37 Weeks Pregnant - March 24-30, 2008
The weekly doctor's appointments continue to be the main event of my pregnancy these days. This Tuesday, at my appointment, things went fairly well. I gained another pound and a half, I think my total is about 26 pounds now. I am trying not to cross the 30 pound mark before it is all over! My blood pressure continues to be good and Julia's heart rate was right where it should be. I was checked for the first time at this appointment. I was not too terribly surprised to hear that I was not dilated, but was slightly effaced (thinned out). My OB says that being dilated is no indication or predictor of when I will go into labor. He says that if I am dilated beforehand, it is "icing on the cake." I guess it is just that much less I will have to progress once labor starts.
Throughout my pregnancy, I have been measuring a little small. At this appointment, I was still measuring small, and even moving further away from how many weeks pregnant that I actually was. So, to be on the safe side, my doctor scheduled an ultrasound just to make sure that Julia is growing appropriately and to double check her position. The ultrasound was 2 days after my doctor's appointment. Although I was pretty sure that everything would be fine, there was still a small part of me that was nervous that her growth would be inadequate or that something was wrong. I have had a couple of friends who had to be induced for low amniotic fluid and a suspected small baby right around 37 weeks. I was not prepared for this to happen!! Anyway, it was a long 2 days waiting, but the ultrasound went very well and Julia is growing just fine. The estimation from the ultrasound was that she weighed about 6 pounds and 2 ounces at that time. It's amazing how they can take head, arm, and leg measurements and estimate a weight. I wonder how accurate the estimation actually is. She should be gaining about 6-8 ounces per week now, so she would be about 7 to 7 1/2 pounds if she is born on her due date. The ultrasound showed that my amniotic fluid level was well within normal limits, so that was also encouraging to hear. Julia is in the perfect position, head down and positioned very low in my pelvis (I could have told them this, I can feel it every time I stand up or walk!)
Even though I was a little nervous going into the ultrasound, it was also very exciting getting to see Julia again! November was our last ultrasound, so it was fun to see how much she has grown and changed. The first thing the ultrasound tech noticed when we started was Julia's hair! It was amazing (once she actually pointed it out and we knew what we were looking at), you could actually see it moving in the amniotic fluid! She mentioned a few times how much hair she has. Now we are so curious to see if she really does have a lot of hair (or if a little hair just looks like a lot on an ultrasound), and to see what color it is. We also got to see a few shots of Julia in 4-D. It was a little hard to see what she looks like because the umbilical cord was floating in front of her face. She looks like she has chubby cheeks and nose. It was amazing! The last time we saw her in 4-D she looked like a little alien baby, and now she actually looks like a newborn. Of course we know in our heads that there is a little baby in there, but seeing her now (and with hair!) made it so real!
Here are a few of the pictures from the ultrasound...
Julia's face in 4-D. That is the umbilical cord in front of her mouth. I think it looks like she's sucking on a pacifier, Jon thinks it looks like she has big lips!
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The big circle is Julia's skull, and the white lines where the arrow is pointing is her hair!
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She's still a girl!
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Julia's profile |
