll just have to see, my doctor keeps telling me he's going to do all the work anyway, so who cares if I have a big baby! Uh, does he see the belly I have to haul around everywhere for the next two months?! I saw a different doctor while my doctor was on vacation and he was the one who ordered the ultrasound, so when I saw my doctor this time I told him I knew he wouldn't have ordered it, but I didn't want to cancel it just in case of something. He told me I was right, but it's nice to know that the baby is doing well.

The one thing that the technician seemed impressed by was the size of Baby's cheeks. She must have gotten 10-12 pictures of the cheeks because she couldn't get over how big they were and how cute it was. All the while I was thinking, the baby is under five pounds, how can she possibly have cheeks?!? Aren't there other, more vital areas to fill in first?? Baby was also blinking, which was cool to see. We could see the general outline of the iris at all times because the eyelids are almost see-through, but we were able to faintly see them in action. She, however, didn't cooperate for a good 3D picture this time because she was smushed up against the placenta and was very comfy there. She even turned her head away a few times. Stinker. She did manage to hold relatively still (which is quite a feat for this one...) for a very cute profile picture. D so kindly scanned the ultrasound pics for me to post: