32 Week OB Visit

Today was my 32 weeks appointment.  This was also an ultrasound visit.  At my OB, you get two standard ultrasounds - one at 18 weeks and one at 32 weeks.  Obviously I've gotten a lot more this pregnancy, but the one today was just a normal one.  There were three things that I was really looking forward to finding out at this visit: 1- if his cysts were gone, 2- if he was still breech, and 3- how much he is weighing.

My appointment was at 3:15, and they got us back right away.  We told her that we were very interested in how much he weighed as soon as we got in there.  She started and got to looking at all the typical stuff that she's supposed to measure.  After a little bit, she laughed a little bit and said, "I think you're going to have a really big baby!".  Not.  a.  good.  sign.  I asked her how much he weighed and she said, "Let me do this last measurement before I say anything - I want to be sure".  Typically, a baby at this stage is around 4 lbs.  Not ours!  Are you ready?  He's totally weighing in at 5 lbs 7 oz!  Oh.  my.  goodness.  He is in the 97% for his size! 

As for the other two things we were looking to find out, we got REALLY good news: He is head down (and very likely to stay there), AND his cysts are GONE!  Completely!  She didn't see them at all!

She showed us several other things (organs, etc) and said that he looked so healthy and everything looked great.  I asked her if she could see any hair.  She looked and said that she could see some in the back, but not much in the front and sides.  Awesome - haha.  She showed us his face and he looked SO cute!  


After the ultrasound, she took us back to wait to see Marie.  After talking to Marie, here's our basic plan with Baby C:
We're going to do two more ultrasounds with him.  One at 36 weeks and one at 38ish weeks.  The purpose of both of these is to determine his size.  Basically, if he gets up to 10 lbs, she is not going to let me attempt a vaginal birth.  There are several reasons for this, but the main one is due to the health of both of us.  When a baby is that big (and the mommy is not), it's not really the head that you're worried about, it's the shoulders.  If you try and force them through anyway, you can do some major damage to the mommy down there, and you can also do permanent nerve damage to the baby.  So here are our four scenarios for the deliver of this baby:
1- I go into labor on my own between 37 and 39 weeks.  If I were to go into labor on the earlier end of this (i.e.: 37 weeks) my chances of a vaginal delivery are really high.
2-Our ultrasound at 38 weeks shows that he is way huge (already pushing 10 lbs) - this would result in a c-section.
3- Our ultrasound at 38 weeks shows that he is big, but not too big (around 9 lbs) - she can induce me and I can attempt a vaginal birth (as long as my body is already starting to show progress - dilating, thinning, etc).
4- Our ultrasound at 38 weeks shows that he is already too big (close to 10 lbs) - I'll probably have to schedule a c-section.


Obviously, I do NOT want to have a c-section.  At all.  As in, I would do almost anything to avoid it.  BUT - if I need to do it for the health of my baby, then I totally will.  I'm not going to risk permanent nerve damage just because I don't want to be cut open.  I could never live with that.  


Basically, we're going to be praying that my body starts to work on getting him out on its own.  At 36 weeks with LL, I was already dilated to 1cm.  We are desperately hoping that my body will start working like this pretty early again.  I would LOVE to go in at 36 weeks and hear that I am dilated.  We're also praying that Baby C's weight gain starts to slow down some.  We all know that he's going to be a big boy, we just don't want him to get TOO big. Worst case scenario is that he gets very big very quickly, and my body doesn't start getting ready for delivery.


So, in a nut shell, we have no idea how this is going to turn out. As we get further along and do more monitoring, we'll start to get a better idea of how this will probably end up. I'm just really really praying that I will have a chance at a vaginal delivery, and I would love it if you would help me pray for that, too!


We took a DVD to record the ultrasound, but when we got home, it was blank.  :(  The girl must not have pushed the button or something.  I was pretty bummed, but we did get a few hard copy pics.  Here are some of the best ones that we got of our sweet Baby C!

His sweet face.  It totally looks like he has Matt's face and my chin!

His sweet little hand up by his head.  :)