27 week appt Today we had our 27th week appt and everything is progressing well. The doctor took the babies heart rate and it came in at around 130-140 beats/min. She said as the baby gets bigger the heart rate will get lower. Then she measured my uterus and it was 28 cm or 11 inches so right on target. Today I was tested for gestational diabetes and anemia. So first thing I did when I got in the room was down something that tasted like orange soda. Then an hour later they drew my blood. So while we were waiting they had us watch a video on the signs of preterm labor and post partum depression. Not very exciting but definitely passed the time. Also, I'm up to 15 lbs now!
2008-02-18 (23 weeks)
23rd Week Appt Today we had our 23rd week appt. to go over what we saw at the 20 week appt again and do a basic check up. I've gained 10.5 lbs as of today. The doctor thinks this is great and said to keep up the exercising and good eating habits. She measured my tummy and checked the heart beat with doppler. It was funny too, as when I laid flat on my back before she did it she pointed out how obvious it was where the baby was laying. I looked and yep, my stomach was lop sided (bigger) on my right side. And of course that's where she got the best reading for the heart beat.
And as an update to my last post about the baby kicking...yes, Joel has felt the baby kick many times now! He felt it the day after my last post when we were lying down to go to bed. And since then felt some strong kicks. The baby is kicking and punching!
2008-01-28 (20 weeks)
20 week appt - a success! Today was our 20 week ultrasound and everything went well. The perinatologist was really friendly and nice. First, he had us listen to the heart beat and it came back at 150 beats/min. Then he looked at different sectional views of the baby's heart, brain and stomach looking for different textures and color proportions. He also took measurements of the baby's thigh, head and stomach and came back with the baby weighing 12 ounces. Everything looks great! He did notice a little above normal fluid in one of the kidneys. It measured 4.9 mm and it was suppose to be less than 4 mm. He said this was normal and most likely will work itself out by the time the baby is born or soon after. So I'm not going to worry about it. We're going to go in again to see him at 32 weeks to check on it. It will be fun to see the baby really big at the next ultrasound. Also, it was funny that before the appt. my blood pressure was a little high and then they took it again after the appt and it had dropped a lot. Hehe, I worry too much! He also gave us our down syndrome blood test results and we have a 1 in 15,000 chance. So umm, not going to hold my breath! Oh, and I've gained 9 lbs now. I think the average by 20 weeks is 10 lbs so I seem to be right on target. So woo hoo for a clean bill of health!!
2008-01-25 (19 weeks)
A kicking baby!! So today for the first time I saw my tummy move when the baby kicked (I'm 20 weeks tomorrow)! I started noticing this week that the taps would be followed by almost a bulge type kick. This evening I felt a few big kicks in a row while lying on the couch and then thought why not check to see if I could see my tummy move. And low and behold I felt another big one and my tummy moved along with it. So fun! I've been feeling the baby move since 16 weeks, but this week is the first week I could really say I felt a kick. Before it was mostly flutters and taps so the baby this week must finally be big enough to displace the amniotic fluid to impact the uterus. So now to get Joel to feel it! He always just misses it! Plus, it mostly happens while I'm at work and then in the evening nothing. So we'll have to try hard this weekend.
