Time Flies

Crazy to believe I am already 32 weeks along and this little guy will be here just after the holidays. The kids at school are so excited and constantly asking questions - are you having a baby? is it a boy or a girl? when will he be here? how do you know it's a boy? are those xrays of your baby? My fav - a little girl commented on the belt I was wearing and told me to be sure I wasn't squishing him!

We had another ultrasound at 28 weeks and all is well. He is still a boy (US tech confirmed those parts haven't changed!) and growing healthy, strong and big! He was estimated to be at 3 pounds, which is the 75th percentile and about 1-2 weeks ahead of the average pregnancy. We are wondering if he will come a week or two early and are planning work schedules around this!

Yep, pretty sure he is sucking his thumb!

His hands were by his face throughout the US

His profile, when he finally moved his hands out of the way

Still a boy!

We are getting the house ready to bring home the baby - and all the things he comes with! The nursery will be in the small room off of our bedroom - which is currently the home office. It's been quite the project, but his room is coming along.

Door County Babymoon

We spent our anniversary weekend in Door County Wisconsin. This is our preferred camping location, but thankfully we decided not to camp this time around! We were worried about the weather being too cold, and I didn't really want to sleep on an air mattress on the ground. It turned about to be a chilly weekend so the hotel was perfect! We have enjoyed the first year of our marriage and are ready for the excitement our future holds!

Anniversary dinner at Alexanders 

View from Peninsula State Park

About to embark on our scenic air ride!

View looking south on Door County

View looking northwest from Door County (Michigan UP is in the background)

Shipwrecks!

Cana Island and southwestern Door County

Why do you have such a big belly?

One would think I would be used to the comments kids make, after years of working in a school. The comments have slowly changed from, "You have a big belly!" to "Are you having a baby?" I like the second comment much better - it confirms that I have gone from just looking fat to clearly looking pregnant!

Four weeks - 5/19/12

Eight weeks        Twelve weeks         Sixteen weeks        Twenty weeks

Twenty four weeks 10/11/12

It's a Boy!!

We received the results of the blood test on Monday, and that was "negative". This was quite a sense of relief for both of us! That meant there was no leakage of spinal fluid from the baby, so our odds of having a spinal deformity were low.

The ultrasound was scheduled as early as we possibly could - 18 weeks and 1 day. Both the sonographer and the physician saw no signs of spinal deformity. Apparently the brain is one of the first things they look at, and this baby has a perfectly formed brain! The physician went down the spine vertebrae by vertebrae and said with 99% confidence that the baby had a closed spinal column.

The ultrasound revealed a baby boy that is growing rapidly - his measurements place us ahead by 4 days! He is also breech at this point in time, but has plenty of time to move into position as he has plenty of room to move around. I have an anterior placenta, meaning it is in between the baby and my belly, so no baby movements yet. He is only 9 ounces and needs to be stronger to kick through all of that before I can feel him!

Baby Belly

I am officially filling out my maternity pants. I have been wearing these shorts almost exclusively all summer just because they are so much more comfortable than a button digging into my gut. My regular shirts are also starting to get tight/short/small so it might be time to make a permanent move into mommy clothes.

We have completed the first round of blood tests, carrier screenings, as well as the 12 week screening and ultrasound for Down syndrome ... all have returned to be considered in the normal ranges. Next week is the final portions of the Quad screen. Obviously the most important for us is the alpha-fetoprotein (AFP) levels. 

A baby produces AFP throughout gestation and a certain amount of it should cross the placenta into the mother's bloodstream at each stage of pregnancy. Normally, low levels of AFP can be found in the blood of a pregnant woman. High AFP levels can indicate multiple conditions, including carrying more than one baby or that the baby is farther along than expected. However, it can also indicate an abnormal opening in the baby's spine (spina bifida), head or abdominal wall that is allowing AFP to leak out. This screening detects about 85% of babies with spina bifida. 

We also have a Level II ultrasound scheduled for 18 weeks with the same high risk doctors we worked with in February. This anatomy scan is scheduled about two weeks earlier than most in order to determine any birth defects as early as possible. Below are images from the twelve week ultrasound. (The baby's heartbeat at 12 weeks was in the 160's...old wive's tales indicate that is a girl!)

These two images show the baby face down, including the back of the head, neck and shoulders. 

The top picture I think shows the baby face up(?)  and belly, with the arm by the head. Not exactly sure what the second image is, but the hemispheres of the brain are visible. 

Baby Red's First Photos

This ultrasound gave us an exact measurement of the baby - Baby Red is officially 6 weeks and 4 days old in these photographs, with a due date of January 25, 2012. The baby is so tiny - less than a centimeter - so there isn't much to see. We could see the heart beating (somewhere just above and to the left of the "B") but not much else! I can definitely feel my uterus at this point in time, just barely popping out above my pubic bone. But I'm so bloated and constipated that I'm sure I look much further than 7 weeks at the end of the day! Next doctor visit is six weeks away - that would put the baby at twelve weeks along. We will have another ultrasound (part of the Downs Syndrome screening) and hopefully there will be more resemblance to a baby at that time!

Follow up visit

So there was some question about my due date and how far along I am. By taking the date of my last period, that puts me about a week further along than I thought I was. Last Tuesday at the doctor my hcg was at 469. That would put me at about 5 weeks, not 6 weeks. This Tuesday the reading was 4623, which is five and a half to six weeks along. I think my due date is January 23, 2012, although the doctor originally said the 17th. I still have an appointment next week for an ultrasound next week. She did not push that back a week, even though I will only be 7 weeks instead of 8. Hopefully it doesn't turn out to be a waste of our time!