Week 29: Countdown to the Next Ultrasound Begins!

Wow, hard to believe this is my last week in the 20s! I had my appointment with Dr. W yesterday and overall everything looks good. My fundal height is only measuring 27.5 cm, but he didn't seem too worried. I double checked online, and apparently a variation of plus or minus 2 cm is considered perfectly normal. Ziggy's heart rate sounded nice and strong and regular on the doppler, but unfortunately I forgot to ask for the exact number. I also didn't get my exact weight--somehow when I was staring at the scale while the nurse weighed me, my brain just would not register what is was seeing (this seems to be happening a lot to me these days--my brain just feels really sluggish and slow). I think I was up about 5 lbs from last time. Anyway, the doctor thinks my weight gain is good, so the exact number doesn't really matter. My blood pressure was 130/80, which is a bit high for me, but they didn't say anything, so I'm assuming that's normal at this stage in pregnancy. I remember reading something about how blood pressure may go up slightly in the third trimester, but as long as it stays below 140/90, it shouldn't be a concern. I also found out that my glucose was 105 after the glucose screen, so well below the cut off of 139, and I am not anemic--yay!

Dr. W says I don't need to do a formal kick count each day since everything is looking so good and the baby is moving regularly. He palpated my abdomen to feel the baby's position and said that the baby's head is already down, which is a relief to hear. He actually grabbed what I guess was the baby's head with one hand, which kind of hurt a bit. I asked him if what I'm feeling around my navel is the baby's butt, and he said yes, so that means, not only is he head down, but he's facing the correct way. When I was born I was head down but facing the wrong way (occipito-posterior position), which gave my mom really bad back labor and probably prolonged her labor and made it more difficult (they ended up having to use both forceps and vacuum to get me out). Anyway, I'm glad the little guy is cooperating, at least for now! Let's hope he stays that way.

Probably the most important part of the visit was discussing the choroid plexus cyst and when my next ultrasound will be. Dr. W said he wanted to see me back in two weeks, and I asked if we could do the ultrasound then since it will be my last visit with him before I leave for California. He seemed a bit reluctant to do it at first and said he usually prefers to wait until at least 32 weeks to do the ultrasound (I'll be 31 weeks at the next appointment). He was also worried that my insurance wouldn't cover the ultrasound since the cyst is so small. Apparently it is only 2 mm, and some insurance companies wont authorize a follow-up ultrasound unless it's at least 5 mm. At this point I was thinking, 'oh well, I guess I'll just wait until I get to my new doctor in California to do it,' but when I suggested that I'll just wait, he suddenly changed his tune and said it would be fine and most likely Tricare will cover it because they're usually good about things like that. It was kind of strange, but whatever--I'm just glad he agreed to it!

Anyway, I am just so relieved to hear how small the cyst is (Dr. W said it's so small that probably at another office they might not have even caught it--his equipment is just especially good) and also that I only have to wait 2 weeks before I get to see Ziggy again and check on how he's doing! I know that I probably wont be able to breathe a complete sigh of relief until he's born and we know for sure whether or not there's something wrong with him, but in the meantime, these small reassurances do make me feel better.

Yesterday evening, AC and I attended our Breastfeeding class, and I am happy to say that my lucky streak continues! No diapers this time, but I did win a book on breastfeeding. We also came away with some useful handouts and booklets and some good general knowledge about breastfeeding. Unfortunately I never got to find out the ratio of boy to girl babies in the class, but most of the people I'd already seen in other classes. Still, it would have been interesting to see if the few newcomers would have evened up the score.

I can't believe next week I'll finally be in the 30s! Suddenly this pregnancy seems to be just flying by!