Ultrasound

So we're going to try to keep this relatively up to date, but we want to share our 18 week ultrasound photos!

What you see below is baby and part of baby's tibia since he/she had his/her feet propped up on the outside. You can also see baby's heart.

Here you can see baby's four fingers in front of his/her face.

So we're finishing up the 20 week mark. The "bump" is finally growing and beginning to be "felt." For instance, I now find it uncomfortable to curl up totally in the fetal position at night to sleep, since bringing my knees straight up towards my chest pushes on something and doesn't feel good. I'm beginning to feel stretching "pain" at the top of my stomach, below my rib cage. The best analogy is that feeling when you eat way too much at dinner and then stretch back; that stretching, tugging feeling on your stomach.

Baby has been moving a lot. I guess I started noticing little movements around 18 weeks. I could tell they were different than "gas," but they weren't very persistent so it was hard to differentiate. Recently, though, I've been keeping a mental tally of when baby is most active. Our chiropractor told me that whenever baby is active in utero translates to when he/she is active once he/she is born. I'm still taking 1/2 a Unisom pill at night, since I have noticed that when I don't take it I'm pretty nauseous the next day. So I don't know exactly what baby's active patterns are at night. Today it felt like baby was most active around 10:30-12:00, and then 1:30-3:00ish. It seems that whenever we lay down to sleep at night, baby is quiet. I think Brian's been able to feel the baby a couple of times, but obviously he's not around when I can really feel baby moving. We'll try on Saturday to let him feel baby really moving =)

All in all, we're excited. Brian's a little anxious, wishing the baby were already here. I definitely am enjoying taking my time (for now), trying to get stuff done at school and around the house. However, I know that Brian wishes the baby were here because then if something were wrong, or I needed a break, he could take over and help. It is hard for him to know what to do to help me, and I have a hard time expressing what would help me, but we're getting better at it =)

We head to the doctor tomorrow. Baby's heart rate at the ultrasound 2 weeks ago was 152 bpm, which is great, and the ultrasound tech said everything looks perfect. Baby measured in at 18 weeks & 4 days, our due date is 18 weeks & 2 days. My original freak out about baby's head being gigantic (the screen said it was measuring 19 weeks & 6 days), was just because all the measurements get optimized so the baby's head isn't abnormally large... Whew!


Anyway, till next time!