Baby Update

The baby is 30 weeks along now! This pregnancy feels like it's progressing very quickly.

Some facts for posterity:

* The first time I felt her kick was January 4th. We had spent all evening rearranging bedrooms and setting up temporary beds for all our company who was to arrive the next day (my parents, grandparents and Allison and Jason.) I was just laying down to sleep (our bed was temporarily in Joseph's room) and I felt two distinctive movements and knew it was her!

* The first time Scott felt her kick was sometime in early February. I think within a week the movements had begun to be seen as well as felt. Her movements seem really fluttery and twitchy. They are most often a flurry of movements all at once, and not often an isolated kick or jab. Maybe that comes later when she runs out of space? Until recently the movements were all down low. Now they are all over the place and seem almost constant. I really like it. I can tell when she is in horizontal breech position because my belly-button sucks in and my belly gets wider.

At my19 week appointment the nurse nearly skipped measuring the fundal height because she said my belly was so "prominent" that she found it easy to eyeball the size of my uterus.

At my 24 week appointment the nurse got out the measuring tape. I was nearly 25 weeks at the time (24.6 weeks) and the measurement usually coordinates with the number of weeks. Usually. She measured me several times and seemed perplexed. She told me that she was measuring me at 30 weeks, which couldn't possibly be right, she said. When the doctor came in she looked at the nurses measurements and laughed about how sometimes these things can be subject to human error. Then the doctor got out the measuring tape and reported that she measured me at 31 weeks! More than 6 weeks ahead of schedule! The doctor then said "Well, it looks like you just bought yourself an ultrasound."

Once all the ultrasound measurements were taken and it was determined that :

a) the baby is "only" actually measuring at 68 percentile and

b) there is no excess fluid and

c) I just have a "prominently positioned" baby belly (tell me something I haven't already heard!),

I was able to enjoy the nice show our daughter was putting on for us.

She had one hand behind her head (just like her daddy and brothers often do) and then put one arm up above her head. Then she stretched her legs out and above so that her feet touched her hand up above her head. She can already do a pike!

These photos-of-printouts sure are blurry, but can't you tell how beautiful her profile is anyway?

She opened and closed her mouth several times, and even sucked on her fist. She hiccuped and gave a couple good stretches. She even turned toward the probe a few times and gave us a good look at her face. It's fun to feel the movements while you are watching them on the screen and realize "Ahhh, that's what she's doing when it feels that way...!"

This was our 3rd ultrasound and it was so fun to see her again! (Scott was home watching some sick little boys and wasn't there for the surprise ultrasound.)

And while I haven't kept much of a belly growth record this time around, here are a couple pictures of that belly I was telling you about:

At 18 weeks

At 28 Weeks

 

I keep getting comments about my "basketball" and things like "Any day now, huh?" And strangers have been asking about the "twins" they think I am carrying. It doesn't actually bother me though -- I love how my my pregnant body looks (though not usually how it feels) and the wet kiss-marks the boys leave on my belly all day long go a long way to making it fun too. I never would have guessed how much our boys would enrich this pregnancy experience for me, but their enthusiasm about Baby Sister has been incredibly special.