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Pixelated Skeletor
We had our 20 week ultrasound today. It was exciting because we got to see the baby wiggle around in there quite a bit as the technician searched for various bits. This is how it came down:
- Hands: 2
- Arms: 2
- Legs: 2
- Feet: 2
- Heart: 1, 4-chambered
- Kidneys: 2
- Spine: 1, with lots of neat cross-sectional views
- Brain: 1, with lots of neat cross-sectional views
- Face: OMG, it’s Skeletor! Profile is cute, but straight on is a skull-face, which is to be expected in an bw ultrasound
- Umbilical cord: 1, attached in the right place, 3-cord
It looks like everything is good! From a femur measurement, they told us that the baby is at 20 weeks and 1 day, not 19 weeks and 6 days as I had thought, so I’ll move up the ticker to October 5th, 2009 as the estimated due date, not that two days really matter much.
Except.
Except now we are suddenly past the 50% mark! OMG! WHAT?!
We are just so relieved that the baby appears in all ways to be healthy and growing normally. The baby is estimated to be at about 11 ounces. That’s lighter than a biggish cup of coffee. Heh. It was also surprising to see how crowded things looked in there. When we last saw the baby, it probably only took up like 1/3 to 1/2 the space and I don’t know if I could see the placenta very well. It looked like space baby floating in space land. Now, the placenta is huge (like 1/4 to 1/3 of all the “real estate” *cough*) and the baby easily takes up far more than half the space.
Halfway-ish
Tomorrow, we will officially hit halfway through our pregnancy: 20 weeks. Whoa.
The week before I went to Chicago, it became obvious that I was pregnant and showing. The weeks since, it’s eye-popping how huge my belly has gotten!
Unexpected things:
- How uncomfortable the feeling of constantly stretched skin feels. Try poking your tongue really hard against your cheek and see how your cheek feels. Except it’s a baby/my uterus against my abdominal flesh. This is 10x worse after I eat, because it’s crowded in there.
- How fast that dark weird line in the center of the belly came on. And I hate it. It’s so weird! I will refrain from speaking in detail of other lady parts. 😐
- How quickly it has become difficult for me to put on my shoes, pick up things from the floor, get out of the car, etc. I can do it still, but bending over that far means I need to put a lot of pressure on my belly which is being squished and it is both really uncomfortable (hard to breathe, that kind of thing) and it makes me worry.
- How often I forget I’m pregnant when I’m sitting down.
Great things:
- Feeling like I can eat like my normal self. I love being able to eat without the constant terror of headaches/nausea/vomiting hanging over my had (or actually in progress).
- Not feeling like I’m going to die while I’m at work.
- The teeny little feelings I have in my belly region. I think  have been feeling the baby for about two weeks now. At first, it was tiny flutters, but now, I think I feel actual movement. I think in another week or so, we’ll be able to feel the movement from the outside.
- Feeling a lot more relaxed about the pregnancy and the potential for things going wrong. The doctor and all the books have pretty much said that you make it this far, and there is little to worry about. I know things can still go wrong, but those odds are much better at this stage.
- As a result of the item immediately above, feeling more free to speculate about the reality of the baby: will it be a he or a she? Will s/he have our tiny eyes and short yet substantial legs? Hee.
Stuff to worry about:
- Getting more of the house stuff done
- Finding a pediatrician
- Finding daycare
- Getting more of the work stuff done so it’s left in a good state when I take leave
- Figuring out how to get a good night’s sleep with the weight/discomfort of the bulge. It’s actually already starting to give me trouble.
We should really start taking regular pictures and posting them somewhere. I went to a baby shower for a friend who is expecting end of July, putting her about 2.5 months ahead of me, and my belly was much bigger than hers, which makes me worry that I’m getting too large, too fast.