Thursday, June 17, 2010

Baby Pictures - of a BIG girl!

So, our ultrasound back in March did not go as the doctor had hoped... Our little girl was very uncooperative and they couldn't get the measurements of most of her anatomy to make sure everything was on track. So they scheduled us for another ultrasound for today. Although we weren't thrilled with paying for more ultrasounds, we were excited to see our little girl again.

It turns out that it's a good thing we had the ultrasound. The tech started asking questions about history of gestational diabetes and what size Steve and I were when we were born... Didn't we JUST go over all that a couple of weeks ago??? Anyway, the doctor thinks that our baby might have macrosomia, which is a scary name for being a big baby. Basically, our little girl should be just beneath or around 3 pounds according to the average baby weight for 30 weeks. Instead, she is 4 lbs. This means that since March, she has gone from the 45th percentile for size to the 88th percentile today. They said her head and abdomen are large for where she's at, and she also has very long legs. For me, this explains all the kicking... And why it hurts when she tries to cram her entire body into one small part of my stomach. The doctor said that it's too early to tell if she's going to be a really big baby or not, and as a result we have another ultrasound in 5 weeks to figure out if we're going to be able to have a traditional delivery or not.

The ultrasound tech said to blame Steve. He apparently was 22 inches at birth and a whopping 9 lbs 6 oz. I on the other hand was right around 7 lbs and a very average sized baby. Those Bennett genes are not being nice to me.... The specialist who talked to us briefly after the ultrasound told me that I should have asked Steve about his birthweight and size before marrying him... Advice he told me I should pass on to all my friends. So now that wisdom has been dispensed.

On the other side of this coin is the fact that our baby girl is very healthy! She is growing well even though I haven't hardly gained any weight in about a month, and the doctors got pictures of everything they wanted this time. And everything looked great! The ultrasound tech called the views she was getting beautiful which I found entertaining and said that everything was so perfect she had nothing to check up on at all anymore.

We still didn't get very many great pictures... The one time our little girl was looking at the machine the specialist came in so we didn't get any pictures. Later on she was so squirmy and active that not only did they have to work to get their measurements (and the tech got punched and kicked a number of times to be true to our little girl's previous character) but we also didn't get great pictures. These are the only 3 they sent us home with.

This one is kind of hard to tell, but she was looking towards the machine. As she moved we got a brief glance at a chin, cheeks, eyes, and nose. You all are not so fortunate in this picture...
Next is our standard picture for her when they do 3D... Covering her face. Just before they went to 3D we did get to see her "practice breathing" as she swallowed fluid, and putting a hand in her mouth. Very cute!
This last one is probably the best of the pictures we got today. Her profile. The first time we (or the doctors) have been able to see it! You can also make out hands, which just fascinate me.
Beyond that, we're doing well. She gets more and more active and likes to push on my stomach with whatever part of her body is convenient at the time. As a result, my stomach is constantly deformed and moving. Gotta love it.

We have another appointment Tuesday to talk to our doctor about the ultrasound today as we only got to talk to the specialist this morning.

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