Another Month, Another Ultrasound

This morning started at 3:52am, which is when I woke up. This is becoming all too regular of an occurrence! I am giving up on going back to sleep faster and faster... so this morning, at around 4:30 I conceded the battle and took myself downstairs. I was feeling extra sorry for myself because I am fighting a cold, so my throat felt horrible, and because I knew that I already had a big morning before my body forced a wake up call 3.5 hours earlier than planned.

Today was ultrasound #5 for our baby boy. It was also my screening day for gestational diabetes. I have been dreading this test since I found out I was pregnant. I have done it more than once in the past, and I really can't stand the glucola that you have to drink before hand. Add to that the fact that I was not feeling well, had very little sleep, and knew someone would be pushing for at least a half an hour on my fasting-yet-full-of-glucola belly... and I was anticipating unhappiness. Yet, of course I was excited to see our little boy again!

So, I waited until 7:30 and made myself two scrambled eggs with a slice of cheese, took all of my vitamins and started my fast. Then we headed to the doctor at 10:15, which is when I finished slamming the yucky orange drink.

We haven't done an ultrasound at my regular OB's yet, we've had them all with my perinatologist, so I wasn't sure what to expect. The sonographer was very nice to me. And to Charlie - who was very excited at his first opportunity to see his baby brother on T.V. I really appreciated her about 15 minutes in when I started to feel horribly sick. She let me roll over onto my side twice to recover. Thank heaven, because I was feeling pretty rotten.

But still very excited to see Little Bit thriving. Heart beat still going strong, gaining weight right on track. He is estimated at a perfect 1 pound, 8 ounces right now. His cocoon looks good too, they were very pleased with the level of fluid and said that the placenta looks really healthy. He still has a big head and short femurs. Since big heads are a Boyce trait, we're not worried about it.

This time the experience was a little interesting because he was shoving at the doppler a lot. It was odd to feel the tech pushing down as he was kicking up. And it was neat to see the movement on screen that I was feeling so strongly. We got a lot more pictures of this ultrasound, here are a few for you to see!





After the ultrasound and the normal prenatal appointment, it was finally time for my blood draw. (Finally because I really, really wanted to eat the almonds in my purse.) Actually, with how sick I felt my blood pressure was still only somewhere around 115/70 - so that's still going pretty good! I felt much better after being able to get up from the flat-on-the-back ultrasound position, but it is making me very nervous that I got so sick for this test. It's never been quite like that before. Hopefully it has to do with the sugar rush, lying on my back, and fighting a cold instead of a pure reaction to the glucola. Fingers crossed that I do not have gestational diabetes... I do not need a third reason to be high risk! Plus, I am not sure I can handle the three-hour version of the test if I failed this one.

I have to say how much I appreciate my husband. He has come to every single prenatal appointment so far. I have never appreciated it as much as I did today... he has been incredibly supportive during this process. He even stopped for us and picked up McDonald's on the way home... which is exactly what I wanted after feeling so shaky. Now, four hours later, I just have a slight residual headache.

With a baby that's steadily growing and becoming more active every day, the reality of our growing family is really setting in. I can't believe how close we are to the final trimester!