Pregnancy Journal: month #4

• Fourth Month 01/09/10 to 02/09/10: bigger belly, baby moving, big ultrasound, boy or girl?...

Our BIG ultrasound is scheduled for February 2. Dad has started to pressure me into finding out. I feel bad for asking him to wait so I told him if he wants to know, he can find out as long as he doesn’t tell me. I have a feeling that won’t work and I’m really not curious (which is hard to believe, I know…). I guess we’ll just have to wait and see. On another note, belly is growing too fast and my hips are so sore from all the changes in my body. I’ve managed to gain 3 pounds so far which is great. Insomnia also started and it has been hard having to stay awake and active all day. Running after a toddler alone is enough to drain me out… put that with waking up at 3 a.m.!

The most amazing feeling so far was waking up to the baby’s hiccups! The baby is moving so much and I can tell it’s so strong! It keeps me up during the night and it’s A LITTLE calmer during the day. We hope to change that as soon as the baby is born... :)

THE BIG DAY: Fetal survey day is here! The baby sure is active! We actually got worried when the ultrasound technician kept trying to focus in on the baby’s heart and couldn’t really see everything. Then she said she needed the opinion of a doctor. He came in and looked at everything and said everything was fine (SIGH OF RELIEF) and that the technician had trouble looking at everything because the baby wouldn’t stop for a second! It looks so big and compared to Lila’s fetal survey. I remember Lila floating in a big pool of water and this baby was almost squeezed in there. Apparently, it still has enough space to do its flips. It covered its face, sucked the thumb, crossed the legs, and just would not stop.

This baby is so different than Lila. I’m not only talking about behavior, but the profile alone is totally different! Dad is convinced it’s a boy now…The doctor asked us if we wanted to know the baby’s gender, and I said I didn’t but asked to have the answer in an envelope because DAD is really curious. They gave us the ultrasound pictures and in one of them we swear it shows it’s a boy. Obviously, we’re not sure. The envelope has been driving us insane. The family is crazy to find out and dad is getting tense too.  The pathetic thing is that dad keeps putting the envelope in the light hoping he will be able to see what's written...  Personally, I started to get a little curious because I look at the envelope every day (it’s hanging on the refrigerator door). I think we may open it after all!

Fetal survey ultrasound. The bottom picture is the one I mentioned in the post.

A better look at the "is that a wee-wee?" picture!

THE envelope! :)

[ Of course I immediately asked if the baby has Choroid Plexus Cysts which Lila had around this time. Thankfully, the baby doesn't have them. For those who don't know, these are small brain cysts (sometimes one, sometimes a few) that lots of babies have during this time and from what I was told and researched, they are benign and they shrink and disappear with time, before the baby is born. We were very worried when we were told Lila had them, but the doctor told us NOT to worry. Apparently, many things can cause these and they have been found in babies with Trisomy 13 and Trisomy 18, but in my case, my thyroid condition caused the cysts. When the doctor sees these cysts, they check the heart, the brain and other vital organs to make sure they are healthy. When they are healthy, that usually means everything is ok. My doctor always says they check for so many things, and due to the fact that ultrasound machines aren't very reliable, it's completely normal that up to 4 things come back questionable (as long as they aren't serious "things"). If more than 4 come back with a "negative" result, then they look into it further. He also said there's more risk in doing an amniocentesis to check the cysts than to wait until the end of the pregnancy so we never even considered doing that since about 1 in 200 women who do an amniocentesis end up with a miscarriage.  I just want to say I love my doctor! Everything is explained to me in detail and he always puts me at ease if he thinks it's something not worth worrying about. I've seen other doctors who freak out over anything, causing the parents to be nervous over nothing sometimes. ]