34 Weeks: My Baby May Be Average Sized But His Cheeks Are Huge!

I'm 34 weeks as of today and still feeling quite good. I'm really starting to wonder how much longer this whole feeling good during pregnancy thing will last. Uh oh, did I just jinx myself? Should I be knocking on wood? Well, for now, I'll just take feeling good for as long as possible!

So I had another appointment with Dr. D on Tuesday, and everything went really well. First I was seen by a 4th year medical student who answered my questions about the contractions I was having at my non-stress test a week earlier. She said they sounded like Braxton Hicks and told me not to worry about not feeling them--she said I'll definitely know the difference when real labor contractions begin! She then measured my fundal height, which for once was measuring correctly (34 cm), and used the doppler to find Ziggy's heart rate. It took her a few seconds to locate it, during which time I internally panicked, but at last I heard the familiar whooshing clip clop and could relax. Dr. D also seemed unconcerned about the contractions, so that was a relief.

Yesterday I had another ultrasound, which showed that Ziggy continues to do very well. My fluid levels are good and my placenta is left lateral and perfectly normal. It was pretty difficult for the ultrasound tech to get a good look at everything she needed to see because of his size and how he's positioned. She said his head is down really low, with his nose pressed flat. His right hand is also down there near his face (probably for easy sucking access), so now I know for sure that the little poking sensations I sometimes feel on the right side are his hand and/or elbow. He's laying on his left arm, which is sort of pinned underneath him. I guess this means he's already showing a preference for his right hand and will be right hand dominant :) The ultrasound tech kept marveling at how tightly curled and compact he was, which was of course making her job a lot harder. His legs were curled up tight behind his body, and in general, everything was really pulled in. But she was able to locate all the main organs and body parts and make the necessary measurements. Based on the measurements, he now weighs 5 lbs, 1 oz, and is in the 45th percentile and 1 day behind his true gestational age. So basically a nice average sized baby, not too big or small.

The ultrasound tech said he has really big chubby cheeks though, and she seemed to think he looked cute. She printed out a still picture for me which clearly showed the roundness of his cheeks and also a rather pointy little chin, which he must get from me (my mom's chin is even pointier than mine). I did not have chubby cheeks as a newborn, so that must be from AC's side. I can't wait to actually see what he looks like! I think with mixed race children there is always a bit more mystery as to what they will look like. My mother, who had never seen an ultrasound of a baby before, thought he looked kind of scary, like a jack-o-lantern, and the ultrasound tech and I kept having to reassure her that he won't look exactly like the ultrasound picture. I think the hollowed out eye sockets and visible skeleton do give it that slightly spooky effect. Could this mean he'll be a Halloween baby?

At this point, a doctor came in to examine the baby on the ultrasound and she confirmed that everything looked good, including my cervix. She did however notice that his heart seemed to be fluttering fairly rapidly, so she measured his heart rate, which was 167, a tad on the high side, but not abnormal. When I had the non-stress test following the ultrasound, his heart rate remained pretty high as he was moving around a lot. Last time he was too still and quiet and this time he was too active, so it took a while for them to get a nice baseline reading. He kept trying to kick the heart rate monitor off--you could actually see it jumping on my tummy! Eventually the nurse moved the monitor from the right side to the left side and that seemed to help, as he quieted down a bit after that. I guess he just really didn't like having it on the right :) Anyway, finally I "passed" the non-stress test and was unhooked from the monitors. More good news is I had no contractions this time and my blood pressure was again normal. The nurse said my contractions last time were probably just due to dehydration.

So I am now only 3 weeks away from being considered full term at 37 weeks! Stay in there at least until then, little buddy...Even though I am excited to meet you and get to know you, I want you to be as strong and healthy as possible when you enter this world.