Ultrasound, take two

We had our ultrasound yesterday morning, and everything looks great. My mom and youngest brother were able to join Tim and I, and the first thing the tech zeroed in on was Baby Girl's face. She was drinking amniotic fluid! (I like to think she was chatting away in there.) And then we saw her blink twice. Cutest thing ever. We saw lots of hair on her head, too - this shocked me because I was bald for two years and Tim had some blond hair when he was born, but I was really preparing for a bald baby girl.

The tech then checked her heart, which was why we needed the second ultrasound in the first place, and it was amazing to see her little heart pumping away. Everything was so much more developed and clear than it had been 14 weeks ago.

The tech showed us her stomach (which apparently is measuring well despite the fact that I feel like I'm eating for eight baby tummies some days), kidneys and bladder and measured her femurs. She said our daughter has long legs. (She soooo did not get those from me.) She also said Elle has a "cute little nose." (Again, my big honker is clearly not what she has been given genetically.) Based on the hair, legs and nose comments I asked Tim if he was sure this was my daughter.

She checked the fluid around Elle, my cervix, the placenta and the blood flow in the umbilical cord, and everything looked good.

She measured Elle's head and said that it is measuring a bit large. AWESOME. Just what I wanted to hear the week after we talked in childbirth education class about cone heads. I optimistically maintain that our daughter just has a big brain, and the big head will not be a problem during delivery. Based on how Elle was measuring overall, the tech said she was probably about 3 pounds. (This comes in to play shortly.) She also pointed out some of Elle's fat rolls and her chubby cheeks.

Elle was being stubborn and had her head burrowed in to my lower right pelvis (her heart was in the middle of my stomach and basically it seemed like she was lying sideways). Tim later told me HE could have gotten her to move around. She also had "her foot in her crotch" (Tim still maintains that maybe she's a boy) and her legs were straddling my spine at one point. After getting all of the measurements, the tech checked back to see if she had moved her head at all and said she'd try to get some 3D images. Elle's head was in an OK position ... but the cord was in her face. 3D photo fail. We got a few shots, but nothing as clear as during our first ultrasound. The tech kept trying to get an angle where she could essentially Photoshop out the cord, but there was no way to do it without taking off Elle's "cute little nose" in the process, too.


As we wrapped things up, the tech somehow got a more exact measurement on our adult's infant's weight: Four pounds, seven ounces. That puts her in the 60th percentile. So I've got 4.5 pounds of big-headed baby looking to make an entrance sometime in the next two months. (Coincidentally, I had to take care of my pre-registration for the epidural after this appointment. I couldn't stop thinking about a vaginal birth with Elle "Big Head" Wolfrum as I watched the required video and filled out the paperwork.)

We met with the doctor after the ultrasound, and he said the baby's growth looks great. (My weight was up a bit but I've still only gained one pound in the last month, and since I'm starting to retain more water I don't know how accurate my weight is anymore.) He said based on how much Elle weighs now, if I were to go to 40 weeks I could expect an 8- to 9-pound toddler baby. He said, "Maybe you'll go a week early." Right. Then I could have a 7 pound, 15 ounce baybee. Oy. We scheduled our next two appointments (for two weeks from now and four weeks from now), and then we start going every week for the last four weeks for super-fun appointments that will include the Group B Strep swab and internal exams. Oy, oy, oy.