It's a boy!

As soon as the ultrasound technician turned on the machine she said 'oh this is an easy one, he's posing for us, it's a boy!' We have some really good pictures of him. It was a long ultrasound because she had to measure all different parts of the baby, so Josh and I got to watch him for a while. He was quite active! We watched him start to suck his thumb, but he missed his mouth a few times. It was soooooo cute!

Everything looked normal with the baby. The only thing the doctor pointed out afterward was that there is a 'marginal insertion' with the umbilical cord and the placenta. She explained that normally it is connected in the middle, but that his cord is actually on the edge of the placenta. Best I could understand, this means that the blood vessels in the cord are not as protected as they might otherwise be. There could be decreased blood flow, and although he is still getting all the nutrients he needs, they have seen a higher risk of lower weight babies with this marginal insertion. Apparently, it's typical in this case for the baby's weight to be in the 30-50th percentile and they are only concerned if it drops below the 10th percentile. Well, as of today baby boy is in about the 75th percentile. So we're good so far. He actually seems to be a pretty large baby for 20 weeks. The doctor said this marginal insertion is nothing to be worried about and there is nothing I should do differently. They will just simply monitor him more closely which means I may have more ultrasounds toward the end. Works for me - more opportunities to see him in action!

I had gained 4.5 lbs by this visit. That should pickup as we go. Dr. Shaw said she expected me to gain anywhere from 25-35 lbs total. So I've got to go at least a pound a week to get there. Today the BP was 102/54. I'm still feeling good. Starting to feel big though. I made a roast this week and ate wwaayy too much one night - I was just miserable. I can't imagine how it's going to feel as I get bigger! I think I've felt him kick or moving around a couple times. It's still sort of a 'I think that was the baby I just felt' kind of thing though. It's sort of like a wave way down low in my tummy. That's where his head was situated this morning - head down, butt on my left side, and feet on my right. Next doctor visit is in 4 more weeks. I'll drink the nasty sugary stuff so they can draw blood and check for gestational diabetes. Then another visit 4 more weeks out at 28 weeks, we'll have another ultrasound then.

Here are pics of baby boy and mom at 20 weeks! (And no making fun of the outfit - I had just gotten done teaching Body Attack last night!)