39 Weeks – Sassy Baby July 31, 2012

Last night I’m pretty sure the baby decided to move her body sideways.  She’s been head-down & facing the right way for at least 3 months now, so of course she would give us a little scare 6 days before my due date.  Sassy little thing!  Anyway, I couldn’t tell today if she had moved back into place or not.  I had a midwife appointment this morning & she felt around & wasn’t really convinced the baby was head-down again either, so she had me get an ultrasound right away.  If the baby’s not head-down, they will offer the aversion procedure where a doctor tries to rotate the baby from the outside.  I don’t know that I would accept that at this point considering there are some more natural things we could try first, there are some risks to that procedure, & it’s entirely possible that baby could still move head-down on her own.  But anyway, the ultrasound showed she was head-down today, so all is well for now.  I didn’t get to see her face at all, so it wasn’t a very exciting ultrasound other than that news.  Also, she is measuring in at 7lbs 11oz, to which I said “Let’s hope not”…LOL.  I have just had it in my mind that our baby will be 6 ½ –  7 ½ lbs at birth & if I go overdue (like most first-time moms do), that would put us at probably 8 – 8 ½ lbs.  Let’s hope our Pink Kit training works!  These ultrasound measurements aren’t entirely accurate though.  They can be off quite a bit sometimes.  And the tech asked me if the dad was tall when she was measuring the femur, so I think she just has some long legs that could be causing the weight estimate to be a little high.  I guess only time will tell.  So glad baby is looking healthy & isn’t breach though!
I am WAY behind on my blog updates & belly pictures.  I’ll probably try soon to go back in & back-date some updates, but at this rate it could be after the baby is born.

19 Weeks – 5th Ultrasound March 13, 2012

We had our 20-week ultrasound today.  It wasn’t quite as clear as the last one, but still very cool to watch our little one moving around.  It was great to see that the baby appears to be doing well.  I’ll get the new pictures posted soon in the ultrasound photo album.  We had the ultrasound tech turn off the screen for the gender check and put it in an envelope for us, so we could wait & find out on vacation next week.  We thought it would be more special that way and wanted to get our reactions on video.  We’re currently planning to reveal to family on Easter & then make a general announcement online.  Ben is sure that when the tech was looking around, he saw boy parts & I was sure I briefly saw girl parts, so I guess we’ll have to wait & see who’s right.  Either way, we are going to love this little monkey so much!

It’s probably nothing to worry about, but they noticed a small growth on my right ovary.  It may just be scar tissue from my laparoscopy.  They scheduled another ultrasound in 8 weeks, just to take a look & see if it’s growing.  I’m going to have our fertility doctor talk to them in case he has any record of seeing it when he did the laparoscopy or in any of the ultrasounds I had done in his office.  Maybe he can shed some light.  At this point, I’m not worried… just happy to have another opportunity to see the baby again.  We have been so spoiled to have so many ultrasounds, considering this is a low-risk pregnancy so far.  I’m still debating about getting a 4D ultrasound.  I think we might do it, just to be able to get some video of the baby, since this place isn’t letting us record.

It sounds like my placenta is in the front (anterior) instead of the back (posterior).  I don’t have placenta previa, so it’s not really a problem.  It does surprise me though that I felt the baby moving so early because most women with anterior placentas don’t feel movement until much later (basically the baby has to kick through a pillow to make you feel it).  I guess we have a really strong baby!   Baby is currently feet down, so that probably which explains why I feel all of the movement so low (probably below the placenta).  I guess the key thing later on will be getting the baby into optimal positioning for birth (head down and facing my back).

http://www.spinningbabies.com/baby-positions/all-positions/left-occiput-anterior

4th Ultrasound – First Trimester Screening January 27, 2012

Today, we had our first trimester (nuchal translucency) screening.  This test is used to help determine the probability of downs syndrom and other issues.  We chose to have it really just for the ultrasound.  I’m at 12 weeks, day 6 today.  It is crazy how much this baby has grown in just the last few weeks since our last ultrasound.  We could actually see fingers and toes and facial features.  The baby was being a little stinker and wouldn’t quite get into position for the tech to get the measurements she needed, so we got to watch the baby for probably about 45 minutes, which was awesome.  My mom came with us.  I thought that would be really special for her.  Unfortunately, the tech wouldn’t allow us to make a video, but we did get some pretty cool pictures.  Baby waved at us several times.  That was probably my most favorite memory.  In profile view, every now and then a hand would just pop into view and baby would move its fingers up and down to wave at us.  I wish the tech had grabbed a shot of that.  Here’s one picture.  The rest are in the album.

12 1/2 week ultrasound picture

9 1/2 Week Ultrasound January 5, 2012

Our ultrasound today was awesome!  The baby has little arms and legs and appeared to be doing some aerobic exercises.  I wish it could have lasted longer.  This ultrasound tech was pretty fast about it.  Baby can’t hear yet, but I suspect all of that dancing was because I was singing to it on the way to our appointment.

I started an album of all of our ultrasound pictures and will post a link in the links section on the right.

Here’s a picture of our little dancin’ bean:

9 1/2 Week Ultrasound Picture

And here’s a video:

Second Ultrasound – Heartbeat! December 22, 2011

We had a 2nd ultrasound today.  We’re supposed to be at 7 weeks 4 days, but are measuring 5 days ahead, at 8 weeks 2 days.  I’m not sure if they’ll change our due date.  We got to see the flickering heart and hear the heartbeat.  It was awesome!

Our little gummi bear:

Ultrasound Picture

Here’s the video:

 

I’m so excited to break the news to my family on Christmas!  As for me… not too many symptoms still.  My hips (especially the right one) sometimes hurts quite a bit.  I think I may try & get a chiropractor appointment for that.

First Ultrasound – Yolk Sac December 5, 2011

We got our first ultrasound today.  We could see the yolk sac, but we’re not far enough along to see a heartbeat yet.  It was really cool to see that everything’s looking good so far though & there is definitely something there!  The RE doctor wasn’t there to talk with us, so they scheduled another ultrasound in a few weeks, where we should be able to see a heartbeat.

Ultrasound 5 weeks 2 days

The little circle inside the sideways teardrop is the yolk sac.  The baby was too small to see yet.